Posted on 12/09/2015 4:23:20 AM PST by Cringing Negativism Network
How will the liberal democracies of the West — and the liberal democracy of the United States in particular — respond to the stresses and strains of life in an interconnected world that's continually buffeted by unpredictable, and perhaps unpreventable, acts of spectacular violence?
The truth is we have no idea.
Our form of government was devised at a time when news of a looming military threat had to be carried on galloping horseback to the governing authorities. Politics for most people in the founding era meant local politics, with the federal government more of a distant rumor than a reality perceived directly. Events, even important ones, often remained local, too. Only the most dramatic would penetrate the nascent national consciousness — and then only days or weeks later, mixed with gossip and half-truths from an unimaginably faraway land inhabited by people who felt more like foreigners than fellow citizens of a single continent-wide nation.
(complete article at link)
http://theweek.com/articles/592723/donald-trump-nation-verge-nervous-breakdown
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...
The article is balanced, insofar as it criticises both the left and the right. Seems more a Bush friend and overly critical of both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, but it's pretty good still.
Enjoy.
To me, it was “balanced” in much the same way as when a rabid pro-abort writes an article trying to “understand” the pro-life point of view. The criticism of the right was scathing, the criticism of the left was constructive. Calling Americans paranoid for being nervous about real threats because real people have died does not win brownie points from me.
Has the obligatory well meaning , well intentioned and understandable for everything left though.
With all due respect, I don’t want to waste my time reading a Bush-friendly article. I prefer to ‘read about Bush’ at jebbush.com Now THAT is a good read!
LOL
Ted Cruz is more controlled in what he says, while he will achieve the results needed in policy.
Sorry,
The Week is a leftist mag disguised as an objective compilation of artic from various sources. Inevitably the leftist sources are printed most prominently and always get the last word in.
GNN, thanks for posting, anyway. This article may be better than most, but I don’t want to give their site a hit.
Oldplayer
Sometimes ya gotta wump people up top the head with a 2 by 4 just to get them to wake up and pay attention.
Republican politicians and their ideological taskmasters in the right-wing media figured out before anyone else how to use the new telecommunications technologies to whip up their voters into a froth of ideological fury.
I didn't notice anything about how partisan the employees of the MSM are and how they use "news" of bad events anywhere to "whip up their voters into a froth of ideological fury" against their ideological opponents (us).
I think this states the situation better.
". . . some key [events] exacerbated the national debate, fraying trust, and national cohesion just a little more each time . . . The two-party system that had governed America . . . began to fall apart . . . interest in politics took the place of all other forms of news-related entertainment . . . politicians were the celebrities . . . [Politics/ideology] was becoming such a habit, the reactions so automatic, that [journalists] taking sides on every news story became inevitable."
.. I just can't avoid thinking about this from for Love & Liberty by Robin Young and it's about 1857 America.
One-hundred-and-fifty years later the discord is
Anyone else having issues with FR pages being truncated?
Not balanced at all. Don’t click. We don’t need to “criticize” the left, we need to end them.
That is exactly, in my view, what Trump has been doing now for a number of months.
You got it.
Exactly.
Trump has charisma, Cruz is lacking that.
“Trump as a reality show star will say things to get headlines. He does not think things through. They are sure crowd pleasers, especially when people are angry. However, a serious presidential candidate would have to be measured and thoughtful.”
“He does not think things through.”
Yes, that must be the key he used to become a billionaire real estate developer.
Note how you confined him to a reality show star.
He was a billionaire real estate developer before he was a reality star.
What reflects more ability to be measured and thoughtful: legally accumulating billions of dollars or running your mouth for votes? Cruz is very articulate, but being articulate does not reveal character.
Ouch.
Condescending article with elitist overtones calling Trump a Fascist and Obama well meaning-No thanks.
But thats ok for him. He is best buds with the Clintons. A Hillary presidency would be alright with him. Hey, but he said all the fun things in the primary. Thats what we all wanted, right?
Not charisma. Just says things that are crowd pleasers.
Agreed. I detest it when politicians of any stripe use tragic events to push an extreme agenda to achieve security. Complete security is mythical. In a free world populated with a small % of evil people bent on the destruction of innocent life, no one is ever truly safe.
Rather than treat us like children in need of a blinky and blanky, I'd like to see a statesman/woman be straight with us.
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