Here are some of George Friedman’s thoughts on the events of this week, from RealClearPolitics:
I am not able to think analytically about this, nor can I pretend that my writing predicted this. I must approach this as what I am: a citizen of a nation that gave me sanctuary, to which I owe my life and which I tried to serve as best I could. I have traveled the world and seen many acts of political rage and cruelty. I have seen coups. This may have been a blundering one, but it was a coup nonetheless, carried out with the intent to change the outcome of an election. It happened in my country, and in its capital city, and in its Capitol building. That moment made us simply another country, and not the city on a hill, shedding light on the world.
I was forced into silence by grief. When something enchanting dies, it calls for a moment of silence over what was lost. Every word uttered demeans the moment. And so I was silent. Now I speak, but what is there to say? The light of the shining city on a hill must be relit, and to relight it we must begin by willing ourselves to friendship and to refuse to despise each other regardless of disagreement. That is the start. I don’t know if we have the will or the strength to do it.
This is all opinion, not carefully thought-out analysis. And much of it is cliche. But cliches carry some truth. I have tried to understand, but now I am reduced to grief. Others will say they told me so, but then they have said so much that they must at times be right.
We did not lose our country yesterday, but we received a warning that our country is in danger. And it is most in danger, I think, from the spirit of self-righteousness that has gripped our nation. Each of us seems to hold our views as unassailable. Each of us regards other views as monstrous. From this cauldron only poison will be brewed.
I have my doubts. Or, as “Titania McGrath” recently observed, we must come together in unity and identify the people who voted the wrong way and punish them.
What do you have doubts about? I think his essay resonated with me more than most.
In my own case, I have doubts about the future, especially when it comes to my kids and the America they will inherit, an America that seems to be on a downward glideslope that few in power are interested in changing.
Like George Friedman, I have witnessed a coup first-hand – in the USSR in August 1991. That one was far less bloody than most in history and the victory there proved ephemeral. Autocracy seems to be a gravity well in Russian politics.
Here in the US we have long been able to muddle through and make things kinda work thanks to our creed and the practical philosophy of pragmatism. That all seems gone.
I spent most of my adult life doing analysis, estimates, and prediction. The worst thing for me is that I can’t see how this ends. It actually reminds me a lot of the Arab Spring. For two decades prior we tracked the trendlines and understood there would be a reckoning. We were not able to predict the catalyst or the timing but knew it eventually would come. That’s what I feel right now about the US.
His optimism. I don’t see anything good coming from our political trajectory.
When the elite of journalism and career government insiders partnered with the intelligence agencies to oppose the incoming administration in 2017 they revealed an American class structure that would never allow a commoner into the White House.
Trump exploited existing divisions. White, Black, poor, rich, North,South. He fights dirty.
Any others notice all the Confederate flags?
The saddest part to me will be the loss of everyday liberty as Homeland Security turns inward.
And I can hardly dignify it as a coup. No leader, no plans, just a crowd of fools seizing an opportunity that should not have been there.
Glad now my wife talked me into voting for Old Joe. Don’t want to be on any lists.