Monday, October 7, 2019

Being caught between a rock and hard place as the old order breaks down

1. Never-Trump and "responsible" Republicans are caught in the dilemma now of supporting impeachment and risking the wrath of the large segment of the party that supports the president, risking the likelihood of winning elections in the future owing to a division in the party that will last as long as Trump supporters are alive.

2. The Democratic Establishment is facing a similar dilemma of marginalizing the progressive wing of the party, which risks losing progressive support in coming elections as well as being on the wrong side of the demographics going forward.

3. The Hong Kong protestors risk the possibility, which is looking ever more like a reality, that China will let the dismal situation  the protests have created turn Hong Kong into a provincial backwater, with land prices crashing and capital fleeing.

4. The US and Saudi Arabia are facing the choice between caving to Iran or blowing up the region and possibility starting a wider war.

The list goes on.

2 comments:

Elwood Anderson said...

The best thing that could happen in the demise of the old order is the elimination of political parties. We don't need them, never have, and never will. They are not in the constitution. They serve only elite special interests, not the interests of the people.

Andrew Anderson said...

The list goes on but likely with only two root causes:

1) government privileges for private depository institutions whereby the richer, the more so-called "creditworthy", may steal from the poorer. Hence the need for the victims to be wage slaves.

2) the unlimited ability of the rich to own resources such as land that everyone needs in order to live. Hence the problem of land rents.

Ironically enough, respect for that "primitive" book, the Old Testament*, would have precluded both.

*e.g. Leviticus 25, e.g. Deuteronomy 23:19-20