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 ...
lm says:
Thanks…Gin and Tacos for everyone!
robot eating says:
Gin and Tacos always gets plenty of play over at the POP. Thanks for bringing back the EZ links so that my alter ego can share you via FB.
FWIW.
anotherbozo says:
Excellent post,and a good reminder of why I bailed on college teaching two decades ago. My last full-time post was replaced by 5 part-timers–with no job security whatever, of course. With them the pressure to pander to students was even greater than with us full-time, non-tenured faculty. With private colleges, at least, teachers become just so many hucksters. Classes turn into popularity contests, grades get inflated… and illiterates graduate. And the wide world wonders why Joe College can't read. Or reason.
A different point from yours, I know, but another part of the picture, and another reason for job security. In retrospect I do treasure memories of students who really were there for the right reasons, who weren't already terminally damaged goods, who outdid themselves, even though only two of us realized it. The real successes so often remain unacclaimed.