Quote of the Day
As I witnessed the despair and incomprehension of liberals worldwide after Donald Trump’s victory in November’s U.S. presidential election, I had a sinking feeling that I had been through this before. The moment took me back to 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, signaling the beginning of the end of Soviet Communism and the lifting of the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since the end of World War II. The difference was that the world that collapsed in 1989 was theirs, the Communists’. Now it is ours, the liberals’.
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Living through such moments in history teaches one many things, but the most important is the sheer speed of change: People can totally alter their views and political identity overnight; what only yesterday was considered unthinkable seems self-evident today. The shift is so profound that people soon find their old assumptions and choices unfathomable.
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Trump captured the public imagination not because he had a better plan for how to win the war in Ukraine or manage globalization, but because he understood that the world of yesterday could be no more. The United States’ postwar political identity has vanished into the abyss of the ballot box. This Trump administration may succeed or fail on its own terms, but the old world will not return. Even most liberals do not want it back.
Ivan Krastev
January 3, 2025
Why Liberals Struggle to Cope With Epochal Change
I found this very interesting. I’m not sure I agree with it. I’m not even sure I understand it. But it certainly gives me some food for thought.
During the first quick reading, I was seeing the collapse of Marxism as being inevitable. The U.S. version was less deadly than the Soviet version and the collapse less disruptive. The replacement with a freer society is inevitable.
On the second, more careful reading, Krastev sees a darker future for the U.S. This is the part I don’t really buy. But prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future*. So, who really knows?
* Quote Origin: It’s Difficult to Make Predictions, Especially About the Future – Quote Investigator®
Didn’t read the whole thing. But did Ivan ever mention how his/liberal/communist ideas of the world order are just bat-shit insane?
And that no one this side of the lobotomized would want to live under them?
No, the communist just have to change tactics, seems to be the new marching orders. Never once mentioned “we lost because were insane”????
” The U.S. version was less deadly than the Soviet version and the collapse less disruptive.”
I don’t think we will ever have an accurate count on how many people have been murder for this world empire.
Propaganda has hidden it from us. And we haven’t suffered like many other parts of the world.
But we ain’t done collapsing yet. As you just witnessed in Washington state with their new gun/ammunition laws. They’re just getting started with F-you’s.
And we haven’t even started on removing the invaders, fixing the financials, or ridding ourselves of the deep state.
All we’ve done is draw the line more clearly between them and us. And told them their final options are the only one left to them.
And personally, I don’t think Trump and our city folk have the stomach for what has to be done. But be of no delusions, the communists do.
Well…at least this liberal isn’t completely brain dead. Can’t say that for most of them.
From the article:
“In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by promising normalcy. Normalcy will no longer help the Democrats.”
Well, it might if they ever gave it a shot. It’s true that Biden won on the promise of normalcy, but what was actually delivered was far from normal. Inflation exploded, war broke out in Europe and the Middle East, the culture war escalated to new heights, and anything and everything but “normal” was elevated and promoted as good by the Democrats.
I believe a significant factor in Trump’s victory in 2024 is the normies looking at 2024 and comparing it to 2019 (2020 is written off to COVID) and saying to themselves “well, the guy may be a crass a-hole at times, but it was a freakin’ paradise back then compared to now.” In other words, normies want normal.
That, of course, is it’s own challenge for the new Administration. They shouldn’t overread what they’ve been tasked with doing. Can they push for significant reform? Yes, absolutely, but in the end, the vast majority of people just want to have safe, prosperous lives, and don’t care about the details of your philosophy.
Thanks, that was spot on.
Except Biden didn’t win through an appeal to normalcy. He won through a fraudulent vote count-massive cheating-totally treasonous criminal action.
And instead of being president, he should have been in an orange jumpsuit along with a thousand or so criminals that helped him pull it off.
And we voted for Trump this last time because there wasn’t anyone else.
But your absolutely correct about normies wanting normalcy. And there isn’t any reason why they shouldn’t have it.
Except for greed and communism.
He should have been in a memory care facility. Whoever is actually running things (into the ground), it isn’t him.
Marxism is alive and well today… in the US. Visited many schools lately?
Love him or hate him, and regardless of the details, I think Trump will mark a major inflection point in American (and world) history. Either we radically change course (re-shore mfg industry, deport tens of millions of illegals, rood out Deep State elements and the pedo-blackmail rings and surveillance worldwide) and usher in the start of a new and prosperous era…. Or we don’t, and the attempt leads to widespread war, economic crashes and destruction, and the attempts to keep a lid on things will likely lead to “lost generations” similar to Japan, where we muddle along, deeply in debt we can’t service, gradually declining into a new dark age.
Trump won’t save us or doom us, the forces involved are much larger than he is. But he will mark the inflection point, the last gasp (for now) of one side or the other.