Four Seasons Total Landscaping

 A few thoughts on the present moment.

It is fitting that the last hurrah of the Ronald T. Dump re-election campaign was a news conference given by a demented lunatic in the parking lot in an industrial park in Philadelphia next to a porno store (having a blow-out sale on dildos) and a crematorium. How they came to select this spot is a matter of much speculation, but it's emblematic of the total incompetence of the administration and the campaign. Actually the 2016 campaign was widely viewed as incompetent also, and yet it wound up installing Mr. Dump in the presidency. 

Given the incompetent campaign, it is all the more disturbing that 47% of people who bothered to vote cast their ballots for a malignant narcissist, psychopath, ignorant idiot, sexual predator and career criminal whose only accomplishments in office were a massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, passing on judicial nominees supplied by the Federalist Society to be rubber-stamped by the Senate, and signing executive orders that allowed business to poison people, and kidnapping children and putting them in cages. The trade war with China cost U.S. consumers billions and didn't bring a single job back to the U.S. -- manufacturing employment in the U.S. right now is lower than it was in 2016 -- and note that the rate of increase prior to the pandemic was just the same as it had been since 2010, and in fact leveled off in 2018. There's no wall on the southern border and Mexico isn't paying for one. There has been no investment in infrastructure, and we're still waiting for the health care plan.

 

So, even though the four years of the administration in fact did nothing for the people who voted for him, they voted for him again. In fact more did in 2020 than in 2016, although the Democratic vote grew by even more. The opioid epidemic and the hollowing out of rural America continued unabated -- every reason people give for the phenomenon of the Dump voter that has to do with economic distress is clearly wrong. If they're distressed, they're just as distressed as they were four years ago. Those retirees in The Villages and the people who organized boat parades aren't economically distressed, however, nor are the people out here in rural Connecticut with MAGA signs and flags. In fact, the bigger the house and the more expensive the landscaping, the more likely you'll see them.

I have friends who have talked with some of them and I know why they vote the way they do. Hint: You sure do see a lot of Confederate battle flags at those campaign rallies. 

And let me add this from Tom Sullivan: Like I said:

Political scientist Rachel Bitecofer last week advised Democrats to come to terms with the fact that “the very 1st thing that matters” is party identification. “A disproportionate share of the overall Indie pool, are closet Reps: they are not persuadable no matter how much you cater to them,” Bitecofer wrote in a tweet thread.

Why? Because as “one of fewer academics that come from the real, unpolished, bottom 50% world,” Bitecofer observes, “sexism, racism, xenophobia, and bigotry run rampant: and not only are these ‘isms’ prevalent, there is a belief that they shouldn’t have had to be buried.” This is why MAGA America accepted Trump as its culture war hero.