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 ...
J. Dryden says:
Oh, great–here we go: another negative nancy in the blogopsphere, focusing only on the *collateral* damage and completely ignoring the countless ways in which Iraq is a progressively happier and more stable place than it was before the surge. Well, personally, I don't know where you get your facts, Ed, but I hear all I need to from a certain Op-Ed columnist on the NY Times page, a Mr. William Kristol–perhaps you've heard of him? And *he* says that in Iraq things are swell, democracy is flourishing, people walk well-lit streets in safety, and the children regularly s*** rainbows. So excuse me for preferring to focus on the positive, rather than on the factual.
Chris says:
Does Bush really think people are stupid enough to believe something like a surge and "David Betray-Us" is going to work at this point, and it is anything but a distraction?!? I think the most pathetic part of the cons and Bush are they've flat out run out of excuses and distractions for Iraq. Iraq is Vietnam: the Sequel Accomplished! Congrats Bush!
When you've occupied a country for 5+ years, spent half a trillion dollars on a war, and have absolutely no idea what is going on there or why you are even there anymore, I think you can chalk this up to a complete and utter failure. I think I am most amazed that America is in another Vietnam situation. I thought this would never happen again and most people would be sick to their stomach at the possibility, but here we are. Hope things change after the 2008 election.