If It All Fails, Does the Country Turn Right or Left?

[DemocracyInaction]

We know the lunatic fringe of the GOP is praying for an Obama failure (which means praying for his economic measures to crash the economy)because they "assume" that means the people will run to the Republicans. I totally disagree.

A collapsed economy will in no way drive the people to scream for more tax cuts for the rich and other old Repuke policies so that the rich can trickle down on us and save the day. They will be in too much of a state of utter, complete and total panic and terror and demand instant help---i.e., they will want something far, far more to the "left" than the Obama administration. (Think more like Dennis K.!!!) They will want the government to take over about everything that moves and breathes and FIX IT and FIX IT NOW!! In other words, they will run to the government full throttle just like the so-called repuke capitialistic banks ran for the government to HELP!

Actually, crazy as it seems, their best bet is for this national nightmare to get fixed and be out of the way in 2012. Then they can go back to selling the sheep the idea that the most important thing on the planet is "stopping gay marriage", "stopping abortion", "making Christianity the national religion"...you get the picture. They better watch out what they are wishing for (ya' hear me Rush??)

[Thickasabrick]

1. Just remember Jimmy Carter eom

[DemocracyInaction]

2. I'm talking a collapse that makes Carter's

term look like a horn of plenty. What we are facing is nothing like the Carter years. This is the collapse of the world's economy. It's basically the combination of retirees with no money and a good half or more of the working population without work and rising. He was dealing with a big down turn but he wasn't dealing even remotely with this. I was looking at charts of how the line went down, stayed on the bottom for quite a long time and then rose during the Carter years. The "line" for here and now is a straight dive down with no bottom in sight.

[Thickasabrick]

4. I think that was my point. I like the "horn of plenty" line and I agree.

It will be the opposite of whoever is in power. It's just how the system seems to work sometime. I'm sure you read the Frank Rich column - to me the biggest danger is the third rail....populist anger.

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. They'll look for scapegoats...

...and it will be hell to be liberal, gay, or brown, or black, or foreign, or different in any way. They'll seek out alternatives that will pale the GOP by comparison.

Someone will be made to pay, and it won't be those in power -- it never is.

The salient fact in American politics -- we forget this at our peril -- is that there are enough people who would volunteer to live with their family in a cardboard box under a railroad bridge, and toast sparrows on an old curtain rod over an open fire, if you would only guarantee them that the people in the next box over -- black, gay, foreign, liberal, different -- don't even get the sparrow, to elect a government.

If Obama fails, it's game over. Rwanda, with cable television. Bosnia, with shopping malls.

[GarbagemanLB]

5. If Obama fails, you can expect an even further turn to the right. The GOP is only getting more

conservative and is expelling all moderates. If you thought the GOP of the last 8 years was bad, the future GOP will be many times worse.

[DemocracyInaction]

7. When you are hungry.......

..and homeless, you aren't going to buy into "trickle down and wait". You are going to demand something be done NOW and the only thing you are going to see is the government 'cause it sure as hell isn't your next door neighbor or a rich guy who, if you give him what's left of money in the country, will be pissing food down to you. Like I said, they will then be in the mood to listen to Dennis K. The banks ran for TOTAL socialistic government bailout and the people will run far left of center.

[Davis_X_Machina]

8. If this were so...

...Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht would have lived to a ripe old age, as respected elder statesmen in an enduring Weimar Republic.

You'll see American Freikorps, full of Iraq war veterans, doing the ruling class' dirty work for them, and invoking the names of Rush and Sarah Palin as they go, before you see anything like you propose.

[alwysdrunk]

9. Which is why this HAS to work

You are right. The moderates (who decide elections) will turn back to the right, which will have a new mandate to "take us back to the Reagan years" like never before.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. Right-wing populism.

[ShortnFiery]

10. WTF?!? No, not even the Freepers are THAT stupid.

We'll move left. The only way is through liberalism - heart and soul. We'll have to help EACH OTHER and cease with "the hate." Much of the foregoing is A GOOD THING.

[sufrommich]

11. We've already seen where the country goes during

a collapse. FDR, three terms.

[totodeinhere]

13. But during that same era Germany, which was even worse off than we were,

turned to Hitler.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

14. And Reagan/Bush, three terms (The 1970s was very bad economically)

The only time in my lifetime people threw in the towel it resulted in Reagan. (I wasn't around for FDR)

A lot probably has to do with who's in power when the wheels come off.

It's hard to imagine Obama being run out of office from the left. If everything fails and he had only one term I'd expect the pug candidate to be a real wacko.

This is a good topic because the more I think about it the more it seems like a coin-flip.

[Yavin4]

12. They Will Turn To The Most Charismatic Person With The Easiest Solution

Who that charismatic person is? We don't know. What political spectrum will they come from? We don't know.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

15. GREAT ANSWER

[Eryemil]

16. People cling to conservative ideals in times of hardship

With few exceptions this is how it's always been throughout our (human) history.

[sufrommich]

18. How do you explain FDR getting us through the depression?

With liberal ideas and programs never before seen in this country. America's most conformist,conservative era was during the McCarthy era.Strangely enough,it coincided with most Americans having more wealth than at any other time before.

[Eryemil]

19. "With few exceptions this is how it's always been throughout our (human) history"

There are always exceptions to every trend but I more or less said this in my earlier post.
Explaining why isn't part of the OPs question.

[Demeter]

17. I Rather Think About Handel's Solution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3YYsKO6YAA

[backscatter712]

20. Shock Doctrine: People regress to a child-like state and run for a father figure.

Look at father-figures from history...

Adolf Hitler went to power by playing the persona of the stern German father - that got him into power. Lots of other dictators do that too.

In American history, we have our own father figures. Ronald Reagan, for all his fucktardery, played a good American-style father figure on TV.

But at the same time, the father-figure schtick can be used for good, as well as for evil.

FDR was the nation's father figure through the Great Depression and World War II. The nation was in deep shit at that time, but rather than blaming the problems of the nation on FDR, most of the people actually bonded to FDR, and he was popular enough to be reelected four times.

And the good news is that Barack Obama is a damned excellent father figure - look at the polls right now, and look at how people react when Michelle, Malia and Sasha come on the state. I'll say that part of the credit for Obama becoming president has to go to another awesome African American father figure - Bill Cosby, aka Cliff Huxtable - by playing the competent, successful and smart black father figure, he blazed the trail for Barack Obama.

As long as President Obama continues to play the role and fight for us, I predict his already sky-high poll numbers can only go up.

[Joe Bacon]

21. The Christians WILL impose their Dominonism over us

They are praying en bloc for Obama to fail so they can sweep in and enslave us in their Handmaiden's Tale!

[liberalsince1968]

22. When things get REALLY bad, the sheeple turn to God, as irrational as that is. And

whichever party occupies the WH is irrelevant - whoever it is will put it in "God's" hands. The right would do that in any case, and the left is too chickenshit not to do it in the face of all the repugs who would be clamoring for it.

[Joe Bacon]

24. You got that (extremely) right

Beacuse THIS is what millions of Christian Republic sheeple believe. Jesus is gonna rapture them like this:

[annabanana]

23. The government, hard right... the people, hard left. .

Guess which side will have the weapons & prisons?

[quakerboy]

25. It all depends on whether

Obama or Boner are more persuasive and charismatic in blaming the other. If it comes to that.

I think I know the answer on this one. Lets watch and see.