The photos of the "crowds" at the tank parade remind me of when Bill Hicks would come on stage in an almost-empty club, scan the room slowly, and announce "I've had more people in bed than this" ...
When the president sends a cabinet member on TV to announce "We are using the military to liberate an American city from its elected leaders," where do you go from there. What is left to say. The idea of that being anything short of a near-universal "Wait, what the fuck is going on" moment proves how far we've backslid.
This is from 2022 but it was absolutely right. The practiced buffoonery of Trump 1, all the "just kiddings" and "seriously but not literallys" absolutely succeeded in desensitizing people who are hardly paying any attention to the harder stuff they always intended to do next. ...
The basic fallacy in chasing votes by being "tough on immigration" is that the modal American's position on the issue is "Deport the Bad ones and keep the Good ones," and they alone know who is which, and that simply does not translate into workable policy. So this kind of gestapo stuff horrifies some of the same people who cheered when Trump promised to do it. There are true sociopaths who love this, but "No, I meant only the BAD immigrants! Not my coworker/friend/neighbor!" is as likely a reaction as enthusiasm. You cannot do immigration policy that satisfies these people because what they want is nonsensical.
So by the time center-left parties fully commit to chasing the far right by "getting tough" on immigration, the backlash has already begun to build and they walk right into it. "I thought you people wanted this!" No, they want something impossible and convinced themselves they'd could have it - the "eat whatever you want AND lose weight!" of immigration policies.
It is hard to grasp but large masses of Americans are both racist/xenophobic AND not racist/xenophobic enough to applaud what Trump is doing. It's goldilocks shit, they want a level of racism/xenophobia calibrated exactly to their personal preferences, and you just can't make that policy. Don't try. ...
AP: Trump extends olive branch, invites Musk to White House cellar to taste some brand new amontillado ...
attyedb says:
Hear, hear. When I was in Philly this weekend I had to wait at the airport for a lost suitcase for more then two hours. A plane load of returning Iraq servicemen came in. While waiting in the lounge I bought them a round of drinks because my heart goes out to them for being made to fight in that unjust war. Of course it was a small sample but suffice to say there were no Bush fans that I could detect.
mike says:
Don't worry, he'll also be remember for the housing bubble too. Perhaps people have changed their mind about gay marriages and the Swift Boats since 11/04?
attyedb says:
Worrying about gay marriage. What an incredible waste of time & effort.
J. Dryden says:
I think the turning point (apart from Iraq's quagmire, from which we continue to get increasingly 'Nam-like claims from the government–an increase in violence means the insurgents are desperate and on the point of collapse–a decrease means they're failing and on the point of collapse–we can't lose, people, will you just TRUST us on this???) was the staggeringly dumb decision to 'reform' Social Security. Bush charged out there with that one and suddenly found himself alone, since the whole Congress stayed behind, suddenly having to, you know, catch up on their paperwork. Because unlike George, THEY have to run for re-election soon, and S.S. ain't called the third rail for nothing. So George is seen as sticking to an incredibly unpopular policy shift–one that reveals that he's actually determined to make government do more harm than good–while ignoring the will of the people. What was Karl Rove thinking…?
Ed says:
The impetus for pushing the S.S. plan was the fact that the current system is broken and headed for bankruptcy. The only minor problem is that Bush's plan doesn't appear to have the faintest chance of fixing it. Or working at all, for that matter.
I steal liberally from Tim Tilton when I summarize the problem with this whole "private accounts" nonsense as Pension Fund Socialism. Want the government to have a command position in the market economy? No faster way to do that than to make the SSA managers of what amount to a bunch of $500 billion mutual funds.