When Trump was recently asked what his plan was for dealing with Iran he replied, “I mean, you don’t know that I’m going to even do it.  You don’t know.  I may do it, I may not do it.  I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.” [Least of all, him!]  He added, “Nothing’s finished until it’s finished. You know, war is very complex. A lot of bad things can happen. A lot of turns are made.” Well, that certainly conveys a lot of confidence, doesn’t it?

The speed at which President Trump took action against Iran was indeed impressive.  In contrast, during his first term he promised us he’d have a health plan ready in two weeks—repeatedly, week after week—and similarly his promise of 30 tariff/trade agreements in 30 days has yet to materialize.  What ever happened to those 30 deals in 30 days, anyway?  Except for a preliminary agreement with China and a partial deal with the UK, it seems that most of our trading partners were about as interested in taking him up on the offer as Russia and Ukraine were in reaching a peace settlement on his first day in office.  

In the meantime, Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” gets more disastrous by the day, giving more to the rich and taking everything possible away from the (often MAGA) poor and middle class.  Now the Republicans are even trying to lower the gift and inheritance tax exemption, lest they leave any benefit for the rich on the table.  The Republicans are living back in the day of Ronald Reagan and the supply-siders, who honestly believed that cutting taxes would stimulate growth and ultimately reduce the national debt.  History has proven that theory wrong, but no matter, Trump and his crime family will have made their billions, and won’t be around to suffer the consequences of their greedy actions.  America will simply continue to mortgage its children’s future with no end in sight.

I Liked Trump Better (Although Not Much!) when He was TACO.

Then we have the mass deportations that constitute Trump’s immigration policy.  Putting the cruelty aside, how does Trump expect the agriculture, hospitality, and construction industries to survive if he deports a good portion of their workers?  As with his proposed tariffs, he doesn’t seem to acknowledge the potential impact on the economy and consumer prices.  How does he expect to keep grocery prices down if the vegetables don’t get picked and the meat isn’t slaughtered and packed?  And we already have a terrible housing shortage without increasing the cost of construction. (And who knows how a war with Iran might impact gasoline prices.) Until Congress tackles substantive immigration reform (like Trump made sure was killed in 2024), the result won’t be good for anyone involved, including many MAGA voters, who desperately need help, not more economic punishment.  

Talk about men behaving badly!  All those nasty threats and attacks—Trump threatening to take away Elon’s government contracts, Elon threating to Trump with impeachment, etc.—remind us what an embarrassment this administration is, that its purpose isn’t to govern but to make more money for Trump and his favorite oligarchs, not just Musk, but the whole greedy lot—you know, members at Mar-a-Lago and the Bedminster golf club, not to mention his crypto crowd.  Indeed, Trump has made more than 1$ billion on crypto in the past year despite his failure to tackle the problems the American people elected him to solve.

Yes, in a way, their embarrassing breakup is just one more shiny object that distracts us from Trump’s substantive failures at president. Never mind failing to deal with the cost of living or ending the war in Ukraine on day one, what about 90 trade deals in 90 days based on his ignorant obsession with tariffs? Like most of the deals Trump has made in his lifetime, they’ll probably end in disaster or never come to fruition, the latter of which would clearly be preferable for all involved in this case.  

The Only Person Unhappy to See Trump and Elon Breakup is Kanye West.

As Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) told Russell Vought, Trump’s budget director and one of the principal authors of “Project 2025,” during his recent appearance before the House Appropriations Committee: “Be honest, this was never about government efficiency. In fact, an efficient government, a government that capably serves the American people and proves good government is achievable is what you fear the most. You want a government so broken, so dysfunctional, so starved of resources, so full of incompetent political lackeys and bereft of experts and professionals that its departments and agencies cannot feasibly achieve the goals and the missions to which they are lawfully directed.  Your goal is privatization, for the biggest companies to have unchecked power, for an economy that does not work for the middle class, for working and vulnerable families. You want the American people to have no one to turn to, but to the billionaires and the corporations this administration has put in charge.”

Musk claims he’s worried about the budget deficit and the “pork” in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” but it’s obvious that all he cares about are his government contracts and personal wealth.  This humble spirit still hasn’t gotten over the spectacle of the world’s richest person joyfully tossing about a chainsaw after cutting off food and medicine for some of the world’s poorest people.  Elon might not be the richest person in the world much longer if his overpriced Tesla meme stock keeps tanking, but he can rest assured he’ll always be the only person in the world as narcissistic as Donald Trump.  He’s proven that he would submit people to any degree of suffering to further his own ambitions, the most passionate being his desire to someday colonize Mars.  Why not just send him to Mars at the taxpayers’ expense and be done with it?

Indeed, the image of White farmers being slaughtered by Black boogeymen makes wonderful fodder for Trump. Talk about an ugly trope going back to the days of slavery in the American South and the fear of slave insurrections!  And not surprisingly, like much of what Trump says, it’s not true.  South Africa is known to have a terrible crime problem, but Blacks are killed at a much higher rate than Whites. (Apparently the horrible video that Trump shared with the South African president in the Oval Office was of atrocities committed in Congo.) 

Trump isn’t concerned with what happens to White Afrikaner farmers, but rather with inspiring rage among his base and distracting from his many failures since taking office, including: prices haven’t gone down as he promised and inflation will likely head back up as soon as his ill-advised tariffs kick in; he hasn’t ended the wars in Ukraine or Gaza or struck a nuclear deal with Iran; DOGE hasn’t cut anywhere near the two trillion from the federal budget that Elon Musk promised; and his “One Big, Beautiful Bill” will explode the already out-of-control deficit and increase our disastrous inequality by transferring even more wealth from the middle class to the rich (assuming that it or a reasonable facsimile passes the Senate). Trump has succeeded in lowering illegal immigration at the Southern border, but his promise to deport 15-20 million illegal aliens is looking about as feasible as DOGE reaching its two trillion target, unless, of course, they start deporting American citizens en masse—which they might!

The Mad King Who Rescues White Farmers Banishes Foreign Students.

In the meantime, all the fuss over the “coverup” of Joe Biden’s mental decline during his presidency is a bit rich for this humble spirit.  Sorry folks, but how revealing that so many Washington insiders are shocked by what more than two-thirds of Americans knew all along—that Joe Biden was in a serious state of decline and was no longer fit for office, let alone capable of serving a second term. (Whatever happened to the “transitional” president?) The fact is, most people knew what they saw with their own eyes long before Biden’s disastrous debate performance.

Who did those closest to Biden think they were fooling?  A lot of people should think twice before showing their faces in public again.  Kamela Harris attacked the Hur Report for calling Biden a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.” Clearly she knew she was collaborating in a ridiculous scam; didn’t she realize that she would end up looking ridiculous?  And Jim Clyburn, the former Democratic House Whip, actually counseled his fellow Democrats to “stay the course” AFTER the debate!  Could he not see there was no possible course for a Biden candidacy?  Even more astounding, Jaime Harrison, the Chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2021 to 2025, continues to defend Biden’s viability for a second term.

Unfortunately, there’s no Sign the Democratic Party is Getting its Act Together Anytime Soon.  

They’re already trying to get rid of David Hogg, one of their new vice-chairmen, for the crime of funding challenges to incumbents and representing a younger generation’s viewpoint.  I regret using this line again, but the Democratic Party’s median age cannot continue to be deceased.  What we need desperately in this country right about now is a strong opposition party.  Normally the Democrats would be likely suspects for the job, but without some substantive new policies and messages, I fear they’re unlikely to meet the moment.

Unfortunately, I can’t talk about Sinners and the violence done to Black people without mentioning the disappointing news out of Memphis last week about the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in 2023.  Three (now former) police officers were acquitted of all charges, including second degree murder, by a predominantly white jury.  Although two other former officers previously took guilty pleas for their involvement, the verdict represented another sad day in our country’s long history of racial injustice.  It should be noted that a Justice Department investigation concluded that the Memphis Police Department had engaged in a pattern of excessive violence and discriminatory treatment of Black people.  This humble spirit has never advocated for defunding the police, but unfortunately despicable behavior on the part of some officers continues to reflect the worst sins of Jim Crow.

MAGA’s Mad King is Proving a Corrupt Fraud!

And talk about a sinner carrying on the tradition of exploitation that Blacks were subjected to in the Jim Crow South, Mad King Trump is ruling over the most corrupt administration in American history.  We know Trump is an expert at controlling the narrative with his endless barrage of shiny objects, but it’s increasingly clear that the whole Trump presidency, all his trampling on the Constitution, the entire tariff/trade fiasco, even the deporting of American citizens, is nothing but one extended distraction from the enormous grift that’s taking place right in front of our eyes.  If you look at what Trump and his two dimwit sons, Don Jr. and Eric, are doing with crypto and meme coins, the opportunity for corruption (i.e. bribes for the mad king and his family), is almost boundless, something the corrupt politicians of pre-tech yesteryear could hardly dream of.

In the meantime, Trump’s head DOGE honcho, Elon Musk, may have destroyed the Tesla brand with his chainsaw, but his greed and kutspa are indefatigable. (Talk about a vampire, what can be said about the world’s richest man publicly delighting in taking food and medicine away from some of the world’s poorest, most desperate people?)  He seems determined to use his relationship with Trump to monopolize control of communications for his Starlink satellites, including overhauling the country’s outdated air-traffic-control system.  Musk wants to be lord and master of the world’s communications, and he’s hoping the power-hungry mad king can make it happen.  

Coming up against the judiciary in his quest to deport American citizens without due process, Trump now wants to suspend the right of habeas corpus, the legal principle that protects citizens from imprisonment without first being brought before a judge.  As scary as that is, it’s possible that Musk’s chainsaw will always be the symbol of Mad King Trump running rampant over our Constitution in pursuit of personal gain for himself, his family, and his wealthy supporters.  Despite the pretense of populism, MAGA is nothing but a grift, a dangerous slide toward an oligarchy of vampires.

So here we are, America, facing a similar dilemma almost 50 years after Annie and Alvy went on their movie date.  With the exception of the judiciary, a cadre of journalists, and most recently, Harvard University, far too many of us have “bent the knee” or remained silent in the face of Trump’s fascistic overreach, which is the equivalent of collaboration.  

Sending People to a Gulag-Like Foreign Prison Without Due Process—What the Hell?!

It’s no surprise that the two Republican-controlled houses of Congress seem perfectly willing to collaborate and cede their Constitutional power to Trump and his MAGA regime.  Some of them are afraid of being “primaried,” while others secretly approve of the regime’s actions and are more than happy to hide behind “mad king” Trump, no matter how mad he becomes.  One might have assumed that Trump’s self-destructive foray into tariffs and trade wars would have been the final straw for a party that traditionally championed free trade, but it’s hardly fazed them.  Maybe when the impacts become apparent—more inflation, empty store shelves, even an all-out recession—they’ll change their tune, but in the meantime the mad king is running roughshod over American democracy and the Constitution as he races to fulfil the promise of Project 2025.

Arresting Judges—Are You Kidding me?!

Do the Democrats take Trump’s threats to our country seriously or not?  The Republican collaborators control both houses of Congress, but can’t the Democrats at least put their freedom of speech to use while they still have it?  There are exceptions, most notably Bernie Sanders and AOC, as well as the blessedly long-winded Cory Booker, who deserve tremendous credit for rallying the country against Trump’s overreach, but Democratic “leadership” has been a pitiful LACK of display.  I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are hopelessly comatose.  Dick Durbin, the Democratic Senate whip, just announced his retirement, but at 80 it was long-overdue and just a start in the right direction.  The Dems desperately need new blood at the top, as well as some fresh messaging and communications people from outside their tired, worn-out bubble.  It’s a sad state of affairs when the de facto leader of the party, Bernie Sanders, is an 83-year-old independent and self-described democratic socialist. (This humble spirit has nothing against democratic socialists, mind you, but surely you get the point.)

Deporting United States Citizens, Including Children—Is This Still America?!

Along with the judiciary repeatedly ruling against Trump’s endless spate of executive orders, the greatest resistance during Trump’s first 100 days in office has come from everyday Americans in the form of protests and townhalls nationwide, not only in “blue” urban areas, but in small cities and towns that aren’t exactly hotbeds of “radical left” rebellion.  That shows there are plenty of people still willing to risk their Bloomingdale’s charge cards on behalf of democracy and their fellow citizens.  Unfortunately, one gets the impression that the majority of Democrats had their Bloomie’s cards shutoff long ago and don’t even have the wherewithal to reapply.  

Establishing a Federal Autism Registry—Only Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would come up with something that sick and scary!

It all reminds this humble spirit of the bumbling French Police Inspector Jacques Clouseau, another undaunted narcissist who never considers the possibility that he’s wrong or might be the one at fault.  In the midst of making a total fool of himself for the umpteenth time, he claims that “every move I make is carefully planned.” As ridiculous as that sounds—just like Trump’s assertion that he knows what he’s doing based on “instinct”—he clearly believes it.  Like Trump, the absurdity of Clouseau’s narcissism knows no bounds.  

When, in another classic scene, Clouseau walks straight into a wall rather than through an open doorway, he reacts by telling his host that he should have his “architect investigated.”  It doesn’t enter his mind that he’s an idiot who walks into walls; no, to his way of thinking the architect is obviously at fault for putting the door in the wrong place.  If that isn’t narcissism—expecting a door to be wherever you want it—I don’t know what is.  He isn’t embarrassed so much as he’s angry that he suffered for someone else’s mistake.  Clouseau may be a blithering fool, but in his mind he’s never wrong.  Remind you of anyone?

“Every Move I Make is Carefully Planned”

Inspector Clouseau, A Shot in the Dark, 1964

“It was All Part of the Plan”

Scott Bessent, Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury, 2025

Trump, no matter the absurdity, never EVER admits he’s wrong or sees the errors of his ways; he just doubles down and down and down.  In reality, of course, he’s been walking into walls all his life, including bankrupting six businesses and stiffing his contractors for millions in the process.  He seemingly thought he could turn Atlantic City into another Las Vegas on the East Coast, but like many of his ventures, the result was disastrous. (The Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino was finally demolished in 2021.) Remember, despite turning himself into a New York City celebrity via endless self-promotion, Trump was a loser in business, who remains persona non grata with America’s banks to this day.  In other words, the odds that he knows what he’s doing when it comes to international trade and monetary policy are infinitesimally small.

The Notion that Trump is a Successful Businessman is a Joke!

Whatever his foibles, Clouseau’s narcissistic stupidity didn’t threaten to send the country into recession, bring down the world financial order, or destroy the American dollar.  The vast majority of economists, investors, and business people think that raising tariffs and starting a trade war is a terrible idea that won’t end well for the United States or the American people.  But Trump has the audacity to believe that he’s right and everyone else is wrong.  As long as the whole world kisses his ass, aka put money in one of the many presidential coffers. 

The president’s order claims the Smithsonian has advanced “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” More specifically, it claims the Smithsonian has “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology,” which we might assume is code for his intention to target the National Museum of African American History and Culture.  As we know, the MAGA version of “divisive” is anything that is opposed to their beliefs, which are often dead wrong.  In other words, in MAGA world, “divisive” is often used as a synonym for what the rest of us consider the truth.

Trump wants the Smithsonian to be “A Symbol of Inspiration and American Greatness,” which Means Erasing the Unpleasant Realities of American History.

The order also directs the Secretary of the Interior to determine what “public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the department’s jurisdiction have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history.” The “American history” he’s referring to, of course, is his version of American history, what he and his MAGA base want to be true, regardless of facts to the contrary.  Time and again they’ve demonstrated they have no respect for the truth, and more often than not they refuse to accept it. 

The irony is that many of the monuments, memorials, and statues he’s seemingly referring to are themselves “false reconstructions of American history,” most especially the Confederate monuments erected across the South to glorify the “lost cause,” the ultimate example being Stone Mountain outside of Atlanta, GA.  Unfortunately, there are still a lot of people, many now calling themselves MAGAs, who want to believe that myth.  As I say on my website:

The Lost Cause is nothing but a myth portraying the Confederacy as noble and its leaders as chivalrous.  The myth conveniently omits the fact that the true cause of the war was slavery—the greed of the Cotton Kingdom and its slave-holding class.  People who still believe in the Lost Cause are euphemistically called “apologists” and accused of engaging in “historical revisionism” but if you ask me, they’re nothing but a bunch of out-and-out lying fools. . . 

Make no mistake, Trump and his MAGAs are the ones engaged in trying to change history, while the Smithsonian, especially in recent decades, has been trying to educate Americans about the truth.

No cause is more important to this humble spirit than refuting the ridiculous lies manufactured about the times in which I lived and the terrible Slave Power for which I foolishly sacrificed my young life.  So suffice to say, nothing gets up my ire more than Donald Trump and his MAGAs working to promote “false reconstructions of American history.”  And as someone whose own portrait by famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady now resides in the Smithsonian’s Portrait Gallery I make no secret that I feel I have a personal stake in helping to maintain the Institution’s high standards!

Lately it’s hard not to see similar impulses at work in their fearless leader, Donald Trump.  With his passion for tariffs tanking his cherished stock market and putting the American economy at risk for no good reason, clearly there’s a disturbing parallel between Trump’s destructive behavior and the negative MAGA psyche.  And it doesn’t stop there; whether it be the U.S. economy, government agencies that enable our country to function, or the world order that America has dominated since the Second World War, Trump and his MAGAs make no secret of their desire for total destruction.  

Even though economists almost universally oppose tariffs, I’m not entirely unsympathetic with Trump’s goals, assuming I understand them correctly.  As part of his promise to “Make America Great Again,” Trump wants to turn the clock back to the days before the globalized economy, which to be fair, has all but decimated American manufacturing and eliminated the high-paying factory jobs which helped to build the American middle-class.  The problem is, to use a cliché that was popular back in my day, the horse is long since out of the barn.  One can make the argument that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a terrible mistake that cost our country dearly and was a major contributor to our current set of woes, but if I may evoke another old cliché, it’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle.  

Foreign Trade is a Lot More Complicated Today than it was in William McKinley’s Time.

Modern factories can take years to build or even retool and supply chains are complicated.  If anything is as ingrained in our national identity as the myth of the “cowboy” it’s the story of how the Ford Moter Company stopped producing cars and began building tanks and jeeps “overnight” when we entered World War II.  Maybe that was true in 1941, but such a feat would be virtually impossible to replicate today, technology being what it is.  It’s not just that tariffs and trade wars have been a disaster throughout American history, consider the goods being traded when Trump’s hero, William McKinley, was president (circa 1900); presumably they didn’t include automobiles or smart phones, and nobody worried about the supply of semiconductors.

Even if Trump is well-intentioned in his desire to reshore jobs and rebuild American industry, his tariff wars are unlikely to achieve that objective in any reasonable amount of time, if ever.  I realize there could be more complicated explanations for his behavior long-term, such as protecting the dollar-based global financial system, but in the meantime he refuses to acknowledge that tariffs are a tax on consumers, not the country that imports the goods.  In other words, tariffs will raise prices on many products that Americans buy, making our current inflation worse, the exact opposite of his campaign promise.  Many businesses, including the automotive sector, will be adversely impacted, forcing them to raise prices and lay off workers.  Between a blow to the stock market, inflation, and increased unemployment, we’re looking at increased odds of an all-out recession and/or a period of stagflation.  Trump admits we could be in for short term pain, but it’s highly questionable whether there will ever be any gain!

Just as Elon Musk’s pointless DOGE firings will hardly dent the Federal deficit, ambushing Zelensky feels like another example of the Trump Administration’s performance art approach to government; Vice President Vance’s remarks seemed like a setup, and President Trump even said the spectacle would make great television.  Trump knows his MAGA base likes to see their hero beat someone up (preferably an immigrant, a minority, or a foreigner) like a World Wrestling match.  There’s seemingly no limit to those people’s anger and appetite for violence.

Ukraine is a small democracy that was invaded by Vladimir Putin’s autocracy, also known as Russia.  Maybe Russia is a gas station with nuclear weapons, as the late John McCain called it, but a disproportionate amount of its GDP is devoted to its military budget and Putin’s militaristic ambitions in the name of restoring the “Soviet empire.”  Putin has shown he doesn’t care how many of his young men are killed in the process, as long as he stays in power. (Estimates vary, but at least 700,000 have been killed or wounded in the present conflict, and that’s excluding Ukrainian soldiers and the country’s awful civilian losses.)

The Way Trump Treated Zelensky, You’d Swear He was the Medicaid Budget!

Somehow it always comes back to the mysterious bromance between Trump and Putin.  Trump flipflops on just about everything, except Putin, who he treats like a sacred idol above reproach.  He calls Zelensky a dictator, but not Putin, the real dictator.  He makes sure the U.S. takes Russia’s side at the United Nations.  The list goes on.  He claims that both he and Putin were victims of the “Russia Hoax” (it wouldn’t be called a “hoax” if Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, hadn’t stopped the prosecution!), as though his enemy was the Democratic Party rather than Russia’s murderous authoritarian dictator. (Not unlike the “enemy within” that V.P. Vance spoke of in Munich). Trump even accused Zelensky of risking World War III, as if Putin’s desire to recreate the Soviet empire was the default position requiring the world’s acceptance.

What’s Trump’s fascination with Putin all about?  We used to suspect he was Putin’s puppet based on some unknown blackmail scenario, but given everything we know about Trump already, what harmful information could possibly still be out there?  Maybe it’s simply that Putin is the autocrat Trump longs to be, ruling all-powerful over the oligarchy Trump longs for.  It seems more than a coincidence that Putin might be the only man in the world richer than Trump’s DOGE henchman, Elon Musk. 

Speaking of the Democrats, hark, are they still around?  

A few of the Democrats should be commended for speaking out on behalf of American democracy, but as a group they’ve been awfully quiet lately.  I, for one, disagree with James Carville’s advice to lay low and let Trump and the Republicans implode of their own volition.  Too much damage will be done to the American experiment before November 2026 rolls around, let alone 2028.  Surely the Democrats have something to contribute to the national discourse besides merely protesting Elon Musk and DOGE.  In this humble spirit’s humble opinion they should aggressively offer positive new ideas and programs to benefit the American people, not just espouse worn-out talking points about “working families” that nobody even hears anymore.  In particular, I had high hopes for Hakeem Jeffries and commended Nancy Pelosi for stepping down (as Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin should have done a long time ago), but I increasingly fear he’s a waste of space. 

That’s hardly an exaggeration of how Trump exercises his power.  The success of his mostly unqualified, in some cases downright dangerous, cabinet nominees was based on Republican senators’ fear of being “primaried” by the MAGA base if they didn’t fall in line.  Although Trump won just short of 50% of the vote and his base constitutes at most a third of the electorate, the primary process gives them the power of the majority, the source of King Trump’s power.  But far uglier than losing a primary is the ever-present threat of violence on the part of Trump’s MAGA supporters, those proud to serve as his henchmen.  We know that members of Congress, along with their families, have received death threats to influence their votes, something usually associated with a third world banana republic.  Indeed, we’re talking about the threat of the guillotine hanging over our democracy.  Former President Nixon gave us All the President’s Men, but Trump’s henchmen, including the Capitol insurrectionists he pardoned, are potentially much more dangerous.

Trump constantly reminds this humble sprit of the adage, “if someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Trump has repeatedly shown us he is a mafia boss at heart, a real mafioso through and through.  He clearly sees the world from the standpoint of a crooked real estate developer who wants to make “deals.” Have you ever counted how many times he uses the word “deal”?  He seemingly has no concept of governing within a democracy, for him it’s all a matter of deals.  Case in point, the man seriously believes he’s going to make a deal to develop the Gaza strip into an international beach resort, regardless of whether the Palestinian people are expelled to. . . somewhere.  It doesn’t occur to him that the rest of the world—such as Egypt, Jordan, and the Saudis— have kingdoms of their own and might not share his vision. 

There is No Reason for ANYONE to Honor Confederate General Braxton Bragg.

If there’s anything this former Confederate officer knows inside and out it’s the Civil War, and especially the Confederate military.  Renaming Fort Liberty after an obscure World War II hero with the last name Bragg is a silly ploy, but it’s not nearly as ridiculous as having named it after Confederate General Braxton Bragg in the first place.  Never mind that he fought on behalf of the Slave Power for the worst cause that ever was, Bragg was one of the most incompetent generals of the Civil War, losing almost every battle he fought (Chickamauga being the notable exception), and thus playing a major role in the Confederacy’s defeat.  Defense Secretary Hegseth may have meant to throw his worst MAGAs a bone, but not even those who support the Confederacy’s white supremacist cause should pay tribute to an all-around loser like Braxton Bragg—even his own men hated him!

Last week Trump even blamed DEI for the terrible plane crash at Reagan National Airport, with no evidence to support his claim other than his “common sense.” By that logic you can blame DEI for just about anything, and you can be sure that in the coming months Trump and his supporters will do just that.  With no basis in fact, he blamed the crash on Democrats’ DEI policies, which is to say the inferiority and incompetence of women and minorities.  This is just a new version of the time-honored tradition of blaming everything on Blacks and Jews, the oldest scapegoats in a worn-out, used up playbook.

The audacity to blame DEI (the “other”) for the country’s worst aviation accident in over two decades represents another new low for Donald Trump.  Once again we’re reminded that, for Trump and MAGA, “cruelty is the point.” Their anger and almost pathological need for scapegoats knows no bounds.  This humble spirit used to question whether Trump actually believed the lies he spewed or if he was just throwing red meat to his base.  But the man has become so hideous, so old and ugly and mean, that his terrible lies are beginning to seem like honest beliefs. (Talk about the old adage, “everyone gets the face they deserve”!) The sad fact is, anyone who still believes that climate change is a “hoax” is liable to believe anything.

Trump and MAGA World Blame Everything on the “Other,” the Object of Their Hatred and Fear. And for them, DEI is Code for the “Other.”  

MAGA world, along with the tech-bro oligarchy that now serves as a benefactor, hates DEI because it represents the antithesis of WMS: white, male and straight, or a reasonable facsimile thereof.  Who in heck do these people think they’re kidding?!  When they talk about getting DEI out of government and corporations, what they really want is to put non-white, non-male, non-straight people back in their second-class, subservient place—and keep them there.  As we know, linking Marxism and communism to civil rights can be traced back to the early days of Reconstruction, when the South’s old (Confederate) guard manipulated poor whites by claiming that any improvement in Black people’s lives was perpetrated at their expense.  Over 150 years later, Trump and his MAGAs haven’t even bothered to put lipstick on that sorry old pig.

Following a rehash of his obligatory branding elements, including “Make America Great Again” (updated to “saved by God to make America great again”), “Put America First,” and “The Golden Age of America,” Trump launched into a diatribe of all the shiny objects he hopes will distract his MAGA base from the fact that he can’t possibly do what he promised them during the campaign.  Along with the pardons, the growing list included:

• The Gulf of Mexico will be called the Gulf of America and Mt. Denali will once again be called Mt. McKinley. (MAGAs, of course, would never question why the U.S. presumes that it’s “America,” when, in fact, it doesn’t even constitute half of the North American continent, let alone North and South America combined.)
• “Drill Baby Drill” expresses MAGA’s ignorant denial of climate change and Trump’s passionate dedication to the fossil fuel industry, never mind the U.S. is already the world’s largest producer of oil and gas and an increase is unlikely to reduce gasoline or heating prices as Trump contends.  
• The elimination of birthright citizenship, even though it is enshrined in the 14^th Amendment and would accomplish little except pacify “great replacement” fearing MAGAs.
• Take the Panama Canal back from Panama based on what appears to be a collection of false grievances, including the claim that China is getting favorable treatment.
• The government recognizes only two genders, male and female. The far-right’s obsession with transgender issues made for a great campaign ad but they are unlikely to substantively impact most of his supporters’ lives.

What happened to purchasing Greenland and turning Canada into the 51^st state, you ask?  Has he already changed his mind or did someone forget to load them on the teleprompter?  Even without them, much of the president’s inaugural address evoked 19th Century Imperialism, specifically “Manifest Destiny.” (Presumably when he said that America would “pursue Manifest Destiny into the stars” it was a nod to Elon Musk’s ambitions for Mars.) Lest he leave anything out, Trump promised “we’ll not forget our God,” which is presumably an attack on “Godless” Democrats and liberals, let alone the Marxists and communists that one of his executive orders officially banned from entering the country.

Maybe the Tech Bros Can Have Tax Breaks and Crypto, but We Can’t Let Them Have a Private Army of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers!

The fact is, Trump can’t do the big things he promised—bring down prices for things like groceries, gas and rent or fix the healthcare crisis (that’s a no-no for a big chunk of the Republican donor class), so he’s tossing out every shiny object he can think of and hoping some of them will stick.  As one commentator put it, Trump is trying to be both the arsonist and the fireman, creating issues out of nothing, and then portraying himself as the savior. 

It’s all nothing but cover for the tech bro oligarchs who were seated in the Capitol rotunda, the people who as good as own Trump and increasingly own the rest of us as well.  Never mind the top 1%, the people in that room have over $1 trillion dollars in wealth in a country already suffering from dangerous economic inequality.  Needless to say, the tech bros don’t have to worry about grocery or gas prices, or if their health insurance company will come through when they need it.

About to begin his second term as president, Trump doesn’t seem to have gained any respect for the truth and still tries to benefit from every event that comes along and gets into his head.  I suspect that Trump’s MAGA supporters don’t know the difference anymore; someone who isn’t white and/or has a foreign-sounding name is automatically branded as a member of the “other,” an enemy from elsewhere, the equivalent of a terrorist.

To Speaker Johnson’s Way of Thinking, America “Ended Slavery” and “Settled the West.” Talk About Glossing Over the Truth!

Who’s to say what distinguishes an outright lie from a euphemism, especially given how many get floated around?  Mike Johnson probably meant well when he accepted his speakership in the new Congress, but was it really necessary to claim the United States “ended slavery” and “settled the west”?  Perhaps if we didn’t begin as a slave colony/nation and allow the “peculiar institution” to flourish for almost 200 years (never mind another 100 years of Jim Crow), we wouldn’t have had to end it.  Even claiming that slavery “ended” is a polite euphemism for the Slave Power having been defeated in a terrible war that resulted in an estimated 1.5 million military casualties (of which this humble spirit was one).  Let’s be clear–slavery wasn’t ended voluntarily based on altruism; its evil had to be defeated on the battlefield.  While it could be said the war’s casualties were sacrificed on behalf of the abolitionist cause, I would argue that we should have avoided the peculiar institution in the first place.  But hey, without it we never would have had the “Cotton Kingdom” and grown into one of the mightiest nations on earth.  

As for “settling the West,” Speaker Johnson conveniently omitted almost three centuries of genocide and injustice committed against the indigenous people who lived on that land before European “settlers” arrived on the continent and began stealing it from them.  Seizing an entire continent is, indeed, a monumental achievement, but “settling” is an awfully polite term for slaughtering people and stealing their land for your own benefit.

At Least Elon Musk Spares Us the Euphemisms! 

When it comes to saying whatever’s on his mind, not even Trump can hold a candle to Elon Musk, who last week told his adversaries in the H-1B visa debate to “Take a big step back and F*CK YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.” (According to Forbes, Musk’s Tesla was among the leading employers of H-1B visa holders in 2024.) Okay, in fairness, the object of his vile wrath was the ever-vile Steve Bannon, who deserves a good, hard face F+CKING, but even so . . .

In a country that’s already teetering on dysfunctionality based on its skyrocketing economic inequality, Trump makes no secret of his desire to make the situation even worse by lowering taxes for big corporations and the wealthy (never mind his plan to levy tariffs that are likely to raise prices for middle-class consumers). He should, of course, be doing exactly the opposite—not only closing the myriad tax loopholes the corrupt brigade already enjoys, but aggressively increasing IRS enforcement.

By His Own Admission, Trump is the “King of Debt.”

During his real estate career, Trump’s businesses declared bankruptcy six times.  By his own admission he loves debt, sees nothing wrong with debt, and has often used it to enrich himself.  So, not surprisingly, he doesn’t care how much debt he saddles the country with; he just wants to be a short-term hero for his MAGA base while enriching himself and his brigade in the process.  At the risk of sounding like a Republican of yesteryear, our current national debt (now almost $36 trillion and growing at a rate of over $6 billion a day) is insane and needs to be gotten under control, big time.  There’s a broad consensus, however, that the Oligarch Brigade cannot possibly cut $2.5 trillion from the current budget without cutting entitlements like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, programs much of Trump’s base depend on to survive.  Realistically, the only way to cut the deficit is to increase revenue, and the only way to accomplish that is to increase taxes on the likes of the Oligarch Brigade. 

Trump and the Oligarch Brigade are clearly out for themselves and couldn’t care less about the welfare of the American people.  If anything, this humble spirit fears they want to put the middle-class in even worse straights than they are now; the more desperate people are, the more likely they are to submit to the brigades wishes. The only thing the bottom 99% has to defend itself is democracy, and Trump and his brigade are well on the way to eliminating it for their own advantage.  And unfortunately, as I’ve said before, the American middle-class is so desperate, they’re ready to give up democracy.

The Oligarch Brigade is Out to Restrain Democratic Self-government for the Sake of Capital and Hierarchy.

Once again, let me quote what Jamelle Bouie said in the New York Times in the fall of 2022:

Trump is the chosen candidate of reactionary billionaires and fanatical opponents of racial and gender equality for a reason. Strip away the thin veneer of “populism,” and what you have in the Trumpified Republican Party is an old-fashioned movement to restrain democratic self-government for the sake of capital and hierarchy. . . It’s not that Trump and the Republican Party are opposed to voting and elected office in and of themselves; it’s that they are opposed to a more equitable distribution of wealth and status, which a robust democracy — and only a robust democracy — makes possible. They are opposed to anything that might undermine the domination over others by people like themselves.

It reminds me all too much of the time and place from which I come, the “Cotton Kingdom” of the 19^th century, its evil slavocracy and the Confederate States of America that it spawned.  A small group of extremely wealthy and powerful slave owners started a war in the name of power and greed, the result being at least 750,000 dead soldiers, the majority being poor Southern whites who were suckered into believing the cause was their own.

Please don’t accuse this humble spirit of condoning the assassin’s behavior, or encouraging similar barbarous acts, but when so many people empathize with a cold-blooded killer and want to turn him into a folk hero, there’s no denying that something’s wrong.  People relate to the killer’s expression of rage just as they relate to Trump’s quest for retribution.  Clearly, voters understood Trump’s anger far more than Kamala’s pursuit of “joy.” 

The anger at health insurance companies, along with every other player in the American healthcare system, is justified—big time.  America pays more for healthcare than any country in the developed world but has the poorest outcomes to show for it. “Obamacare” is just a half-hearted compromise to prop up a completely broken, dysfunctional system.  What we need is to expand Medicare to cover all Americans, not just the elderly—in other words, single-payer, national health insurance—but the legions of industry lobbyists and their Republican allies would immediately scream “socialism” and that would be the end of it.  

Trump’s Only Response to the Healthcare Crisis is to Delay, Deny, and Defend—Again and Again and Again.

President-elect Trump claims to have a “concept of a plan” to replace Obamacare, but he and the Republicans have been saying as much since its inception. Trump’s endless promises to fix healthcare during his first term were on par with his embarrassing “infrastructure weeks.” The reason, of course, that Trump and the Republicans never present a healthcare plan of their own is because they’re buying time; the only plan they have is to allow the major industry players to continue ripping off the American public for as long as possible—their own version of delay, deny, defend.  

Given the industry’s entrenched power, “fixing” the healthcare system will require an “existential” battle (that word has been overused of late, but here it’s appropriate). Right now insurance companies, healthcare providers, and pharmaceutical makers generate billions of dollars in revenue—much of it at patients’ unnecessary expense—and they’re not about to give it up without a fight.  There’s no question that companies need to be fairly compensated for their (often lifesaving) products and services, including the incentive to innovate and develop new drugs, but under the current system patient outcomes are in direct conflict with a corporation’s fundamental goal—increasing shareholder wealth.  Every failure to successfully delay, deny and defend means less profit, along with a reduction in the CEO’s stock options and bonuses.  Talk about a lack of incentive to fight for the patient’s best interests!

Right Now Insurance Companies and the Rest of the Healthcare Industry have a License to Steal.

What continues to baffle, however, is why so many people who share Trump’s grievance against the status quo happily support his anti-middleclass, pro-top 1%, inequality-inducing policies.  What makes them think that Elon Musk and all the other billionaires among Trump’s cabinet picks have their best interests at heart?  Until we succeed in reducing our overarching, ever-growing economic inequality, we’re bound to be plagued by violent expressions of anger, whether they take the form of the January 6^th Capitol insurrection or the gunning down of a CEO in midtown Manhattan.  I continue to champion the preservation of civilized society and the rule of law it requires, but we need to remember that large companies and wealthy individuals, with the aid of their powerful political allies, often hide behind an unjust status quo that allows them to accomplish despicable acts—such as patients dying for lack of proper healthcare.  It reminds me all too much of Martin Luther King’s observation that “a riot is the language of the unheard.”

As I’ve said before, Kamala Harris lost the election for a combination of reasons that go well beyond sexism and racism, but just because a lot of people, women included, voted for Trump based on inflation and illegal immigration doesn’t mean the proliferation of a “bro” mentality poses any less of a threat.  A few months back I talked about MAGA Republican opposition to reproductive autonomy, how it isn’t based on concern for the unborn, but rather the desire to maintain the patriarchal power structure—the notion that a woman is a child-bearing vessel, not a human being who is a man’s equal.  The obnoxious meme “Your body, my choice” just about says it all—talk about a bullhorn rather than a dog whistle!

Isn’t it Obvious that Sexual Assault is MAGA’s Retribution of Choice?

Trump’s selection of Gaetz (now withdrawn) and Hegseth makes it clear how much MAGA opposition to “woke” is nothing but an ugly (re)assertion of (primarily white) male power and domination.  I worry that “owning the libs” is the least of it.  It’s all too apparent that a good deal of Trump’s desire for retribution goes hand in hand with the manosphere’s desire to punish women for having increased their power and status in society.  Never mind limiting women’s role in the military, as Hegseth suggests, is there any question that the bro crowd would repeal the 19^th Amendment if they could?  Talk about going back!

Having lived my brief life in the antebellum, slaveholding South, one of the most patriarchal societies that ever was, I think I can address this machismo-obsessed phenomenon with some authority.  Remember, slaveholders could have their way with their enslaved property whenever they chose without fear of recourse; there was no such thing as raping a slave because enslaved people had no rights of their own.  Neither was there a law against killing them (although it was often discouraged by the inevitable monetary loss).  That’s the sort of absolute macho power and control that Gaetz and Hegseth want to resurrect.  

The “old South” wasn’t an idyllic world of mint julips and magnolias; unless you were Scarlett O’Hara and daddy owned the plantation, it was a violent and precarious time and place, not just for the enslaved but for most poor whites as well.  Dudes like Gaetz and Hegseth thought that unlimited white male privilege should be the permanent way of things, but justice and the arc of history proved them wrong—as hopefully it will again.

How can people be expected to care about democracy or “America’s place on the world stage” (let alone the war in Ukraine or NATO), if they’re struggling to make ends meet and keep their heads above water?  A low unemployment rate doesn’t mean very much if good jobs aren’t available and wages aren’t keeping up with the cost of living.  A booming stock market making wealthy elites richer every day isn’t proof of a good economy but salt on the wound for people who have no investments and live in fear their car will break down.  We might assume that Kamala Harris and her fabulously wealthy celebrity supporters shouting about “joy” and “freedom” only made things worse. Taylor Swift may be an honest-to-goodness “childless cat lady,” but she certainly doesn’t need to worry about paying her bills.

Too many Americans are maxing out their credit cards because they have no choice, and I fear Donald Trump is about to do the same with the federal budget to keep his unrealistic promises (“promises made, promises kept”).  He passed a tremendous tax cut (mostly for corporations and the wealthy) during his first term, which is estimated to have increased the federal deficit by approx. $1.9 trillion, and now he’s embarking on a similar course, whether via ill-advised tariffs or otherwise.  Unless Trump drastically cuts government programs, putting a lot of people in a lot of pain and putting the economy in jeopardy, America will continue to go further into the red, kicking the proverbial can down the road with no endgame in site.  While Trump’s billionaire donor class (Elon Musk, of course, is in a class by himself!) takes an even bigger share of the pie, America’s middle-class is likely to be even worse off under a second Trump administration.

Kamala Harris was Unquestionably the Victim of Racism and Misogyny, but Those were Hardly the Only Problems. 

So much has already been written about the election that I hardly know what to add, but let me hazard some thoughts.  Despite what numerous liberal pundits have said, Kamala Harris didn’t run anything even close to a “flawless campaign.” Whatever the challenges she started with (including Biden not getting out of the race sooner), she can’t be excused for failing to adequately address the electorate’s two greatest concerns—inflation and the immigrant crisis at the southern border.  A “word salad” is a generous description for what came out of her mouth when confronted on these issues.  How is it possible that someone who served as vice-president didn’t at least have some thoughts to share, let alone an honest appraisal of the administration’s failings?  Even if she was never truly the “border czar,” for her to have nothing substantive to say about the border crisis is on par with Donald Trump still having nothing but “a concept of a plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act.  Not only did she try to dodge the inflation issue with a silly promise to stop “price gouging” at the grocery store, more importantly, she showed little real empathy for the pain that inflation and high interest rates had inflicted on so many voters.  Despite what she said on The View, wouldn’t she have done some little thing differently than President Biden?

“We’re not going back” was a respectable attempt to seize upon voters’ aspirations, but unfortunately most of them were focusing on their financial circumstances, not women’s bodily autonomy or racial justice.  Ultimately the Harris campaign blew through two billion dollars and Donald Trump ended up back in the White House.  I’ve previously bemoaned the fact that Democrats are no longer the party of the working-class, but it was never so painfully obvious—or had such a disastrous outcome for the country.

For millions of the GOP faithful, Trump’s daily attempts to breach new frontiers of hideousness are not offensive but reassuring. They want Trump to be awful—precisely because the people they view as their political foes will be so appalled if he wins. . . But plenty more want Trump to be terrifying and stomach-turning so that reelecting him will be a fully realized act of social revenge. . . A toxic combination of social resentment, entitlement, and racial insecurity drives many Trump voters to believe not only that other Americans are looking down on them but that they are doing so while living an undeservedly good life. . . This unfocused rage is an addiction fed by Trump and conservative media, and the MAGA base wants it stoked continuously.

Lest Trump’s MAGA base tries to escape its self-destructive cultural heroin, Donald Trump and his allies, such as Elon Musk and other assorted multi-millionaires and billionaires, have the American working-class, most especially its young men, right where they want them, down and desperate, with desperate being the operative word.  An increasingly technological information economy has robbed many of them of their hope for a better future and left them struggling to tread water (the recent spate of hurricanes and floods make for a painful analogy). Even if they know that Trump is a threat to democracy, they’ve fallen so far economically that many have no choice but to acquiesce; they’re down for the count and, if we’re not careful, the rest of us will go down with them.  

While Trump’s Working-Class MAGA Base is Preoccupied with its Addiction, His Donor-Class Enablers Happily Plunder Away.

Trump’s supposedly “middle-class” tax cuts disproportionately benefited the wealthy and big business (i.e., the “Republican donor-class”), while adding an estimated $1.9 trillion to the federal deficit.  Incredibly, millions of Trump’s MAGA supporters remember those years fondly, seemingly because inflation and interest rates were relatively low—despite the fact that economic inequality was going off the charts.  These same people seem to suffer amnesia when it comes to Trump’s dereliction of duty in the face of the Covid pandemic, what it did to the supposedly wonderful “Trump economy,” and how his poor judgement and irresponsibility contributed to an economic catastrophe and well over a million deaths, something it took the country years (and the next administration) to recover from. 

Now Trump is championing an across-the-board tariff on foreign imports, something the vast majority of economists think will be a disaster for the American economy—and possibly the world’s.  I won’t recite all the grim predictions, but most economists agree it would lead to an economic downturn and very possibly a recession.  Most importantly, it will amount to a huge tax increase for middle-class consumers in the form of higher prices for many of the goods they buy. (Trump doesn’t understand, or claims not to understand, that tariffs are paid by consumers, not foreign manufacturers or their governments.) The end result will be another enormous transfer of wealth from the already shrinking middle-class to subsidize the ever-burgeoning coffers of the Republican donor-class, as if they don’t already have a large enough share of the pie—as if our economic inequality isn’t bad enough.  

If Trump is elected, he and his allies will not only have the American people down for the count, they’ll put on the screws, big time, until the fabric of our society is hopelessly beyond repair.

PLEASE, PLEASE, GET OUT AND VOTE AGAINST DONALD TRUMP!

Natural disasters create a perfect metaphor for the anger and resentment that’s driven much of the MAGA movement, and a perfect opportunity for the dangerous misinformation that’s permeating our discourse—and our election.  Many of the crazy stories now circulating claim the storms were “weather weapons” (courtesy of Alex Jones) created for such purposes as wiping out the population to make way for lithium mining or helping the Democrats by wiping out majority Republican areas.  Then, of course, there’s the rumor (courtesy of Donald Trump) that FEMA money is being siphoned off to illegal immigrants.  To call misinformation of this sort “toxic” is an understatement.  This insidious nonsense can discourage victims from seeking the FEMA help they desperately need and can even result in relief workers being targeted with violence (sending militias to facedown FEMA!). Needless to say, this unproductive distraction isn’t what America needs right now; at a time when we should be pulling together, we’re being torn further apart.

According to a recent post on X, meteorologists are “nothing but a trained subversive liar programmed to spew stupid shit to support the global warming bullshit.” But as one meteorologist replied, “murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes.” Unfortunately, even putting global warming aside, too many people blame the weatherman(person) for the weather.  Hmm, this seems awfully similar to the idea that news networks control election results based on who they declare the winner on election night. (Remember how angry Trump’s supporters got when Fox News called Arizona for Biden on election night in 2020?)  And nobody, of course, is enjoying this embarrassing exercise in illogic more than climate denialists and lobbyists for the oil and gas industry.

America Should Be Pulling Together, but Instead We’re Being Torn Further Apart.

These people have been living in their own world of bullshit for so long they’ve forgotten that reality exists.  According to Michael Caulfield at the U of WA, “the vast majority of misinformation is offered as a service for people to maintain their beliefs in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.” And as Charlie Warzel described it in his excellent article in the Atlantic, “It’s getting harder to describe the extent to which a meaningful percentage of Americans have disassociated from reality.”. . there is “a swath of people who would rather live in an alternative reality built on distrust and grievance than change their fundamental beliefs about the world.” This humble spirit shutters to think what those beliefs include!

All the while, people who thought Florida beach communities were a good place to retire comfortably on a modest income will continue to lose everything they have, and people of modest means who have lived all their lives in small Appalachian towns will see their communities and livelihoods destroyed. What’s true in the midst of this thriving misinformation ecosystem is that economic inequality, and injustice, is making life in America even more unfair.  It’s a lot easier to feed people’s grievances with misinformation they want to hear than address the fundamental issues that are the root of the problem.

According to Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, “the challenges America faces aren’t really logistical, they are metaphysical” and as a result “the economic metrics used by economists and presidents to capture the state of the nation are masking a vast ‘spiritual crises.’” His ideas were summarized in the New York times: “The Senator Warning Democrats of a Crisis Unfolding Beneath Their Noses.” The senator defines his mission as “understanding how the version of liberalism we’ve adopted—defined by its emphasis on free markets, globalization and free choice—has begun to feel to many like a dead end, and to therefore come up with a new vision for the Democratic Party.” 

The problem, as he sees it, is that America’s leaders have long been guided by what’s often called the neoliberal consensus: the notion that “barrier-free international markets, rapidly advancing communications technology and automation, decreased regulation, and empowered citizen-consumers would be the keys to prosperity, happiness and strong democracy” In other words, the assumption that what’s good for markets is good for society—and what makes us prosperous, will also make us happy.

Too Many Americans Feel the World is Just Getting Worse

Needless to say, the old adage that “what’s good for General Motors is good for America” no longer holds true.  And it’s more than just losing the industrial powerhouses that once employed huge swaths of Americans, enabling them to live middleclass lives.  Does anyone seriously believe that what’s good for companies like Mehta (Facebook), Alphabet (Google), Nvidia (chips for AI), Tesla (Elon Musk), Apple (exploited Chinese labor), and Amazon (having to return what the Chinese make) are good for American society as a whole?  Their profits keep going up, as do their market valuations, but their stock is owned by a relatively small portion of Americans.  And even if their success could be shared equitably throughout society, there’s reason to think Americans are looking for something better, something more than simply material gain.

“The idea that modern life is a story of constant economic and technological progress steadily making the world a better place has stopped lining up with how Americans feel. You can look at statistics about suicide, depression, overdoses and declining life expectancy. . . and the astonishingly pervasive sense of loneliness that now seems to color so many American lives. But no statistics really capture the feeling, shared by growing numbers of Americans, that the world is just getting worse.”

It’s not just the cost of living and the lack of opportunity to improve their lives (a house would be nice) that’s angered people and prevented the Democrats’ message from getting through.  The truth is, it’s hard for most people to assess the state of the economy.  Unless there are circumstances such as occurred during the Great Recession or the Covid pandemic, asking people about the “economy” usually garners nothing more than how they feel about their own circumstances and prospects at the moment—which have lately been tainted by the grim notion that the world is getting worse.

“For over a year, the Biden administration and its allies had been promoting data showing an economic miracle, as friendly pundits described it — a record-setting stock market, low unemployment, and G.D.P. growth outpacing that of almost every other Western nation. But very few voters believed the story those metrics were telling. In poll after poll, they expressed a bleak view of the economy — to the frustration of both Democrats and many economists.”

We may not yet have discovered how to counteract it, but the fact is, “Donald Trump and the MAGA movement have tapped into a sense of deep alienation and national malaise, feelings that Democrats often have trouble even acknowledging are real.”