A PREDICTION OVERTAKEN BY EVENTS, AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY.

Four years ago, W. R. Mead wrote a long American Interest essay about the sclerotic conventional wisdom that I excerpted from and commented extensively upon.  One sentence in particular stands out.  "The 2020 election may take place against an even darker background than what we now see; if America’s intellectuals and institutions don’t start raising their games, 2016 could soon start to look like the good old days."  I surely didn't anticipate events turning out as they have; as his essay focuses primarily on the shortcomings of the smug credentialed elite, I'm not sure he expected globalization and technocracy to self-discredit in the way it has.