Posted on 11/15/2018 8:46:21 AM PST by Kaslin
In the wake of Election 2018, analysts have delved deeply into a seemingly limitless supply of data points to explain the details of what happened. What role did suburban women play? Or health care? Was there a Kavanaugh effect?
This obsession with details may be causing us to miss the bigger picture of what's going on.
Donald Trump became the fourth consecutive president to win the presidency with his party in control of Congress and then lose control. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have all been there before.
This swapping back and forth of political power has been going on for so long that it somehow seems normal. But it's not. A streak like this has never happened before in American history. In fact, prior to 1992, it had never happened during even two consecutive presidencies.
This ongoing dissatisfaction and desire for change reflects a fundamental rejection of both political parties. Republicans and Democrats are both capable of tapping into discontent when the other team is in power. However, neither party has figured out how to deliver meaningful accomplishments when given the chance to exercise power.
Why is this happening? Why hasn't either party figured out a governing philosophy that can appeal to voters?
Most likely, it's because neither party has come to grips with the digital revolution. Oh, sure, they have social media consultants for campaigns and send all kinds of carefully targeted online messages to their base. But they are still envisioning a political order that existed before Apple and Microsoft changed the world.
From colonial days up until the 1970s, everything in America got bigger, more centralized and more homogenized. Three television networks controlled 94 percent of the prime-time audience. The political system followed suit and developed a bigger central government.
In that pre-digital world, official Washington dreamt of a top-down government in which very smart people made the rules for the rest of us to live by. The two parties competed by trying to convince voters that their team would make the best rules.
But, the new technologies of the 1970s launched a great turnaround, and society began to decentralize. Rather than just three television networks, we could choose from countless cable channels, and later the internet. Things really took off with the creation of the smartphone, one of the most revolutionary pieces of technology ever developed.
While society was decentralizing, the political system continued to march in the opposite direction. Political power is more centralized than ever, and a vast regulatory state has emerged. The disconnect between a decentralizing society and a centralizing political system is the underlying tension creating our toxic political environment today.
Just like in the 1970s, both Republicans and Democrats in official Washington still talk in terms of a one-size-fits-all governing solution. They think voters are looking to them to make the decisions that will determine the fate of the nation.
But this is the 21st century, and we have access to more information in our smartphones today than the president had in the '70s. Voters aren't looking for one team or the other to make the key decisions for us. Instead, we want to make more of those decisions for ourselves.
Okay . . . seems to me that there’s one party that favors centralization and another that opposes it.
Not this time. Just the opposite happened. We gave control of the House to the party that promises to make all your decisions for you. That seems to be what the millennials and suburban white women are saying they want. It’s definitely what they are going to get.
Okay . . . seems to me that there’s one party that favors centralization and another that opposes it.
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Or could it be that both parties favor centralization and one just pretends not to?
It’s wishy-washy people that don’t stand for much of anything. Their opinion and vote changes daily with the news cycle. Their memories are very short.
If Trump donated a half a billion dollars of his own money for globull warming they would love and adore him, forever.
But the next day if a new Chrissie Blowsey accuses Jarrod of naughtiness... Orange Man Bad. We hate him and will vote for whomever opposes him, especially if they are darker and can fit in a skirt.
Rasmussen sucks, this is stupid and misses the point. If the Republicans under Eddie Muster “leadership” would have enacted just one half of the MAGA agenda laid out by our President and also funded a wall the Democrats would be a distant memory.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Cash Welfare, Foodstamps, Gov Housing, Corporate welfare, Farm subsidies, Federal programs: A,B,C,D... .
Considering the myriad of federal programs, which most would be unwilling to give-up, I question how "decentralized" our society is or is willing to become.
The problem is the Republican party is made up of a nationalist majority and a powerful small minority globalist faction. Globalists and Nationalists should never be in the same party but here we are. It’s like mixing vinegar and water, you can shake it all you want but it always separates out.
That’s WAY too complicated.
The people want closed borders and nationalized healthcare. One party promises one, one party promises the other.
Very true; unfortunately the open borders party can’t lose.
One of the very real problems with American political system is that it has lost legitimacy and surrendered soveriegnty of the borders.
I'd say that there is one party that favors centraliztion, and one party that claims to oppose it, though you could never tell by its actions.
Fair enough . . .
What's the one that opposes it?
The GOPe, OTOH, not only refuse to return the favor but openly support Democrats . . . and not just any Democrat but any far left thug they nominate.
Losing elections does not seem to bother the GOPe in the least. In fact, they prefer it to a real conservative agenda with few exceptions.
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