I have a feeling that future historians will label this period as "The Great Unraveling."

[GliderGuider]

19. I saw the truth of this about a decade ago.

The problem with the "Democrats will fix it" belief is twofold.

One is that this is not an American problem that American Democrats can address. It's a global problem, especially when you factor in unstable international finance and national debt loads, skyrocketing climate change and the planet-wide extermination of wildlife.

The more uniquely American problem is that even if the Democrats regained control of all three branches, the deplorables aren't going anywhere. It will take at least a generation and a half (and probably much longer) to curb their aggressively divisive influence on American society, politics and business.

We are in the midst of what systems scientists call a "wicked problem". The world as a whole is well into it, with only the symptoms differing from place to place. I see no way out.

Wicked problem

A wicked problem is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. The use of the term "wicked" here has come to denote resistance to resolution, rather than evil.

Moreover, because of complex interdependencies, the effort to solve one aspect of a wicked problem may reveal or create other problems.