sonora2sonoma

It’s at once tragic and perplexing to witness the same cycles playing out over and over again in our politics and in our economic policies here in the United States. We currently appear poised on the precipice of the relaxation of the latest round of restrictions imposed for the containment of the coronavirus, an act that, from experience, has come by now to reliably presage the spike in cases that inevitably follows close on its heels.

Bizarrely, a similar cycle also plays out repeatedly in the politics of our economics. Not meaning to point fingers or anything, but notice how, in recent years, incoming Republican administrations have inherited strong economies and budget surpluses from the previous Democrat administrations, which they’ve then turned around and squandered during their terms in office, bequeathing massive budget deficits and a tattered economy to the succeeding Democrat administration, which has then returned the economy to firmer footing and decreased the national debt, only for the following Republican administration to repeat the same behaviors they did the last time, laying waste once again to everything within reach.

Yet nobody seems to take notice!

It would appear that those of us who oppose MAGA cult beliefs and the like are all unwilling passengers aboard a ship of fools on which the navigation ceased proper functioning once ‘alternative facts’ entered the lexicon. And no one seems to know how to fix it.

How many of these cycles of national Bi-Polar Disorder must we collectively endure, or more properly CAN we endure, before the resulting injuries compound to a point where something in the social order breaks down, leading to massive societal change?

Viewed from afar, even events the scope of sea change are but a normal part of a bigger cycle repeating itself down through the generations. Trouble is, our mortal natures deny us the luxury of the long view.

Tim Konrad

March 1, 2021