Dan Pfeiffer is one of the people whose substack I pay for, and it’s worth it. I’ll share some of today’s here because I think this is important. And because it’s important for us to not contribute to the narrative that FFOTUS (First Felon of the United States) is all powerful.
Trump’s inauguration was a truly surreal event.
[…]Amid this bizarre collection of people and unintentionally ironic location, Trump claimed a massive mandate. and proclaimed the beginning of a “Golden Age” for America. Trump made big and specific promises many of which were executive orders he signed within hours of being sworn in. Later in the day, Trump pardoned 1500 January 6th defendants.
This is all part of a specific strategy,
In the lead-up to the inauguration, Trump aides described this flurry of executive actions as a “shock and awe” campaign (perhaps Team Trump could use a primer on how the Iraq War went). The New York Times reported:
Narrator: just assume the usual bullshit from the NYT, I won’t copy that here.
[…]The Republicans, his tech oligarch allies, and some in the media are eating it up, but new polling shows that the public is not on board with Trump’s agenda.
Broad Support for Trump’s Narrative
Look, we have to be honest with ourselves; this is not 2017. Back then, Trump stumbled ass backward in the presidency. In many ways, his victory was a fluke. He lost the popular vote and didn’t get above 47% in most swing states. The public didn’t support him or his agenda. This time, Trump won the popular vote, and he entered office more popular than ever.
The public is very open to his message of change and upending the status quo. A New York Times and Ipsos poll found that nine in ten Americans believe the political system is broken and that a majority supported “mass deportation.”
Now for the better news:
The Public is Not on Board with Trump’s MAGA Agenda
There is a typical cadence to a presidency. The newly elected President comes at their political apex. It’s when they have most political capital to expend, and then they spend the next couple of years drawing down on that account. Every unpopular action, gaffe, or controversy costs political capital, and that account is rarely refilled
A new Wall Street Journal poll shows that Trump is about to spend a bunch of his limited political capital on a series of unpopular agenda items.
Here are the specific findings of the poll:
Even immigration, which is supposed to be his best issue, Trump is fairly vulnerable. As noted above, there is broad support for the idea of deporting undocumented immigrants, but support plummets when you get into the details of who may be deported and how it would happen. An Axios poll found real skepticism for the specifics of Trump’s immigration agenda.
This polling should give Democrats hope that Trump’s political honeymoon will be short-lived, but none of it will matter if do make the case relentlessly in the coming weeks.
I am perplexed by the second part of the final sentence (in italics, just above). I can’t tell if something is missing or if “do” is supposed to be “don’t” or if that’s an awkward way of saying we have to make the case relentlessly in the coming weeks. What case?
What do you think of the article, and what do you think the last sentence means?
Manyakitty
Definitely some kind of typo in that sentence. Hope he fixes it.
Old Man Shadow
Right now, I honestly think it’s a fool’s game to believe issue polling matters because people generally hate conservative policies and then go happily vote for the motherfuckers anyway.
matt
I think he’s saying that Dem messaging has to be perfect or it won’t matter that Trump’s implementing an unpopular agenda. A lot of folks are fixated on Dem messaging right now.
lowtechcyclist
Since I’d never heard of this guy before now, I’ll let others guess what he means.
Maybe someone should just ASK HIM??
mvr
It’s an editing problem. Might mean “don’t”,
Barney
So the overall message is “it’ll be a shitstorm until the midterms, but by then Trump’s chaos should have damaged the Republican brand enough for Democrats to retake the House, so they’ll then be able to block the worst.” Which is thin gruel.
Trump’s “political capital” or “honeymoon” don’t in themselves matter at all. He’s not going to run for election in 2028 – (a) the Constitution says No (b) he’ll be senile or dead. What matters is how the Republican party is seen.
Kosh III
if do make
If they, the Democrats, don’t make
I’m skeptical that they will do that, they will probably hem and haw as they’ve spinelessly done for years.
WaterGirl
I don’t really have a social media account, but maybe someone who does can tweet at him and ask.
I should say that I didn’t really intend for this whole post to be about what the last line means!
I was hoping we would talk about the content. :-)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The AP lost no time documenting the crap that spewed forth from the Orange Fart Cloud’s pie hole yesterday:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-inauguration-fact-check-b920161868e192d0430df534a42ea5ce?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
UncleEbeneezer
@Old Man Shadow: Voters like going back and forth. That’s how we got Obama, Biden, and the 2018 Mid Terms. The notion that Republicans never pay a price is overly-simplistic. Ofc they don’t get punished enough or as consistently as we all wish they would and voters are way too willing to give them another chance after Dems have been in power, but voters do in fact throw out Republicans and have done so in recent memory.
lowtechcyclist
Groucho describing how he’s going to run Freedonia
Bupalos
It’s supposed to be “if we do not” and I continue to be grossed out by the way even thoughtful folks like this just hit “post” without even reading their stuff.
kindness
Just wait until Republicans try to force American’s Social Security $$ into Trump’s new crypto currency calling it ‘investing’ the funds.
Professor Bigfoot
Fixed that for you.
WaterGirl
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Documenting in a good way, as in sharing information and acknowledging that it’s nuts?
Or acknowledging in a way that gets his message out like he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread?
Layer8Problem
@lowtechcyclist: Just wait ’til he gets through with it.
Professor Bigfoot
[sigh] and here we go again.
“People” don’t hear Democratic messaging. “Voters” love Democratic policies but hate Democrats.
As long as y’all continue to leave the WHITE out of these discussions, you will NEVER find your way to changing things.
Spanky
I look at the specific findings of the poll and have to remind myself that half the voting populace is below average intelligence.
There’s a lot of real and political capital to be made by catering to the stupid people, as PT Barnum and Trump have both pointed out, in their own ways.
Belafon
Based on the tone I suspect it’s meant to say “but none of it will matter if
dothey don’t make the case relentlessly in the coming weeks.suzanne
I know everyone here is of like mind in this, but this is just a perfect example of the kind of “thinking” that makes me crazy. Like, every single thing that gets accomplished is made up of specifics! Those matter!
Kay
He’s saying these policies are each a huge lift and each unpopular so if there’s effective opposition he won’t get them over the finish line.
I mean, come on. You’ve all watched politics for decades. He’s going to easily and seamlessly “make Canada the 51st state”? Unilaterally invade and conquer Denmark? Eliminate the 14th amendment to the US Constitution? Cut (whatever bullshit huge number they made up) of the federal budget? Republicans don’t use any federal money? Like hell they don’t.
He’s saying he has AT BEST 6 months to get all these outlandish promises enacted before he’s at 35% and Republicans in Congress start covering their own asses and splitting with the lame duck.
He’s right. The NYTimes and the rest of lemming media are wrong. He’s not an invincible Daddy-Ruler we all have to bow down to.
Nothing AT ALL is going to happen when Republicans slap a 25% tariff on Canada? Canada has no agency and power at all to retaliate against US imports? They’ll fold in 24 hours like all of US media did? Yeah, sure.
Shalimar
Basically, Trump will do a lot of incredibly unpopular shit, but dictators do unpopular shit in police states all the time. Can we keep him from turning the United States into a police state?
Belafon
@UncleEbeneezer: I need it to happen after I sell my house, but if we’re going to have a disaster, it needs to happen early in this term. One of the things that keeps getting Republicans elected is their disasters occur late, and then Democrats fix them with nearly no consequence to the average American, so they don’t think it was ever a big deal. Had the “Great Recession” occurred in 2005, and Republicans kept fumbling the response, it would have been much worse.
jowriter
@WaterGirl: We can start the work today, however we can. Mike Lawler, the GOP operative who became my congressperson in NY 17 because of Dem Congressman Maloney’s lethargic campaign in 2022, ran and won on law’n order and his claim of rampant crime in the second safest county in the US. I want to hear his comments about his fearless leader letting violent criminals back on the street. Maybe he should change his name to Mike Lawless. Hmm. Can’t wait to talk to one of his feckless phone answerers. Also will inquire about the price of eggs (he ran on inflation this time). At the very least it’s a way for me to vent some of my rage. If we are blue voters with a red congressperson/Senator, we can be relentless critics, to their offices and to their constituents, who are our neighbors. We’ve got two years to stomp the GOP congresscritters and I want an earthquake of change in 2026. It’s gotta start with me, I’m the only one whose behavior is under my control.
Old School
I think it must be a typo.
The case that Trump’s ideas are bad/unpopular. Let people know that their initial reaction is the correct one.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@WaterGirl:
Well, the headline was pretty self-explanatory:
I mean we all know the bar we set for reporting from corporate/mainstream outlets is pretty low. Sure, they could have said “lies” but that’s expecting too much. And I don’t expect them to say “it’s nuts” because, again, low bar to clear. I was just glad to see a headline like that as opposed to one crafted by DougJ/Pitchbot.
They didn’t say President Trump either and you can be guarandamnteed outlets like Totebagger Radio will also refer to him that way under the guise of “editorial standards”.
Old School
Old Man Shadow
@Professor Bigfoot: Okay, that’s a good point.
Chris Johnson
Bah. Humbug. Fucken MOLDBUG not mere humbug.
Didn’t Ramaswamy already get kicked the fuck out? and says he’s going to run for Governor of Ohio now? I swear I heard that this morning.
Do not be captivated by the dancing of the chainsaw clowns. It’s meant to lure you closer and you’ve only yourself to blame.
I don’t see a lot of black people freaking out and saying the world’s suddenly ending. I’m seeing ‘golf clap’. Consider that a more enlightened reaction to how much and how little has actually changed.
They couldn’t even run a simple press conference correctly: an audio engineering forum I read was asking about how come they fumbled a song they wanted to play over the speakers. It’s a SHITSHOW. That won’t stop.
Watch for Musk trying to seize power now that nothing matters, watch for how easily Putin neutralizes him or not. Musk pulling his shit is a threat to Putin. These people were not intended to be POWERFUL, they’re there to break everything.
If the Deep State didn’t exist before, it does now, because of that ‘they are there to break everything’ bit. The Deep State becomes a bipartisan thing because the evil fucks want to continue being rich and evil, rather than being trapped in a dumpster-fire bust-out and doomed to lose everything.
All the more reason to not watch the dance of the chainsaw clowns that closely. What they say is not automatically what’s going to happen, because they’re the chainsaw clowns and they’re there to ruin us all on behest of Putin.
Them being able to march on a road of bones doesn’t serve Putin, so he can and will start fighting them in turn, fucking them over, and betraying them. Especially Musk. He can’t possibly be happy with how powerful Musk thinks he’s become. If I’m right, Musk is going to have messy problems of some kind.
Seriously, stand back, they’re set to fight each other now. They’re not gonna be able to actually do much of anything besides the chainsaw clown dance.
Professor Bigfoot
@Chris Johnson: I like the cut of your jib, sir!
We can look after our own communities and we can laugh at this conservative shitshow.
Kay
How is the 25% tariff on goods from.Mexico going to go? We have trade treaties with these countries! Multinational companies made huge investments based on reliance on these trade deals. They’re all going to roll over to Trump/Musk/Zuckerberg/Bezos and their shitty social media companies who produce NOTHING tangible?
You’re going to drive Facebook or wash your clothes in it? What is Amazon? Its an online retailer. Where does the shit that Besos sells actually come from? Tesla? Fuck no. It comes from all over the world due to TRADE DEALS. They’re complicated, trade deals! That’s why we only get one done every fifty years or so.
Bupalos
Here’s the thing that nearly invalidates all the particular issue-analysis-politicking that goes on in pieces like this-
“A New York Times and Ipsos poll found that nine in ten Americans believe the political system is broken”
Political inclinations and preferences don’t matter if the people who need to express those preferences believe there is no real mechanism to see them realized. Trump and other post-truth authoritarians have figured out how to ride herd on this modern reality that essentially replaces the very core of every issue. The opposition (not limited to Democrats, everyone still attached to technocratic centrism is included) is simply in denial of the extent to which public trust in government has failed. The opposition has no narrative that is comprehensible to the majority of the citizenry. No real account of what is happening and the path forward that faces this reality of a broken and captured government. Trump’s narrative of catastrophic social collapse and chaos doesn’t really resemble current reality…but it is at least a narrative. It’s a validation of people’s feelings that something is very wrong and something has to be done. Put in language that people understand.
Our problem is that we aren’t saying anything authentic and comprehensible that jibes with the deep modern feeling that things are very scary and going very wrong.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Good morning, BJ.
I’ve been reminding myself periodically to shake off the funk, that giving in to despair and fear counts as premature surrender. I went looking for the original source of the advice not to pre-emptively surrender to dictators and found this article by Timothy Snyder. The original quote, if that’s the original, is Item 1: “Do not obey in advance”.
I admit to a lot of angst about the threats to invade Canada, Greenland, and Panama. What options do soldiers have if given the order? But we’ll fight that when the actual order is given by President Musk, not before.
About that last sentence, I think it is also echoed in a few places in Snyder’s list of 20, particularly items 10-12. It’s a call to get the truth out there and bypass the mainstream media which has now fully gone “obey in advance”.
Also it reminds me of an interview with Heather Cox Richardson I heard on Jen Rubin’s new substack, “The Contrarian”. Richardson feels this period of history shares a lot in common with Reconstruction, and that disinformation played a large role then and now. We need to find ways to keep combatting the disinformation.
WaterGirl
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Not everyone has time to click a link, right?
I do not have time to click a link that’s the same old bullshit. So i was asking.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
If anybody finds comfort in prayer, you might be interested in the National Cathedral’s National Day of Prayer, which starts in about half an hour.
Jeffro
I agree with much of what’s already been noted: trump is the lamest of lame ducks, and the MAGA agenda is not popular.
(and we only lost the popular vote by 1.5%)
repeat repeat repeat
Notthatproud
The six bullet points are irrelevant issues. Trump isn’t going to invade Panama or Greenland. The rest also isn’t going to happen, except for the pardons, which he already did. And haven’t we spent the last few months arguing to ourselves that in 2028, no one will vote based on who Biden pardoned? Same shit here, guys. In two years, in four years, no one will care. It might be unpopular for a day or two, but then people will forget it happened.
We need an affirmative agenda of change for ourselves. Most of us grew up raging at the conservative powers in our society whether it was business or church or whatever. And when we got into power with Obama and Biden, we didn’t do anything to tear it down. What is the Democratic plan for change? How are we making things better?
Kay
These comments really make the authors point.
Trump assembled the shitty, arrogant Social Media Sector as his personal oligarchs. That’s not the sector that actually makes things in this country. ACTUAL tangible things come across borders. Cars, washing machines, oil, natural gas, literally everything Amazon sells and we order. They’re ALL covered by trade agreements. Americas tech oligarchs don’t control any of it. WTF does Zuckerberg make? Nothing.
Notthatproud
@Jeffro:
The whole “we lost by a small margin” stuff is uncut copium.
Notthatproud
@Kay: Zuckerberg and Musk control what people think.
Notthatproud
@Bupalos:
this
Jeffro
me too
and he’s right: if Dems don’t speak up and act up/act like a real opposition party, our blessed low-info folks and normies will just assume we don’t really oppose what trumpov’s trying to do
Jeffro
@Notthatproud: that’s kind of silly – it’s a fact, and one that needs a lot of repeating.
unless you’d rather the media and low-info voters continue to believe trumpov’s win was some sort of sweeping mandate?
West of the Rockies
Trump got, what, 78 million votes this time? In a country of 330,000,000… that’s 24%. One out of four people are utterly vile (some of them may be merely incredibly stupid and uninformed).
Trump has zero mandate.
p.a.
The paradox of course is that many “the gubmint is fucked up” voters are voting for the gubmint fucker-uppers.
The people who vote themselves into the cardboard box with the curtain rod and with the sparrow aren’t happy even though the “not-really-American” in the next box has neither, the idiots are furious that they only have a box, fake skewer, and crap protein. So they vote to wash, rinse, repeat. Their minds are impenetrable.
Old School
Quinerly
Elon weighs in on his salute. Anti Defamation League sides with him.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy48v1x4dv4o
Kay
I think I’ve lost patience with the wound licking. IMO its a function of ego. “We’re so GOOD and he’s so BAD, how could we have been rejected!?”
Its not personal. Its power. He grabbed it and we have to grab it BACK.
No one is going to give us things based on us perception of our integrity and wonderfullness. That’s not how any of this works.
If Trump was easily going to upend all of world trade he should have Honda, Ford, GM, and Samsung sitting behind him, not Facebook and X. He has the shitty propaganda team on his side. Now he had to deal with real producers.
Chris Johnson
@Professor Bigfoot: Yeah you do. I’m the one who taught you about white people ways, a little while back: me and half the comments section. I just knew you didn’t understand how mean white people can be to each OTHER. Hatfields and McCoys? wypipo.
I would counsel that you not go on about your arsenal or anything like that. The Trump people are in the process of poking the hornet’s nest that is shitty, uneducated, savage white people. This is a hell of a tactical mistake on their part, and they’re gonna continue doing it because they see no reason to pander to those anymore when they can bring in H1Bs or just make AIs do it (remember, they’re just as stupid, but they think they can just wreck these people’s shit and walk away. Whether AI works to replace Cletus is largely irrelevant)
Your ‘arsenal’ is not likely to be needed and is way smaller than the psychotic white peoples’ arsenal anyhow. Maybe look after your own and be careful not to get riled into acting crazy.
Lotta white people, probably including released J6ers, are going to discover that they are just as capable of being shot by cops when they get real pushy. It’s gonna be open season on human for a while there, so go gently and don’t pick fights even when they are deserved, because fights are going to bust out all over, and there are no rules now. And the loonier Trumpists will genuinely believe they are Judge Dredd, and this tends to step on the toes of the police who normally hold that assumption.
‘Be careful out there’ as the old cop show had it.
lollipopguild
@lowtechcyclist: Hail! Hail! Freedonia!
Hildebrand
I like Pfeiffer (he is the least annoying of all of the Pod Save America bros) but like all of the pundits telling the hoi polloi what Democrats should do, I wonder if he is using his leverage and voice to actually talk to Democratic office holders directly. I’d really like to see all of the folks bloviating for dollars actually do something with their positions. Don’t just talk about this stuff – go out and do it.
It drove me a little crazy yesterday seeing all these folks with significant followers on social media say some version of ‘well, the Democrats need to ‘x’ for messaging, I hope they don’t let this moment go by without doing ‘x’. I wrote to a number of them asking if they could stop playing pundit and get to work. This is an all hands on deck moment, these folks need to walk the walk. If not, they aren’t worth the subscription money.
Quinerly
@Notthatproud:
Bingo.
I’m waiting on who buys TikTok and thus controls it.
Josie
@Kay:
I don’t know if you are correct, Kay, but I love your attitude. Keep on telling the truth as you see it.
suzanne
@Bupalos:
This is a good point.
Things are really, really scary. Fear prevents planning for the future.
Danielx
@Notthatproud:
They don’t control everything people think or they wouldn’t be regarded as the ordinary rich assholes they are, with an extra helping of weirdness on top for Muck. The only thing extraordinary about either of them (Bezos too for that matter) is that they are extra rich assholes.
Kay
@Notthatproud:
Oh, bullshit. February 1st the 25% tariffs go in. Real, tangible goods produced by companies who make things. Passing that cost RIGHT to US consumers. And that’s BEFORE Canada retaliates, which they will.
He called Denmark and threatened trade sanctions. Denmark is tiny but they have a very big shipping company and they’re part of the EU and NATO. The whole world is going to bow down to our shitty, wildly overvalued social media sector? The sector that produces nothing but bullshit? Let me know when Zuckerberg runs container shipping.
Chris Johnson
@West of the Rockies: Not even. I know some of them that were absolutely bullshitting themselves, and mostly just bought the whole ‘Clinton Cash’, ‘Biden Corruption’ thing and thought they were picking a pretty safe ‘least worst’. They’d get Eisenhower or some shit, really, because we just lie all the time.
Oopsy. All I can tell them is ‘Moscow Rules’, and that things are going to be dangerous and tough, but only reality can burst their bubble.
I can survive life becoming shitty and Siberia-like and hope my friends of wrong colors or gender presentations can hide from bullets, but these people, this big chunk of that 24%, they needed to BELIEVE. In big promises. That were absolute, 100%, fucking obvious lies. I can’t spare them that nor would I if I could. They done fucked up. Where they go from there determines whether they’re dead to me, whether they’re just more casualties, cos we’re gonna take casualties. Already did (covid) and there will be a lot more.
brendancalling
All I know is that
my Latino students are in danger;
my job as a teacher is in danger;
and my kid—again, transgender and a dual US/Canada citizen—has opted to let her US passport export expire.
So that’s a lot of work and burden. In related news, my partner and I are redoubling our efforts to finish our TEFL (teach abroad) licenses ASAP.
Citizen_X
@Bupalos: Oh, so it’s all hopeless?
I mean, we could go around saying, “WE’RE FUCKING UP THE CLIMATE AND ARE SABOTAGING OUR OWN SURVIVAL, THAT’S WHY SO MANY PLACES ARE ON FIRE OR GETTING FLOODED,” like we have for decades, but I guess that’s not “authentic” enough.
ExPatExDem
This. So much this.
TBone
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: singing Leonard Cohen right now!!! Thank you!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PhHE8fvf92M
Belafon
@Notthatproud: Democrats were fixing the symptoms from deep cuts in taxes to the rich and businesses, the horrid response to the pandemic, and when they proposed changes like requiring health insurance to cover people, it was decried as socialism, especially since some of the help went to blacks. Democrats were attempting to fix the highway while people were still driving on it, rather than blowing it up and starting over (to use a metaphor that describes the next ten years of road work where I live).
Kay
@Josie:
They want you scared. Don’t be scared. The companies that are NOT in the US celebrity news pages really run the world, and they TRADE. He has to deal with real businesspeople instead of our clownish propaganda producers and media sycophants.
He barely managed to pass a huge tax cut his first term. He’s going to rewrite every trade deal?
Just because media are idiot ninnies doesn’t mean we can’t do our own thinking. He doesnt, actually run the world.The US isnt, actually the only country. Those are lies.
Old School
@Quinerly:
My money is on no one.
If it’s true that the U.S. accounts for only a small portion of ByteDance’s income (I think I read 10%.) and TikTok is used globally, then there’s no real incentive for selling TikTok to anyone else.
But when April 6th rolls around and TikTok goes dark again, it’ll be tough to blame on Biden.
Josie
@Kay: Would you consider doing a front page post on some of your ideas for approaching the coming events? WaterGirl offered to have people do this, and I would love to see your approach written up in a form organized by subject. I think your political instincts are on target much of the time, and we could benefit from such a post.
Danielx
@Bupalos:
Loss of trust in government is an ongoing process and it’s been going on for a long time, I would argue sixty years or better. I mean, the government did lots of shady underhanded illegitimate shit and proposed more before Vietnam (Operation Northwoods, anybody?) but Vietnam and the war was the beginning of widespread disbelief. Then Watergate, Iran-Contra, various financial and environmental crises…and the list goes on, and on, and on. And yes, people go on voting for the same people who are screwing them and then wonder why nothing is done to address their concerns.
Kay
I was spiraling too. I was looking at the tech oligarchs lined up and thinking “well, we’re screwed”. Then I remembered the US social media sector doesn’t make anything useful anyone needs and that there’s an entire world of production and trade of tangible goods they don’t effect at all.
They’re killing poultry all over the country. Bird flu. FOOD, not Elon Musk making Nazi salutes or the NYTimes producing reams of bullshit every day.
narya
This aligns with what Timothy Snyder was saying on Maddow last night. And I am hoping that releasing all of the J6 convicted assholes on the first fucking day will wake up some of the folks we couldn’t seem to reach.
Belafon
@Danielx: And the fact that Democrats welcomed black people into politics.
ssdd
Great news everybody! Do you know what week it is already? That’s right, it’s…
…infrastructure week!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/21/trump-administration-executive-orders-cabinet-picks/#link-NIPFGWRQXFDHXJWK4IBOR2F5RU
Trivia Man
@Old School: tough to blame on Biden…. But not impossible. Bet?
Soprano2
@Bupalos: There’s too much dependence on spell checker, which doesn’t catch everything. Of course I’m one to talk, sometimes I have to edit comments 3 or 4 times just to make them more understandable.
Kay
@Josie:
I generally don’t go back and I was a front pager here, so thanks for the compliment but I probably wouldn’t.
I am hugely grateful to the women who do probably 80% of the work here though. As usual in Democratic politics the women do most of the work at BJ. Its been true in every Dem space I’ve ever been in.
We’ll rally. I have a low tolerance for bemoaning our inevitable and inexorable fate so I’m impatient, but I’m confident our base will rally.
Belafon
@ssdd: The White House will be torn down and Trump Tower DC built in its place.
Old School
@Trivia Man:
No, not impossible. Every problem is going to be blamed on Biden until another Democrat occupies the White House.
But I’m hoping it isn’t effective.
tobie
@Kay:
I’d love for there to be a crowd-sourced project in every state showing the amount each country contributes in federal and state revenues and the amount it takes in federal and state aid. Many rural Americans are convinced they don’t get a dime from the state but might be surprised to learn the cost of maintaining roadways, electric lines, broadband and so forth in far-flung communities.
Ohio Mom
@Old School: Oh, I loved The Band, still do. 87 is a good long run and Garth Hudson appeared to have the most solid life of the five of them — didn’t kill himself with drugs, I don’t think he was involved in any of the internecine squabbles. Rest in Peace Mr. Hudson.
ssdd
@Belafon: LOL I wouldn’t be surprised…
Kay
The Nazi salute was deliberate. The tech clowns need constant attention. Serious businesspeople aren’t on television demanding negative attention like a fucking poorly raised 8 year old.
They’re celebrities, like Trump.
There’s a whole world of commerce that operates quietly and effectively around our tech gadflies. They aren’t interviewed on Joe Rogan and they don’t make stupid announcements about masculine energy. You don’t hear from them at all. They like it that way.
Josie
@Kay: I understand. It’s interesting that you mentioned the women doing much of the work. I went to some postcard writing meetups before the election. The numbers were generally 10 women to one man. I didn’t register the thought at the time.
No One of Consequence
So…
I guess 3Shirts/3Pens couldn’t leverage Musk outta there by Implaugural Day?
This is my surprised face.
Ramaswamadingdong hit the silk before Day 1 ?!
Shocked, shocked I am.
Musk brings back the ReichSalute on live TV in front of audiences of dozens? Not once, but twice to make sure those seeing it live could get a replay too?
WhooooCouldaKnoooooooooode?
-NOoC
cmorenc
I agree that. “we” is the inadvertently missing word in the final sentence of Pfeiffer’s essay. It fits with the seeming intent of the main theme of the article and there is no other way the sentence as it stands makes sense but/for that assumption ( typo omitting “”we”).
Ruckus
@Old Man Shadow:
Liberal policies cost money and many, many people feel like their money is wasted on anything the Federal government does.
It isn’t of course, most of the time, but there will always be places where some citizens do not want to spend money that should be spent. And spend it where it shouldn’t.
Any government costs money, a bad one is a waste of it and a good one often gets more value out of what is realistically not a lot of it.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@WaterGirl:
Oh, I understood, hence figured I’d at least post the headline as a follow up so folks would get the gist of the comment.
Fair Economist
@Quinerly: TikTok isn’t going to be bought by anybody. The Chinese government controls it, and they know how powerful it it.
They’ll continue the current system of suppressing Democratic content that they put in to please Trump, until the Chinese have somebody they want put in as President, and then they’ll switch to supporting him. Trump will fall for it, and they won’t have to sell to anybody.
Kay
I would suggest that we stop asserting our moral superiority too. It doesn’t matter that it’s true (it is true) – it is insufferable and it has never once won for us. It’s EGO and off-putting to huge swathes of the country because they recognize it as self congratulatory and smug.
We lost. Get right-sized and actually ACCEPT the loss instead of saying how unfair it is and how great we are. You can’t move on until you do that.
Then move on. But tick tock. You don’t have all fucking year to wallow.
Matt McIrvin
The broad opposition to ending birthright citizenship is actually surprising to me given that I’ve heard even self-identified liberals say that they think “birth tourism” by foreign oligarchs is a problem and seems unfair and that something has to be done. That’s the wedge story, like fretting about trans athletes getting medals. The thing that can be framed as “just common sense” to get broad support to enact tyrannical measures.
Of course that’s not actually what it’s all about.
But apparently it hasn’t actually led to broad support for what Trump is doing here, blatantly ignoring the plain text of the Constitution (or reading it in a ridiculous, tortured way).
tobie
Harry Litman reminds us that southern border crossings are at a four-year low. I never understood the panic about immigration. It was, and is, A-grade BS.
WaterGirl
@Kay: I would love to have you write up your thoughts about all of this for a guest post.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: I’ve been trying to hammer away at bad, cruel ideas and policies rather than calling people bad people. I’m more comfortable doing that anyway.
Kay
@Josie:
OMG. Every single phone bank. Ten to one women.
This is how thoroughly socialized we are though. I used to go to the rare man who was volunteering and congratulate JUST HIM. Instead of the 9 women. Because he’s rare so therefore EXTRA good :)
When I saw it I just marveled that this training in undervaluing women’s work is so internalized one has to consciously fight it.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: …but I tend to do the opposite, beat myself up for some shred of personal culpability in a way that leaves no room for fighting. It’s that boycotts-over-all mentality where “action” mostly consists of avoiding engaging with anything tainted until you’ve condemned doing anything. Avoidance can be important but it’s only one piece of the puzzle and there are going to be tradeoffs.
Steve LaBonne
@Matt McIrvin: Many, maybe most, Americans not only have lineages that don’t go all that far back on American soil, but their foreign born ancestors arrived at a time when a lot of today’s immigration formalities didn’t exist. Could I prove that my Irish-born grandparents were naturalized at the time when my mother was born? I doubt it.
WaterGirl
@Josie: I see you beat me to it at comment #65!
Quinerly
@No One of Consequence:
Daily Beast reporting that Bannon didn’t attend the inauguration.
Yep, I have been a little obsessed about who attended and who didn’t. I’m winding down with my obsession. FYI….Joe Rogan attended. Kellyann Conway attended. She wore that bizarre red, white and blue Revolutionary War get up from 2017. Hopefully my last check on attendees. Those last pictures of her scared me.😎
Bill Arnold
@Notthatproud:
That is precisely a narrative that the GOP’s operatives and their allies are pushing. Fact..
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
Right. I guarantee its more effective. And I think a lot of base Dems are more comfortable with it. You’re not alone. I’m kind of a punchy person so I’m not a good sample – many Dems are kind :)
WaterGirl
@Kay: Then post it under your own nym!
I think the Where Do We Go from Here series would benefit from having a post from you. You would surely do a better job than I would writing the post to represent your ideas.
Matt McIrvin
@Old School:
I bet it doesn’t go dark–they butter up Trump and make some cosmetic concession and everything is suddenly fine.
Josie
@WaterGirl:
Great minds…
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Kay:
Seconded.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: I’m really bad at doing the work, though, mostly because I hate conflict and have crushing social anxiety. Engaging with people who might be hostile is the worst thing in the world, absolutely the worst thing. But that’s what politics is about.
WaterGirl
@cmorenc:
So you don’t think that “do” should have been “don’t”.
Because if we just as “we”, it still reads wrong to me.
This polling should give Democrats hope that Trump’s political honeymoon will be short-lived, but none of it will matter if WE DO make the case relentlessly in the coming weeks.
None of what will matter if WE DO make the case relentlessly.
Redshift
@suzanne:
One thing to remember is that they lied about the specifics. A whole back there was reporting that a majority supported the deportation plans, but at least for some of the polls, the policy people were actually responding to was prioritizing deporting violent criminals which is one of the lies from the person TCFG was planning to put in charge (and which was already the policy.)
WaterGirl
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I appreciate that.
cmorenc
@UncleEbeneezer: Agree about the critical margin of voter preference swinging back and forth D to R to D, but the big threat is that Rs are structurally bunkering themselves into preserving control of legislatures and courts against being upended by elections. But/for aggressive gerrymandering of Congressional seats in several states, facilitated by previous aggressive gerrymandering of state-level legislative seats, Ds would likely have win the federal House by at least a dozen or more seats. And in NC, the R-majority state supreme court may be about to steal a supreme court seat won by a D by throwing out eligible voters on flimsy technical grounds.
Belafon
@Kay: I’m still a better person because I want to take care of the poor, the sick, educate children, and educate children, than my cousin who posted that she’ll sleep better knowing Trump’s in charge. What I’m going to stop doing is thinking I can change the minds of people like her by posting about what is going on.
FelonyGovt
@Chris Johnson:
Nominated! Evocative and terrifying!
I agree that the dumb white assholes and the dumb misogynists of every hue that voted for this shitshow will come -slowly, but they will come- to realize they’ve been had. At that point they are likely to crawl back into the hole they slithered out of.
Matt McIrvin
@Redshift: Trump keeps hammering at the idea that undocumented immigrants are all violent criminals, and it’s effective. Even among immigrants who will be hurt by his policies. Bad things seem like “just common sense” if you have wrong ideas about reality because of cherry-picked anecdotes, vibey arguments that seem right, and pure lies. That’s the case for many other things besides immigration.
rikyrah
Donald Trump is a white DEI hire (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 5:34 AM on Tue, Jan 21, 2025:
so these are the instances in which autism is presented in social media:
someone white says something objectively observed as racist or otherwise discriminatory, and in their own self-defense *we only now discover* their self-diagnosis of “autism”
this isn’t fair to autistics
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1881666603018006557?t=TZ1fBLC1w5dWP54xeb79WQ&s=03)
Kay
I’ll give you an example of how media and Republicans are exaggerating their power and effectiveness.
Trump rescinding low cost drugs for seniors was all over media yesterday. You’ll have to put two or three articles together to figure it out because they do such shit work, but WHEN you do you will see that Trump reversed small pilot programs, not “prescription drug savings”
They want you scared. All the time. They want to make this inevitable. It’s not.
I got off all social media with the exception of BJ and Reddit (for gardening) but obviously not everyone will do that. But honestly it would be better. We need to stay grounded. We can’t succumb to the outrage and clicks machine. It harms our project. They’re all fucking MAGA now anyway. Weaklings.
Josie
@Belafon:
The only answer to such a stupid statement is the southernism, “How nice for you.” It’s kin to the other one, “Bless your heart.”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Quinerly:
Any picture of Kellyann LiesALot is scary.
Bannon wasn’t at the inauguration. However, good ole Steve Inscreep and Totebagger Radio ‘Morning Edition’ had him on over the weekend saying things like “The oligarchs, created by Democrats, are surrendering to Trump today.” and other bizzaro crap.
Ruckus
@Notthatproud:
A government to be successful has to give the people what they want or make it impossible for them to complain.
And there will always be conservatives and liberals. Some will aways want what they think we used to have – to take down everyone above them in one way or another or at least to elevate their miserable concepts to the top. And some will always want their world to be better for all or at least most. Some call this negative or positive. And they want their government to fulfill their desires. It’s humanity and it will be 8 sides to a 2 sided political issue till the end of time. A democracy is less controlled than a dictatorship because of the above, but allows the people to have a say in their own lives, while a dictatorship demands that everyone follow bullshit and hate.
Matt McIrvin
@Steve LaBonne: yeah, “my ancestors followed the rules” is a stacked deck when the rules were much different in the past. If your ancestors came in before 1924 (and some of mine came in not long before 1924), the only significant rule was “if you’re Chinese you can’t come in.” And before 1882 there wasn’t even that rule.
MazeDancer
Dan Is Crooked Media. And, like all of them, a Biden back-stabber. They are all WaPo dead to me.
rikyrah
scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) posted at 8:46 AM on Tue, Jan 21, 2025:
It would be great to live in a country where we aren’t debating whether the richest man in the world did or did not throw up a Nazi salute on the day a new President was inaugurated. Crazy, right?
(https://x.com/scarylawyerguy/status/1881714939305558193?t=qqFtIf4e4_V20UUwd5iKcA&s=03)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@cmorenc:
And it’s been pointed out that control of the House actually came down to a mere 9,000 votes spread over 3 House districts (one of which is here in CO, District 8).
rikyrah
Jay McGill Says We’re Screwed!!! (@Jay_McGill94) posted at 7:11 PM on Mon, Jan 20, 2025:
Cornel West, Jill Stein, and all the other chaos agents are DEAD SILENT right now.
So on brand.
(https://x.com/Jay_McGill94/status/1881510018169905255?t=LE3vvOPoLroyIXsWXxjoXA&s=03
hells littlest angel
Somehow I am NOT comforted that 43% of Americans are NOT opposed to taking Greenland by military force.
rikyrah
Donald Trump is a white DEI hire (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 5:30 AM on Tue, Jan 21, 2025:
no forgiveness for any (supposed) journalist who trashed Biden for 4 years and who finally got their little Trump back
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1881665586700394684?t=-VJq4BtBWSJ_cRvlptWy2Q&s=03)
Professor Bigfoot
@Chris Johnson: Agreed, save for this: Tulsa, 1921; the Red Summer of 1919; Elaine, AR 1919, Rosewood FL 1923…
Those angry “conservative” white people will intend harm to me and mine; and we cannot depend on the police (or any other authority) to defend us against them (and in fact can reasonably expect the police to participate) so, while I hope and pray none of us need to actually physically defend our lives against conservative violence, the possibility is ALWAYS there.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
But that’s not all that politics is about. You would be very valuable just as a Dem going to meetings and talking with other Dems. You don’t have to do any outreach. Solidarity with existing base members is just as important as outreach.
I used to write letters to the editor for our working class local Dems. They would tell me what they wanted to say and I would write it, have them read and edit, and submit it. They got a huge kick out of it. Our collective secret :)
Barbara
@UncleEbeneezer: Thank you for saying this. I am deeply unhappy that our ping pong system of government has given us Trump almost by default. It should be the death knell for the Republican Party that allowed it to happen, but it won’t be. Or at least it doesn’t seem like it.
I am ratcheting back here because I can’t stand the doomerism, whether it all comes true or not. I am following Marc Elias, Simon Rosenberg and the people at Bulwark. I don’t reflexively agree with Bulwark but they are pretty straightforward and they provide a higher level analysis than restating in 1001 ways that the sky is falling.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
This last election is a good example.
Theres grow and then there’s hold. We didn’t hold our base. Your job can be hold. You actually like Lefties too – you’re interested. Hold them in the coalition.
West of the Rockies
@Kay:
I only actually saw Elmo’s salute this morning. Yup, looked super deliberate (and still quite spazzy).
Redshift
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, in a time when one side has no problem with shamelessly lying and BSing, we need people on our side to figure out how to counter the tactic of telling people what they want to hear, or just telling them whatever works in the moment. Not my skill set, I’m afraid.
One common thread is telling people something terrible is happening somewhere. Not where you are, but if it’s not stopped it could happen to you. I think this is a big part of how we get polling results where respondents say they’re doing okay financially but “the economy” is terrible, or their neighborhood is safe but “crime” is terrible. Seems like there ought to be an opening there somehow.
DougL
@Josie: I second your request in #65. Kay is one clear-eyed thinker. Her insights are almost always (well, no one is perfect except for me. :) spot on.
Kay
I hope whatever sleazy deal the tech titans made with Trump is worth it. I loathe them now. How fucking DARE these people act like they are the only businesses in the country and sit there like smug, unelected Kings right behind the President. Thirty years of kissing their asses has come back to bite us.
Overgrown boys who are fad-followers and crave attention and celebrity. Also? ONE fucking part of the economy. NOT “business” or “commerce” or “goods producers”. Just a bloated, over hyped cheap garbage sector. They’re perfect for Trump.
suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: My challenge in “doing the work” is basic scheduling. I’ve got young Spawns with activities, work and attendant travel, etc etc etc. I did a bit of postcarding this time, because that’s the kind of thing I can squeeze into a short break or after kids in bed. (But I kind of hate it.) I used to do much more canvassing and phone banking, but those are incredibly difficult for me to squeeze into right now.
narya
I regularly listen to Harry Litman’s “Talking Feds” podcast (except when he has idiots like Douthat or Shapiro on). Yesterday’s ep had Norm Eisen, Jennifer Rubin, and Jonathan Alter as the guests; they’re all usually okay, and they’re all apparently contributors to “The Contrarian.” Here’s a warning for you all: if Contrarian is anything like yesterday’s podcast, avoid it at all costs. I have NO desire to revive the should-Biden-have-stepped-down/stepped-down-earlier discussions here–I think there are a multitude of good-faith positions, and I’m not saying my own opinion–but those clowns were vicious. Apparently the whole election loss is the fault of Biden (and Jill Biden, for not getting Joe to step aside in 2022!); no discussion at all of the Felon, or the voters, or any other damn thing. Honestly, I was more than a little shocked; Litman isn’t usually so far off the deep end. I am ONLY telling you all this so you can avoid both the podcast and the Contrarian, if you’d been thinking of checking it out.
I only post this comment because we’ve all been thinking and commenting about what to do, about the media ecosystem, about who’s saying smart things or messaging usefully: this group profoundly was NOT saying smart or useful things.
Kay
@West of the Rockies:
It’s celebrity apprentice. He’s a contestant. Is everyone going to drive a Tesla? Because all the legitimate car companies with actual engineers assemble in both Canada and Mexico.
Trump and Musk are going to roll over all the multinationals who produce things? My ass they are.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: A thing that’s always struck me about the crowd here, specifically, is that many of us are adamant about being loyal cheerleaders for an individual hero and react with sheer contempt to anyone who expresses a principled objection to something that person did. That’s an attitude that generally is more characteristic of the right than the left. It’s good for winning elections when your whole coalition is like that, but ours isn’t and it can seem out of touch.
Lefties more generally are absolutely the opposite of that–suspicious of heroes on their own side and always looking for some opportunity to cut them down. And it can be a pathological thing in the context of a general election, where they feel the need to keep doing that often even *while* advocating voting strategically for that person. It’s not, I think, messaging that works very well.
But I don’t know how to square that circle since you can definitely argue that this is the more morally principled way to approach elections. Moral principles and three bucks will get you a coffee.
Bupalos
@Citizen_X: It’s not hopeless. If a maroon like Trump can figure out how to ride the populist wave, we probably should be able to too.
The first step is to stop trying to form our narrative out of opposition to Trump’s narrative, which is in effect a plea for nothing, a paen to the status quo ante that is already long gone.
Wyliecoat
@Professor Bigfoot: Sadly that includes Latinos who have been propagandized and Asian Indians who are selfish and cynical as heck
Dorothy A. Winsor
@hells littlest angel: I know! That’s a crazy high number. The percentage against should be in the 90s
Matt McIrvin
@Wyliecoat: Do be careful to separate the incremental change in the number from the number itself. The first response to stories like “more X support Trump” should be “more than what?”
Trump gained minority support but his base is still white people.
Kay
I also think we have to go back to original sources because media is sloppy and lazy and captured by fascists.
So if we’re going to discuss an EO or bill, we post the actual language. They will fluff fascist power. They will insist its a massive, manly tariff or whatever. Social media clickmeisters on both Left and Right will also mislead.
They’re in power now. We’ll have docs. We’re smart. We can read and discuss real things instead of propaganda.
Bupalos
@narya: I think the idea that we made a big mistake going with Biden from the get-go is probably right. It’s also water under the bridge and only worth revisiting now from the point of view of understanding what a future party narrative looks like. Biden essentially ran on “return to normalcy” which in times like these amid guaranteed political destabilization is simply a trap.
Gretchen
@Kay: Canada has already started plannings tariffs that specifically target red state products like Kentucky bourbon. They’re not going to sit back and just let Trump target them.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
Think of AOC as the Lefty whisperer. There are centrist and Right leaning Dems who are whisperers to those parts of the coalition too (always ignored on BJ ).
You know more about Left politics than any other commentor and you dont hate them. That’s valuable in a group.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: A lot of Americans still have this Turner Thesis idea that the nature of America is to expand into a frontier that they imagine to be terra nullius, just like they imagined it about North America itself.
(Mars really is something like terra nullius, if you ignore, you know, the possibility of destroying a fragile scientific legacy forever by accidentally colonizing it with Earth microbes. But then there’s the small problem that it’s millions of miles of radiation-blasted empty space from here, outside of Earth’s gravity well and some distance up the Sun’s, and, you know, doesn’t have air.)
Elbow room, elbow room…
Kay
@Gretchen:
Of course they’re not. Also – we should stop saying Denmark. Say EU. Donald Trump and Republicans are threatening the EU. That’s real, and its powerful. Our media dopes can pretend the rest of the world are minor players in their strong daddy fantasy but that is not true.
He harms Denmark the EU hits back.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: and NATO (which Trump considers an enemy and wants out of).
My freaky war imaginings now are of a two-front World War III with the US and Russia allying against NATO to divide Europe between them in the name of the fascist international. Of course Britain and France do have nukes! Does Trump remember that? Maybe not?
Elizabelle
@Kay: Good comment.
Go for the primary sources. Cannot rely on corporate media.
Kay
If an original source for a Trump or GOP action exists I’ll post it and we can discuss THAT instead of media or social media bullshit.
We have to stay grounded and ignore this insane wave of lies or it will bury us. Touch bottom.
I gave up TikTok ( which I loved and was a very popular troll on, btw :)
If you can manage it get off their fucking products. They’re fascists. Hurt them. This will involve sacrifice.
lowtechcyclist
@Chris Johnson:
When I see Russ Vought in the middle of those intramural fights, I’ll believe you.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
It used to be more common on BJ. We need that back. We can read as well or better than any fucking MAGA hack at the NYTimes.
Why are we accepting a bad faith filter? You’re not MAGAs. You’re all nerds. You love reading :)
Matt McIrvin
@Chris Johnson: Some of the fights are asymmetric, e.g. Musk vs. Bannon probably doesn’t matter because Bannon obviously gets steamrolled over in that one, he’s on the outs and has nothing left.
Chris Johnson
@Professor Bigfoot: No argument from me there. I would point out the wingnut armories are still bigger, and they’ll use any evidence of your armory as grounds for just nuking the next Tulsa from orbit. I’d rather it doesn’t even come to that.
‘stay so small they won’t mind you being there’ is really not acceptable advice, so I got nothin’. Here’s hoping they continue to have so much trouble in their own ranks they never come for you. Also, there are a lot of countries out there not as backward as this one, though that’s a bit of a crapshoot at the moment.
cmorenc
@narya:
The more valid critique of pundits still arguing now that “Joe Biden should have stepped down in 2022 (at least insofar as running in 2024) isn’t that they are necessarily wrong, but because that is a totally irrelevant and even counter-productive thing to focus on – it will not produce any useful insight going forward.
Even more counterproductive, however, is rejecting people otherwise solidly on our side in supporting opposition to the Trump regime, eg because of impure thoughts about whether Biden should have stepped down. Purity ponies are corrosive to building effective coalitions with people we sorely need in our tent to prevail against the MAGA monsters.
Professor Bigfoot
@Chris Johnson: Yep.
If it comes to that, the only thing left will be to take as many of the bastards to Hell with us as we can.
Pray Universe to keep it from happening.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I havent read all sources but I have a close connection to Denmark – we go three times a year. I was blown away at the poor quality of US reporting on Trump’s threats. No Danish response, no EU response, no trade experts, no one on shipping or pharma (Danish exports).
Just Trump’s bragging and their idiot opinion columnists rank specu!ation.
So no more. We get the TEXT, the docs, before they deliberately fluff this fucking rapist they all worship. Their product is propaganda but there’s still a real world.
Chris Johnson
@narya: Harry’s OK but I’ve been avoiding his roundtables for a lot longer than that. I would see it was a pack of media people to which he’d defer, and I’d just refuse to even watch/listen.
This time I saw they were all ‘Contrarian’ so I gave ’em a shot. I do believe they are all legitimately fed up with media, but the trouble is they’re all way older than us (!) and profoundly useless. They mean well, I wish them well, but I only listen to Harry, and him only on matters of law and our federal institutions.
They’re a good window into what the ‘deep state’ will be like? We would be way better off if the world worked the way these people want it to. It’s a pity the world has been wrested from their grasp, they’re pretty civilized people. We’re gonna have to survive without their help, though. They are just not good enough to be of help.
lowtechcyclist
@Kay:
Cite? The only executive order potentially relating to tariffs was one to study our trade relations with Canada, Mexico, and China.
Professor Bigfoot
@Chris Johnson: Y’know, my great great grandfather actually shows up in a Confederate hagiography; all about how his owner was tortured to death by those evil Yankees, and “Old Frank,” the “loyal servant” who “had tears in his eyes” as he collected the “young master’s” body and excuse me while I go retch.
So, I won’t be going anywhere. I’m old, I’m tired, and I’m fundamentally pissed off, and my beef with these Confederate motherfuckers is old.
Captain C
@rikyrah: Of course they are, as they got what they wanted.
taumaturgo
@Kay:
They manufactured consent.
gene108
@Old Man Shadow:
If it hits them they’re about to lose something, people will pay attention to policy. Republicans’ attempt to kill the ACA was a big issue Democrats used to win in 2018.
I don’t think people care about policy proposals, because that’s sort of abstract because the impact won’t be immediate and the results can’t be guaranteed.
People know what they have and don’t want to lose it. That’s tangible.
narya
@cmorenc: Here’s the thing: if one of the biggest takeaways is that Jill Biden is the worst FLOTUS ever because she didn’t make Joe step down from running, in 2022, then I don’t trust the recommendations that flow from that. I am absolutely NOT a purity pony–very far from it, actually–but if the analysis is that flawed, and I think it is, they’re going to focus on the wrong things.
@Chris Johnson: Well, a few are younger than I am, or about my age, so ;-) More to the real point, I just thought their analyses were so flawed that I’m much less interested in checking out the publication, and I know some folks here have been looking for new news sources
ETA: I also get that what I said may actually entice some folks to check it out! Which, hey, that’s why there’s more than one flavor of ice cream.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: …anyway, there are *some* lefties I can’t stand–specifically, the Matt Taibbi types who are actively jonesing for a Red-Brown alliance, and believe that anti-woke is the true leftism and the MAGA masses would support their revolution if we only promoted it.
But those people are pretty rare by now, most of them have shed their masks and gone full MAGA anyway. The ones I am more familiar with are, like, nerdy Marxist trans girls in IT who want their Star Trek gay luxury space communism with unlimited free genders for everyone. Their ideals are actually kind of beautiful, it’s just the whole “how to get there”.
(And the techbros deciding to just all-out persecute these people is particularly enraging, they’re part of their technical and creative core. This is really a labor-management crisis in some ways.)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Matt McIrvin:
I recall seeing those folks in reddit posts right after the election in the r/ezraklein subreddit after going down a rabbit hole. Way too many people advocating to throw trans people to the wolves. “Identity politics” cost us the election and we need to focus on class, etc. And people who objected to this, were met with this in one case I saw: “Would you rather be right or would you rather win?”
Pretty disgusting and chilling stuff.
There was a curious mix of right wingers, “moderate centrists”, and leftists. You could tell the leftists by the terms they used
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There was one of those guys who, way back in the 2000s, would pipe up on all the threads about gay rights on Talking Points Memo talking about how we needed to throw the gays under the bus and “silly lesbian-rights liberals” had ruined everything for the true Left. It’s always seemed like they’re big on “masculine energy” and want to be the muscley guys in a WPA mural.
Ohio Mom
@Chris Johnson: Yes, Ramaswamy wants to run for my state’s governorship. Who knows if he’ll be primaried and if he is, how he will fare. No matter what, I’m sadly confident we Democrats don’t have a chance. We don’t have much of a bench and this state has an old and stupid population.
tam1MI
I have been saying this for months now, except I think it is the legacy media (FTFNYT, WaPo, CNN) we should target. They are fragile and vulnerable now, and their brilliant plan to get more profits via putting Trump in office has backfired. We are the majority of their consumer base, so if we go away they are in big trouble. They need us more than we need them.
No One of Consequence
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: NicePoliteRepublicans have been effectively a no-weight non-entity since Bush the Lesser. They helped normalize the stenographic NoCriticalThinking nor HistoricalContext journalism that has helped perpetuate the masses into remaining uneducated, uninformed and certainly unenlightened. I welcome their dissolution.
Doesn’t help that some of the fantastic voices are actually shite people in practice. But then again, Van Morrison, etc. Surprise efforts/levels rising along with the cost of goods and services.
Yay murka.
-NOoC
Ramalama
@lowtechcyclist: Canada’s been on high alert since Cheeto won the election. Every day the tariffs.
And here it’s been reported by the CBC – tariffs could hit Canada on Feb 1.
Canada seems united around hitting the US back, hard, Trump imposes tariffs.
But you know what? He’s a liar who changes his mind as frequently as he passes gas.
pabadger
@Notthatproud: honest question, what’s your agenda for change?
Personally, I think we needs to run against the mega-billionaires as the enemy.
Matt McIrvin
@No One of Consequence: Your timing is correct unless it goes even further back. I was finally put off regularly listening to NPR’s current-events shows during the second George W. Bush term. Things were falling apart for him and it seemed like they were in a different universe where this somehow was all the fault of Democrats and minorities and people who didn’t want to work any more.
Gloria DryGarden
@matt: so, we need that shadow cabinet, toute suite! And all the accurate accessible media fixes.
RevRick
@Professor Bigfoot: MAGA whites will balk when it hits them. A lot of farmers are in absolute denial about Stephen Miller’s plan for mass deportations, because 40% of their workforce are the very immigrants he’s targeting. Ditto when their Social Security and Medicare comes under the gun in order to shovel a ton of money into those who already have an obscene amount of money.
Miss Bianca
@ssdd: oh, boy! It’s Infrastructure Week *again*!
Geminid
@Ohio Mom: A couple weeks ago, I ran into an article about Dewine’s choices to replace Vance. It was by NBC’s Henry Gomez. He said that Husted might not take the job and that DeWine’s fallbacks included former party chair Jane Timken and a couple state Representatives.
In the event, Husted did take the job, but I suspect those three and maybe others like state Senator Dolan will be interested in the Governor race.
Ramiswami is a lightweight who made his name running in last year’s primaries as a sort of controlled opposition to Trump. I’ll be surprised if Ohio Republicans clear the field for him. That’s a powerful position to leave to a bullshit artist, and that’s all Ramaswami is.
Steve LaBonne
@Ohio Mom: He’ll be primaried and will go nowhere. Fuckheads like LaRose and Yost may have been reluctantly resigned to stepping aside when Husted was the heir apparent, but now with an open race they will go after Ramaswamy hammer and tongs.
Barry
@suzanne: “I know everyone here is of like mind in this, but this is just a perfect example of the kind of “thinking” that makes me crazy. Like, every single thing that gets accomplished is made up of specifics! Those matter!”
I believe that they all had point is that ‘Deport Criminal Invaders!” polls well. Children being dragged away screaming and crying does not. That’s when reality becomes real and ugly.
We need to draw people’s attention that that horrible reality.
Ruckus
@Old Man Shadow:
Right now, I honestly think it’s a fool’s game to believe issue polling matters because people generally hate conservative policies and then go happily vote for the motherfuckers anyway.
They want their leader to be in charge. I mean look at him, all that money and hate, who wouldn’t like that……
Well me for one. I hated when the top income tax bracket got their income percentage lowered. Because now they get richer and have the money to buy more power. Hell they always had a lot of money, just not enough to buy the country. Or at least enough of the country to get things like the highest income tax bracket lowered or power over enough people that they get to control enough to get even far richer. Money may not be poisonous but too few having too much makes them far more powerful and brings back the pompous, arrogant rich fucks – who will NEVER have enough because they are just the fucking greedy bastards they act like.
This country is supposed to be a DEMOCRACY, of, by and for ALL THE PEOPLE. It was never intended to reward the rich fucks who can never be rich enough. They are like drug addicts but their high is MONEY. And sure, if they have far, far, far more than enough to do pretty much anything they want, AND ARE ACTUALLY RATIONAL HUMAN BEINGS, they will respect their customers and fellow citizens. But a lot of money buys rationality on the cheap. And the rest of us get screwed, fucked and screwed time and time again. It’s been this way since money was invented, we just controlled it better in this country. Till the rich became rich enough to buy off the highest tax bracket.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Kay: I read recently that Denmark is essentially a pharma state, headquarters of Novo Nordisk, among others, which produces the popular weight loss drugs and diabetes drugs. They can cause a lot of pain in the US if they want to.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Kay: thank you Kay. I appreciate your posts: you bring light instead of doom thrashing.
Matt McIrvin
@Barry: My Representative, like all of them, has a Facebook page. Every single post she makes has comments that are entirely filled with some guy screaming about “the invaders”.
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick:
Hope so. Watching some of them literally denying what was happening to them while they were dying of COVID was dispiriting.
Matt McIrvin
@Old School: Feiffer was one of the greatest political cartoonists AND a brilliant illustrator. His illustrations for Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth helped make the book for me as a kid.
Jeffrey H Harris
@Kay: I remember when G W Bush in his 3nd term tried to put Social Security funds into the hands of Wall Street. The idea sank like a giant rock in Congress. As GW put it, “by a few months into my 2nd term, I ‘ll be quacking like a duck.”
Ruckus
@RevRick:
We need to get out the word to as many as possible that if shitforbrains gets all he wants to do to all of us, we will be going backwards decades. And many of us old farts might just not make it with a lot of Social Security screwed right into oblivion. I can last for a while but not for what my health looks like I could do.
Somehow we have to get out the concept that if much of our federal programs, such as Social Security or the welfare side of things get, well there is only one word reasonable here – FUCKED, it will damage this country in so many ways that I couldn’t list them all in one comment. And it won’t be all just things like Social Security, if they get their way this country may cease to be. Or at least cease to have any friends whatsoever. shitforbrains and his “friends” are already pissing off much of the rest of the world. And they seem stupid enough to destroy or attempt to destroy anyone they can’t screw over.
Jeffrey H Harris
@Ruckus: Top tax brackets don’t matter so much for the 1% rs anymore, coz they structure their finances so as to make their money from capital gains (taxed at lower rate) and (if they are really rich) pay for their lifestyles by borrowing money against their holdings. Sure, you may pay 5-10% interest on the loan, but that’s cheaper than 37% on the same money as regular income. Then there’s the carried interest dodge for private capital (Mitt Romney style)……
Jeffrey H Harris
@Matt McIrvin: I am a terrible person, so when I heard about a loud MAGA dying of COVID coz he did his own research and trusted his immune system, my reaction was unprintable.
different-church-lady
Not on board with his agenda, yet on board with Trump.
There can’t be a better description of the cognitive incoherence of this electorate than that.
sab
@Steve LaBonne: I hope they chew him into dog chow.
sab
@Geminid: Ramaswami, aside from being a rich idiot savant, is also an Ohio native utterly contempuous of Ohioans, and not the least bit shy about that. Plus he is very brown, and we are mostly white and occassionaly black, and he fits neither demographic, plus he has admitted he hates all our demographics and thinks we are stupid and uneducated.
Many Ohio politicians are studid and uneducated and don’t say that outloud. Vivek having gone to a fancy school out of state and then having said that aloud hopefully will make our mostly misguided electorate think he is not the best choice.
Other than that he might be rich enough to win if Trump stays on board.
priscianus jr
@Chris Johnson: Thanks. This is pretty much my view as well, but you are a lot more articulate.