The Donald J. Trump Presidency

Duff... wrote:It didn't have to be this way

There simply isn't any reason to count on us for anything anymore

And then the chinese middle class will expand, and then India's, and no one will even need to give a shit about us as consumers anymore.

chrondog wrote:Trump's great strength is that he isn't smart enough to realize that people who are smarter than him can see straight through his bullshit, so he continues it indefinitely.

The unfortunate reality is that his embarrassingly transparent con man act is more sophisticated than about 40% of the voting public, and about 2/3rds of that group form his political base.

I have always said that Trump's great success from a political standpoint was reimagining what a winning coalition looks like. Most of us did not expect that the duo of the incredibly ignorant and the unimaginably cynical was one such coalition.

raj gibson wrote:If it's worked thus far... is it really a stupid (tactically speaking)?

raj gibson wrote:Many of these people know he's a con man, or wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be one... they just didn't see that as a tangibly worse choice. Part of his success was realizing that if anti-establishment fervor reached a high enough level, being a con man wouldn't be a disqualifier anymore.

raj gibson wrote:Agree with this although I think our system strongly incentives ignorance. Not giving the ignorant a full pass but I have some sympathy for them. The cynical (moneyed elites, media, etc.) just come out so much worse.

raj gibson wrote:

Duff... wrote:It didn't have to be this way

But wouldn't this be matter of when, not if? When you say this will "still be a perfectly fine place to live" and won't be a "country that people care about" (presumably in the sense of presence on the world stage). Isn't that an accurate way of describing every country's decline from empire?

There simply isn't any reason to count on us for anything anymore

I mean, momentum. The biggest military and economy in the world doesn't stop mattering overnight no matter who wins the election.

And then the chinese middle class will expand, and then India's, and no one will even need to give a shit about us as consumers anymore.

This could eventually be true but those countries have much more difficult, deeply ingrained problems to overcome before they exceed us to the point where they make us economically irrelevant.

raj gibson wrote:Chrono, good points and well put. It's impossible to know what's in his heart, but great liars often lie to themselves first. If they can internalize the core lie(s) as truth, all subsequent lies become far more effective, because they're not really doing the work of lying anymore. We don't know Trump's mind or soul but I would bet he truly believes most of his own narrative (and the parts that he doesn't he would regard as tactically deployed gamesmanship/hucksterism improving his own status/bargaining position, all sanctioned in support of the umbrella lie of self-made master dealmaker).

raj gibson wrote:Yeah sorry if my response seemed picky, I don't mean to come down on people when they're just venting. Sometimes posts just push me to other ideas and I'm compelled to ask (more than argue).

raj gibson wrote:Also consider that in the late 18th century, average life expectancy in America was like 35 years. A lifetime appointment meant something very different when the founders set up the whole system.

"The Republican senators are great people, but they have a lot of different states," he said. "Some states need this, some states need that, but we're getting it together and it's going to happen."

TRUMP IS SO RICH HE THINKS HEALTH INSURANCE COSTS $12 PER YEAR
BY RYAN BORT ON 7/20/17 AT 11:09 AM

The New York Times on Thursday released a transcript of a Wednesday interview with Donald Trump. The president had just come from a lunch with 49 Republican senators, where he implored them to figure out a way to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Health care was a focal point of the Times interview, as well, and when reporter Maggie Haberman expressed to Trump how difficult it is to take away an entitlement, the president revealed just how little he understands the health care system.

"But what it does, Maggie, it means it gets tougher and tougher," replied Trump. "As they get something, it gets tougher. Because politically, you can’t give it away. So pre-existing conditions are a tough deal. Because you are basically saying from the moment the insurance, you’re 21 years old, you start working and you’re paying $12 a year for insurance, and by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan. Here’s something where you walk up and say, 'I want my insurance.' It’s a very tough deal, but it is something that we’re doing a good job of."

It's unclear if Trump actually thinks a 21-year-old can get health insurance for $12 a year, but that's what he said. It is possible the president meant to say "month" instead of "year." As Vox points out, he said something similar in a May interview with The Economist: “Insurance is, you’re 20 years old, you just graduated from college, and you start paying $15 a month for the rest of your life and you really need it, you’re still paying the same amount and that’s really insurance."