The cage match between left and right gets more and more vicious by the day. As a staunch centrist - aka. "leftist" to everyone on the right - I find it disconcerting yet wholly predictable. This didn't happen overnight. The cult of the individual - "single issue voters" - led the U.S. directly to this place.
"Our new political strategy is called 'deaths of despair'. We have a narrow window of opportunity"
"Our new political strategy is called 'deaths of despair'. We have a narrow window of opportunity"
"White Americans from rural America, with less education and lower income levels, voted disproportionately for Trump...This group is increasingly victim to “deaths of despair” related to alcohol, drugs and suicide, the researchers said."
“We shouldn’t underestimate the degree to which some portions of the country have been left behind in terms of their health"
These are the same people who supported Trump destroying Obamacare, their last chance to get access to affordable healthcare. I'm sure the new system called "everyone for themselves" will be accretive to their voter base.
Meanwhile, now, every social media platform and internet search engine is being questioned by Congress for their "leftist" bias. Because everyone knows that the truth is a left-wing conspiracy to undermine the obvious greatness of the United States. There's a reason why Trump hates Canada, it's because that country represents the obvious socialist "mediocrity" he has spent his entire life avoiding. History will have so much fun with that one. The first mentally challenged president in history concerned about being unexceptional.
Throughout this non-stop forty year shift towards Banana-Republicanism the erstwhile "left" has been complicit in painting the picture that "America is great already". Which is why incumbents within the Democrat party are now getting outflanked on their left. It turns out that more and more Americans are tired of being "exceptional", and want to go back to being "human" instead.
I've said much recently about Trump's borrowed tax cut sugar high, and (expansionary) budget deficits - the highest since the darkest depths of World War II. But how about a trade war that is being won by losing?
It turns out that the tax cut-driven dollar rally and interest rate increases are more than cancelling out any benefits from the trade war:
"The politically sensitive goods trade deficit with China surged 10 percent to a record $36.8 billion."
In other words, another of Trump's policies is having the EXACT opposite effect that was promised.
Those who are surprised to learn that this could happen have much better surprises in store. When they realize that yet another move to the right on Banana Republicanism will finish the job started by their last village idiot.
The endgame is now very clear. There won't be another round of exceptional delusion.
The endgame is now very clear. There won't be another round of exceptional delusion.
