re: #70 Blind Frog Belly White

It’s important to remember that Carter was coming across as stern and pessimistic, that we all needed to come to terms with more limited expectations - 55 mph speed limits, sweaters in the White House to reduce energy consumption, etc. It was a fucking drag. It suggested that the American System was only marginally better than the Soviet System.

Reagan, OTOH, expressed confidence in America and the American System, that we were ‘The Shining City On The Hill’, and it was ‘Morning In America’……..

I think that Trump and his followers believe that they are optimistic. While it is true that they see America as broken, they believe they can fix it easily with walls, militarized police, isolationism and negotiating better deals. Meanwhile, democrats hold what conservatives consider to be dystopian views———-a future with harsh climate change and mass extinctions! And democrats see growing income inequality as threatening the middle class and social stability.

And hey, conservatives are optimistic that when Trump takes over that they can act out their fantasies of reprisals, targeted bigotry and ethnic purges.