I Binge-Watched All of Yellowstone So I Could Write This Dispatch

I’ve just finished bingeing all five seasons of the Montana-based neo-western Yellowstone.

If you’ve not seen it, change that fact.

Anyway… I’m torn. There are three quotes from the show I want to use to launch into today’s dispatch…

Seeing as how I can’t come to a decision on which one best sums up my thinking, I’ll use the full trio.

1. God sure finds interesting ways to put people out of business. — Kayce Dutton, youngest son in the Dutton ranching dynasty.

2. You are the trailer park. I am the tornado. — Beth Dutton, daughter.

3. Your grandfather used to say you can’t fix a broken wagon wheel, but you can use the parts to make a new one. — John Dutton, patriarch.

In different ways, each bit of dialogue speaks to the changes coming to America as the 2030s approach.

I’ll explain how in  a moment…

In many ways, the entire Yellowstone series is a visual metaphor for the trajectory of America. It’s the story of empire building; the story of trying to protect an American way of life that’s disappearing; the story of cannibalistic capitalism that cares nothing about land, culture, or tradition as it rapaciously exploits all for the greatest benefit of a few.

It’s the story of generosity and kindness and goodness… too often masked by a willingness to blackmail, kill, or tear apart families for selfish ends—the violence and violent nature of parts of American society laid bare.

And when all is said and done, it’s the story of a family and an empire tragically torn apart, the remnants left to start anew…

The bright side?

For those who survive, the “starting anew” promises to be a fresh chapter after all the drama and trauma. (Note: Spinoffs are apparently in the works for those who survive.)

Let me tell you what I think of when I hear these quotes and I consider the story of America.

God sure finds interesting ways to put people out of business.

Who’d have thunk America would be here:

The empire is crumbling because of self-inflicted wounds. American government cannot get out of its own way—tariffs, trade wars, and more, leading pretty much the entire world to begin backing away from the US and the US dollar.

Meanwhile, the brand of capitalism practiced by the American oligarchy—and the political puppets they own in DC—is destroying the soul of America.

“Mo’ money” is their religion.

And despite the inherent goodness and kindness that I know is endemic to Americans, the violence in parts of our culture masks that these days. The military deployed in American cities…

Interesting ways, indeed, to put a country out of business.

            You are the trailer park. I am the tornado.

The United States is at a point today, where many Americans are now eager and willing—even trying—to torch the joint.

Over the last 50 years—since Nixon abandoned the gold standard for the dollar—the US economy has royally screwed the much-vaunted American middle class. US companies have shipped overseas tens of millions of jobs that once funded a solidly middle-class life, allowing moms and dads to send their kids to school without mortgaging their retirement and their kids’ future just to afford an education.

Wages have lost massive ground to inflation, so much so that nearly 60% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck and have little to no savings to cushion their life from an emergency expense. Which is why American families are drowning under the largest-ever amount of revolving debt.

The accumulated anger has led us to the point where a politician like Trump has gained power, not by pushing thoughtful policies that build up the nation—but by giving aggrieved Americans permission to be mad and to act on the anger they’ve bottled up for decades.

But he has also exposed deep and dangerous fault lines running beneath our culture… and those fault lines risk cleaving America apart. I suspect the cleaving is baked into our future at this point.

A quarter of the country is already OK with secession; among Republicans that jumps to more than 30%. In deep-blue California 44%, nearly half the state, want to leave the union. Among Southern Republicans, an astonishing 66% are ready to split the country once again.

The tornado is coming for the trailer park.

Your grandfather used to say you can’t fix a broken wagon wheel, but you can use the parts to make a new one.

It the end, America will break, just as the Dutton family broke in Yellowstone.

Sorry for the spoiler, and sorry to be a downer. But I just don’t see a way to bridge the social and political chasms that separate Americans today.

Nor do I see a path that allows the American dollar to maintain its role in the world, given all the pressures building against it. That will tear through American family finances, as I’ve written about numerous times.

The empire built over generations is fading, and the family is pulling apart in fundamental ways.

But that Yellowstone quote actually speaks to rebirth and renewal, and that’s what I suspect is coming to America in the 2030s.

America will survive, just as certain members of the Dutton clan survived.

More importantly, their survival speaks to brighter days ahead… just in a very different form.

The America that you and I know will very likely not exist in its current geographic arrangement, and not under the current form of destructive capitalism where an increasingly tiny fraction of the population wins, while the vast majority sinks.

What emerges will be a fairer society. A richer society. A stronger political system. A more vibrant, albeit smaller economy.

A rebirth for the ages.

But rebirth can only come after destruction.

Seriously, go watch Yellowstone.