While the disillusionment and damage, mental and physical, of the failed Iraq war are the major reasons for the rage hanging over America, the cause is 9/11. It was an event filled with humiliation and feelings of helplessness. Bush and the neo-cons harnessed those feelings and betrayed them. The candidate of hope, Barack Obama then failed us, not just with bringing us nationalized Romneycare (I know it wasn’t entirely his fault) but with the continuation and expansion of the war on terror and the police state. Voters of a young age today don’t know a world before 9/11 and a lot of rhetoric from Democrats seems to be oblivious to this important detail. For many young voters, they may not even have memories of pre-Trump. He’s extreme to many of us but normal in their memories. But going back to 9/11. We were told that terrorists weren’t going to change us. In response, I think that’s the time we really started to see the big middle finger to climate change, energy efficiency, etc. People were rolling coal, especially against bicycles. A new form of individualism. Our safety was seen as more at risk, toxic gun culture, para military style SUV’s and trucks, militarized police with actual military hardware, etc. They longed for pre-9/11. Now the accelerationists are here to tear it all down. It won’t bring back the good old days. After all, they are to democracy what snake oil salesmen are to markets.
How anyone could have seen Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and the rest of the MAGA cartel as the champions of job security is utterly beyond me. Unless, of course, they believed the MAGA leaders are seeking to get rid of only government employees. Good luck with that.
Ted, the idea of job security in the public mind is complicated. I would start with an attempt to relate it to the general reaction over the past several decades to globalization. Whether or not it is a new phenomenon for America is hard to tell. You could relate it to the closing of the frontier and the first major wave of 19th century immigration in the 1840s-50s. I might even try to see it as a general culture feature since conflicts over proprietary land claims in the 18th century and history of land speculation throughout the 18th. How much of it is a general belief that insecurity is the result of elite actions, often at a distance. Perhaps, we had best see it, though, as a response to the more recent epic crisis of globalization.
While the disillusionment and damage, mental and physical, of the failed Iraq war are the major reasons for the rage hanging over America, the cause is 9/11. It was an event filled with humiliation and feelings of helplessness. Bush and the neo-cons harnessed those feelings and betrayed them. The candidate of hope, Barack Obama then failed us, not just with bringing us nationalized Romneycare (I know it wasn’t entirely his fault) but with the continuation and expansion of the war on terror and the police state. Voters of a young age today don’t know a world before 9/11 and a lot of rhetoric from Democrats seems to be oblivious to this important detail. For many young voters, they may not even have memories of pre-Trump. He’s extreme to many of us but normal in their memories. But going back to 9/11. We were told that terrorists weren’t going to change us. In response, I think that’s the time we really started to see the big middle finger to climate change, energy efficiency, etc. People were rolling coal, especially against bicycles. A new form of individualism. Our safety was seen as more at risk, toxic gun culture, para military style SUV’s and trucks, militarized police with actual military hardware, etc. They longed for pre-9/11. Now the accelerationists are here to tear it all down. It won’t bring back the good old days. After all, they are to democracy what snake oil salesmen are to markets.
How anyone could have seen Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and the rest of the MAGA cartel as the champions of job security is utterly beyond me. Unless, of course, they believed the MAGA leaders are seeking to get rid of only government employees. Good luck with that.
Ted, the idea of job security in the public mind is complicated. I would start with an attempt to relate it to the general reaction over the past several decades to globalization. Whether or not it is a new phenomenon for America is hard to tell. You could relate it to the closing of the frontier and the first major wave of 19th century immigration in the 1840s-50s. I might even try to see it as a general culture feature since conflicts over proprietary land claims in the 18th century and history of land speculation throughout the 18th. How much of it is a general belief that insecurity is the result of elite actions, often at a distance. Perhaps, we had best see it, though, as a response to the more recent epic crisis of globalization.
It's like world war z. In a fictional world, we imagine ourselves survivors.