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 ...
John says:
Perhaps the saddest thing about this so-called "Tea Party movement" is that none of these rubes even remembers what the original Boston Tea Party was for. It was protesting the taxation-without-representation of the English colonies because the colonists had no say in the laws that were made regarding them from England and yet were taxed just like (and in many respects more than) everyone else. So they threw the tea in the harbor rather than be taxed for it.
This new movement is just a bunch of pretentious jagoffs that are angry that their taxes are going up some 3%. Many of them aren't even affected by it. And they're sure as hell not driving their SUVs and pickups into the water.
But then, modern Conservatism is mostly about puerile grandstanding rather than anything meaningful.
Nick says:
I've been waiting to see a form of protest lamer than "Million Strong" Facebook groups. Thanks, teabaggers!
comrade x says:
Having acquired the label " teabaggers", I doubt the tax protesters are going to get very far.
On a related funny paranoia note, a co- worker who has been brainwashed into a conserv-o-tron is going to one of these rallies and is hoping they have adequate security in case ACORN tries to " disrupt" the collective conservative circle jerk.
No kidding. He is really concerned about that.
A mind is a terrible thing to taste…
OliverWendelHolmslice says:
I'm wondering how the media will cover the dozen or so people that show up to these rallys come Wednesday. I'm betting that in an attempt to skew the playing field back towards the conservatives, they label them "massive polulist protests" and give them disproportionate coverage and endless editorials. Never mind the fact that there were worldwide protests of truly massive proportions against the war in Iraq that flew completely under the media radar.
Maybe the authorities will show up and write them all up for littering. An appropriate and humiliating end for such a half-assed protest movement.
At the very least, Wed night should be a great night to watch Rachel Maddow
j says:
Man, even Krugman put these people in their place! Ouch!