Inflection Point ― Any key event that dramatically changes the trajectory

On any given day most people are more concerned about what’s for lunch and how much it costs than they are about whether the Freedom Caucus is going to shut down the government again.  What I see is that the majority of the people have become immune to the chaos of party politics, confused by the pandemic and the endless disinformation about the disease and disheartened by the continued rise of Trumpism as a fatalistic future of autocratic authoritarianism. Tell me what the price of gas is this week. Did you know it costs me $120 to fill up my big truck and it’s probably going to get worse when the Republican Freedom Caucus forces another shutdown of the federal government?

Simultaneously, the unions are rising to a level of solidarity not seen in decades and are winning against monopolistic corporations. The Writers Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild, United Auto Workers, and the International Longshore Union have either gained unprecedented new contracts or are standing on the edge of doing so against all the odds as globalism has gutted the labor movement in the heartland of America over the past four decades.

Here on the West Coast, the solidarity between union workers is palpable and even reportable on the evening news. What the big media companies finally figured out is that people are eventually going to stop watching the endless reruns of Blue Bloods or NCIS shows or the out-of-date late-night shows and turn off their TVs and streaming devices and actually start talking to each other again. Maybe even joining in a solidarity march with a family member who is a union member.

It is an inflection point in our culture and economic politics that drives many to reconsider some basic personal values about themselves and their lives. Younger union members have become more progressive and eager for change. Workers, because of the pandemic restrictions, are evaluating the value of virtual work versus showing up. This is all happening as Artificial Intelligence or AI, automation and the internet corporations threaten to change everything that you thought was traditional work and how it is done and how you get paid.

Is this a crossroads, a dangerous opportunity for change or is it actually the inflection point where the direction of everything shifts?

In mathematics, an inflection point is where the curvature of a line on a graph changes its direction, either from concave to convex or vice versa. In the real world, any key event that dramatically changes the trajectory of a business, industry, politics, or economy can be regarded as an inflection point.

Even though the average person is attempting to recover some sense of normalcy in their lives post-pandemic and the Jan 6 insurrection, the confusion over banned books, Donald Trump’s 91 indictment charges, and the continued culture wars all seem to be the background noise for people who are either trying to make a living, buy a home or retire to someplace safe and normal. But tell me, what exactly is normalcy when everything is in flux?

What we can see is the contrasts on the national stage. President Joe Biden goes to Michigan to walk the picket line with UAW workers and Donald Trump is going to Drake Enterprises, a non-union job site 50 miles away from where workers are striking. It’ll probably get three minutes on national news, which is why only a few will notice the distinction between Biden and Trump. And still, with all of the legal cases and mounting evidence that DJT is a crook of historic proportions, national polls, with the exception of ABC News, are showing that he’s attracting more support rather than less, and Biden and Trump are at about the same approval rating. My money is on a rematch of the 2020 election with a similar outcome and the four-time indicted ex-president screaming all the way to inauguration day that the election was once again stolen. Hopefully from behind bars in a federal prison this time, someplace that doesn’t provide internet access.

The man who places himself above the law, who then flouts it, boasts about doing it, and then complains about being prosecuted for doing it is an existential threat to our republic. How this narcissist who wants to be a strong-man fascist can garner over 40 percent support to run again on a grievance campaign while the American working class is rising up with a newfound solidarity is completely baffling. This is the inflection point where everything will change and as much as many would like to have a new more dynamic leader than Uncle Joe Biden, what we can tell is that he hasn’t crashed the ship of state like the Orange guy did with the pandemic and he has brought back manufacturing to America, something that Trump promised but couldn’t do.

Another Biden administration is actually the kind of normalcy most Americans are longing for but no longer trust can happen. The inflection point will arrive once the new union contracts start to kick in and the Justice Department convicts Trump.