Quote:
Originally Posted by DVaut1
My informal read is that plenty of people thought or think the median outcome of a Trump Presidency was incompetence or standard-fare, boring, mainstream politics but gambled he was going to make jobs and money fall from the sky and build the wall and make Mexico pay for it and all his other nonsense empty promises.
I don't want to put words in Sklansky's mouth here but think of Trump as the mediocre white person's political lottery ticket. Yeah he seems pretty unstable and might be corruptible or sell us down the river, but his promises sound outstanding, Hillary Clinton puts me to sleep with this boring stuff so: voting for Trump. They priced the downside risk as low because they're white and maybe older, on a fixed income, whatever, figured things couldn't ever get that bad for whites but maybe just maybe he'd do all the magical things he promised. It's not even a bad bet, right? Old angry whites DO have a ton of political leverage. The GOP is probably going to grift some from them but if **** gets really bad, they're gambling the authortarian jackboots will land on the young taking it to the streets and immigrants and black people first, or the pain will be felt by some foreigners we invade or bomb, or whoever, maybe the press will get clubbed, who knows, but ultimately the gamble is that old whites make that the political system go round, and the sytem will eventually genuflect to them and spare them any real downside. It is probably true enough?
this is a great take as usual, although this time around i don't see the gop wasting what they know may be their final chance to do every unpopular thing they've ever dreamed of doing, concealed within the shadows of trump's 24/7 media distraction gift. cutting, undermining, or straight up destroying both healthcare and social programs, selling off public lands, massive tax cuts and redistribution, undercutting public education, and, as bannon said, complete destruction of the administrative state.
i believe the traditional gop of the past would fear the olds, but this new trump version of the gop just does not care. they luckboxed the election and know this window will probably be their last chance in a long, long while where they will ever hold all three branches of government, so they're going to use their one time to undo the system and assist the mega-rich in robbing the american people totally blind, likely knowing worst case most will end up having cushy private sector jobs waiting for them after this is all over.
from the gop's point of view it's a win-win: in some warped alternate reality where things somehow turn out okay, they can take all the credit, while for all other outcomes, they can just blame trump.