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 ...
Jude says:
So some really kick-ass two-for-one sales could make the Dems popular again?
HoosierPoli says:
Obama's cruising for the black friday bump.
Jon says:
This is a perfect example of how consumerist society dumbs down the general public.
Hazy Davy says:
"And so, my fellow Americans, our new stimulus plan puts an iPad in every stocking, and an Escalade in every garage."
Voting Solves Nothing says:
I don't like george w. bush, but his stimulus put money in my pocket. Obama's stimulus did not.
evrenseven says:
unrelated, but I'll be expecting a nice write up of the debt commission's initial report tomorrow.
Cryptic ned says:
I zoomed in by 400% and still can't read those letters.
HoosierPoli says:
VotingSolvesNothing: Yes it did. You just didn't notice it because he didn't want you to know about it, so you'd go and spend it as opposed to socking it away. Not to mention all the slightly more abstract, but just as real, ways the stimulus put money in your pocket. Good for the economy, bad for the politics.
But this is an excellent example of voter ignorance, so thanks for the illustration.
pinch says:
Consumer sentiment is kind of the wrong word hear. Tax cuts are nice for businessmen cus it instantly increases their workable budget, they like to be able to plan for every-fucking thing. Same, Healthcare makes a LOT of new considerations for people's budgets.
All in all it makes doing business a bit more complex and, even though the reform may turn out to be the most amazing thing evaaarrr (I'll be witholding judgement). I can absolutely see how people are getting all pissed off going "OMFG, but aam broke NOW!"
A lot of people are suffering pretty bad right now, and they don't want to wait any longer. I do empathize with that, and because of that empathy, I kind of look at the actual political ideological discussion as something of a silly side-show. We all know "centrism" is where ya really wanna be.
eau says:
…and we have a new contender for Best Example of Voter Ignorance!
Nice work, pinch. Take that, VotingSolvesNothing!
pinch says:
thanks for the nice appeal to the man, and I'm not much of a man, I got a bunch of BPA in my system as a child and even developed mammary glands.
samanthab says:
what evrenseven said.
karen marie says:
cryptic ned: if you click on the image it embiggens.
Nathan says:
I just view this as depressing. It means that really, the only thing people care about is the economy, and beyond that, the government can do anything and who cares.