QOTD -- Political Bankruptcy

 

"... Rather than build party support by helping and funding fellow partisans, Trump hoards campaign money he’s raised. Rather than nurture public support by listening to citizens and translating their wishes and worries into beneficial public policies, Trump builds monuments to himself. Because he’s term-limited, he has no incentive to think about building a 2028 electoral margin mandate. As for his reputation, the nation is increasingly sick of his vulgarity, recklessness, policy failures, and incessant blame-shifting for problems he created.

"Some observers worry that, given his volcanic temperament and fragile ego, during his final two years in office a politically broke and broken Trump could become especially dangerous. He will certainly lash out in ways both predictable and not. But the American system only abides the rantings and ravings of those with political capital to burn, and in less than four weeks Trump’s red-hat movement will sink further and irrevocably into the political red." -- Tom Schaller, in the "Public Notice" Substack, on why "Trump Faces His Worst Bankruptcy Yet", that of his political capital.  We're fairly sanguine about Democratic prospects in the upcoming mid-terms (vote!!!), but less so about the Malignant Fascist's reaction to defeat on a broad scale.  He's foreshadowed efforts to interfere, de-legitimatize, and otherwise deny victory to Democrats in various un-Constitutional and illegal ways.  But, as we've said before, the larger the Democratic wave, the harder it will be for a "Coup.2" to take place, much less succeed.  Nothing is impossible, though, with this loon and his fascist followers.  But we're starting to wonder if keeping up the money-making grifts will occupy more and more of his remaining time in office, fairly secure in the belief that there isn't going to be a 2/3 Senate majority for conviction should he be impeached a third time for any of his misdeeds and crimes.

QOTD -- Raging At The Wrong People

 

"...When it comes to rural resentments, again and again these scholars insist that if rural whites are mad, it’s only because they have good reason to be. We are hardly unaware of the sufferings of rural America, many of which are born from late-stage capitalism. In fact, we dedicate the second chapter of our book to the causes and consequences of declining economic opportunities, outmigration of ambitious young people, hospital and pharmacy closures, and other very serious problems that pervade rural American communities, white and nonwhite alike. In our reporting, we heard many moving stories about the challenges rural communities face.

"What isn’t said enough is that rural whites are being told to blame all the wrong people for their very real problems. As we argue in the book, Hollywood liberals didn’t destroy the family farm, college professors didn’t move manufacturing jobs overseas, immigrants didn’t pour opioids into rural communities, and critical race theory didn’t close hundreds of rural hospitals. When Republican politicians and the conservative media tell rural whites to aim their anger at those targets, it’s so they won’t ask why the people they keep electing haven’t done anything to improve life in their communities..." -- Paul Waldman and Tom Schaller, writing in The New Republic, in response to an article by Nicholas Jacobs in Politico and other critics of their book, White Rural Rage. Waldman's and Schaller's work rings truer to us than the attempts to soften or elide the cause and manifestations of white rural rage (or "resentment," as Jacobs prefers).  Good read.