Consequences. Someone's going to be unhappy - Always
A two-fer Tuesday. A fellow Substacker is alarmed at the possible damage to a program for veterans' health, and a NY Times columnist accurately diagnoses Trump's shortcomings (a feature)
Couple of points today. First up is a fellow Substack author who shall not be named. He is a veteran, and he has (mostly) good takes, and is quite anti Trump1.
Donald Trump at a MAGA rally
DOGE goes feral and risks a vulnerable group
But he has been arguing vociferously the past week or so about how Dems who are leaning back and saying to let the shit hit the fan, and that the Trump voters should not be saved from their choices (principally the choice to vote for Trump).
His argument is that a lot of collateral damage will be felt by vulnerable populations, and that is just morally wrong.
I can see that, but if the Democrats help blunt the full effect of the shit-show that MAGA is going to rain down upon them. It is not in me to be vengeful or spiteful, but in this case I am going to make an exception. In 2016, we (at least me) knew how fucking awful Trump was going to be, but the wider population could have been excused for overlooking all the evidence of fuckery.
But in 2024? Fuck no. You know how bad Trump was, how the guardrails failed to constrain him, and how his retromingent tendencies were thwarted by a few good men (and women) in his administration who slow-walked the worst behaviors, or otherwise impeded his impulses of shiftiness.
But now that Trump has won, and his basest instincts are being unleashed, particularly the DOGE bullshit, it appears that one of the things that is being bantered about is the shutting down of the VA, essentially dumping wounded veterans unto the private healthcare system.
Among those stupid ideas and buried some ten paragraphs, here was what the 15 million veterans of our military were given: a single sentence.
“Veterans Affairs — can’t they use the same hospitals as the rest of us, no matter who pays?”
Hmmm, yeah, that is a bad idea.
of course, this is a fucking horrible idea, but it is right up the alley of what the Illegal Immigrant from South Africa and Vivek would champion.
Nope, I am not going to get too irate about this. Mainly because whilst this will fuck a lot of veterans in the A, a fuckton of said veterans were happy to pull the trigger and vote for Trump. The exit polls will probably show that the military (active and retired) went for Trump/Vance by large margins.
Yes, this is going to be fucking awful, but I am not going to expend even one erg on this. I feel your pain fellow Substacker, but this one needs to happen.
sidebar: I am seeing a lot of Never Trumpers who are pleading with Dems to pick up their pitchforks to help man the ramparts. I am not feeling it. You were fine criticizing Biden, hamstringing Harris, all in the service of your preferred alternatives to Biden.
There were two Trumps on the campaign trail. There was the Trump that was trying to win, and the Trump that was laser focused on the grievances of his MAGA base.
French leads off with this bit of insight (that I agree with):
That was quick.
Donald Trump is planting the seeds of his own political demise. The corrupt, incompetent and extremist men and women he’s appointing to many of the most critical posts in his cabinet are direct threats to the well-being of the country, but they’re also political threats to Trump and to his populist allies.
To understand why, it’s important to remember a cardinal reality about Trump’s political career. He has now won two general elections when he was the only alternative to an unsatisfactory status quo, and he lost the one when he was the unsatisfactory status quo. If he can’t govern well, his populist partisan realignment will come apart before it can truly begin.
As a columnist at the paper of record, this is what I expect. Clear eyed analysis.
But what happened in the election was that a lot of voters were able to view Trump as a normal politician, within the bounds of average. If you lived in a swing state, and were hit with advertisements, you got a fairly sanitized version of Trump. He was concerned about the cost of groceries, gas, and the border.
You were carpet bombed with direct mail, and TV ads. I even saw a couple (my wife is a Stanford football fan, and being part of the ACC now, the ads were, um, a little regional 😉), but they were noteworthy because they were showing Trump being normal. You could almost understand the Arab centric population of places like Dearborn Michigan believing that Trump would curtail the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, the west bank, and Lebanon. (almost)
But then there were the rallies, and hoo-boy, were they as unhinged as ever. This was Trump catering to his MAGA base, and it was all the over-the-top insane shit.
French captures this:
If you’re like most Americans and don’t follow the news closely, it’s easy to see why you would see Trump in more conventional terms. A Politico analysis of the Trump campaign’s ads showed that “the single most-aired ad from his campaign since the start of October is all about inflation, Medicare and Social Security — arguing that the vice president will make seniors already struggling with high prices ‘pay more Social Security taxes,’ while unauthorized immigrants receive benefits.”
See, a normal Republican. Sure, if you believe it, you were buying a shit sandwich and washing it down with a big slug of Giant Douche.
One of the challenging realities of American politics is that while vast numbers of Americans participate in presidential elections, only small minorities of voters actually stay engaged. And the priorities of the two groups are not the same, far from it.
The majority is focused on the things that directly affect their lives — prices, crime, peace. How much do concerns about democracy matter if people don’t feel safe on the streets? Or if they’re struggling to keep a roof over their heads? The minority, by contrast, follows politics closely and can focus on issues that can feel more abstract or niche to the majority
Oh, how wonderful it would be to live in the “normal” world. But we don’t, and Trump — like all politicians — plays to his rabid base. It is just that these fuckers are absolutely bonkers.
Last pull quote (and I do recommend that you hold your nose and read the OpEd):
Throughout the campaign, Trump ran with two messages. On the airwaves, he convinced millions of Americans that they were electing the Trump of January 2019, when inflation was low and the border was under reasonable control. At his rallies, he told MAGA that it was electing the Trump of January 2021, the man unleashed from establishment control and hellbent on burning it all down.
But here is his fundamental problem: The desires of his heart and the grievances of his base are ultimately incompatible with the demands of the majority, and the more he pursues his own priorities, the more he’ll revive his opposition. He’ll end his political career as an unpopular politician who ushered in a Democratic majority yet again.
We (Democrats and never Trump former Republicans) always knew he was going to go full fascist, install the worst fucking people, and do the most damage possible. Hence the nomination of Gabbard, Hegseth, Gaetz, and RFK Jr. to cabinet positions where they can do the maximal damage. How Musk and Ramaswami can toy with just shutting down the VA and shunting our Veterans to the mediocrity of our private health system.
This is why I am laying in a supply of popcorn, and will not be very active in the resistance. Because the country bought the ticket, they need to take the ride.
Reading about the Palestine supporters who are now grumbling that Trump’s picks seem focused on maximizing support for Israel and encouraging Bibi to “just finish it” whatever the cost so the development of beachfront resorts on the Strip can commence? Sorry, we tried telling you that voting for Trump (and Dearborn did go for Trump solidly) was not going to work out.
I don’t understand people that don’t have a passing acquaintance with current events and at least some knowledge of the candidates they’re voting for. Kamala told these schmucks they should watch one of his rallies. I can’t believe there are enough that did.
I see the argument about whether to try to restrain the damage he does or to let all go. Since our side has no control of Congress, the SC or the executive it seems like a moot point. God willing Dems take back the Congress in two years and then maybe it could be debated.
I’m starting to pay more attention to making sure the offices in my state stay blue. I hear people bitching about Kathy Hochul not being progressive enough for them. She’s a Dem and a far cry from MAGA.
I’m almost certain that if I were in my 20s, maybe 30s, with no children and not much at stake, I would have probably bought some popcorn too and sat back and watched everything burn. I would’ve also been unaware of my privilege in taking such a stance.
I know people are angry and every other emotion under the sun at trump and 3rd party voters (3rd party voters are especially enraging) and those whose simply chose not to vote. I am!
However, just watching things burn is an impossible strategy for those of us who have people who depend on us and had NOTHING to do with this horrible calamity.
Thanks for reminding me why I canceled my NYT subscription. I feel dumber after reading David French.
![YARN | "When am I gonna make it back to Haiti?" [laughing] | Bad Idea Jeans | Saturday Night ...](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa2aa3849-6fd2-492c-8784-2f5d70038f70_400x300.jpeg "YARN | \"When am I gonna make it back to Haiti?\" [laughing] | Bad Idea Jeans | Saturday Night ...")
I don’t understand people that don’t have a passing acquaintance with current events and at least some knowledge of the candidates they’re voting for. Kamala told these schmucks they should watch one of his rallies. I can’t believe there are enough that did.
I see the argument about whether to try to restrain the damage he does or to let all go. Since our side has no control of Congress, the SC or the executive it seems like a moot point. God willing Dems take back the Congress in two years and then maybe it could be debated.
I’m starting to pay more attention to making sure the offices in my state stay blue. I hear people bitching about Kathy Hochul not being progressive enough for them. She’s a Dem and a far cry from MAGA.
I’m almost certain that if I were in my 20s, maybe 30s, with no children and not much at stake, I would have probably bought some popcorn too and sat back and watched everything burn. I would’ve also been unaware of my privilege in taking such a stance.
I know people are angry and every other emotion under the sun at trump and 3rd party voters (3rd party voters are especially enraging) and those whose simply chose not to vote. I am!
However, just watching things burn is an impossible strategy for those of us who have people who depend on us and had NOTHING to do with this horrible calamity.
Thanks for reminding me why I canceled my NYT subscription. I feel dumber after reading David French.