Toby Buckle offers (to my way of thinking) stellar analysis of what's going on politically as large numbers of Americans, our media, and corporate leaders jump with alacrity on the Trump bandwagon: it's not the old "economic anxiety" canard.

Todd Millecam

@wdlindsy https://www.axios.com/2024/02/27/price-food-us-inflation-data-groceries Actually, we're at a 30-year high right now at 11%, but go on and post to social media without data so people who already know you can blindly agree with you and vilify people like me who read something and say, "Oh, that's interesting. I wonder where I can find source data to support that?" and then go looking only to find this is utter nonsense.

Susan Kaye Quinn 🌱(she/her)

@wdlindsy this is one of the few articles I've seen that actually *gets* what's happened

Greengordon

@wdlindsy

In short, many average Americans adopt or display the same values as the oligarchs looting the country and destroying democracy.

"Americans are prosperous, but without any deep sense of obligations to others. We are a highly commercial, individualist people, and when we let go of even a thin liberal conception of the public good, we become nasty, petty, small, vindictive and irrational."

#uspol #capitalism

Pat

@wdlindsy thank you for posting this article, which I would not have encountered otherwise. So many keen observations, carefully analyzed and explained. Big thoughts for me to ponder.

Rachel Greenham

@wdlindsy @Lazarou well, they have lives that they *are* killing for

Matthias Krämer

@wdlindsy In Germany in 1933 biggest support for NSDAP came from the "petite bourgeoisie" that was threatened by economic crisis to sink down into proletariat. That seems the analogon to this MAGA core.

lupus_blackfur

@wdlindsy

Absolutely.

Buckle has it nailed.

Aligns directly with my phrasing:
There exist *many* entitled 🫏's that have always been assholes in private & yearned to be assholes in public for lo some 70+yrs.
Their parents taught it to them & they in turn taught the same to their children.
Along comes Chump giving them all permission & encouragement to be those public assholes.
They will always revere him for giving them that permission regardless what else he may do.

That's MAGAt core.

officerripley

@wdlindsy

So true; there were a lot of big fancy homes in the fanciest neighborhoods in my town with Trump signs in their yards.

eberhofer

@wdlindsy people voted for Trump for a number of reasons, many of which are evil. Totally agree on that. Same for Maga. Mostly evil.

The issue is a different one: these evil votes aren't sufficient to win an election by themselves. To win an election, they had to win other votes and suppress turnout for Harris.

The real question is: how did they win/suppress those votes?

Economic anxiety is driven less by "objective" wealth but by wealth difference and by outlook.

For wealth difference: the income and wealth gap have grown further even through the Biden years. That may not be his fault, but neither did he or Kamala Harris address it, or at least not forcefully enough in the campaign.

For the outlook: health care and housing are huge issues (United Healthcare illustrates this) and polls showed people trusted Trump more on the economy than Harris. Sad, because Harris had better policies but didn't get through with her message.

Dizzy

@wdlindsy America is finished; time to look to others to protect democracy.

William Lindsey :toad:

@BubblegumYeti We'll see, won't we?

William Lindsey :toad:

@eberhofer The claim that I hear repeatedly about economic anxiety driving anti-Democratic votes is not about the huge and growing disparity between the wealth of the very few and all the rest of us.

It's about the perception — the reported perception — of people that they are doing badly economically. When, in fact, many of those reporting this are doing reasonably well economically.

Blaming the Democrats for creating that problem when Republican policies hugely favor the super-rich: bizarre.

William Lindsey :toad:

@officerripley One of the richest families in my state lives a block up the street from me. That family is super-excited to see Trump back in the White House, as are all the friends of that family.

William Lindsey :toad:

@lupus_blackfur I agree.

William Lindsey :toad:

@Kraemer_HB Except that both in 2016 and 2024, polling results show that people in that economic bracket voted for the Democratic candidate in larger numbers than for Trump. Trump's real support is in the affluent and in economic elites.

William Lindsey :toad:

@StrangeNoises @Lazarou Yes, you're right.

William Lindsey :toad:

@patrascan You're welcome. I wouldn't have found it except that David Kurtz excerpted it in the past day or so in his morning column at the TPM site.

William Lindsey :toad:

@susankayequinn I agree!

William Lindsey :toad:

@Greengordon Well-stated and exactly right, it seems to me.

William Lindsey :toad:

@tyggna I'm sorry you find Toby Buckle's commentary disturbing.

I myself like being disturbed — by the truth.