tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782644139927778760.post-44699651034837562882008-04-15T11:30:00.000-04:002008-04-15T11:30:00.000-04:002008-04-15T11:30:00.000-04:00If I know my fellow Murricans a-tall, if forced to choose guns or butter they will emphatically belly up to Butter. Which is Reason No. 1 I am all for this hemi-demi-semi-depression thing: we may well put those dogs of war down fastest by starving the beasts. <BR/><BR/>Regarding our 'divisive' politics, there is an effect which follows from a massive collapse in credibility; call it the 'Katrina factor' or coin your own catch-all. Dubya was exactly who and what he was from before his first day in Texas (at least policy- and noncompetence-wise), but his stock went hard south for good when he dropped the Baby Grand on that one. The plutocracy was hardly wiped out in '29-'32: they came through better than most of the rest, but their credibility went negative, and the institutional political stranglehold they had maintained for sixty odd years fell down the privy hole for a generation. For most of the 'middle class' in the US now, having their home equity knocked down by six figures or out, and having the buying power of their wages massively slashed by cost inflation will be a perception change inducer. Whether 'We were robbed,' "We were lied too," or "We were ill-led," I couldn't say but our politics will have a massive input toward realignments from past positions. Our politics may remain divisive, but 'our divisive politics' are a description of the past not the future. <BR/><BR/>I don't expect unity, not least because the MSM remains wholly controlled by super-wealthy, super-conservative interests (and I'm not talking conspiracy here, just to be clear), and they have no interest in muck-racking and the like. We're more likely to get a 'Progressive Era' than a 'New Deal,' and I say that on many grounds as the better historical parallel. But Good Government will be at the top of the agenda, and that alone will be a massive redefinition from the politics of the last twenty years, where Bad Government, or better Badgovernment, was the only kind which was supposed to exist.Richard Klinenoreply@blogger.com