For sure, I think the patriot act was a turning point in trust of government in the US. It filtered though to our government in Australia during the Howard years. Similar to the US, around the GFC we had a hopeful change of government, but that hope for progressive values (Obama for you guys, Rudd for us) turned out to be misguided. I tend to think of those “centre left” governments as representing managed societal decline as opposed to the accelerated decline of the right wing parties.
Those center lefts maintained a status quo that did not serve it’s constituents, plain and simple. Say what you will about Trump, hate the dude and his policies, but he has a base who has some very regressive desires, and he’s hitting them. Democrats have a pretty large progressive base, and they have essentially failed to meet those desires for as long as I’ve been alive. But maybe they needed a dog in the white house to bite them in the ass. We will see. Or we won’t and the world ends, whatever!
For sure, I think the patriot act was a turning point in trust of government in the US. It filtered though to our government in Australia during the Howard years. Similar to the US, around the GFC we had a hopeful change of government, but that hope for progressive values (Obama for you guys, Rudd for us) turned out to be misguided. I tend to think of those “centre left” governments as representing managed societal decline as opposed to the accelerated decline of the right wing parties.
Those center lefts maintained a status quo that did not serve it’s constituents, plain and simple. Say what you will about Trump, hate the dude and his policies, but he has a base who has some very regressive desires, and he’s hitting them. Democrats have a pretty large progressive base, and they have essentially failed to meet those desires for as long as I’ve been alive. But maybe they needed a dog in the white house to bite them in the ass. We will see. Or we won’t and the world ends, whatever!