This is a political view of the cycle in terms of progressive (Left) and conservative (Right) roles. The 4T is a crisis in the culture as well as governance/economics. The 2T is an awakening in governance/economics as well as in the culture.

For the 2T to the 4T the right controls governance/economics, while the left controls the culture. Both decay until they become totally nonfunctional . During the 4T the two side switch off, the Left takes control of governance/the economy and the Right takes over the culture. During the 4T to 2T these things improve, the government begins working and the economy improves reaching a high point in the late 1T/early 2T, and the culture gets cleaned up. The New Deal consensus is an example of the first. The Hays code/Family hour on TV, placing of God in the pledge of Allegiance, persuading women to be homemakers and the high level of church attendance as sort of a civic duty are examples of the latter.

The 4T reforms create an increasingly stultified governance/economy and culture in the need of a shake-up. So the two sides switch again. The Left shakes up the culture and the Right the government and economy. So we have a 2T with the Sexual Revolution and Conservative movement which created a new world in the Reagan Eighties where now Greed was Good and so was co-habitation. In the subsequent decades the economy has grown increasingly dysfunctional for more and more people, and so has the culture as families have nearly completely collapsed amongst the most vulnerable.

Originally Posted by Mikebert

This is a political view of the cycle in terms of progressive (Left) and conservative (Right) roles. The 4T is a crisis in the culture as well as governance/economics. The 2T is an awakening in governance/economics as well as in the culture.

For the 2T to the 4T the right controls governance/economics, while the left controls the culture. Both decay until they become totally nonfunctional . During the 4T the two side switch off, the Left takes control of governance/the economy and the Right takes over the culture. During the 4T to 2T these things improve, the government begins working and the economy improves reaching a high point in the late 1T/early 2T, and the culture gets cleaned up. The New Deal consensus is an example of the first. The Hays code/Family hour on TV, placing of God in the pledge of Allegiance, persuading women to be homemakers and the high level of church attendance as sort of a civic duty are examples of the latter.

The 4T reforms create an increasingly stultified governance/economy and culture in the need of a shake-up. So the two sides switch again. The Left shakes up the culture and the Right the government and economy. So we have a 2T with the Sexual Revolution and Conservative movement which created a new world in the Reagan Eighties where now Greed was Good and so was co-habitation. In the subsequent decades the economy has grown increasingly dysfunctional for more and more people, and so has the culture as families have nearly completely collapsed amongst the most vulnerable.

That view has its correct aspects. The most essential aspect of the 2T is left out of your view, of course. That's probably a reflection of the decay of culture these days. But what is essential is that the ideas and movements for change and reform, both cultural and political, are born and mobilized in the 2T. In a 4T they have a good chance of being institutionalized. That requires that we remember and uphold those 2T new ideals and values. Politically those are mainly ecology and peace ideals, but also rights for oppressed peoples and more democracy (including the issue of money and gerrymandering, the 2-party duoploy, etc.), and the new 2T concern for quality of life and repersonalization. The greed is good of the 3T, reborn in the 2T, needs to be reversed again of course. In this case the proper 2T values to bring forward into the 4T are those of the Great Society, which have remained at the core of the Democratic Party.

Culture was enriched during our recent 2T, but then was reduced to a few fringes in the 3T. That may be partly because of 2T attacks on the "clean culture" of the previous 1T. Now we see a pop culture revival along similar lines as during the previous 4T. The deeper spiritual insights of the 2T are still lost though, since the 4T pop revival is largely on a pleasant, positive but shallow level. It's time to be "Happy" as a response to and escape from the real struggles.

Mike -- In a way, you are describing 4Ts as communitarian and 2Ts as libertarian. That the social and economic spheres are split philosophically in both major parties is interesting, but may be an anomaly. It's well established that families are more stable in the Blue Zone, even though it's the Red Zone that makes it a virtue. So behavior and philosophy may be at odds on the social level, but not on the economic level. There, the Red Zone praises the virtues of hard work and self reliance, even though the achieved results are worse. The Blue Zone tends to be the more supportive and wealthier. In both cases, the underlying bent is communitarian in Blue Zones and libertarian in Red Zones. That seems to follow recent history, where the redder Sun Belt has been dominant, with the bluer Snow Belt starting to rise now.

I'm not sure if any of this fits your thesis or not.

Originally Posted by Marx & Lennon

Mike -- In a way, you are describing 4Ts as communitarian and 2Ts as libertarian. That the social and economic spheres are split philosophically in both major parties is interesting, but may be an anomaly. It's well established that families are more stable in the Blue Zone, even though it's the Red Zone that makes it a virtue. So behavior and philosophy may be at odds on the social level, but not on the economic level. There, the Red Zone praises the virtues of hard work and self reliance, even though the achieved results are worse. The Blue Zone tends to be the more supportive and wealthier. In both cases, the underlying bent is communitarian in Blue Zones and libertarian in Red Zones. That seems to follow recent history, where the redder Sun Belt has been dominant, with the bluer Snow Belt starting to rise now.

I'm not sure if any of this fits your thesis or not.

The rhetoric of moral virtue in red states has shades of "the lady doth protest too much".