"You say you'll change the Constitution, well, you know
We all wanna change our head
Don't you know it's gonna be alright, alright, alright"John Lennon, "Revolution" 1968
Democrats are worried sick about the state of the country.
Trump isn't just breaking norms. He is breaking laws, and bragging about it. He is flouting the Constitution, and bragging about that, too. Democrats are looking up German history and trying to decide if this is 1932, or if we are past that already, 1934.
Democrats think they have an ace in the hole to protect America against its worst impulses: Trump is going to crash the economy. When that happens, his popularity will wane and Republican representatives and senators will stop quaking in fear and rediscover their principles.
Democrats have that moral quandary: Is it OK to wish the economy sputters, with all the human pain that means, if it results in ending Trump's assault on the Constitution? Trump's trade policies are sowing the seeds of his own destruction, right?
I suspect not. Trump has ambitions, not principles. He wants to be on Mount Rushmore. He wants to be praised. He has a powerful gift for a politician in a democracy. He wants desperately to be popular.
He doesn't really care about tariffs, and he is already pausing and backing away from them. He has done irretrievable damage to the U.S. brand and reputation as a reliable partner -- and that matters long term -- but in the short term Trump will claim to having made other countries knuckle under, but active trade will be restored. There is a simple reason for that: Trade makes people happier and wealthier. It is the equilibrium state and market forces will push people back toward it. Trump will eventually do what makes economic sense.
The galling truth for Democrats is that Trump inherited a strong and resilient economy and Trump will take credit for it. Face that reality.
Unemployment is low.
Retail spending is strong and trending up.
The inflation trend line is down.
The problem for Democrats is that what President Biden and candidate Kamala Harris said about the economy was true, but people didn't believe it. Things are pretty good overall. Joe Biden could not sell strength and optimism and vitality. He didn't look or sound the part. At best he projected experience, or at least stability, but not vitality.
Trump -- for all his corruption and lawlessness -- does project can-do strength. He projects energy. Evil energy, to be sure. But energy.
And since he wants to be popular he is not going to persist in tanking the economy. Democrats don't have that ace in the hole.
Democrats need not fear prosperity. They can stop Trump and his assault on norms and the Constitution. Trump is exhausting, and the public tires of Trump. And Democrats can take a page from Trump and do popular things and stop doing unpopular things.
***Stop defending and minimizing an unmanaged border. Even first and second generation Hispanics want a secure border. Be the border-enforcement party. Do it right, but do it.
***Stop making race central. Even a majority of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and others are uncomfortable with race-based attention. Martin Luther King was right: content of character, not color of skin.
***Stop pretending sex isn't pretty darned real. Democrats don't need to attack non-typical gender expressions -- live and let live, be who you are -- but don't deny the lived experiences of most people, which is that boys and girls are different in some pretty spectacular ways.
***Don't bash wealth and act as if is the enemy. Most people would like to be wealthy. It is why people buy lottery tickets. It is why people work hard and save and invest. It is why people sacrifice to send their kids to college, so their kids might be prosperous. Talk about, and advance policies, that enable people to get ahead.
People voted for Trump only because Democrats were stuck defending unpopular policies. This is politics in a democracy: Give people what they want.
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16 comments:
Peter Sage for president! Oh shoot he is too old, oh wait, maybe he isn’t too old? Maybe someone who sounds like Peter who is 53 years old. Male, heterosexual, smart, white, educated at least with a 4 year degree, married with 2 young kids, no illegal history, comfortably wealthy with a successful small to medium size business.
Good points, but:
While enforcing the border, let’s not forget that we’re a nation of immigrants. Asylum-seekers are human too and should be treated as such.
Race may not be central now, but it sure was in the past and we have yet to adequately address the lingering disparities in health, wealth, etc.
Sex will always be a fraught subject. All the state needs to concern itself with is behavior that causes harm, such as Trump’s sexual abuse.
There’s nothing wrong with seeking wealth, but when the disparity between rich and poor becomes too extreme (as it is now), it has historically become a catalyst for revolution.
President Biden left tariffs in place from the first Trump administration. Your argument that the Biden administration had a messaging problem is correct. One reason it is correct is that, in some important respects, Biden policies deferred to Trump policies; that confuses some voters and convinces other voters that Trump is/was on the right track. Another example, besides tariffs, is that President Biden, in getting the U.S. out of Afghanistan, said his hands were tied by the "agreement" Trump made with the Taliban. But what is most baffling to me is why Vice President Harris, when asked how she would differ from Biden on policy if she were President, essentially said that she would be the same as Biden.
It’s pretty evident people would rather promote their prejudices than be prosperous. And the lottery? That’s just socialism.
Giving Biden, or anyone, credit for bringing down inflation is a stretch. The post Covid supply chain shortages were self correcting. What we do have now is an economy at the mercy of our trading partners. Let’s hope they’re all good Christians.
You all can complain about Trump all you want, but the Democrats don't even have one politician who can match-up with Trump. The Democrats' bench is weak, and their agenda is misguided. Trump isn't perfect, but he's better than anything that the Democrats can field.
It was just announced today that Joe Biden has an aggressive form of prostate cancer. It couldn't happen to a more worthy asshole.
The above comment by "anonymous" and one earlier today that insulted my brother are written in the style of Curt Ankerberg. Curt writes comments of this kind, some signed, some not, approximately daily. He -- or someone perfectly mimicking Curt's very well-established style -- writes to express his joy when local civil leaders die. He writes comments that predict the joy he will feel when he reads my obituary. Curt Ankerberg is a candidate for school board in Medford. I recognize that there is a slice of the voting public -- Republicans, Trump-supporters, people who feel comfortable calling Kamala Harris and other women sluts -- who like the Ankerberg style. He will get some votes, I expect. Curt gives voters the courtesy of showing them who he is. You know what you get it you vote for him. If you read comments and sentiments like the Anonymous one happy to read about Biden, and you think to yourself, GREAT!, then Curt Ankerberg is your candidate.
Curt's anger, obscenity and lies make him the quintessential MAGA.
Who gives a fuck? The elections are rigged. Medford is run by organized crime. It is celebration time when a crooked good old boy kicks the bucket. I can't wait to see who is next.
This is the typical response from the far left wing of the Democratic Party: good advice, but we are not going to follow it. We are too committed to our left wing ideology to compromise over insignificant things like winning elections.
If the Democrats don't move to the center, they will be wandering in the political wilderness for a long time.
Curt Ankerberg signed this one, and another I will not publish. Curt is a Republican, a Trump supporter, and a candidate for the Medford school board.
All I'm suggesting is that we remain humane. If we need to abandon our values to win elections, we'd be no different from MAGA.
PS: Screw elections. As Bruce Springsteen recently observed:
My home, the America I love… is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration. Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!
It continues, and is worth reading:
https://brucespringsteen.net/news/2025/land-of-hope-and-dreams/
I don't accept the premise that we cannot have secure borders, done with care., legally and reasonably. The notion that border security MUST be inhumane gave us Trump, because Democrats gave up. If we can do TSA we can do border security. It does start by telling people the need to come here legally, not what Biden did, which was send the message that if you camera her you would get lost forever in a broken system and can stay for decades.
It sounds like we're in agreement. We can and should secure our borders while still treating people like human beings with unalienable rights.
I thought Biden's program that required people to make an appointment through a phone app while they remained in Mexico was a good start. It's frustrating because everyone says they are okay with people coming here legally but this is difficult for a number of reasons, cost being one of them. Now, even people who are here legally are being deported or told to leave.
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