"If we are to believe Hegel - or Collingwood - no age, no civilization, is capable of conceptually identifying itself. This can only be done after its demise .... Lescek Kolakowski, Modernity on Endless Trial p. 3."
"The Scripts 1. The Authoritarian Turn. The Trump regime represents a sudden shift into a dangerous authoritarian future. This view is mostly held by centrists, which I think means most Democratic politicians. 2. More of the same. The Trump regime is the culmination of decades of slow erosion of democratic society. Trump is accellerating it. This is a more leftish view. 3. Constitutional Crisis. The Trump regime is just another constitutional crisis, based on an electoral victory and a challenge to the existing regime. It's like the FDR administration creating the New Deal. This is the view of Trump supporters and conservative intellectuals."
"Trump's decisive Electoral College victory in 2024, after a campaign with more sharply defined stakes than in 2016, put a popular (if not quite majoritarian) imprimatur on such change. Following a playbook developed during the New Deal and refined in the civil rights era, Trump's team is employing all the tools at its disposal to reshape the balance of power across state and society in line with campaign pledges to curb illegal immigration, shrink the federal workforce, restore religion in the public sphere, an"
A broad claim holds that ages and civilizations can only identify themselves retrospectively after their demise. Contemporary observers deploy three competing scripts to interpret recent political developments: an Authoritarian Turn framing a sudden shift toward authoritarianism; More of the Same framing decades-long democratic erosion accelerated by current leadership; and a Constitutional Crisis framing electoral change as a challenge to established regimes akin to transformative historical moments. The 2024 Electoral College outcome conferred popular imprimatur on major change. Political actors are employing a long-tested institutional playbook to reshape state-society power in line with campaign pledges to curb illegal immigration, shrink the federal workforce, and restore religion in public life.
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