Carter appointed Volker and started not only the deregulation but also the tax cuts. What’s hilarious is overall manufacturing jobs and union membership both peaked in 1979 and so Trump wants to return to the Carter economy and not the Reagan economy. So a big reason inflation was difficult to rein in the 1970s was the power of unions kept getting COLA and so in many ways the inflation of the 1970s was innocuous thanks to the power of unions. So making unions less powerful was a way to get inflation under control.
Btw, the inflation under Biden was innocuous other than the energy price spikes which were down by late 2022. So high energy prices did make it difficult for households to stay within their budgets but for the overall American economy those price spikes were great as America is by far the biggest energy producer and so those high prices led to big profits for an industry harmed by the 2020 Covid demand shocks. So bigger profits for American companies meant more jobs for Americans as the industry recovered from the Covid demand shock and so lower income households benefited from the strong job market under Biden.
And from a partisan political perspective I have friends in the oil and gas industry and they were clearly very happy with the situation in 2022 but they still attacked Biden because of tribal politics. So from a messaging standpoint Republicans always stay in attack mode and will never tell the truth when it harms the GOP because winning is paramount for the GOP tribe.
That’s why I advise Democrats to spend less time trying to understand what is going while urging them to stand strong and vote Democratic because a key tactic the GOP tribe employs is making people get lost in the weeds by exaggerating events like Benghazi and Abbey Gate and inflation and nuclear war risk from helping Ukraine and terrorist attacks from Islamic terrorists. The highest nuclear risk was when Trump refused to concede the 2020 election and 3 times as many soldiers died in hostile action under Trump than died under Biden. And the worst terrorist attack since 9/11 happened on 10/7 with a Trump ally leading Israel after Kushner supposedly implemented some great outside the box achievements in Middle East peace!
Today’s heavy industries are making chips, batteries and electric vehicles. For some reason trump thinks that legacy industries like coal, steel and gas powered cars need investment and protection and sustainable industries of the future like wind and solar need to be actively penalized. Even conservative capitalists are buying Tesla and supporting all forms of energy because the us needs the lead in the ultimate heavy industry: robotics and AI 😎
Ah JD, he of multiple names, religions, and political ideologies:) I'm still searching for how someone can be so broken. Do you have a theory on why he initially told the truth about Don (America's Hitler, cultural heroin, etc), and then self-gelded on the public stage? Why does someone that smart humiliate themselves so thoroughly, and so publicly? And to think conservatives used to prattle on about character counting:). And, remember the personal responsibility lectures? Alas, fiscal sanity and the rule of law once mattered to my former party as well. Don has shown that was all a lie. He's exposed the character not just of himself, but also of the elites on the right.
Don and his "new" right have had over a decade as the establishment. They are the ruling elites. They control the entire federal government. Do we think these elites actually believe Don is in the game to save the workin stiffs? Do they think he cares a whit about the least among us? Are they that gullible? Maybe after he pockets a few billion more from crypto corruption, these pliable paragons of character will realize the joke has been on them... Then again, like JD, they may not care as long as they're in on the action. JD has stated on the record he would not have done what Mike Pence did, he would instead have chosen to plunge our country into a constitutional crisis on January 6th. How lovely.
Isn't it time for a new "new" right? A new establishment?
JD and Gabbard* are still the best Democrats out there .. if Trump were 58 rather than 78 I would doubt my confidence they will bloom as the two new post-Trump Parties take form. What they are doing now is staying in the game. I hope Tulsi stays quiet (it's not as if she or Vance could change things.) Trump's talent was the talent to break the unbreakable ..much of which needed breaking. It is why Johnny Rotten himself deemed him the Punk Rock President. Obviously not a long term strategy for good government .. but as with Punk Rock, it served it's purpose. (The assassination of MAGA by Tyler James Robinson is why Republicans like Marco Rubio are having a moment, for better and worse (better ONLY because the Iran and the initial Venezuela succeeded so spectacularly .. but they both could and should have gone very badly .. maybe I should give the CIA more credit for assessing the temperature on the ground in both places.)
*Even if I didn't like her politics .. hers is the face I want to see on Mount Rushmore and 50 dollar bill .. reserved for the first woman President, remembered for a thousand years.. The second will be forgotten in eighty. (The unspoken bullets we dodged w/Hillary&Kamala.)
Can't join you on ole Tulsi. She lost me with her constant parroting of Kremlin talking points. She was quite the star on RT and Russian state media. I've read many of her on the record comments, it's astounding someone with her background is the DNI. Then again, we have a drunkard serial sexual abuser whose only qualification is being a Fox weekend talk show co-host as SecDef, and RFK as Health Sec'y. Welcome to Don 2.0.
An interesting aspect of maga to me is the incessant grievance. The unending complaints. How much they dislike modern America and want to transport themselves back to another time. I guess change is hard for some. But, they are apparently unaware that they've grown up in the most prosperous country, and the most prosperous period, in human history. A period also marked by a lack of major power conflict, which is both an aberration from history, and a particularly important outcome given the nuclear weapons age. You've made clear you are unhappy with the America of the last 80 years and want to tear it down. I suspect that means that you fear for your children's future if things continue on the trajectory we've been on. If I gave you a magic wand, and you could send your children to live their lives in the better time and place in history that you pine for, what would that be?
That's telling. A roots guy with disco at its zenith and the beginning of hip hop and new wave. But would your kids like the stagflation and bell bottoms? I'd go for 1959, the best year for recorded jazz in history. I could listen to to it all live, performed in the best clubs in the world. US clubs.
But unlike MAGA, I still love the America of today, so for my kids I'd only pick the future for them to inhabit.
Clowns? Really? Anyhoo .. I recommend reserving judgement until the dust settles once Trump is gone. To me, these two, along with RFK, are the best of the Democrats. And savvy enough to outwait their 80 year old lame duck boss.
That said .. yes, I do find South Park's portrayal amusing (though I don't recall Tulsi as a target of their National Lampoon .. you may be thinking of Naomi .. who Gutfeld of all people brutally skewered a year ago.)
No mention of the biggest change of neoliberalism: nearly $80 trillion transferred from the bottom 90% to the top 1%? Trump is brilliant in that he can read a room: people are pissed. Like Mussolini, he blames the immigrants. It's a distraction. Does Trump cares about anything other than Trump making more money? Powell Memo and Project 2025 give you more insight into strategy than listening to Reagan and Trump.
How do you expect a president who never reads, has the attention span of a gnat, cannot give up talking about himself and his personal grievances, and can't form complete sentences be expected to effectively communicate anything to the public?
He lies so much that even if he said something intelligent and true no one will believe him.
Effective public communication takes careful listening, planning, practice, and work, and oh yeah.. the ability to stay on message, he's really great at that.
You can poop in one hand and wish in the other. Guess which one fills up first!
Just to echo much of what I'm reading here: policies...even policies that I disagree with, but in the hands of well meaning and serious people...are one thing; policies as a tool to enhance and further a corrupt scheme...another thing altogether. Take import taxes aka tariffs. You writers at this publication are taking your victory lap over the absence of runaway inflation in the face of higher rates on import taxes, but it appears that much of that favorable outcome is due to carveouts. How do you think carveouts happen? You really think there's a group of honest and serious people trying to make judgements about which carveouts to implement and which to not? If so, then good luck to you.
Heavy industry was coming back under Biden. Trump threw away all that was working by imposing broad tariffs, behaving erratically and gutting tax credits that were directly responsible for new factory investment. Manufacturing is in a deep recession in the US. Trump has neither short nor long term results to persuade anyone except his cult followers to “stay the course”. As for Reagan, he was following the advice of economists, not making it up as he went along.
The missing piece is the personality difference between the two men. Reagan was a level-headed man, educated, a sincere and humble Christian, with a long-term attention span, and a firm moral belief system.
Of that list, Donald Trump is... educated. In every other respect, his character and temperament are polar opposites of Reagan's: emotional, largely agnostic, arrogant to the point of narcissism, with a highly situational ethical compass and the attention span of a gnat.
I voted for him. 3 times. And I'm glad I did. But telling him to try to emulate Reagan isn't going to work. It might work for some people, but not for Donald Trump.
It's hard to pick a favorite Don quote, so many classics come to mind. Your comment reminds me of one of my favs: "I love the poorly educated"...
Today, it ain't about issues, it's all about who ya hate, and whether you can trigger them. How quaint.
Glad you voted to place the button in the hands of an aged, aging, angry, incoherent, imbecile who has surrounded himself with unqualified loyalists. Some swallow it all, merely in service of their jersey. Party over country.
In 2016, I voted AGAINST Hillary Clinton. My vote for Trump was reluctant. In 2024, it was not. For the first time in 35+ years, I voted FOR a candidate instead of "against the other guy." The reason was Butler. That instinct, the willingness to literally risk bullets to rally the troops, is something I have never seen in ANY politician in my lifetime.
For all his flaws (and there are many), I think Trump is what America needs at this point in time: forcing the bureaucracy to accept the multipolar reality and the end of the post-WWII order; controlling immigration (legal and illegal); curtailing our military industrial complex and far-flung imperial commitments; recreating an American economy centered on production instead of consumption... these are big lifts. They require a strong leader, with no fear, who cares nothing for what his enemies may think of him. A leader willing to risk bullets to do what he believes to be right. That Trump's definition of "right" seems self-created worries me greatly, but it's also pretty standard today in both parties.
Every politician brings strengths and weaknesses to the office. Obama was a great orator but lacked a spine. Bush got lost in his desire to to extend Pax-Americana long past its expiration date. In hindsight, Clinton was a superb President and communicator who wasn't that bright and couldn't keep his pants zipped.
You're wrong. It's not party over country. There's no perfect party or candidate or leader. You look at the problems you face, the 2 people nominated to help solve them, and you choose. Sometimes you regret the choice, but not this time, at least not me. At no point in the last year have I said, "gee, I wish Kamala Harris was in charge of that."
I tire of the whataboutism as a salve for guilty consciences. Well yeah, Don incited an armed insurrection leading to the first non-peaceful transfer of power in our nation's history, then pardoned the felons convicted of seditious conspiracy, and lies to this day about the 2020 election. And sure, those acts are a direct attack on the most fundamental and precious of our institutions, the institutions required for a free, peaceful, civil, modern society. But, Obama had no spine and W was feckless. Okey dokey. Seems, logical?
But don't believe me, believe the statements from Don's first term cabinet. Remember them? Decorated generals, lifelong public servants with impeccable credentials, the VP, distinguished biz leaders, etc. Don assured us they were "the best people" when he appointed them. Read JD's comments, the ones where he told the truth, before he self-gelded to run for office. The terms they use are mind blowing-America's Hitler, fascist to the core, etc. It's a treasure trove of truth telling. Read how they handled him with regard to control over our nuclear arsenal. Read all of it, and see if you still think he's fit to hold the office. Oh, and either attend or watch in its entirety one of Don's rallies, then ask yourself who is more incoherent, Don or Joepa? Then, imagine an increasingly angry and incoherent Don at 82...
But perhaps you're right and character doesn't matter. In spite of his flaws, Don is playing the 4D chess you describe. Single handedly, and cleverly, transforming the global economy and security structures with his incisive, well informed, and well articulated strategery. Nose to the grindstone, it takes a leader with Don's brilliance, laser like focus, and discipline to lead us in these turbulent times. The art of the deal is unspooling before us. Maybe.
But maybe I'm right, and he's just another demagogue. A stereotypical flimflam man like we've seen throughout history in times of rapid economic and societal changes. They offer simplistic solutions, scapegoat defenseless minorities, and utter insipid phrases like: "I alone can fix it" They are predictable. And many who don't understand the scam lap it up. What's not predictable are the actions of the elites, the people who do know better. People like JD. That's the group who I harbor the most antipathy for. He and his ilk willfully parrot the lies, merely for personal gain. Good of them.
In any event, I trust you'll remain intellectually honest when the next D prez, following a razor thin electoral win, wields the new powers Don has claimed. No problem if Newsom or whoever pockets a couple billion from Chinese crypto criminals. Or sends masked, poorly trained federal agents into the streets of red jurisdictions. Maybe scoop up a couple thousand butt crack boys in flannel cuz, well cuz the new prez just don't like them thar folk, they talk and smell funny and go to weird churches. Maybe they'll have their own militia storm the capitol, you'd support those "tourists" too, right?
Meanwhile, Don does what flimflam men do. Bilks the rubes for cash... At least we're cracking down on that trans kid in Toledo who won the third place ribbon in the high school cross country meet! Gotta have our priorities ya know.
In 30 years, we will know whether the Pat Buchanan / Donald Trump wing of the party was correct. Maybe they're not. In 1991, everyone expected the permanent triumph of liberal-democracy. 30 years later, that looks like a joke. We all muddle through on limited information and hopefully cut our leaders the benefit of the doubt along the way. (And yes, I said the same thing when Obama was in charge and Biden.)
As for the next Democrat president utilizing the power "Don has claimed", that ship has sailed. Democrats pretend to be angry that Trump is seizing power for the Presidency, but in reality, they're just angry a Republican has finally learned to use the imperial Presidency (that they created) against them. I would be thrilled if Republicans and Democrats got together to downsize the executive branch. I like federalism. I like devolving power to the states. I like making Congress pass budgets. I don't like the imperial Presidency. But we've had one for decades and we appear unlikely to jettison it anytime soon, so I'm glad Republicans have finally learned how to play the game.
I know it seems like the end of the world, man, but this too shall pass. America is 250 years old. It survived Madison's judicial shenanigans. It survived Fillmore's incompetence. It survived Lincoln's trampling of federalism. It survived Wilson's stroke. It survived Nixon's criminality. It survived Biden's senility. It can can survive 4 years of Donald Trump's narcissism too.
Hmm, looks like you've forgotten that weighty to-do list you'd outlined for Don in your last comment. I thought he was just what the doctor ordered, and was about to transform the world? Now it's just old fashioned nihilism-they're all the same, so who cares, nothing really matters in the end. Might as well just buy some $TRUMP coin and hope for the best. Ironically, this nihilism is the end state that autocrats seek in their flocks. Hang in there, imagine if JD 1.0 proves prophetic:). But I gotta say, it's interesting that you expect, and will support, future armed insurrections sponsored by D's, because, well, everyone is doing it. Just good ole partisan bickering.
Meanwhile use that google thingy, maybe a little AI, and see if you can find a more prosperous period in human history, and one more devoid of major power conflict, than the post war period. I can bitch too, we all have a list of how we've been wronged, but it was a pretty damn lucky time to be alive. I don't know your background, but I'm pretty humble about mine. I was born on third base simply because I'm a white, heterosexual, male born into the most prosperous period, and nation, in human history. Seems to me we all have a duty to strengthen that system, not work to obliterate it.
I guess if I was a Don apologist I'd spend a lot of time talking about Reagan too. Reagan was a normal human being.
Poor Henry. He was once a low ranking, Reagan adjacent operative. Then he, like JD, Little Marco, and so many others in my former party, capitulated. Publicly. Now he's "fervently" MAGA. No rational human could think Don has an actual strategery to help workin stiffs, let alone the discipline to enact it. The only revealed preference we have from Don regarding economic policy is the BBB. It's a budget busting, workin stiff hosing, transfer of wealth to Don's fellow plutocrats.
Other than that, Don is far more fixated on pocketing loot from crypto corruption, naming buildings after himself, shredding alliances with fellow democracies, sending masked/untrained agents to terrorize our neighbors instead of criminals (only in blue jurisdictions, showing his real motivation), attacking the rule of law, pursuing retribution against his political enemies, blowing up fishing boats and invading foreign lands in contravention of US and international law, hollowing out the civil service, decimating the best public health/scientific research entities in the world, shaking down corporate America with his taco tariffs, taking ownership stakes in major corporations, etc... Welcome to the "new" right. One might otherwise identify them as comrades from 20th century North Korea.
Hmmmmm. My bias swings counter to the comments posted here. Trump is not a god, but you certainly do underestimate his smarts and ability to listen. He's not as narcissistic or stupid as you make him out to be.
The article was excellent and drew a clear strategy for Trump to seriously consider.
As far as I'm concerned there's only one issue and that is getting a document like this in front of Trump's eyes. Gatekeepers keep a lot of good stuff out of the hands of their leaders because they're protecting their own turf.
As my mentor would say "everyone wants to play on their own monopoly board."
Trump’s approach to the immigration crisis is highly unpopular and most likely to reelect the very Democrats who opened our borders and will do so when they regain power. A far wiser and just as productive way forward would be to go after the employers of the illegals. Perp walking a few of those suits would result in more out migration than anything ICE can hope to accomplish with all its sturm und drang.
I agree that the long term is the proper metric for judging the Administration's economic policies. And they are mainly bad
The One Budget Bashing bill increases the deficit, increased borrowing to pay for consumption
Deportations reduce the labor force.
increased obstacles to trade make the economy less efficient.
Attacks on the Feb make it more difficult to hue to the amount of inflation that maximizes employment.
[Reserving the hostility to fossil fuel production and transportation and reducing of excess subsidies to some CO2 emission reductions programs were good but replacing them with hostility to solar and wind was not.]
Other then the budget deficit, every thing else you claim is wrong. It's the Neo-Liberal consensus that is pulling us backwards.
High labor costs is what drives innovation in labor saving technologies. Remember how robots were going to take all the factory jobs. Right up until we made it legal and more profitable to exploit the lack of protections for Chinese labor or their environment. It's like expecting someone to develop the tractor when slavery is still legal. In fact, the irony of slavery is that after the civil war, plantation owners made more money. Turns out slavery was holding back the move towards domestic migratory workers. So it was cheaper to pay more money for the labor you did need, without having to spend lots more on security and make work for the rest of the year.
So if you want things to improve, then we need to deport all the illegals. In reality what has been created is segregation 2.0. Millions of people that can be used and abused without the ability to turn to the state, the courts, or even unionize. We've even managed to recreated the terror of the KKK in these woke morons that you see up in Minnesota and elsewhere.
Then you get to the trade issue. We've created a massive tragedy of the commons. Countries like Mexico get factories thanks to the corruption and lack of protection for their workers and the environment. Better yet, they spend nothing on defending the global supply chains feeding those factories. Canada on the other hand watches as their factories reduce shifts and close up shop. Meanwhile they get to spend lots of their own blood and treasure helping the US fight pirates and chase terrorist. The whole thing is going to collapse.
Seriously, just look at the latest agreement from the goofballs at NATO. France and Germany are going to spend upwards of 5% on defense. Really, even when the Spanish said "go screw". Ireland and Austria aren't part of NATO and spend 0.25% and 1% respectively. How long until Volkswagen is headquartered in Ireland and getting it's products for the US made in Mexico with it's European models built in Brazil.
We're piling stupid on top of stupid. Allowing more and more blatant corruption. Trump isn't some genius, just someone that can catch the mood. In reality a lot more people have to get their heads out of their rears and realize that the economic arguments underlying the whole Neo-liberal world order are overly simplified and create a poverty trap.
I like your points about sharing the burden of global market infrastructure. Free riding is a problem.
I did not understand the comparison of Canada and Mexico.
You also make good points about the unoptimality of having lots of undoucumented immigrants. Depoting them all, even if that could be done costlessly (ICE-less-ly) wuld not be an improvement on the status quo
When it comes to Canadian companies, they are in the same mess as American manufactures. The current talking points of the useful idiots, is all that it's about net-zero. Sure, that's a dumb policy but that doesn't mean we're going to go back to allowing higher levels of lead, mercury, and cadmium to be dumped into our environment. Yet you can get away with that in Mexico. You can also get away with having your workers in a less safe environment.
So Toyota, Ford, Nissan and GM keep shifting their plants to Mexico. This includes their Canadian plants. So Canadian industry has been hollowed out the same as our in many respects. It's almost a reverse mercantilism. Giving Mexico low tariffs while ignoring their much lower regulatory environment along with the corruption has created a system that means Canada and the US can only produce the low value added raw materials.
You would think Canada would be a major source of furniture and cabinets, but their rules to protect the environment and health of their people mean that Canadian lumber goes to Mexico to be turned into the much higher value added furniture and cabinets.
All that is enough to insure that, over time, Canada and the US lose out to nations like Mexico, then you bring in defense. Maybe Iraq was a mistake but the Canadians sent troops anyway. They also send their troops to train with NATO in Europe. Then they send their navy to conduct freedom of navigation exercises in the South China sea. Canada has been one of our best allies. How do we reward this?
Mexico has been a national security threat for most of its existence. Over the last few decades, smuggling drugs, human trafficking, even allowing people on our terrorist watchlist to slip across the border. You can add in allowing their companies to get away with bringing in Chinese made spare parts and repackaging them to get around our tariffs. There by undermining our companies. How do we reward this?
We reward corrupt and irresponsible behavior through our trade policies, then wonder why we get more corrupt and irresponsible behavior. This also means we inadvertently punish responsible behavior. The irony is that if Canada had pulled out of NATO. Stayed out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Kept their much smaller navy home. Bought a few Chinese fighters to replace their aging F18s. They could have significantly reduce their taxes, lowered their deficits and saved more of their industrial base. And argued that it's hypocritical to ask more of them then we do of Mexico.
And we don't have to deport all the illegals, but any real change is only going to come after we deport enough and change the attitude of all the GOP as well as Democrat sellouts that have become too comfortable with the corrupt new version of segregation that our lack of immigration enforcement has become.
The environmental issues you point to are examples of different jurisdictions having different assessments of the costs of the damages. If processing certain kinds of timber have higher environmental costs in Canada than in Mexico, Canada is better off exporting the timber than incurring those environmental costs. What’s the problem? [I am assuming that Canada has not applied too costly a standard. THAT would be a problem but not a problem of international trade but of oor Canadian regulation.]
The problem is the international trade. You're basically saying that you're going to limit Canada to a very low value added, resource extraction and agricultural society. There will always be another country that is willing to pollute their environment and abuse their people. So Canada will slowly but surely hollow out any abilities to design, manufacture and produce higher value goods.
Now at some point, the average Canadian, will wise up and realize that they are increasingly stuck with low paying service jobs and returning to an almost feudal society. By then the nation will be deep in debt and a worthless ally to America. Poor, non-industrial nations aren't known for their advanced air forces or navies.
So yeah, Countries like Mexico and China care a lot less about the environment and their own people's health. China has whole villages dying of cancers related to the heavy metals their companies have dumped so they could corner the market for rare earths.
Here in America that attitude has hollowed out our middleclass and left us almost at the point we can't replace our aging warships. That same attitude is why our European allies have been underfunding their defenses and making themselves too reliant on things like Russian oil. That same attitude means we don't reward Canada for being a reliable and responsible nation. Instead we move production to irresponsible nations.
It's rather short sighted and will crash in the end. The question at this point is just how much damage it will have done before enough people in America figure it out.
??? Limiting the damage that a specific industry causes to consumers or other firms (if the cost of the limittion is less than the cost of the damage, which is the way good environmetal regulation/taxation is supposed to work) raises total income.
This article has serious ideas (even if they don’t all coalesce accurately). Now picture the Trump cabinet meetings. No seriously- picture that in your head. And honestly tell yourself that a serious, competent strategy is in place. Denial is not just the longest river in the world!
There are many types of intelligence. The type required to lead the world’s most complex, dynamic country is wholly different than the type needed to host reality TV.
As for commonplace:
The time to fight against globalization was during the Reagan era. I personally am skeptical that the wave could’ve been prevented from landing on our shores. Technological advancement probably did as much to change our economy as outsourcing. Are China’s trade policies fair? No. Would working with our allies be the way to affect positive change? Yes. Would TPP have been a good start? Yes. Does a massive trade deficit mean we’re being ripped off by the rest of the world? No. Why doesn’t the trade deficit include all the services we export- just goods? There is a way to even out our trade deficit. Sinking our economy into a depression would do it.
Would bringing back value added manufacturing for resilience be smart? Yes. For those left behind by automation, AI or outsourcing, teaching ppl the skilled trades is essential. Unhooking healthcare from employment would also provide stability and dynamism for workers/economy. And for the love of God- close loopholes so ppl pay their fair share of taxes!!! Right now billionaires pay NO tax. Literally nothing. High income ppl pay a lot but the truly wealthy pay nothing. Their motto: SALARIES ARE FOR SUCKERS! (Ie)Bezos paid no income or payroll tax and received $4000 for child tax credit! They don’t take an income & borrow against their assets for day to day expenses. See “Second Estate” book by professor RMadoff.
Golly Beaver, one might argue that Reagan actually had convictions, experience, and moral certitude. I emphasize "might" because all such arguments could easily be countered. Nobody, though, could argue that Donald Trump has convictions, experience, and moral certitude. One could make the case that the man is a mad would-be emperor blinded by his narcissism, and compelled for his own legal protection to use the Republican Party as his cannon-fodder.
Nice to see you working though, Beav. Now that the Post has collapsed maybe you can get your cubicle back.
Not sure the swing voters are the key in the same way as in Reagan's day. Then people would really switch sides. In today's polarized world, everyone one is completely dug in and the trick is energizing the low propensity voters. It is often asserted that this is hard without Trump on the ballot so Trump is putting himself on the ballot like FDR in 34. Democrat rage may actually help. There is certainly plenty to go around.
Boy did you drink the kool-aid. Another effort to make Trump look like he knows what he is doing
Carter appointed Volker and started not only the deregulation but also the tax cuts. What’s hilarious is overall manufacturing jobs and union membership both peaked in 1979 and so Trump wants to return to the Carter economy and not the Reagan economy. So a big reason inflation was difficult to rein in the 1970s was the power of unions kept getting COLA and so in many ways the inflation of the 1970s was innocuous thanks to the power of unions. So making unions less powerful was a way to get inflation under control.
Btw, the inflation under Biden was innocuous other than the energy price spikes which were down by late 2022. So high energy prices did make it difficult for households to stay within their budgets but for the overall American economy those price spikes were great as America is by far the biggest energy producer and so those high prices led to big profits for an industry harmed by the 2020 Covid demand shocks. So bigger profits for American companies meant more jobs for Americans as the industry recovered from the Covid demand shock and so lower income households benefited from the strong job market under Biden.
And from a partisan political perspective I have friends in the oil and gas industry and they were clearly very happy with the situation in 2022 but they still attacked Biden because of tribal politics. So from a messaging standpoint Republicans always stay in attack mode and will never tell the truth when it harms the GOP because winning is paramount for the GOP tribe.
That’s why I advise Democrats to spend less time trying to understand what is going while urging them to stand strong and vote Democratic because a key tactic the GOP tribe employs is making people get lost in the weeds by exaggerating events like Benghazi and Abbey Gate and inflation and nuclear war risk from helping Ukraine and terrorist attacks from Islamic terrorists. The highest nuclear risk was when Trump refused to concede the 2020 election and 3 times as many soldiers died in hostile action under Trump than died under Biden. And the worst terrorist attack since 9/11 happened on 10/7 with a Trump ally leading Israel after Kushner supposedly implemented some great outside the box achievements in Middle East peace!
Today’s heavy industries are making chips, batteries and electric vehicles. For some reason trump thinks that legacy industries like coal, steel and gas powered cars need investment and protection and sustainable industries of the future like wind and solar need to be actively penalized. Even conservative capitalists are buying Tesla and supporting all forms of energy because the us needs the lead in the ultimate heavy industry: robotics and AI 😎
New chip plants of Blackwell & TSMC locating in Texas and Arizona
Those were initially announced in response to the CHIPS act that Biden signed into law.
Looked it up & it was a somewhat bipartisan vote with some of the opposition due to the Inflation Enhancement Act just before it.
Have patience. He did hire well. Vance/Gabbard 2028!
Ah JD, he of multiple names, religions, and political ideologies:) I'm still searching for how someone can be so broken. Do you have a theory on why he initially told the truth about Don (America's Hitler, cultural heroin, etc), and then self-gelded on the public stage? Why does someone that smart humiliate themselves so thoroughly, and so publicly? And to think conservatives used to prattle on about character counting:). And, remember the personal responsibility lectures? Alas, fiscal sanity and the rule of law once mattered to my former party as well. Don has shown that was all a lie. He's exposed the character not just of himself, but also of the elites on the right.
Don and his "new" right have had over a decade as the establishment. They are the ruling elites. They control the entire federal government. Do we think these elites actually believe Don is in the game to save the workin stiffs? Do they think he cares a whit about the least among us? Are they that gullible? Maybe after he pockets a few billion more from crypto corruption, these pliable paragons of character will realize the joke has been on them... Then again, like JD, they may not care as long as they're in on the action. JD has stated on the record he would not have done what Mike Pence did, he would instead have chosen to plunge our country into a constitutional crisis on January 6th. How lovely.
Isn't it time for a new "new" right? A new establishment?
Good luck America.
JD and Gabbard* are still the best Democrats out there .. if Trump were 58 rather than 78 I would doubt my confidence they will bloom as the two new post-Trump Parties take form. What they are doing now is staying in the game. I hope Tulsi stays quiet (it's not as if she or Vance could change things.) Trump's talent was the talent to break the unbreakable ..much of which needed breaking. It is why Johnny Rotten himself deemed him the Punk Rock President. Obviously not a long term strategy for good government .. but as with Punk Rock, it served it's purpose. (The assassination of MAGA by Tyler James Robinson is why Republicans like Marco Rubio are having a moment, for better and worse (better ONLY because the Iran and the initial Venezuela succeeded so spectacularly .. but they both could and should have gone very badly .. maybe I should give the CIA more credit for assessing the temperature on the ground in both places.)
*Even if I didn't like her politics .. hers is the face I want to see on Mount Rushmore and 50 dollar bill .. reserved for the first woman President, remembered for a thousand years.. The second will be forgotten in eighty. (The unspoken bullets we dodged w/Hillary&Kamala.)
Can't join you on ole Tulsi. She lost me with her constant parroting of Kremlin talking points. She was quite the star on RT and Russian state media. I've read many of her on the record comments, it's astounding someone with her background is the DNI. Then again, we have a drunkard serial sexual abuser whose only qualification is being a Fox weekend talk show co-host as SecDef, and RFK as Health Sec'y. Welcome to Don 2.0.
An interesting aspect of maga to me is the incessant grievance. The unending complaints. How much they dislike modern America and want to transport themselves back to another time. I guess change is hard for some. But, they are apparently unaware that they've grown up in the most prosperous country, and the most prosperous period, in human history. A period also marked by a lack of major power conflict, which is both an aberration from history, and a particularly important outcome given the nuclear weapons age. You've made clear you are unhappy with the America of the last 80 years and want to tear it down. I suspect that means that you fear for your children's future if things continue on the trajectory we've been on. If I gave you a magic wand, and you could send your children to live their lives in the better time and place in history that you pine for, what would that be?
I pick hanging out with Tav Falco and Alex Chilton in Memphis circa 1979. What do you pick?
That's telling. A roots guy with disco at its zenith and the beginning of hip hop and new wave. But would your kids like the stagflation and bell bottoms? I'd go for 1959, the best year for recorded jazz in history. I could listen to to it all live, performed in the best clubs in the world. US clubs.
But unlike MAGA, I still love the America of today, so for my kids I'd only pick the future for them to inhabit.
Right, I think South Park captured the essence of those two clowns perfectly.
Clowns? Really? Anyhoo .. I recommend reserving judgement until the dust settles once Trump is gone. To me, these two, along with RFK, are the best of the Democrats. And savvy enough to outwait their 80 year old lame duck boss.
That said .. yes, I do find South Park's portrayal amusing (though I don't recall Tulsi as a target of their National Lampoon .. you may be thinking of Naomi .. who Gutfeld of all people brutally skewered a year ago.)
You're correct, I did get the two mixed up.
No mention of the biggest change of neoliberalism: nearly $80 trillion transferred from the bottom 90% to the top 1%? Trump is brilliant in that he can read a room: people are pissed. Like Mussolini, he blames the immigrants. It's a distraction. Does Trump cares about anything other than Trump making more money? Powell Memo and Project 2025 give you more insight into strategy than listening to Reagan and Trump.
Olsen, you're dreaming!
How do you expect a president who never reads, has the attention span of a gnat, cannot give up talking about himself and his personal grievances, and can't form complete sentences be expected to effectively communicate anything to the public?
He lies so much that even if he said something intelligent and true no one will believe him.
Effective public communication takes careful listening, planning, practice, and work, and oh yeah.. the ability to stay on message, he's really great at that.
You can poop in one hand and wish in the other. Guess which one fills up first!
Just to echo much of what I'm reading here: policies...even policies that I disagree with, but in the hands of well meaning and serious people...are one thing; policies as a tool to enhance and further a corrupt scheme...another thing altogether. Take import taxes aka tariffs. You writers at this publication are taking your victory lap over the absence of runaway inflation in the face of higher rates on import taxes, but it appears that much of that favorable outcome is due to carveouts. How do you think carveouts happen? You really think there's a group of honest and serious people trying to make judgements about which carveouts to implement and which to not? If so, then good luck to you.
Heavy industry was coming back under Biden. Trump threw away all that was working by imposing broad tariffs, behaving erratically and gutting tax credits that were directly responsible for new factory investment. Manufacturing is in a deep recession in the US. Trump has neither short nor long term results to persuade anyone except his cult followers to “stay the course”. As for Reagan, he was following the advice of economists, not making it up as he went along.
The missing piece is the personality difference between the two men. Reagan was a level-headed man, educated, a sincere and humble Christian, with a long-term attention span, and a firm moral belief system.
Of that list, Donald Trump is... educated. In every other respect, his character and temperament are polar opposites of Reagan's: emotional, largely agnostic, arrogant to the point of narcissism, with a highly situational ethical compass and the attention span of a gnat.
I voted for him. 3 times. And I'm glad I did. But telling him to try to emulate Reagan isn't going to work. It might work for some people, but not for Donald Trump.
It's hard to pick a favorite Don quote, so many classics come to mind. Your comment reminds me of one of my favs: "I love the poorly educated"...
Today, it ain't about issues, it's all about who ya hate, and whether you can trigger them. How quaint.
Glad you voted to place the button in the hands of an aged, aging, angry, incoherent, imbecile who has surrounded himself with unqualified loyalists. Some swallow it all, merely in service of their jersey. Party over country.
But, you see, he's not "woke"...
Good luck America.
In 2016, I voted AGAINST Hillary Clinton. My vote for Trump was reluctant. In 2024, it was not. For the first time in 35+ years, I voted FOR a candidate instead of "against the other guy." The reason was Butler. That instinct, the willingness to literally risk bullets to rally the troops, is something I have never seen in ANY politician in my lifetime.
For all his flaws (and there are many), I think Trump is what America needs at this point in time: forcing the bureaucracy to accept the multipolar reality and the end of the post-WWII order; controlling immigration (legal and illegal); curtailing our military industrial complex and far-flung imperial commitments; recreating an American economy centered on production instead of consumption... these are big lifts. They require a strong leader, with no fear, who cares nothing for what his enemies may think of him. A leader willing to risk bullets to do what he believes to be right. That Trump's definition of "right" seems self-created worries me greatly, but it's also pretty standard today in both parties.
Every politician brings strengths and weaknesses to the office. Obama was a great orator but lacked a spine. Bush got lost in his desire to to extend Pax-Americana long past its expiration date. In hindsight, Clinton was a superb President and communicator who wasn't that bright and couldn't keep his pants zipped.
You're wrong. It's not party over country. There's no perfect party or candidate or leader. You look at the problems you face, the 2 people nominated to help solve them, and you choose. Sometimes you regret the choice, but not this time, at least not me. At no point in the last year have I said, "gee, I wish Kamala Harris was in charge of that."
I tire of the whataboutism as a salve for guilty consciences. Well yeah, Don incited an armed insurrection leading to the first non-peaceful transfer of power in our nation's history, then pardoned the felons convicted of seditious conspiracy, and lies to this day about the 2020 election. And sure, those acts are a direct attack on the most fundamental and precious of our institutions, the institutions required for a free, peaceful, civil, modern society. But, Obama had no spine and W was feckless. Okey dokey. Seems, logical?
But don't believe me, believe the statements from Don's first term cabinet. Remember them? Decorated generals, lifelong public servants with impeccable credentials, the VP, distinguished biz leaders, etc. Don assured us they were "the best people" when he appointed them. Read JD's comments, the ones where he told the truth, before he self-gelded to run for office. The terms they use are mind blowing-America's Hitler, fascist to the core, etc. It's a treasure trove of truth telling. Read how they handled him with regard to control over our nuclear arsenal. Read all of it, and see if you still think he's fit to hold the office. Oh, and either attend or watch in its entirety one of Don's rallies, then ask yourself who is more incoherent, Don or Joepa? Then, imagine an increasingly angry and incoherent Don at 82...
But perhaps you're right and character doesn't matter. In spite of his flaws, Don is playing the 4D chess you describe. Single handedly, and cleverly, transforming the global economy and security structures with his incisive, well informed, and well articulated strategery. Nose to the grindstone, it takes a leader with Don's brilliance, laser like focus, and discipline to lead us in these turbulent times. The art of the deal is unspooling before us. Maybe.
But maybe I'm right, and he's just another demagogue. A stereotypical flimflam man like we've seen throughout history in times of rapid economic and societal changes. They offer simplistic solutions, scapegoat defenseless minorities, and utter insipid phrases like: "I alone can fix it" They are predictable. And many who don't understand the scam lap it up. What's not predictable are the actions of the elites, the people who do know better. People like JD. That's the group who I harbor the most antipathy for. He and his ilk willfully parrot the lies, merely for personal gain. Good of them.
In any event, I trust you'll remain intellectually honest when the next D prez, following a razor thin electoral win, wields the new powers Don has claimed. No problem if Newsom or whoever pockets a couple billion from Chinese crypto criminals. Or sends masked, poorly trained federal agents into the streets of red jurisdictions. Maybe scoop up a couple thousand butt crack boys in flannel cuz, well cuz the new prez just don't like them thar folk, they talk and smell funny and go to weird churches. Maybe they'll have their own militia storm the capitol, you'd support those "tourists" too, right?
Meanwhile, Don does what flimflam men do. Bilks the rubes for cash... At least we're cracking down on that trans kid in Toledo who won the third place ribbon in the high school cross country meet! Gotta have our priorities ya know.
In 30 years, we will know whether the Pat Buchanan / Donald Trump wing of the party was correct. Maybe they're not. In 1991, everyone expected the permanent triumph of liberal-democracy. 30 years later, that looks like a joke. We all muddle through on limited information and hopefully cut our leaders the benefit of the doubt along the way. (And yes, I said the same thing when Obama was in charge and Biden.)
As for the next Democrat president utilizing the power "Don has claimed", that ship has sailed. Democrats pretend to be angry that Trump is seizing power for the Presidency, but in reality, they're just angry a Republican has finally learned to use the imperial Presidency (that they created) against them. I would be thrilled if Republicans and Democrats got together to downsize the executive branch. I like federalism. I like devolving power to the states. I like making Congress pass budgets. I don't like the imperial Presidency. But we've had one for decades and we appear unlikely to jettison it anytime soon, so I'm glad Republicans have finally learned how to play the game.
I know it seems like the end of the world, man, but this too shall pass. America is 250 years old. It survived Madison's judicial shenanigans. It survived Fillmore's incompetence. It survived Lincoln's trampling of federalism. It survived Wilson's stroke. It survived Nixon's criminality. It survived Biden's senility. It can can survive 4 years of Donald Trump's narcissism too.
Hmm, looks like you've forgotten that weighty to-do list you'd outlined for Don in your last comment. I thought he was just what the doctor ordered, and was about to transform the world? Now it's just old fashioned nihilism-they're all the same, so who cares, nothing really matters in the end. Might as well just buy some $TRUMP coin and hope for the best. Ironically, this nihilism is the end state that autocrats seek in their flocks. Hang in there, imagine if JD 1.0 proves prophetic:). But I gotta say, it's interesting that you expect, and will support, future armed insurrections sponsored by D's, because, well, everyone is doing it. Just good ole partisan bickering.
Meanwhile use that google thingy, maybe a little AI, and see if you can find a more prosperous period in human history, and one more devoid of major power conflict, than the post war period. I can bitch too, we all have a list of how we've been wronged, but it was a pretty damn lucky time to be alive. I don't know your background, but I'm pretty humble about mine. I was born on third base simply because I'm a white, heterosexual, male born into the most prosperous period, and nation, in human history. Seems to me we all have a duty to strengthen that system, not work to obliterate it.
I guess if I was a Don apologist I'd spend a lot of time talking about Reagan too. Reagan was a normal human being.
Poor Henry. He was once a low ranking, Reagan adjacent operative. Then he, like JD, Little Marco, and so many others in my former party, capitulated. Publicly. Now he's "fervently" MAGA. No rational human could think Don has an actual strategery to help workin stiffs, let alone the discipline to enact it. The only revealed preference we have from Don regarding economic policy is the BBB. It's a budget busting, workin stiff hosing, transfer of wealth to Don's fellow plutocrats.
Other than that, Don is far more fixated on pocketing loot from crypto corruption, naming buildings after himself, shredding alliances with fellow democracies, sending masked/untrained agents to terrorize our neighbors instead of criminals (only in blue jurisdictions, showing his real motivation), attacking the rule of law, pursuing retribution against his political enemies, blowing up fishing boats and invading foreign lands in contravention of US and international law, hollowing out the civil service, decimating the best public health/scientific research entities in the world, shaking down corporate America with his taco tariffs, taking ownership stakes in major corporations, etc... Welcome to the "new" right. One might otherwise identify them as comrades from 20th century North Korea.
Hmmmmm. My bias swings counter to the comments posted here. Trump is not a god, but you certainly do underestimate his smarts and ability to listen. He's not as narcissistic or stupid as you make him out to be.
The article was excellent and drew a clear strategy for Trump to seriously consider.
As far as I'm concerned there's only one issue and that is getting a document like this in front of Trump's eyes. Gatekeepers keep a lot of good stuff out of the hands of their leaders because they're protecting their own turf.
As my mentor would say "everyone wants to play on their own monopoly board."
Trump’s approach to the immigration crisis is highly unpopular and most likely to reelect the very Democrats who opened our borders and will do so when they regain power. A far wiser and just as productive way forward would be to go after the employers of the illegals. Perp walking a few of those suits would result in more out migration than anything ICE can hope to accomplish with all its sturm und drang.
Are we forgetting Carter passed most of the deregulation legislation and hired Volcker?
I agree that the long term is the proper metric for judging the Administration's economic policies. And they are mainly bad
The One Budget Bashing bill increases the deficit, increased borrowing to pay for consumption
Deportations reduce the labor force.
increased obstacles to trade make the economy less efficient.
Attacks on the Feb make it more difficult to hue to the amount of inflation that maximizes employment.
[Reserving the hostility to fossil fuel production and transportation and reducing of excess subsidies to some CO2 emission reductions programs were good but replacing them with hostility to solar and wind was not.]
Other then the budget deficit, every thing else you claim is wrong. It's the Neo-Liberal consensus that is pulling us backwards.
High labor costs is what drives innovation in labor saving technologies. Remember how robots were going to take all the factory jobs. Right up until we made it legal and more profitable to exploit the lack of protections for Chinese labor or their environment. It's like expecting someone to develop the tractor when slavery is still legal. In fact, the irony of slavery is that after the civil war, plantation owners made more money. Turns out slavery was holding back the move towards domestic migratory workers. So it was cheaper to pay more money for the labor you did need, without having to spend lots more on security and make work for the rest of the year.
So if you want things to improve, then we need to deport all the illegals. In reality what has been created is segregation 2.0. Millions of people that can be used and abused without the ability to turn to the state, the courts, or even unionize. We've even managed to recreated the terror of the KKK in these woke morons that you see up in Minnesota and elsewhere.
Then you get to the trade issue. We've created a massive tragedy of the commons. Countries like Mexico get factories thanks to the corruption and lack of protection for their workers and the environment. Better yet, they spend nothing on defending the global supply chains feeding those factories. Canada on the other hand watches as their factories reduce shifts and close up shop. Meanwhile they get to spend lots of their own blood and treasure helping the US fight pirates and chase terrorist. The whole thing is going to collapse.
Seriously, just look at the latest agreement from the goofballs at NATO. France and Germany are going to spend upwards of 5% on defense. Really, even when the Spanish said "go screw". Ireland and Austria aren't part of NATO and spend 0.25% and 1% respectively. How long until Volkswagen is headquartered in Ireland and getting it's products for the US made in Mexico with it's European models built in Brazil.
We're piling stupid on top of stupid. Allowing more and more blatant corruption. Trump isn't some genius, just someone that can catch the mood. In reality a lot more people have to get their heads out of their rears and realize that the economic arguments underlying the whole Neo-liberal world order are overly simplified and create a poverty trap.
I like your points about sharing the burden of global market infrastructure. Free riding is a problem.
I did not understand the comparison of Canada and Mexico.
You also make good points about the unoptimality of having lots of undoucumented immigrants. Depoting them all, even if that could be done costlessly (ICE-less-ly) wuld not be an improvement on the status quo
When it comes to Canadian companies, they are in the same mess as American manufactures. The current talking points of the useful idiots, is all that it's about net-zero. Sure, that's a dumb policy but that doesn't mean we're going to go back to allowing higher levels of lead, mercury, and cadmium to be dumped into our environment. Yet you can get away with that in Mexico. You can also get away with having your workers in a less safe environment.
So Toyota, Ford, Nissan and GM keep shifting their plants to Mexico. This includes their Canadian plants. So Canadian industry has been hollowed out the same as our in many respects. It's almost a reverse mercantilism. Giving Mexico low tariffs while ignoring their much lower regulatory environment along with the corruption has created a system that means Canada and the US can only produce the low value added raw materials.
You would think Canada would be a major source of furniture and cabinets, but their rules to protect the environment and health of their people mean that Canadian lumber goes to Mexico to be turned into the much higher value added furniture and cabinets.
All that is enough to insure that, over time, Canada and the US lose out to nations like Mexico, then you bring in defense. Maybe Iraq was a mistake but the Canadians sent troops anyway. They also send their troops to train with NATO in Europe. Then they send their navy to conduct freedom of navigation exercises in the South China sea. Canada has been one of our best allies. How do we reward this?
Mexico has been a national security threat for most of its existence. Over the last few decades, smuggling drugs, human trafficking, even allowing people on our terrorist watchlist to slip across the border. You can add in allowing their companies to get away with bringing in Chinese made spare parts and repackaging them to get around our tariffs. There by undermining our companies. How do we reward this?
We reward corrupt and irresponsible behavior through our trade policies, then wonder why we get more corrupt and irresponsible behavior. This also means we inadvertently punish responsible behavior. The irony is that if Canada had pulled out of NATO. Stayed out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Kept their much smaller navy home. Bought a few Chinese fighters to replace their aging F18s. They could have significantly reduce their taxes, lowered their deficits and saved more of their industrial base. And argued that it's hypocritical to ask more of them then we do of Mexico.
And we don't have to deport all the illegals, but any real change is only going to come after we deport enough and change the attitude of all the GOP as well as Democrat sellouts that have become too comfortable with the corrupt new version of segregation that our lack of immigration enforcement has become.
The environmental issues you point to are examples of different jurisdictions having different assessments of the costs of the damages. If processing certain kinds of timber have higher environmental costs in Canada than in Mexico, Canada is better off exporting the timber than incurring those environmental costs. What’s the problem? [I am assuming that Canada has not applied too costly a standard. THAT would be a problem but not a problem of international trade but of oor Canadian regulation.]
The problem is the international trade. You're basically saying that you're going to limit Canada to a very low value added, resource extraction and agricultural society. There will always be another country that is willing to pollute their environment and abuse their people. So Canada will slowly but surely hollow out any abilities to design, manufacture and produce higher value goods.
Now at some point, the average Canadian, will wise up and realize that they are increasingly stuck with low paying service jobs and returning to an almost feudal society. By then the nation will be deep in debt and a worthless ally to America. Poor, non-industrial nations aren't known for their advanced air forces or navies.
So yeah, Countries like Mexico and China care a lot less about the environment and their own people's health. China has whole villages dying of cancers related to the heavy metals their companies have dumped so they could corner the market for rare earths.
Here in America that attitude has hollowed out our middleclass and left us almost at the point we can't replace our aging warships. That same attitude is why our European allies have been underfunding their defenses and making themselves too reliant on things like Russian oil. That same attitude means we don't reward Canada for being a reliable and responsible nation. Instead we move production to irresponsible nations.
It's rather short sighted and will crash in the end. The question at this point is just how much damage it will have done before enough people in America figure it out.
??? Limiting the damage that a specific industry causes to consumers or other firms (if the cost of the limittion is less than the cost of the damage, which is the way good environmetal regulation/taxation is supposed to work) raises total income.
This article has serious ideas (even if they don’t all coalesce accurately). Now picture the Trump cabinet meetings. No seriously- picture that in your head. And honestly tell yourself that a serious, competent strategy is in place. Denial is not just the longest river in the world!
There are many types of intelligence. The type required to lead the world’s most complex, dynamic country is wholly different than the type needed to host reality TV.
As for commonplace:
The time to fight against globalization was during the Reagan era. I personally am skeptical that the wave could’ve been prevented from landing on our shores. Technological advancement probably did as much to change our economy as outsourcing. Are China’s trade policies fair? No. Would working with our allies be the way to affect positive change? Yes. Would TPP have been a good start? Yes. Does a massive trade deficit mean we’re being ripped off by the rest of the world? No. Why doesn’t the trade deficit include all the services we export- just goods? There is a way to even out our trade deficit. Sinking our economy into a depression would do it.
Would bringing back value added manufacturing for resilience be smart? Yes. For those left behind by automation, AI or outsourcing, teaching ppl the skilled trades is essential. Unhooking healthcare from employment would also provide stability and dynamism for workers/economy. And for the love of God- close loopholes so ppl pay their fair share of taxes!!! Right now billionaires pay NO tax. Literally nothing. High income ppl pay a lot but the truly wealthy pay nothing. Their motto: SALARIES ARE FOR SUCKERS! (Ie)Bezos paid no income or payroll tax and received $4000 for child tax credit! They don’t take an income & borrow against their assets for day to day expenses. See “Second Estate” book by professor RMadoff.
Golly Beaver, one might argue that Reagan actually had convictions, experience, and moral certitude. I emphasize "might" because all such arguments could easily be countered. Nobody, though, could argue that Donald Trump has convictions, experience, and moral certitude. One could make the case that the man is a mad would-be emperor blinded by his narcissism, and compelled for his own legal protection to use the Republican Party as his cannon-fodder.
Nice to see you working though, Beav. Now that the Post has collapsed maybe you can get your cubicle back.
Not sure the swing voters are the key in the same way as in Reagan's day. Then people would really switch sides. In today's polarized world, everyone one is completely dug in and the trick is energizing the low propensity voters. It is often asserted that this is hard without Trump on the ballot so Trump is putting himself on the ballot like FDR in 34. Democrat rage may actually help. There is certainly plenty to go around.
yes, yes, and yes!