one of the things it's important to remember about Trump is how driven by spite he is
he will do this - and much, much worse - for no reason other than Fuck You, Joe, How Dare You Beat Me That One Time
what happens to the people affected is entirely by the point, he could not care less
this is actually a point I make a lot when people say "well he didn't do anything for the MAGA folks, why do they stick with him"
he did a lot! he was a complete asshole to people they hate! they could not be happier!
they don't want policy, they want cruelty
His base will reject any "win-win" scenarios even if it results in a "lose-lose" situation. They cannot morally navigate outside of zero-sum, and need to know who the losers are in order to be in the world.
yeah, to paraphrase the evergreen meme, Trump's constituency wants to see leopards eating people's faces
they don't care that this is basically the ONLY thing he's promised to deliver them; as long as the people they dislike are suffering, they'll be happy
I've had to come to grips with the fact that many very smart people are MAGA. People who can take diesel engines apart and put them back together, the people who plumb and wire your house, lots and lots of them. The left is entirely too complacent, dismissing MAGA as the province of stupid people.
Reminds me of an interview with an elderly woman who supported him in 2016 being upset that he wasn't doing enough to hurt the people she hates, and I'm barely paraphrasing here. So many people have become so damaged that this is what actually matters to them and it's frightening.
This is my father. He has zero interest in policy, feels he’s screwed over by “all the educated idiots” and just wants trump to hurt “those people.”
It’s just nihilistic fatalism. Whatever happens to my father was going to happen anyway, and he just wants to see other people suffer, too
The primary in Virginia is case in point. Bob Good is as right wing as you get. Trump is supporting his primary opponent, even though Kevin McCarthy is because Good dared to endorse Ron DeSantis for president. No policy. Just spite.
His whole first term was trying to dismantle everything Obama did, from ACA to over 100 environmental protections to anything and everything else he could. That was all for O ridiculing him and laughing at the idea of him being Pres.
It tracks...
One of the easiest ways that Trump could pick apart the Democratic coalition is to debt forgiveness. It is such an obvious path to more votes that I genuinely thought he might campaign on it.
