Too many times I see people say things like, "They call themselves conservatives, but what do they want to CONSERVE?" They are conservatives, not CONSERVATIONISTS. The only thing they want to conserve is the white male power structure. They think the world was better when people of color knew their place in the power structure, women were relegated to being homemakers, and nothing as obscene as a black or female president would ever be possible.
There is a joke that goes a long way toward explaining Trump voters. It goes like this: God decides one day to reward a follower by giving him anything he wants. The caveat is that the man's worst enemy gets twice the gift. The man thinks for a minute and then asks God to blind him one eye.
Trump voters are, for the most part, the losers in America's economic ascent. The result is declining economic status among these voters and anger.
The response is a desire to punish the groups above and in particular the groups below. The group above are the intellectuals, hence the assault on universities and science, and groups below are immigrants and the underclass.
MAGA makes itself worse off by attacking these groups, but as long as these groups suffer more, MAGA is happy to be blind in one eye.
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you". Lyndon Johnson
As true now as it was when he said it. I think Aristotle was the first person to write this down. (maybe Plato) -whatever, it's been true since we stopped climbing trees and started walking the savanna.
Human insecurities seem to be inherent, and a primary motivator is the need to feel superior to others. Unfortunately, in this land of immigrants, that impulse too often manifests against people of color
Too bad LBJ chose to send so many black men to die in a far-away war.
If he had applied that thinking to his notion of "lowest capitalist economy as better than the best communist economy", he would have served a second term and done many great things.
FWIW, LBJ smoked three packs a day and was a hair's breadth away from [yet another] heart attack when he left office. He died of "massive coronary event" (fourth heart attack) at the age of 64, Jan 22 1973. He didn't exercise, not even the minimum that comes from golf, despite his doctor's warnings.
Love this column. To state the obvious humans have a natural reticence about the unknown. It’s always easier to revert to “the way it’s always been done.” Right wing politicians of all stripes have capitalized on this literally for hundreds of years. It’s just a lot more noticeable now that information (and disinformation) travels so much more quickly these days.
Why black vilification? Why not men who are too tall or ladies who have tiny feet?
People whose earlobes are too small ? Low vision , too short, brown hair? Or some other human characteristic easily identified?
You probably have some physical characteristics somebody could single you out for, diminish your worth as a
Member of the human race.
Think about it. What business it of anyone’s to “ dictate” how another, in our free society, can conduct their life. If you have a problem with minorities, people of color personally, you can live somewhere in this vast country where you can surround yourself with like minded, unfortunately. But you know, I would suggest , if you want to get over your sickness and grow into a healthy individual, you seek psychiatric help with your fear/hate of minorities and especially black people.
Those who grow up in poverty and want, on average, get worse grades, on average. The relative poverty, in a nation where middle class wealth is built largely through home ownership, results from the red lining that was official national policy up through the 1960s, and unofficial policy in the banking and real estate industries in the years after.
what you say used to be said about women getting worse grades, and children of all shades of colour from poor back grounds. You obviously think general intellectual capacity is given onc e and for all from birth. I'm afraid stats show this is not true.
They should have fired the head of FBI stats instead of the BLS if this is true
"the black murder rate is six times higher than the black murder rate"
The logic aside, where are these stats from, when are these stats from? I'm with Melissa that this sounds like generalized statistical nonsense that Fox and the right are particularly good at.
Two things. The first is that what you've posted is waaay off topic. Murder rates have nothing to do with why MAGA hates science. The second is that murder rates have to be broken down by socio-economic class. Poor people commit violent crimes, and Blacks are disproportionately poorer than Whites. It would be much more useful to see the murder rates broken down by income or wealth deciles. If you look at murder rates by red and blue states, the rates in red states are much higher than in blue. That's because blue states simply have more poor people in them, more economic distress that translates into violent crime, including murder.
A true MAGA would look at the spelling of your name and tell you to go back to where you came from. I have seen posts attributed to them that lists the order of who are true Americans. Blacks don't make the list.
Lucky me my forefathers and mothers came early 1700's.
Many American and Caribbean people of color came to North America
in the early 1700’s and before, through forced labor. You know, SLAVERY
Many people of color share British,Scottish, Irish, French, German sir names. Many American and Caribbean people of color have diverse genetic backgrounds including, European, Indian, Chinese, Mexican,indigenous,Aboriginal, Jewish, middle eastern and African of many nations.
Jack, I think you've hit the nail on the head. My image of the average Maga voter is perhaps warped by an experience I had last November 4th. I was a Deputy voter registrar, working at the polls to register people to vote (same day registration). A family of 5 came to my station. Not trying to be judgmental here, but both adults struck me as meth heads, and the man had what I'd call prison tattoos on his hands and neck. I have nothing against tattoos, but this guy looked like he just got out of prison. His wife/partner clutched the hands of the 3 small kids and wore a t-shirt with an image of an AR-15 on it, and had to tell the guy how to complete the form and to REGISTER AS A REPUBLICAN. I think I know how they voted.
That said, I registered plenty of others that day, and was struck by how many young folks, when asked if they wanted to declare themselves affiliated with a party or be unaffiliated, chose "R". The most curious to me was a young man, a Russian emigré who didn't speak English and was profoundly deaf, but used a phone app to transcribe and translate my instructions. He also chose Republican. 🤷♂️ Hey, at least he wasn't sent to Ukraine.
By the way, our voting ward and our city both voted Blue in the end.
I had similar experiences while canvassing before the election last year. However, the most disheartening may have been something a friend who was a poll worker in a largely immigrant precinct told me. A man who spoke little English asked for translation assistance by saying, "I just want Trump."
Chelsea, it's similar to my experiences at anti-trump rallies this year -- many times a contractor truck carrying immigrant workers would drive by and give us the finger. We'd shout back "Good luck to you!"
My neighbor across the street is a big trump fan. He's also a landscaper who relies entirely on Hispanic labor. I don't know if his workers are documented or not, but they are brown, and they are Spanish speaking. I don't wish any ill on his workers, obviously, but if they all stopped showing up for him tomorrow, I'd admit to quite a bit of schadenfreude.
I also was working in a Vote Center last November, but in California. I was really excited to be helping with the election, and the VC was very busy. When I checked ppl in by verifying their signature in the voter registration db, I was dismayed to see that at least 90% of walk-in voters were registered Republicans! I asked my coworker, where were all the Democrats? (After all, CA is presumably a Blue state.). My coworker replied that most of the Dems already mailed in their ballots, or were outside dropping them off in the ballot boxes. (Note that every VBM ballot is placed in an envelope which is signed by the voter—all signatures are then verified at the County Election Dept before the ballot envelope is opened and the votes tallied.)
To this bemused foreigner the whole idea of 'registered R or D' is deeply bizarre. Just one of the many dysfunctional features of the US voting system.
Here in Oz, on election day you go to the polling station, get your name ticked off the roll, fill out your ballot paper in the privacy of the booth, and put it in the box.
That's all. Your party affiliation, if any, is absolutely not the business of the election management authority.
If you want to join a party so you can participate in preselections, you call up the party, become a member and pay your dues. That's ENTIRELY separate from voting in the general election.
Julian, to clarify, each state here runs its own elections, whether local, state or federal. Very generally speaking, voters during a primary must choose a party before getting a ballot. Federal elections have all the names on a single ballot, so one can choose a president from one party and a senator from another, for example. So, it depends on the kind of election. Here in New Hampshire, and I'm guessing every other state, voters can choose to declare themselves as Republican, Democrat or unaffiliated. If the latter, a voter must select a party affiliation prior to voting (to get the correct ballot) and can change back to undeclared after the vote. It's a lot simpler than it sounds.
"The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it."
And that is exactly what is happening in our rural communities. Social programs cut hurt the poorest people. They can blame the immigrants for the government eliminating the programs they depend on to survive. But if cutting healthcare and food assistance hurts the immigrant population, drivers them out of the country, at least we have what ever is left over.
It’s the same old trick the remnants of southern aristocracy pulled on the poor and destitute whites following the civil war so black and white would not join together and overthrow them. Its that bumper sticker “ I may be slow, but I’m not behind you”. For some, apparently, that’s all it takes.
FUQEM! If they want to stay stuck on stupid then let them and let them suffer!....they should know though that when they decide to take their ire out on Black folks by terrorizing out communities they will be met with superior fire with no apologies! As a pacifist who never believed in gun ownership I changed my mind when my life was directly threatened...My prayer is to NEVER have to use either of my 3 firearms but if you threaten me or mine you will most certainly fuck around and find out! I can not tell you how out of character it is for me to hold this position but this is the reality I have experienced in Louisiana!
Have you been to India? to Kerala, for instance? you really do have black and white vision, I fear. all shades merged into a division that gives you comfort.
Have you been to S. Africa? As with India (and nb the USA) there is deep poverty. But also real intellectual distinciton.
I think there is truth to what you say, but also that there is perhaps more truth to it than when I was growing up in the 60's. I don't understand why. The MAGA crew are more angry then the equivalent folks were then, but they are actually better off in many ways, they have better health care, better cars, an internet etc.
Something or some things though are making them angrier. Young women are becoming more educated than their male peers and that may change the social dynamic for young men, in a way they find very uncomfortable, but there must be other things happening. If we could understand this and list policies that would help (e.g. perhaps higher minimum wage) maybe we can address the anger and the hurt these people feel.
That's in part a cause but also a symptom. Why is Fox popular now but wasn't in the 1960's (I know it didn't exist then but there were equivalent outlets, though they were not 24/7 brainwashing)?
Anger releases dopamine and is like other dopamine-releasing activities: gambling, drugs, sex, etc. Dopamine gives a temporary feeling of power, strength, and happiness. It is addictive, as are many of the other dopamine releasing activities. Thus, anger becomes potentially addictive. Fox and the other fire-breathing right wing podcasters pump up the anger and the dopamine, and lead to audiences that want more. Anger also overrides the prefrontal cortex, so that critical thinking fades away, at least temporarily. But our brains reinforce the neural connections we use most often. The less we use rational thinking the less we ultimately are able to use critical thinking. Have you ever tried to calmly rebut MAGA talking points and watched the way their eyes go blank? Like a deer in the headlights? IMHO, that’s when their prefrontal cortex disengages. Then they revert to angry talking points and their eyes re-focus. Which doesn’t bring their critical thinking back. I think this whole cascade is one reason some people are galvanized by thoughts of cruelty and even war.
True enough, but it seems some have more durable dopamine than others. The others, guess who is one, are likely to feel bad after behaving like an asshole.
I agree. But why is this more of a problem now then even 20 years ago. In the McCarthy era and many other times, there've been forces fanning the flames of hatred. We got over it somehow. What would be most successful? It's not enough to simply blame the haters. Somehow their lives are miserable enough that they need the dopamine from anger.
You are on to something here. There is a "left-behind" cohort that is curdling and angry. And if we don't figure it out and deal with it, it will deal with us.
the government could start acting on behalf of the public, all the public. But until we clean up the money I see limited progress. It's special interests, and the rich get richer and control more of the government. Special shout out to John Roberts and his democracy wrecking crew.
I don't understand it either. In the '60s and into the '70s, we had Vietnam, the draft to worry about, leaded gasoline affecting our thinking, and everyone smoked (and not just tobacco).
Social media algorithms are boosting anger that otherwise wd not exist, or not to the level & intensity it is at now. Anger, bigotry, & misogyny have been made permissible, even applauded.
I don't think you can list policies that will change their minds. Trump is enacted policies that will disproportionately hurt his followers but the base doesn't waver. They have indoctrinated that government just takes their money and gives it to those people. They don't view government as something that can make their life better. You have to reach them on a visceral level.
We need policies that seem simple. All of Trump's policies are simplistic -- the immigrants are taking your jobs -- let's get vengeance on them and get rid of them in the cruelest way possible.
But there's a progressive simple version of that. If the employers are giving your jobs to cheap often immigrant workers, make it a felony to pay someone who is undocumented less than minimum wage and increase the minimum wage.
The republicans are responsible for initially allowing in the first big wave of undocumented workers , under Regan, to undermine union workers and drive pay rates and benefits down. Our broken emigration system made it easy for workers to enter the country under a variety of means, but difficult to obtain permanent citizenship.
We are talking about a population that has been here roughly 45 years.
These people have all kinds of mixed immigration/citizenship
status, within a single family.
As long as they were basically an under the radar, nonenglish , separate population, they were relatively easy to control,pay lower wages, no demanding, but Katie bar the door!
Now they are progressively demanding the same rights as
‘ mericans!
So for Trump and his illk,they are now a problem, not a perk.
So they must be stopped! Next thing you know, they will be demanding citizenship! Excepting citizenship! Expecting to be able to participate in local government and god forbid vote! I think that must be one of the greatest fears of the republicans. They know if the Latin population could vote, the next thing you know, they will expecting equal rights and the republicans would be out of a job. might even end up living next door! They might even own your house! You might be working for them! Or your Daughter might be married to one of “ them” ! Oh the Horror! That is fear /sickness Trump is exploiting.
Mark: so true! The Dems will need to confront their own special interests but they could start by making the CEO of any enterprise personally liable if his organisation hires an undocumented worker, with the burden of proof on the company, and start with a stiff fine for a first offense and mandatory six months’ jail for any subsequent one. The labour market would clean up overnight. Cue screams of outrage from both sides, not just from the “employer classes” - the apologists for all those poor “undocumented” workers have profited off them too, and will cloak their rage in fairness and social justice clothes.
I think men in America are experiencing serious hormonal problems, the massive exposure to plastics and chemicals in our environment is making people sterile. This is causing untold physiological problems for both men and women. Testosterone levels are crashing in men. That’s why we don’t seem to recognize our younger self anymore they are not out there. I am 63 and the young men of today are not at all like we were 40 years ago. I started to notice this about 10 years ago and it seems to be progressing.
To an outsider (Europe) who owes a lot as an academic to the USA, I just can't get over the fact that what seem the 2 major social problems festering and poisoning much of social life never seem to be addressed for long: i) health of the nation and oits cost (look what happened to various attempts to fix it) ii) the problem of guns. Both are put right, surely? Compare and contrast the State of Ireland which fixed the problems of its historical claims of sovereignity over Northern Irewland and its attitudes to abortion.
I will dissent here. Sorry, I know too many good magas. I also know liberal "woke" who are immoral idiots. Think of the once beloved Techbros who used to be shining examples of liberal do-good thought. They have been perfectly happy to pile in with the worst of the worst because it serves their own personal interests.
Donald Trump is an existential threat to America. Woke Democrats ran a black woman for President despite clear evidence that those demographics would lose votes in key place. A moderate white man, even someone right leaning like Joe Manchin! vs Trump...no contest. For all of you out there saying how terrible Manchin is; He's not Trump. I probably disagree with him on policy, but he wouldn't have orchestrated a coup and been hell bent for leather to burn the place down.
So be a little careful in your superior judgement of your "inferiors". The above attitude goes a long way to explaining why 50% of America hates Democrats.
They were forced to vote for Trump, because democrats ran a black woman? That's what you are saying. Give us a break with that BS. You are excusing their clear racism. I ain't buying it anyway. They would have voted for Trump even if the democrats ran a white man. Because they know that R stands for white supremacy, Which is what they want. They want to maintain their white supremacy and privilege.
To reduce a person to a label is puerile. That is something insidious Trump has ushered in to our collective communication as acceptable. With his 5th grade play ground bully nick naming. Anyone who voted for that man should be ashamed of themselves. They can think about it long and hard after he ruins our country and we all go to hell in a hand basket.
Behold, once again, Murc's Law: Only Democrats have agency. only Democrats are to be expected to behave decently and rationally. Anything Republicans do--tank the economy, wreck the environment, elect a self-professed dictator--they're forced to do by Democrats. Yes, Sharon's "good magas" helped put in office a pathologically lying convicted racist felon, but it's the wokesters who made them do it.
I refuse to believe that fifty percent of Americans are malevolent, evil people. I do believe that they are ignorant and misinformed. Racism and sexism are a feature of Trump 2. A feature, but not the whole. Democrats lost working class blacks and latinos.
If you know your candidate is going to lose 2% of the vote because of racism and sexism, in this consequential of a race, you should take that into account.
The choice was Harris or Trump. Whether you liked it or not, that was the choice. One was qualified and the other wasn't. Yet they choose to vote for the unqualified one. Again you are excusing them for their bad choices. The choice was Harris or Trump. They made it Trump. That's on them.
I agree that fifty-percent of Americans are not malevolent or evil. But there was no good reason to vote for Trump. His character, such as it is, was not only obvious before his first term, but even more so after it. I can sort of forgive voting for him in 2016, but not last year. Call it stupidity, naivete, or sheer denial. Or maybe a lot of his voters really do want an authoritarian white supremacist dictatorship. I'd call that evil.
You mean like the guy we had in the WH, Joe Biden? The only guy that actually beat Trump in an election. I agree that forcing him out was a mistake. However I will hate on MAGA for doing this to our country. I WILL HATE ON THEM UNTIL THE DAY I DIE. Unless they are willing to apologize for their actions and beg us for forgiveness. Those that do so, I will forgive. Those that don't, no I won't. I will continue to hate on them. Because that's what they deserve.
I think I am part of that group :(. I find injustice to be one of the most unbearable feeling. I was giving this example to a friend: between a privatized healthcare system that allows those who pay to get an appointment the same day and the others in a month, and a public one in which everybody waits 2 months, I'll take the latter. (I'm sure that people will end up waiting 3 months in the first one anyway).
Health care is the biggest scam. One day in emergency care will grt you probed for everything including shining a uv light into you to just not let the opportunity slip by. At the end of it chances are you will end up with no medication no diagnosis and bill of 20000 dollars plus!! The doctors and insurance and big pharma have a field day everytime. One wonders who are these ignorant fools scamming society all the time.
The Magas are a movement of spite and revenge. They just want to watch it all burn, whether they admit it or not. If the price of prosperity is they have to share it with minorities, they'd rather all of us be poor. I can't get a job right now because Trump ruined the economy immedietly with the tarriffs and hiring in my industry is now frozen. Im so angry my career has been fucked because half the nation are racist assholes and theres nothing I can do about it.
A wonderful apropos joke. Punish those above and below. Question:They must be the 38% that still support this insanity? Those two groups above and below must be the lib voters.
well said. The part I would add for emphasis is that the "elites" through their representation in Congress, have in effect created many of those losers in the economy. Not that all Trump voters are economic losers by any means.
The crazy Tarantulla says it all the time. With his views i must say he must have been sore from being tidiculef all the time at school. That is why he is always seeking some smart kournalist to write some sweet lies about him . Remember him trying to act like in an rpileptic fit when expressing his feelings about a journalist who actually won a case against him after predicting the failure of Trump Taj!
This is the most cogent explanation I've heard so far. Along with the anger dopamine hit concept, and the right wing's use/abuse of it, I think I can understand the MAGA viewpoint. NOT that I agree at all, it just makes a sort of sense.
But I still wonder what is the end game? All this hubbub is great for power-grabbing in the short term, but what about the health of the country & world in the long run? Getting rid of programs that benefit all the minions below you to be able to stay alive and keep your sorry ass in power doesn't make sense.
But maybe I'm thinking too long term - it'll take decades if not generations to truly kill off everyone except the crazy rich. In the meantime (meaning within our lifetimes), the rich will be kings - the hell with future generations!
Do people on the right truly think that we need to remove all the progress we've made in the past 50 or so years? We should all go back to smoking unfiltered cigarettes, burning coal to heat our houses? I'm sure a number of them feel that women should be back barefoot in the kitchen, and that non-white people shouldn't be treated as equals (not that we've ever really gotten that far).
As the title of this article asks: "Why Does the Right Reject Progress?" I truly don't understand.
furthermore they're only defineable in negative terms in that it's at its core fundamentally a reactionary posture
repeal, rescind, get rid of, not so fast!
it reminds me of the Jean-Paul Sartre essay "The Antisemite and the Jew" in that the former needs the latter and is defined by that which they build a brand around hating
I believe that is the correct analogy, but the haters in MAGAland are diverse. Some hate the cites where their kids have moved and left them behind. Some hate the “Boomers” who had it easy compared to them. Some continue to hate black and brown and queer and gay people and resent that as white cis folks they are expected to talk to them as peers and accept them as leaders. And all of them super resent being told they can’t SAY anything hostile and demeaning (aka “losing” the culture wars). There is a broader reactionary spirit that has been actively nurtured since the first days of Rush Limbaugh and the loss of the “fairness doctrine” (not only in law but in spirit). One cannot nurture hate and fear without sowing a whirlwind of destruction to rival Katrina.
MAGAs just dont know anything. At a municipal meeting in MN MAGA were opposed to some bill and shouting. After they got what they wanted.... When the announcement for the new pro-maga proposal was made.... The MAGA immediately started shouting opposition to it!! MAGA should be given a reservation for them. They are more backwards todsy than the native Indians were in thrir time when the nation gave them reservations. A wall around it would be a good idea and China and Mexico will gladly build it.
I've never forgotten a NY Times interview of a guy who told the reporter that his elderly father was planning on voting for Trump in 2016 b/c he (the father) thought Trump was going to make it okay to say the "N-word' out loud in public. You know, like in the good old days.
Just as Conservatives need FOX News to keep peddling the myth that cities--predominantly Blue-run--are urban hellscapes. Which is to distract GOP voters from the fact that Red states and counties actually have significantly higher crime rates, as well as threadbare social safety nets.
When the Republican BBB's Medicare/Medicaid and Food Stamp cuts kick in next year, nearly every Red state--especially ones like Iowa, where 22% of state residents are on Medicaid--will become poorer and more miserable. Wonder how Sartre would've written about that.
Republicans made sure the worst of the cuts won't take affect until after the midterms. If democrats are able to win back control of the house or senate. They will get the blame by the voters. Hurting democratic presidential chances for 2028. If republicans keep control. Then it will be too late for the voters to do anything about it.
Even if Dems retake Congress next year, without a veto-proof majority they cannot reverse the BBB's devastating cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
The most they'll be able to do, is pass a rival bill--that would restore the cuts, and increase--rather than slash--taxes on billionaires and Big business; and then crucify the GOP for voting against it, and Trump for vetoing it.
This dynamic can be seen beyond antisemitism, including politics, culture wars, and social movements where groups define themselves negatively in relation to a rival.
I guess it is even worse. When wealth is attributed by the dozens or hundreds of millions, making a bit more money no longer makes a sufficient difference and the only way to distinguish themselves is to torch down most of the world and try to turn it into a hellscape without housing, vaccines, hope or enlightenment where the rich are allowed to rape children if that means the poor are not allowed abortions, because that is the only way to make the resorts of the rich look even better in comparison. The puzzling question is rather, why do so many centrists and leftists pretend conservatives might have a point, when there can be nothing more idiotic and humiliating than selling your soul to someone who told you in advance they are not going to pay.
Yeah, for decades, I have been asking (mostly in my thoughts): "What is it that these people want to conserve?" Trying to understand conservatism, I got distracted by ideas from folks like Herbert Hoover, William Buckley, Barry Goldwater and the economist Milton Freedman. Well that's all gone away. And the answer was there all along. FREEDOM. They want to be able to do whatever they feel like doing but are constrained by the Founders efforts to create a form of Social Contract (The Constitution) that puts restrictions on abuses of power and defines "Rights" for all citizens. They started with 10 amendments but we are now at #27. So immigrants, wanting ti become citizens, learn that the basis for our country is Law. Read the Preamble and see that We the People of the United States: establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity...It's all right there.
But the elephant in our national room is, as you say, white male dominated hierarchy and more importantly--WEALTH and the desire to accumulate as much as possible without limitations and pass it on.
What they want to conserve is white supremacy. That's what modern day conservatism is all about. As for freedom, they only believe in freedom for themselves. Not others. Their freedom counts, yours does not. That's what you must understand about these people. They are selfish self-centered people that only care about themselves.
I think u have it exactly right - the only thing they want to conserve & it is essential to them - is white supremacy . And Donald Trump promises that. The conservation of their standing as ‘ whites’ who are top of the heap, is more important to most Trump voters than anything else & they may even be willing to give up their healthcare & vaccines & hood health for their children to conserve this, sadly.
and the maga lies that usa has been cheated by others when the gdp growth of usa has been tremendous as compared to europe. asia, japan. China started growing when usa started getting everything from china including dangling ties. In the same period ghe rich in usa kapped all the gdp while 65% of the population got their dhare of the huge slice if cherry pie that Trump shared with Xi Jing Ping reduced to 3.5%.
And the guy is mooning the americsn people saying i am going to bring back your lost wealth by putting taxes on outsiders and give more tax breaks for the rich and the filthy here at home and please let me cut some money from medicaid and medicare. They do not want to give me the prace prize so i made the department of war!! whining all the time!!
One might add they want to "conserve" Christianity - their version of it - as the dominant religion. Never mind what the First Amendment >actually< says.
Let's then call them not by what they like to call themselves and have been calling themselves since the 1930s, but by what they are: radical right wingers.
Thank you, Bern! If petroleum is left in the ground, it will still be there. It doesn’t go bad. It’s there in case the sun stops shining, the winds stop blowing, water stops flowing downhill, etc.
I think you distinguish the 2 words quite well, Lisa. And I think what they've been trying to conserve is the 1950s (the decade of my birth, so I have some familiarity with that era.)
The only thing about the Trump regime that feels anything like justice is knowing his cult will suffer the worst pain from his policies. Meantime, Trump is gleefully driving the nation over a cliff with his fat cankles pressing the pedal to the metal.
The correct term for these "conservatives" is reactionaries. They hanker after the Good Old Days that you describe so well; you might also recall their blood sports that went out of fashion these past 70 years.
I think it may be simply that the wealthiest hate the fact that other classes got the perks that they thought that they owned and this hurt their fragile egos. Race was a byproduct.
Exactly. I’ve been asking this simple question for YEARS. What could possibly be more conservative than conservation of our environment?!?!? Human beings literally depend on this planet, this “Mother Earth” for our very survival, our own existence, our daily sustenance.
It’s such a simple concept. Ultimately, what we do to this planet, we do to ourselves.
The planet will still exist. But human beings - and life as we know it - won’t.
"The only thing they want to conserve is the white male power structure. "
----
There's a patriarchal religious* element to this: That "old time religion" meant God wanted men to run things, and to control the reproductive status of their wives (and daughters). Same-sex marriage, for one, blew up the concept of the "male head of household," and science has undermined both religious "truths" and the profitability of established technologies. (Try explaining to evangelical House Speaker Mike Johnson that his god puts XXY and XYY babies in the population, or any other minority sexual development type.)
_________________
*I was raised in an Abrahamic (patriarchal) religion, and for most of my life I thought reincarnation was just an odd, but interesting belief. It wasn't until I was in my forties that I realized that the whole point of accepting reincarnation is that everybody *earned* the status they were born with, so the upper castes remained the upper castes.
Agreed. The white, male utopia in which all inferiority complexes resolve as if mother has placed her healing hand on your head and dad gave you his nod of approval and the servants clapped.
Speaking of inferiority complexes, is there research to explain why young women graduate from college at higher rates than young men?
Since my youth in the ‘60s, women have figured out that they will need education to be able to financially support themselves and their families. What’s different for young men?
I have been trying to figure it out and have not. I am in my 80's so clueless really. I got a PhD because of the saying, "If you're in school, stay in school." Maybe it is the macho culture that seems stronger and college is seen for whimps and nerds. Who knows? I don't.
A few weeks ago, I heard an NPR interviewee say something to the effect that Reagan understood the movie depiction of Americans very well and thought the real world was just like it.
Yes, I’ve wondered at that too, yet it is never discussed. Is there an Opus Dei right-wing Catholic movement? Is it a conscious conspiracy? Certainly, six (I think) of the Supreme Court are Catholics as is their Svengali Leonard Leo, as is Steve Bannon. They all share an extreme RW viewpoint. Is there any analysis?
John Ganz also wrote several times on his Substrack that lots of this Right Wing Ideology is based on some guy named Francis, who basically admitted that he was a Nazi.
They want to go back to the 1950's. "Father Knows Best". White Christian males were on top and everyone else "knew their place". Women in the kitchen, blacks at the back of the bus, and gays in the closet. Why they love and adore Russia so much. It's basically 1950's America.
If you keep people poor, backward, and miserable and you blame it all on educated "elites," while you still hold elections it's easier to stay in power.
I’m not so sure about your comment that most Americans are decent people who want to get along with their neighbors. If that were the case Trump would not have been elected once let alone twice. Imbeciles like Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson and their like would not be elected over and over again. Ohio turned away Sherrod Brown a great senator for a used car salesman who has been sued numerous times for wage theft and other dishonest business practices. Since the advent of Trump I find people more belligerent and intolerant especially if you don’t agree with their politics. We are who our election results say we are.
There seems to be a split between how people feel about people around them vs how they feel about “others.” It’s reflected in things like the poll where only 14% of them felt crime was a problem in their area but 56% felt crime was a major problem for the country. The gop media fosters ideas like this because fear sells.
We are fortunate to have an old style family run newspaper that is a throw back to another era. The journalism is unbiased. The radical right who are ascendant now hate it. They have a huge local sports section and always highlight local businesses. Each week they have a church section.
My county is maga, controlled by MAGA that took over the Republican party and kicked out everyone who wasn't stupid or corrupt. The next county over is mixed Dem and Rep. It's actually quite well run. Since its divided fairly evenly, they've missed out on the excesses of woke and MAGA.
The comment section at the WSJ has become a positive battleground. MAGA vs Everyone Else — including former Republicans (now lost), Democrats, independents.
JVL at The Bulwark cited a piece a few weeks back on the desire of a surprising number of voters for more authoritarian leadership. Many people want perceived strength and might more than measured progress and prosperity. The new Dept of War naming is right in line with this ethos. Maybe Ray Dalio has some long term economic measurements of this trend relative to change in countries’ fortunes over time in his LinkedIn series? Whatever the “reasoning”, we seem to be in an unfortunate period of regression to the mean of mean.
Trump : Gotta stick it to Putin But he has Compromat on Trump Trump : Gotta stick it to Kim But Putin has Compromat on Trump Trump : Gotta stick it to Xi But Putin had Compromat on Trump Democrats Gotta get the Compromat
Trump is no dictator. He is just a cheer leader mom and tantrum throwing MAGA kid tolled in one. Just testerday he showed what he thinks of alliances when he warned Kim, Putin and Xi to be careful as he knew they were plotting against him . It is always about him and his sorry behind. Who could have thought it could get so ridiculous!! Obama and Biden have contributed to this mess also by just going headlong with their strategy and not trying to change direction.
It seems to me that the MAGA types want to believe that the world is an uncomplicated place in which money and brute force can solve everything. Elites make everything too complicated. Unfortunately, life and living in the world IS complicated. It takes a lot of knowledge and effort to understand why people living in other parts of the world view it differently than we do - hence the need for educated diplomacy. It’s hard to understand why the world has so much extreme weather, hence the need for educated science. Etc, etc. What is most disturbing about the MAGA approach is its desire to shape the world according to ungrounded conspiracy theories. Slowly dragging the rest of the US to their level of non-knowledge, seems to be their solution and we will slowly suffocate in a quicksand of stupidity.
Actually,I think immigrants play a big role in improving our cities. They breathe new life into neighborhoods, they creat community, their new ideas and approaches bring vitality where dystopia existed. They were/are here with hope and family. They see opportunities where existing residents see/saw hopelessness.
That’s what trumps war on immigrants will destroy in our country.
As a retired female theoretical physicist. I can place the blame squarely on hierarchical male dominance. Men don’t want to lose their privilege, which extends to their compliant women who are content to derive social power from the men they can control through sex/marriage. Now, historically white men gained power over other colors of men, so white men stand to lose the most power, hence they reject change the most. Very early on, they made sure that their god thoroughly endorsed this patriarchy. Not to say any individual man can’t break free from this power hunger, but it’s as hard for this rebel as it is for women and people of color.
There is a trifecta of enablers of Trump that will outlast Trump, and we need to take them on directly, all at once:
1) The Religious Right, specifically Opus Dei Catholic types, led by Leonard Leo, Ross Douthat and SCOTUS, allied with the Evangelicals
2) Silicon Valley Libertarian Billionaires and their cronies (Thiel/Vance/Bezos/Zuckerberg/Musk) and
3) Racist and Misogynist Republicans, primarily from the Southern red states and Midwest, who took over state legislatures in a highly coordinated decades long effort to undermine America
All three share a massive contempt for Democracy and adore Authoritarianism. Democracy annoys them because it frequently directly questions and challenges and tempers their power over people who are not part of their particular 'tribe'.
The Silicon Valley Libertarians are driven primarily by greed (crypto, corruption, plundering America's Treasury), the all share a deep hatred for women and minorities that they feel are inherently inferior to white men, must serve white Christian men, and therefore should never have been given the vote.
Their desperate foolishness knows no bounds, and we have already greatly suffered from it.
All three need ignorant, desperate people to exploit and force into submission. All three want war with weak enemies (and former allies) so they can claim easy victories and profit from military industrialization and takeovers--further sealing their powers domestically with money and force.
Breakups such as between Musk and Trump happened because the greed and resulting corruption bumped up against the other rather expensive and anti-business agenda to attack women and minorities. But in the end, Silicon Valley Libertarians are as mad as the religious right, sharing their fascination with eternal life--Science for me, not for thee, is their philosophy. Xi and Putin chatting about how long they can extend their dictatorships indefinitely by continuing to trade in new organs is so on the nose.
Something else to chew on: I was recently reading about how the average Chinese citizen is viewing these developments in America. Many are speculating America is about to go through its own Maoist period.
That chilled me, as there are striking parallels with the direct assault on Science and education that has kicked into high gear (and fear) over the past three months.
Lord preserve America from this trifecta of monstrous idiots.
ReadItAll. That is an excellent analysis of the coalition pro-democracy advocates are facing. It’s not just Trump becoming a fascist dictator, but an infrastructure of people filled with the desire to rebuild America in their image. That’s why the struggle to regain a democracy that will try to attend to needs of all its people is going to be a long struggle and a hard fought one. I hope we are up for it. I hope to see your future analysis of the Democratic coalition.
May be overly simplistic, but far right-wing brains tend to be stupid. By that I mean they are not very bright, humorous, creative, curious, questioning, open to discussing ideas other than their own and willing to live with the existence of uncertainty. I don’t include true intellectually conservative thinking brains here, but the ones which exhibit an extreme tendency towards a regression of society, a pathological fear of modernity and an overwhelming desire to control others, to make the rest of society conform to their narrow, pinched view of how we should live. There’s a dullness, a thickheadedness to the right-wing brain. You can feel it when you engage with one. It’s like a wet wool blanket has been thrown over your head. There’’s an arrogance and a lack of maturity in their certainty about how things are and should be. They make up for all if this, as if somewhere deep inside they are aware, by aggression. If they can’t keep up, then by god they will control it.
Like a big brother holding a little sibling upside down, by the legs over a toilet and threatening to flush unless they promise to shut up, do what they say and give them all the money in their piggy bank?
The MAGA movement depends on ignorance, hate and division to be successful. The strawman liberal is enemy number 1, not China, not Russia, or any other authoritarian regime. In fact the opposite because strongmen authoritarians keep liberals in their place so people like Putin are respected and considered an ally. And what do liberals like and use to expose MAGA lies? Science and education of course. So, if you get rid of science and education you hurt the liberals and their threat to your power that 100% depends on ignorance, grifting and brainwashing.
Now we're not even a first world country, with rising infant mortality and declining life expectancy. This will get worse thanks to RFK Jr and Mehmet Oz. I gave Fetterman several hundred dollars hoping to keep Dr Oz out of the senate, but now Oz is the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Fetterman is own special Joe Manchin. The paucity of good people makes the current dysfunction appear to be systemic.
Too many times I see people say things like, "They call themselves conservatives, but what do they want to CONSERVE?" They are conservatives, not CONSERVATIONISTS. The only thing they want to conserve is the white male power structure. They think the world was better when people of color knew their place in the power structure, women were relegated to being homemakers, and nothing as obscene as a black or female president would ever be possible.
There is a joke that goes a long way toward explaining Trump voters. It goes like this: God decides one day to reward a follower by giving him anything he wants. The caveat is that the man's worst enemy gets twice the gift. The man thinks for a minute and then asks God to blind him one eye.
Trump voters are, for the most part, the losers in America's economic ascent. The result is declining economic status among these voters and anger.
The response is a desire to punish the groups above and in particular the groups below. The group above are the intellectuals, hence the assault on universities and science, and groups below are immigrants and the underclass.
MAGA makes itself worse off by attacking these groups, but as long as these groups suffer more, MAGA is happy to be blind in one eye.
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you". Lyndon Johnson
As true now as it was when he said it. I think Aristotle was the first person to write this down. (maybe Plato) -whatever, it's been true since we stopped climbing trees and started walking the savanna.
Human insecurities seem to be inherent, and a primary motivator is the need to feel superior to others. Unfortunately, in this land of immigrants, that impulse too often manifests against people of color
And women
John, I have used that priceless quote of LBJ's many times. Such a painful truth.
Too bad LBJ chose to send so many black men to die in a far-away war.
If he had applied that thinking to his notion of "lowest capitalist economy as better than the best communist economy", he would have served a second term and done many great things.
FWIW, LBJ smoked three packs a day and was a hair's breadth away from [yet another] heart attack when he left office. He died of "massive coronary event" (fourth heart attack) at the age of 64, Jan 22 1973. He didn't exercise, not even the minimum that comes from golf, despite his doctor's warnings.
And it was early days for things like coronary bypass surgery and other drug and surgical interventions.
It does seem that way.
Love this column. To state the obvious humans have a natural reticence about the unknown. It’s always easier to revert to “the way it’s always been done.” Right wing politicians of all stripes have capitalized on this literally for hundreds of years. It’s just a lot more noticeable now that information (and disinformation) travels so much more quickly these days.
Below is my response to an angry Trump supporter and race hater who thankfully remover all his nasty posts:
You actually believe that? Or is that Fox News talking?
I’m guessing the FBI left off the Trump rape numbers from that statistic.
Who would trust the FBI of Patel et al to answer truthfully? You!
Thank you Mr racist for removing your posts
Perhaps structural racism and our inequitable society has something to do with that.
Why black vilification? Why not men who are too tall or ladies who have tiny feet?
People whose earlobes are too small ? Low vision , too short, brown hair? Or some other human characteristic easily identified?
You probably have some physical characteristics somebody could single you out for, diminish your worth as a
Member of the human race.
Think about it. What business it of anyone’s to “ dictate” how another, in our free society, can conduct their life. If you have a problem with minorities, people of color personally, you can live somewhere in this vast country where you can surround yourself with like minded, unfortunately. But you know, I would suggest , if you want to get over your sickness and grow into a healthy individual, you seek psychiatric help with your fear/hate of minorities and especially black people.
Those who grow up in poverty and want, on average, get worse grades, on average. The relative poverty, in a nation where middle class wealth is built largely through home ownership, results from the red lining that was official national policy up through the 1960s, and unofficial policy in the banking and real estate industries in the years after.
what you say used to be said about women getting worse grades, and children of all shades of colour from poor back grounds. You obviously think general intellectual capacity is given onc e and for all from birth. I'm afraid stats show this is not true.
Huh, well, the one thing we can tell from reading your little screeds is that you, in fact, qualify as a "filthy racist pig." Peace out.
They should have fired the head of FBI stats instead of the BLS if this is true
"the black murder rate is six times higher than the black murder rate"
The logic aside, where are these stats from, when are these stats from? I'm with Melissa that this sounds like generalized statistical nonsense that Fox and the right are particularly good at.
Two things. The first is that what you've posted is waaay off topic. Murder rates have nothing to do with why MAGA hates science. The second is that murder rates have to be broken down by socio-economic class. Poor people commit violent crimes, and Blacks are disproportionately poorer than Whites. It would be much more useful to see the murder rates broken down by income or wealth deciles. If you look at murder rates by red and blue states, the rates in red states are much higher than in blue. That's because blue states simply have more poor people in them, more economic distress that translates into violent crime, including murder.
??? Methinks there is some red-blue confusion in this post.
A true MAGA would look at the spelling of your name and tell you to go back to where you came from. I have seen posts attributed to them that lists the order of who are true Americans. Blacks don't make the list.
Lucky me my forefathers and mothers came early 1700's.
Many American and Caribbean people of color came to North America
in the early 1700’s and before, through forced labor. You know, SLAVERY
Many people of color share British,Scottish, Irish, French, German sir names. Many American and Caribbean people of color have diverse genetic backgrounds including, European, Indian, Chinese, Mexican,indigenous,Aboriginal, Jewish, middle eastern and African of many nations.
Mr angry race hater- I see you removed all your angry posts. Thank you
Doubt it was him, once they ejaculate vitriol all over a post they'll never delete it.
Then,Moderator/Who ever took that stuff down - thank you.
Jack, I think you've hit the nail on the head. My image of the average Maga voter is perhaps warped by an experience I had last November 4th. I was a Deputy voter registrar, working at the polls to register people to vote (same day registration). A family of 5 came to my station. Not trying to be judgmental here, but both adults struck me as meth heads, and the man had what I'd call prison tattoos on his hands and neck. I have nothing against tattoos, but this guy looked like he just got out of prison. His wife/partner clutched the hands of the 3 small kids and wore a t-shirt with an image of an AR-15 on it, and had to tell the guy how to complete the form and to REGISTER AS A REPUBLICAN. I think I know how they voted.
That said, I registered plenty of others that day, and was struck by how many young folks, when asked if they wanted to declare themselves affiliated with a party or be unaffiliated, chose "R". The most curious to me was a young man, a Russian emigré who didn't speak English and was profoundly deaf, but used a phone app to transcribe and translate my instructions. He also chose Republican. 🤷♂️ Hey, at least he wasn't sent to Ukraine.
By the way, our voting ward and our city both voted Blue in the end.
I had similar experiences while canvassing before the election last year. However, the most disheartening may have been something a friend who was a poll worker in a largely immigrant precinct told me. A man who spoke little English asked for translation assistance by saying, "I just want Trump."
Chelsea, it's similar to my experiences at anti-trump rallies this year -- many times a contractor truck carrying immigrant workers would drive by and give us the finger. We'd shout back "Good luck to you!"
My neighbor across the street is a big trump fan. He's also a landscaper who relies entirely on Hispanic labor. I don't know if his workers are documented or not, but they are brown, and they are Spanish speaking. I don't wish any ill on his workers, obviously, but if they all stopped showing up for him tomorrow, I'd admit to quite a bit of schadenfreude.
They are not documented. That's why they get paid less than other potential hires.
and I would love to know how many of them now have big regrets.
I also was working in a Vote Center last November, but in California. I was really excited to be helping with the election, and the VC was very busy. When I checked ppl in by verifying their signature in the voter registration db, I was dismayed to see that at least 90% of walk-in voters were registered Republicans! I asked my coworker, where were all the Democrats? (After all, CA is presumably a Blue state.). My coworker replied that most of the Dems already mailed in their ballots, or were outside dropping them off in the ballot boxes. (Note that every VBM ballot is placed in an envelope which is signed by the voter—all signatures are then verified at the County Election Dept before the ballot envelope is opened and the votes tallied.)
To this bemused foreigner the whole idea of 'registered R or D' is deeply bizarre. Just one of the many dysfunctional features of the US voting system.
Here in Oz, on election day you go to the polling station, get your name ticked off the roll, fill out your ballot paper in the privacy of the booth, and put it in the box.
That's all. Your party affiliation, if any, is absolutely not the business of the election management authority.
If you want to join a party so you can participate in preselections, you call up the party, become a member and pay your dues. That's ENTIRELY separate from voting in the general election.
Julian, to clarify, each state here runs its own elections, whether local, state or federal. Very generally speaking, voters during a primary must choose a party before getting a ballot. Federal elections have all the names on a single ballot, so one can choose a president from one party and a senator from another, for example. So, it depends on the kind of election. Here in New Hampshire, and I'm guessing every other state, voters can choose to declare themselves as Republican, Democrat or unaffiliated. If the latter, a voter must select a party affiliation prior to voting (to get the correct ballot) and can change back to undeclared after the vote. It's a lot simpler than it sounds.
"I'll sleep under a bridge so long as black and brown people have to sleep under cardboard."
"The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it."
Googled it. It was (well, almost exactly) a comment on the Balloon Juice blog by Deus X Machina in 2011. Or that's what Google/AI think.
That's where I got it from. I followed that blog for years, and that sentence has remained sadly relevant.
And that is exactly what is happening in our rural communities. Social programs cut hurt the poorest people. They can blame the immigrants for the government eliminating the programs they depend on to survive. But if cutting healthcare and food assistance hurts the immigrant population, drivers them out of the country, at least we have what ever is left over.
It’s the same old trick the remnants of southern aristocracy pulled on the poor and destitute whites following the civil war so black and white would not join together and overthrow them. Its that bumper sticker “ I may be slow, but I’m not behind you”. For some, apparently, that’s all it takes.
FUQEM! If they want to stay stuck on stupid then let them and let them suffer!....they should know though that when they decide to take their ire out on Black folks by terrorizing out communities they will be met with superior fire with no apologies! As a pacifist who never believed in gun ownership I changed my mind when my life was directly threatened...My prayer is to NEVER have to use either of my 3 firearms but if you threaten me or mine you will most certainly fuck around and find out! I can not tell you how out of character it is for me to hold this position but this is the reality I have experienced in Louisiana!
Do you have three hands?
And, gods, they ARE slow!
MAGA blames migrants for everything… or so it seems. They spread measles which they brought from abroad (vaccination programs are worldwide, MAGA).
I keep seeing that one in the comments at the WSJ.
This morning I saw: “America is closed. Go away.”
Wow! You mean America is now considered a "Black" country? Who would have guessed!
Wouldn't say that is true of South Africa. Or India - but perhaps you don't count either as 'black'.
Have you been to India? to Kerala, for instance? you really do have black and white vision, I fear. all shades merged into a division that gives you comfort.
Have you been to S. Africa? As with India (and nb the USA) there is deep poverty. But also real intellectual distinciton.
I think there is truth to what you say, but also that there is perhaps more truth to it than when I was growing up in the 60's. I don't understand why. The MAGA crew are more angry then the equivalent folks were then, but they are actually better off in many ways, they have better health care, better cars, an internet etc.
Something or some things though are making them angrier. Young women are becoming more educated than their male peers and that may change the social dynamic for young men, in a way they find very uncomfortable, but there must be other things happening. If we could understand this and list policies that would help (e.g. perhaps higher minimum wage) maybe we can address the anger and the hurt these people feel.
Perhaps it's because they watch anger-channels like Fox "News" 24/7 ?
That's in part a cause but also a symptom. Why is Fox popular now but wasn't in the 1960's (I know it didn't exist then but there were equivalent outlets, though they were not 24/7 brainwashing)?
Anger releases dopamine and is like other dopamine-releasing activities: gambling, drugs, sex, etc. Dopamine gives a temporary feeling of power, strength, and happiness. It is addictive, as are many of the other dopamine releasing activities. Thus, anger becomes potentially addictive. Fox and the other fire-breathing right wing podcasters pump up the anger and the dopamine, and lead to audiences that want more. Anger also overrides the prefrontal cortex, so that critical thinking fades away, at least temporarily. But our brains reinforce the neural connections we use most often. The less we use rational thinking the less we ultimately are able to use critical thinking. Have you ever tried to calmly rebut MAGA talking points and watched the way their eyes go blank? Like a deer in the headlights? IMHO, that’s when their prefrontal cortex disengages. Then they revert to angry talking points and their eyes re-focus. Which doesn’t bring their critical thinking back. I think this whole cascade is one reason some people are galvanized by thoughts of cruelty and even war.
It reminds me of my male cat , before he recently got fixed.
True enough, but it seems some have more durable dopamine than others. The others, guess who is one, are likely to feel bad after behaving like an asshole.
I agree. But why is this more of a problem now then even 20 years ago. In the McCarthy era and many other times, there've been forces fanning the flames of hatred. We got over it somehow. What would be most successful? It's not enough to simply blame the haters. Somehow their lives are miserable enough that they need the dopamine from anger.
Long ago, there was a Fairness Doctrine. Stations were required to air opposing viewpoints. But it was repealed in 1987. 👹
They actually get a dopamine hit from the anger. It becomes addictive. They are anger-addicts.
You are on to something here. There is a "left-behind" cohort that is curdling and angry. And if we don't figure it out and deal with it, it will deal with us.
How do you convince people who believe violence against others solves all their problems? That’s a core value that defies change by reasoned argument.
the government could start acting on behalf of the public, all the public. But until we clean up the money I see limited progress. It's special interests, and the rich get richer and control more of the government. Special shout out to John Roberts and his democracy wrecking crew.
Succinct and accurate!
I don't understand it either. In the '60s and into the '70s, we had Vietnam, the draft to worry about, leaded gasoline affecting our thinking, and everyone smoked (and not just tobacco).
Everyone smokes now (and not often tobacco).
Not in the circles in which I move.
Social media algorithms are boosting anger that otherwise wd not exist, or not to the level & intensity it is at now. Anger, bigotry, & misogyny have been made permissible, even applauded.
I don't think you can list policies that will change their minds. Trump is enacted policies that will disproportionately hurt his followers but the base doesn't waver. They have indoctrinated that government just takes their money and gives it to those people. They don't view government as something that can make their life better. You have to reach them on a visceral level.
We need policies that seem simple. All of Trump's policies are simplistic -- the immigrants are taking your jobs -- let's get vengeance on them and get rid of them in the cruelest way possible.
But there's a progressive simple version of that. If the employers are giving your jobs to cheap often immigrant workers, make it a felony to pay someone who is undocumented less than minimum wage and increase the minimum wage.
The republicans are responsible for initially allowing in the first big wave of undocumented workers , under Regan, to undermine union workers and drive pay rates and benefits down. Our broken emigration system made it easy for workers to enter the country under a variety of means, but difficult to obtain permanent citizenship.
We are talking about a population that has been here roughly 45 years.
These people have all kinds of mixed immigration/citizenship
status, within a single family.
As long as they were basically an under the radar, nonenglish , separate population, they were relatively easy to control,pay lower wages, no demanding, but Katie bar the door!
Now they are progressively demanding the same rights as
‘ mericans!
So for Trump and his illk,they are now a problem, not a perk.
So they must be stopped! Next thing you know, they will be demanding citizenship! Excepting citizenship! Expecting to be able to participate in local government and god forbid vote! I think that must be one of the greatest fears of the republicans. They know if the Latin population could vote, the next thing you know, they will expecting equal rights and the republicans would be out of a job. might even end up living next door! They might even own your house! You might be working for them! Or your Daughter might be married to one of “ them” ! Oh the Horror! That is fear /sickness Trump is exploiting.
Interfering with Free Enterprise. Shocking.
Mark: so true! The Dems will need to confront their own special interests but they could start by making the CEO of any enterprise personally liable if his organisation hires an undocumented worker, with the burden of proof on the company, and start with a stiff fine for a first offense and mandatory six months’ jail for any subsequent one. The labour market would clean up overnight. Cue screams of outrage from both sides, not just from the “employer classes” - the apologists for all those poor “undocumented” workers have profited off them too, and will cloak their rage in fairness and social justice clothes.
I think men in America are experiencing serious hormonal problems, the massive exposure to plastics and chemicals in our environment is making people sterile. This is causing untold physiological problems for both men and women. Testosterone levels are crashing in men. That’s why we don’t seem to recognize our younger self anymore they are not out there. I am 63 and the young men of today are not at all like we were 40 years ago. I started to notice this about 10 years ago and it seems to be progressing.
…someone ELSE to blame… MAGAs don’t have a lock on making bad life decisions but they have a substantial lead…
there IS someone to blame for it. Our government has failed them. Then their anger goes out in multiple directions.
They vote for right wing governments that push policies like tax cut that benefit the wealthy the most and cuts to Medicaid that will hurt them.
Don’t ask me why.
Similarly, a MAGA fan will burn his own house down, as long as it makes the liberal next door cough.
I'm kind of amazed that I was about to post the same joke. I just heard it last weekend, but it was a Genie, a Russian and his neighbor.
To an outsider (Europe) who owes a lot as an academic to the USA, I just can't get over the fact that what seem the 2 major social problems festering and poisoning much of social life never seem to be addressed for long: i) health of the nation and oits cost (look what happened to various attempts to fix it) ii) the problem of guns. Both are put right, surely? Compare and contrast the State of Ireland which fixed the problems of its historical claims of sovereignity over Northern Irewland and its attitudes to abortion.
I notice the same as a Canadian. However the American right is 100% opposed to universal healthcare and gun control.
They’re fanatical on this. I don’t know why although racism has been suggested (they don’t want their taxes benefitting blacks).
They’re also religious and opposed to abortion. Ireland (and Canada) improved as atheism grew.
I will dissent here. Sorry, I know too many good magas. I also know liberal "woke" who are immoral idiots. Think of the once beloved Techbros who used to be shining examples of liberal do-good thought. They have been perfectly happy to pile in with the worst of the worst because it serves their own personal interests.
Donald Trump is an existential threat to America. Woke Democrats ran a black woman for President despite clear evidence that those demographics would lose votes in key place. A moderate white man, even someone right leaning like Joe Manchin! vs Trump...no contest. For all of you out there saying how terrible Manchin is; He's not Trump. I probably disagree with him on policy, but he wouldn't have orchestrated a coup and been hell bent for leather to burn the place down.
So be a little careful in your superior judgement of your "inferiors". The above attitude goes a long way to explaining why 50% of America hates Democrats.
If someone votes for Trump, they aren't good people. Whether they're nice to you personally or not.
They were forced to vote for Trump, because democrats ran a black woman? That's what you are saying. Give us a break with that BS. You are excusing their clear racism. I ain't buying it anyway. They would have voted for Trump even if the democrats ran a white man. Because they know that R stands for white supremacy, Which is what they want. They want to maintain their white supremacy and privilege.
I think he means it was an unrealistic choice given how prejudiced people are.
To reduce a person to a label is puerile. That is something insidious Trump has ushered in to our collective communication as acceptable. With his 5th grade play ground bully nick naming. Anyone who voted for that man should be ashamed of themselves. They can think about it long and hard after he ruins our country and we all go to hell in a hand basket.
And..... There it is, folks.
Behold, once again, Murc's Law: Only Democrats have agency. only Democrats are to be expected to behave decently and rationally. Anything Republicans do--tank the economy, wreck the environment, elect a self-professed dictator--they're forced to do by Democrats. Yes, Sharon's "good magas" helped put in office a pathologically lying convicted racist felon, but it's the wokesters who made them do it.
I refuse to believe that fifty percent of Americans are malevolent, evil people. I do believe that they are ignorant and misinformed. Racism and sexism are a feature of Trump 2. A feature, but not the whole. Democrats lost working class blacks and latinos.
If you know your candidate is going to lose 2% of the vote because of racism and sexism, in this consequential of a race, you should take that into account.
There should have been a mini-primary.
The choice was Harris or Trump. Whether you liked it or not, that was the choice. One was qualified and the other wasn't. Yet they choose to vote for the unqualified one. Again you are excusing them for their bad choices. The choice was Harris or Trump. They made it Trump. That's on them.
I agree that fifty-percent of Americans are not malevolent or evil. But there was no good reason to vote for Trump. His character, such as it is, was not only obvious before his first term, but even more so after it. I can sort of forgive voting for him in 2016, but not last year. Call it stupidity, naivete, or sheer denial. Or maybe a lot of his voters really do want an authoritarian white supremacist dictatorship. I'd call that evil.
I agree Sharon. I don't think this hating on MAGAs is helpful at all.
Anyone with any sense knew that running a centrist or left centrist white guy was the best way to beat trump.
I am concerned about Dem leadership. They need new people, new ideas. New boldness.
You mean like the guy we had in the WH, Joe Biden? The only guy that actually beat Trump in an election. I agree that forcing him out was a mistake. However I will hate on MAGA for doing this to our country. I WILL HATE ON THEM UNTIL THE DAY I DIE. Unless they are willing to apologize for their actions and beg us for forgiveness. Those that do so, I will forgive. Those that don't, no I won't. I will continue to hate on them. Because that's what they deserve.
Running white guys only is not new or bold. In fact, it’s pretty craven.
You do, or should do, what is needed to win. Not do what you wish a better world that does not exist would vote for.
Obama won. Twice. And it wasn’t a better world back then, but people still voted for the Obama.
I think I am part of that group :(. I find injustice to be one of the most unbearable feeling. I was giving this example to a friend: between a privatized healthcare system that allows those who pay to get an appointment the same day and the others in a month, and a public one in which everybody waits 2 months, I'll take the latter. (I'm sure that people will end up waiting 3 months in the first one anyway).
Health care is the biggest scam. One day in emergency care will grt you probed for everything including shining a uv light into you to just not let the opportunity slip by. At the end of it chances are you will end up with no medication no diagnosis and bill of 20000 dollars plus!! The doctors and insurance and big pharma have a field day everytime. One wonders who are these ignorant fools scamming society all the time.
The Magas are a movement of spite and revenge. They just want to watch it all burn, whether they admit it or not. If the price of prosperity is they have to share it with minorities, they'd rather all of us be poor. I can't get a job right now because Trump ruined the economy immedietly with the tarriffs and hiring in my industry is now frozen. Im so angry my career has been fucked because half the nation are racist assholes and theres nothing I can do about it.
A wonderful apropos joke. Punish those above and below. Question:They must be the 38% that still support this insanity? Those two groups above and below must be the lib voters.
well said. The part I would add for emphasis is that the "elites" through their representation in Congress, have in effect created many of those losers in the economy. Not that all Trump voters are economic losers by any means.
There’s the billionaire pack clustering around Trump.
Serf mentality
The crazy Tarantulla says it all the time. With his views i must say he must have been sore from being tidiculef all the time at school. That is why he is always seeking some smart kournalist to write some sweet lies about him . Remember him trying to act like in an rpileptic fit when expressing his feelings about a journalist who actually won a case against him after predicting the failure of Trump Taj!
You make excellent points, Jack.
This is the most cogent explanation I've heard so far. Along with the anger dopamine hit concept, and the right wing's use/abuse of it, I think I can understand the MAGA viewpoint. NOT that I agree at all, it just makes a sort of sense.
But I still wonder what is the end game? All this hubbub is great for power-grabbing in the short term, but what about the health of the country & world in the long run? Getting rid of programs that benefit all the minions below you to be able to stay alive and keep your sorry ass in power doesn't make sense.
But maybe I'm thinking too long term - it'll take decades if not generations to truly kill off everyone except the crazy rich. In the meantime (meaning within our lifetimes), the rich will be kings - the hell with future generations!
Do people on the right truly think that we need to remove all the progress we've made in the past 50 or so years? We should all go back to smoking unfiltered cigarettes, burning coal to heat our houses? I'm sure a number of them feel that women should be back barefoot in the kitchen, and that non-white people shouldn't be treated as equals (not that we've ever really gotten that far).
As the title of this article asks: "Why Does the Right Reject Progress?" I truly don't understand.
furthermore they're only defineable in negative terms in that it's at its core fundamentally a reactionary posture
repeal, rescind, get rid of, not so fast!
it reminds me of the Jean-Paul Sartre essay "The Antisemite and the Jew" in that the former needs the latter and is defined by that which they build a brand around hating
I believe that is the correct analogy, but the haters in MAGAland are diverse. Some hate the cites where their kids have moved and left them behind. Some hate the “Boomers” who had it easy compared to them. Some continue to hate black and brown and queer and gay people and resent that as white cis folks they are expected to talk to them as peers and accept them as leaders. And all of them super resent being told they can’t SAY anything hostile and demeaning (aka “losing” the culture wars). There is a broader reactionary spirit that has been actively nurtured since the first days of Rush Limbaugh and the loss of the “fairness doctrine” (not only in law but in spirit). One cannot nurture hate and fear without sowing a whirlwind of destruction to rival Katrina.
True, but you can make a lot of money nurturing hate and fear. Just ask Murdoch.
MAGAs just dont know anything. At a municipal meeting in MN MAGA were opposed to some bill and shouting. After they got what they wanted.... When the announcement for the new pro-maga proposal was made.... The MAGA immediately started shouting opposition to it!! MAGA should be given a reservation for them. They are more backwards todsy than the native Indians were in thrir time when the nation gave them reservations. A wall around it would be a good idea and China and Mexico will gladly build it.
I've never forgotten a NY Times interview of a guy who told the reporter that his elderly father was planning on voting for Trump in 2016 b/c he (the father) thought Trump was going to make it okay to say the "N-word' out loud in public. You know, like in the good old days.
Just as Conservatives need FOX News to keep peddling the myth that cities--predominantly Blue-run--are urban hellscapes. Which is to distract GOP voters from the fact that Red states and counties actually have significantly higher crime rates, as well as threadbare social safety nets.
When the Republican BBB's Medicare/Medicaid and Food Stamp cuts kick in next year, nearly every Red state--especially ones like Iowa, where 22% of state residents are on Medicaid--will become poorer and more miserable. Wonder how Sartre would've written about that.
Republicans made sure the worst of the cuts won't take affect until after the midterms. If democrats are able to win back control of the house or senate. They will get the blame by the voters. Hurting democratic presidential chances for 2028. If republicans keep control. Then it will be too late for the voters to do anything about it.
Even if Dems retake Congress next year, without a veto-proof majority they cannot reverse the BBB's devastating cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
The most they'll be able to do, is pass a rival bill--that would restore the cuts, and increase--rather than slash--taxes on billionaires and Big business; and then crucify the GOP for voting against it, and Trump for vetoing it.
Yes, but if Democrats control the house when they lose their Medicaid they can blame it on the libs.
Yes indeed- those sneaky snakes in the grass republican are counting on the unwashed masses to continue to be dumb as a sack of rocks.
Are you joking? They'll blame it on the libs regardless of who controls the House.
DeSantis banned reporting of Covid cases. It wouldn't surprise me if that was the case elsewhere.
This dynamic can be seen beyond antisemitism, including politics, culture wars, and social movements where groups define themselves negatively in relation to a rival.
yes?
I guess it is even worse. When wealth is attributed by the dozens or hundreds of millions, making a bit more money no longer makes a sufficient difference and the only way to distinguish themselves is to torch down most of the world and try to turn it into a hellscape without housing, vaccines, hope or enlightenment where the rich are allowed to rape children if that means the poor are not allowed abortions, because that is the only way to make the resorts of the rich look even better in comparison. The puzzling question is rather, why do so many centrists and leftists pretend conservatives might have a point, when there can be nothing more idiotic and humiliating than selling your soul to someone who told you in advance they are not going to pay.
Yeah, for decades, I have been asking (mostly in my thoughts): "What is it that these people want to conserve?" Trying to understand conservatism, I got distracted by ideas from folks like Herbert Hoover, William Buckley, Barry Goldwater and the economist Milton Freedman. Well that's all gone away. And the answer was there all along. FREEDOM. They want to be able to do whatever they feel like doing but are constrained by the Founders efforts to create a form of Social Contract (The Constitution) that puts restrictions on abuses of power and defines "Rights" for all citizens. They started with 10 amendments but we are now at #27. So immigrants, wanting ti become citizens, learn that the basis for our country is Law. Read the Preamble and see that We the People of the United States: establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity...It's all right there.
But the elephant in our national room is, as you say, white male dominated hierarchy and more importantly--WEALTH and the desire to accumulate as much as possible without limitations and pass it on.
What they want to conserve is white supremacy. That's what modern day conservatism is all about. As for freedom, they only believe in freedom for themselves. Not others. Their freedom counts, yours does not. That's what you must understand about these people. They are selfish self-centered people that only care about themselves.
Ah yes, white male. White Women are to be returned to being ornaments, baby makers, property, servants or spinners.
I think u have it exactly right - the only thing they want to conserve & it is essential to them - is white supremacy . And Donald Trump promises that. The conservation of their standing as ‘ whites’ who are top of the heap, is more important to most Trump voters than anything else & they may even be willing to give up their healthcare & vaccines & hood health for their children to conserve this, sadly.
and the maga lies that usa has been cheated by others when the gdp growth of usa has been tremendous as compared to europe. asia, japan. China started growing when usa started getting everything from china including dangling ties. In the same period ghe rich in usa kapped all the gdp while 65% of the population got their dhare of the huge slice if cherry pie that Trump shared with Xi Jing Ping reduced to 3.5%.
And the guy is mooning the americsn people saying i am going to bring back your lost wealth by putting taxes on outsiders and give more tax breaks for the rich and the filthy here at home and please let me cut some money from medicaid and medicare. They do not want to give me the prace prize so i made the department of war!! whining all the time!!
I think you're right.
One might add they want to "conserve" Christianity - their version of it - as the dominant religion. Never mind what the First Amendment >actually< says.
That’s a great distinction, between “conservative” and “conservationists.”
Let's then call them not by what they like to call themselves and have been calling themselves since the 1930s, but by what they are: radical right wingers.
Fascists.
Petroleum!! CONSERVE THE PETROLEUM!!!!!
Wait. What? They wanna do what now? Burn it? BURN IT??!! I thought they said they was a conservative!!! At least they got the 'con' part right!
Thank you, Bern! If petroleum is left in the ground, it will still be there. It doesn’t go bad. It’s there in case the sun stops shining, the winds stop blowing, water stops flowing downhill, etc.
Or we discover some way to make plastic entirely non-toxic for some as-yet unknown use.
I think you distinguish the 2 words quite well, Lisa. And I think what they've been trying to conserve is the 1950s (the decade of my birth, so I have some familiarity with that era.)
The only thing about the Trump regime that feels anything like justice is knowing his cult will suffer the worst pain from his policies. Meantime, Trump is gleefully driving the nation over a cliff with his fat cankles pressing the pedal to the metal.
The correct term for these "conservatives" is reactionaries. They hanker after the Good Old Days that you describe so well; you might also recall their blood sports that went out of fashion these past 70 years.
"The only thing they want to conserve is the white male power structure." Bingo.
I think it may be simply that the wealthiest hate the fact that other classes got the perks that they thought that they owned and this hurt their fragile egos. Race was a byproduct.
Exactly. I’ve been asking this simple question for YEARS. What could possibly be more conservative than conservation of our environment?!?!? Human beings literally depend on this planet, this “Mother Earth” for our very survival, our own existence, our daily sustenance.
It’s such a simple concept. Ultimately, what we do to this planet, we do to ourselves.
The planet will still exist. But human beings - and life as we know it - won’t.
"The only thing they want to conserve is the white male power structure. "
----
There's a patriarchal religious* element to this: That "old time religion" meant God wanted men to run things, and to control the reproductive status of their wives (and daughters). Same-sex marriage, for one, blew up the concept of the "male head of household," and science has undermined both religious "truths" and the profitability of established technologies. (Try explaining to evangelical House Speaker Mike Johnson that his god puts XXY and XYY babies in the population, or any other minority sexual development type.)
_________________
*I was raised in an Abrahamic (patriarchal) religion, and for most of my life I thought reincarnation was just an odd, but interesting belief. It wasn't until I was in my forties that I realized that the whole point of accepting reincarnation is that everybody *earned* the status they were born with, so the upper castes remained the upper castes.
They also wanted white men lower on the economic and social ladder to know their place. It was an elite group at the top of the pyramid.
They want to go back to a WASP country which it never was
Agreed. The white, male utopia in which all inferiority complexes resolve as if mother has placed her healing hand on your head and dad gave you his nod of approval and the servants clapped.
Speaking of inferiority complexes, is there research to explain why young women graduate from college at higher rates than young men?
Since my youth in the ‘60s, women have figured out that they will need education to be able to financially support themselves and their families. What’s different for young men?
I have been trying to figure it out and have not. I am in my 80's so clueless really. I got a PhD because of the saying, "If you're in school, stay in school." Maybe it is the macho culture that seems stronger and college is seen for whimps and nerds. Who knows? I don't.
I'm in my late 60s and I don't get it either.
A few weeks ago, I heard an NPR interviewee say something to the effect that Reagan understood the movie depiction of Americans very well and thought the real world was just like it.
See Kristen du Prez’ “ Jesus and John Wayne” to understand some of the origins of the cowboy ideology.
What the NPR interviewee was talking about was the sort of "Father Knows Best" depiction of the "typical" American family.
Such a good book. She’s here on substack as well.
Most of their thought leaders are Catholic so they can't say that. Instead they talk about "heritage Americans."
Yes, I’ve wondered at that too, yet it is never discussed. Is there an Opus Dei right-wing Catholic movement? Is it a conscious conspiracy? Certainly, six (I think) of the Supreme Court are Catholics as is their Svengali Leonard Leo, as is Steve Bannon. They all share an extreme RW viewpoint. Is there any analysis?
Yeah, sadly this.
John Ganz also wrote several times on his Substrack that lots of this Right Wing Ideology is based on some guy named Francis, who basically admitted that he was a Nazi.
They want to go back to the 1950's. "Father Knows Best". White Christian males were on top and everyone else "knew their place". Women in the kitchen, blacks at the back of the bus, and gays in the closet. Why they love and adore Russia so much. It's basically 1950's America.
The 1950s.
If you keep people poor, backward, and miserable and you blame it all on educated "elites," while you still hold elections it's easier to stay in power.
Exactly. It’s all about exploiting hate to divide the suckers, er I mean the masses.
I’m not so sure about your comment that most Americans are decent people who want to get along with their neighbors. If that were the case Trump would not have been elected once let alone twice. Imbeciles like Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson and their like would not be elected over and over again. Ohio turned away Sherrod Brown a great senator for a used car salesman who has been sued numerous times for wage theft and other dishonest business practices. Since the advent of Trump I find people more belligerent and intolerant especially if you don’t agree with their politics. We are who our election results say we are.
There seems to be a split between how people feel about people around them vs how they feel about “others.” It’s reflected in things like the poll where only 14% of them felt crime was a problem in their area but 56% felt crime was a major problem for the country. The gop media fosters ideas like this because fear sells.
All media sells hate and fear. It sells.
We are fortunate to have an old style family run newspaper that is a throw back to another era. The journalism is unbiased. The radical right who are ascendant now hate it. They have a huge local sports section and always highlight local businesses. Each week they have a church section.
My county is maga, controlled by MAGA that took over the Republican party and kicked out everyone who wasn't stupid or corrupt. The next county over is mixed Dem and Rep. It's actually quite well run. Since its divided fairly evenly, they've missed out on the excesses of woke and MAGA.
The comment section at the WSJ has become a positive battleground. MAGA vs Everyone Else — including former Republicans (now lost), Democrats, independents.
They're decent people who want to get along with their neighbors. You are not one of those neighbors. Neither am I.
Mr. Krugman
This comment is pertinent to your previous post.
There are a couple of times where you state that trump thinks the economy is doing great, which doesn’t warrant rate cuts.
I don’t have a deep sense of the condition of the economy,
But as far as he (trump) is concerned it is doing great, considering how much he has raked in since January 2026.
I completely agree, and the same goes for his rich cronies - they'll do anything to get an extra million by screwing lots of "customers".
Call it "Me Me Me - I dont care about You You You"
(I am sure you meant "since January 2025") -
Yep
Sorry, a Freudian slip I guess wishing the midterms were upon us sooner!
JVL at The Bulwark cited a piece a few weeks back on the desire of a surprising number of voters for more authoritarian leadership. Many people want perceived strength and might more than measured progress and prosperity. The new Dept of War naming is right in line with this ethos. Maybe Ray Dalio has some long term economic measurements of this trend relative to change in countries’ fortunes over time in his LinkedIn series? Whatever the “reasoning”, we seem to be in an unfortunate period of regression to the mean of mean.
Because Dictators ( We need to stop using Autocracies ) … Dictators want their victims to be fearful.
Fear is an opportunity for Domination by Dictators.
Everything Trump the Dictator is doing is to create Fear, Disarray and Control.
If the Subjects are Fearful, they hunker down and keep to themselves, just as in Russia and China.
Keep em miserable healthwise and financially and they will just try to survive, not oppose.
Full Compromat Coverage …
Trump : Gotta stick it to Putin But he has Compromat on Trump Trump : Gotta stick it to Kim But Putin has Compromat on Trump Trump : Gotta stick it to Xi But Putin had Compromat on Trump Democrats Gotta get the Compromat
Apparently decades of child molesting is not a non starter. Neither is decades of business fraud. Nor gross incompetence. Who knew?
Trump is no dictator. He is just a cheer leader mom and tantrum throwing MAGA kid tolled in one. Just testerday he showed what he thinks of alliances when he warned Kim, Putin and Xi to be careful as he knew they were plotting against him . It is always about him and his sorry behind. Who could have thought it could get so ridiculous!! Obama and Biden have contributed to this mess also by just going headlong with their strategy and not trying to change direction.
It seems to me that the MAGA types want to believe that the world is an uncomplicated place in which money and brute force can solve everything. Elites make everything too complicated. Unfortunately, life and living in the world IS complicated. It takes a lot of knowledge and effort to understand why people living in other parts of the world view it differently than we do - hence the need for educated diplomacy. It’s hard to understand why the world has so much extreme weather, hence the need for educated science. Etc, etc. What is most disturbing about the MAGA approach is its desire to shape the world according to ungrounded conspiracy theories. Slowly dragging the rest of the US to their level of non-knowledge, seems to be their solution and we will slowly suffocate in a quicksand of stupidity.
Actually,I think immigrants play a big role in improving our cities. They breathe new life into neighborhoods, they creat community, their new ideas and approaches bring vitality where dystopia existed. They were/are here with hope and family. They see opportunities where existing residents see/saw hopelessness.
That’s what trumps war on immigrants will destroy in our country.
As a retired female theoretical physicist. I can place the blame squarely on hierarchical male dominance. Men don’t want to lose their privilege, which extends to their compliant women who are content to derive social power from the men they can control through sex/marriage. Now, historically white men gained power over other colors of men, so white men stand to lose the most power, hence they reject change the most. Very early on, they made sure that their god thoroughly endorsed this patriarchy. Not to say any individual man can’t break free from this power hunger, but it’s as hard for this rebel as it is for women and people of color.
As I wrote many, many years ago:
"Freedom is about granting to others
what we wish for ourselves."
There is a trifecta of enablers of Trump that will outlast Trump, and we need to take them on directly, all at once:
1) The Religious Right, specifically Opus Dei Catholic types, led by Leonard Leo, Ross Douthat and SCOTUS, allied with the Evangelicals
2) Silicon Valley Libertarian Billionaires and their cronies (Thiel/Vance/Bezos/Zuckerberg/Musk) and
3) Racist and Misogynist Republicans, primarily from the Southern red states and Midwest, who took over state legislatures in a highly coordinated decades long effort to undermine America
All three share a massive contempt for Democracy and adore Authoritarianism. Democracy annoys them because it frequently directly questions and challenges and tempers their power over people who are not part of their particular 'tribe'.
The Silicon Valley Libertarians are driven primarily by greed (crypto, corruption, plundering America's Treasury), the all share a deep hatred for women and minorities that they feel are inherently inferior to white men, must serve white Christian men, and therefore should never have been given the vote.
Their desperate foolishness knows no bounds, and we have already greatly suffered from it.
All three need ignorant, desperate people to exploit and force into submission. All three want war with weak enemies (and former allies) so they can claim easy victories and profit from military industrialization and takeovers--further sealing their powers domestically with money and force.
Breakups such as between Musk and Trump happened because the greed and resulting corruption bumped up against the other rather expensive and anti-business agenda to attack women and minorities. But in the end, Silicon Valley Libertarians are as mad as the religious right, sharing their fascination with eternal life--Science for me, not for thee, is their philosophy. Xi and Putin chatting about how long they can extend their dictatorships indefinitely by continuing to trade in new organs is so on the nose.
Something else to chew on: I was recently reading about how the average Chinese citizen is viewing these developments in America. Many are speculating America is about to go through its own Maoist period.
That chilled me, as there are striking parallels with the direct assault on Science and education that has kicked into high gear (and fear) over the past three months.
Lord preserve America from this trifecta of monstrous idiots.
ReadItAll. That is an excellent analysis of the coalition pro-democracy advocates are facing. It’s not just Trump becoming a fascist dictator, but an infrastructure of people filled with the desire to rebuild America in their image. That’s why the struggle to regain a democracy that will try to attend to needs of all its people is going to be a long struggle and a hard fought one. I hope we are up for it. I hope to see your future analysis of the Democratic coalition.
May be overly simplistic, but far right-wing brains tend to be stupid. By that I mean they are not very bright, humorous, creative, curious, questioning, open to discussing ideas other than their own and willing to live with the existence of uncertainty. I don’t include true intellectually conservative thinking brains here, but the ones which exhibit an extreme tendency towards a regression of society, a pathological fear of modernity and an overwhelming desire to control others, to make the rest of society conform to their narrow, pinched view of how we should live. There’s a dullness, a thickheadedness to the right-wing brain. You can feel it when you engage with one. It’s like a wet wool blanket has been thrown over your head. There’’s an arrogance and a lack of maturity in their certainty about how things are and should be. They make up for all if this, as if somewhere deep inside they are aware, by aggression. If they can’t keep up, then by god they will control it.
Like a big brother holding a little sibling upside down, by the legs over a toilet and threatening to flush unless they promise to shut up, do what they say and give them all the money in their piggy bank?
I thought the “2025 project” was about taking the US back to 1955. I was wrong, the crazies want to take the US back to 1855! 👿
You do remember what happened after 1861, right?
Yes that is why I said 1855. Dixie aka “Gone with the Wind”.
The MAGA movement depends on ignorance, hate and division to be successful. The strawman liberal is enemy number 1, not China, not Russia, or any other authoritarian regime. In fact the opposite because strongmen authoritarians keep liberals in their place so people like Putin are respected and considered an ally. And what do liberals like and use to expose MAGA lies? Science and education of course. So, if you get rid of science and education you hurt the liberals and their threat to your power that 100% depends on ignorance, grifting and brainwashing.
✊ Because science doesn't back up Republicans lies it disproves them.
Now we're not even a first world country, with rising infant mortality and declining life expectancy. This will get worse thanks to RFK Jr and Mehmet Oz. I gave Fetterman several hundred dollars hoping to keep Dr Oz out of the senate, but now Oz is the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Fetterman is own special Joe Manchin. The paucity of good people makes the current dysfunction appear to be systemic.