U.S. Politics

[Tom Graves]

There is a reason Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again" resonates with so many people.

Dear Lance,

Because the "Godless Snowflake Libtard Socialist-Communist Globalist" Dems dragged it down so far?

-- Tom

[Lance Payette]

Dear Lance,

Because the "Godless Snowflake Libtard Socialist-Communist Globalist" Dems dragged it down so far?

-- Tom

I tend to see the existential threat as coming mostly from JFKA conspiracy theorists.

Surely the primary villain would have to be the educational system. There has always been some "democratic socialist" ideology within America, and that's probably a good thing since it does temper the excesses of unbridled capitalism, but something changed in the 1980's or early 90's. Most of my Trump-hating friends have precisely the same view of Reagan, so perhaps it started back then with Reagan being the catalyst. I'm no great student of the phenomenon - I merely know what I've lived through and observed. It does bear an uncanny resemblance to the "Long March through the institutions" of Marxist ideology (not to mention Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals"), but exactly how it occurred and how it was allowed to happen I have no idea since I was too busy working on my golf swing. My point about "Make America Great Again" was simply that many people, including me, had a strong sense that "This lunacy has gone too far, is starting to look like a genuine existential threat, and we need somebody strong enough to turn the ship around as quickly as possible." I don't agree with everything The Donald has done, but by God he is shaking things up - and that needed to be done, IMO.

[Tom Graves]

I don't agree with everything The Donald has done, but by God he is shaking things up - and that needed to be done, IMO.

But evidently you do agree most of the things he's done.

Pity that.

I'm afraid "former" KGB officer Vladimir Putin cherishes both of you.

[Jack Nessan]

We got started down the path with the term "worse" and stayed with that, but I really don't think "worse" is the right term. With all the turmoil of the sixties and seventies, I never felt America itself was at risk. I never felt I was seeing or participating in a war of culture and ideology that had the potential to turn America into something the Founding Fathers never would have recognized and would have abhorred. "Existential threat" is an overused term these days, but it comes closer to capturing what I think the difference is. Nothing in the sixties was an existential threat to the America we had always known, but today (I believe) we are in a genuine war of culture and ideology that is existentially threatening (which some people, of course, think is a good thing). There is a reason Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again" resonates with so many people.

You are absolutely correct. If it is better or worse is just perspective. Today though we are very fractionated and turning on each other. I thought it all could come apart during the previous election cycle when the two extremist groups fighting in Portland were shooting paintball guns at each other. It would not have taken much to set if off for real. It is definitely closer than we want to believe. 

In the 60’s the common belief was it was just the youth wanting a change and there was no need to worry about the unrest until older people were protesting. Today it is not so much the youth but the older people protesting.

I would hope we do not come apart. I have warned my children that they do not ever want that to happen. Sometimes I think we just lack an external villain to keep us focused like after Pearl Harbor or 9/11.