"The Great Fear"

Following up on Nassim Taleb's article from yesterday, Wretchard notes that this election is marked by a loss of faith in the establishment among the base voters of both parties. The elites have proven to have no clothes:
Rightly or wrongly Americans used to have a sense of place in the world. It was once a comforting place where the president -- be he from either party -- protected them. It was a place where secretaries of state and defense stood guard over the borders and American children could count as their birthright having better lives than their parents....

If Trump represents the Great Fear his origins can be traced in the arc from the Three AM Call to the Barking Dog. We needed to believe, in this dangerous world, that the former was true and not the latter. What Trump did was look behind the curtain and destroy one faith without giving us another. What now? What now? That may be the real question this campaign should answer.
Ted Cruz, for what it is worth, has taken a bold step in assembling an answer. His team at this time is big-tent enough that they hold competing positions, but that may be a strength at a time when the answers aren't clear. What may be needed are strong thinkers who find different views plausible, competing with each other over whose idea best fits the new reality. There are many different parts of that new reality, from crises in the South China Sea to Syria to North Korea. It may be that nobody has all the answers, or that many have only part of what a real answer might look like. Being open to competition of thought is a good start.

6 comments:

E Hines said...

What may be needed are strong thinkers who find different views plausible, competing with each other over whose idea best fits the new reality.

What's also needed are strong thinkers who don't shy away from the effort to change the new reality. On that score, even Bobby Kennedy wasn't far wrong.

Eric Hines

Unknown said...

I was listening to Howie Carr, a Boston talk show host, on the way home today. He read, on air, a WAPO editorial demanding that the RNC stop Trump. Wow, I'm thinking, this is strange. Why aren't they gleeful at the RNCs debacles, certainly they aren't going to support a Republican, even if he/she walks on water. So, shouldn't they be gleeful that the Republican party is imploding? Doesn't this help Hillary or,..... do they really fear that Trump has a shot at the WH?
OTOH, maybe, it's damage control and they don't want any more mockery of the servant class (media/politicians) or the Beautiful People. Whatever you may think of Trump, he has exposed them and very much undermined their status and credibility.

Tom said...

Hmm.

As Cruz makes the case that he is the last, best chance to prevent Trump from winning his party's nomination, his foreign-policy advisers include not only Gaffney, but also three others who work for Gaffney's think tank: former CIA officers Fred Fleitz and Clare Lopez and former Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Jim Hanson.

Now there's a familiar name, right there at the end.

Grim said...

I was wondering if any of you would notice. :)

Ymar Sakar said...

I have faith in the American Democrat voters. They will put on the throne another Messiah like Hussein and Clinton's Husband.

That is faith, of a kind.

The voters are not voting their conscience, merely as they are told to.

Ymar Sakar said...

Jim Hanson, yes. Some Democrat fools yelled at him for being at one of their rallies, and tried to block his sight the way feminists do with anti female slavery and anti islamic raiding posters.