Elon Musk: Always A Douche

[Valmy]

The Republicans are terrible on the economy and have historically always been. BUT they are very good for the richest people in the economy, which is why they have so much propaganda about how great for the economy they are.

And they have, at least since 1968, generally aligned with more of the American public on social issues. That is the price Democrats pay for even being slightly socially progressive.

[Neil]

Voters still remember the Eighties as a time of plenty, and the Republicans were the party of business before 2024.  While actual Republican economic policies were often bad for the economy, they had a reputation of being good with it.

[HVC]

Trickle down! They just never bothered to tell anyone what they were trickling down.

[Syt]

Trickle down! They just never bothered to tell anyone what they were trickling down.

To quote Skid Row: "You say it's raining, but you're pissing down my back."

[viper37]

The tip-off is how Trump's people are responding to the lawsuits.  They are specifically saying that Musk has NO ROLE in DOGE,

And yet, the President explicitely said today Musk was the head of DOGE, he named him as such, contradicting the answer his administration provided to the court.

Not that it matters anyway.

[HVC]

Trickle down! They just never bothered to tell anyone what they were trickling down.

To quote Skid Row: "You say it's raining, but you're pissing down my back."

[Solmyr]

So, what needs to happen next? And how to stop it?

Only one effective way I can think of and unfortunately it is not feasible right now and may never be. But not impossible if the Democrats find a real strong leader and survive long enough to sweep mid-term elections.  A return to Congressional government.

What do they do when Trump refuses to listen to Congress?

[Neil]

So, what needs to happen next? And how to stop it?

Only one effective way I can think of and unfortunately it is not feasible right now and may never be. But not impossible if the Democrats find a real strong leader and survive long enough to sweep mid-term elections.  A return to Congressional government.

What do they do when Trump refuses to listen to Congress?

Impeach him and convict him.  And at that point, it's about whether Trump can gather enough support from the men with guns to brush aside the Constitution once and for all.

[Sheilbh]

Only one effective way I can think of and unfortunately it is not feasible right now and may never be. But not impossible if the Democrats find a real strong leader and survive long enough to sweep mid-term elections.  A return to Congressional government.

I think that's right. I'm not sure how you get there - and I think the Democrats problems are quite deep (and sort of built in to the party as it is now).

I genuinely don't know.

[Syt]

[Syt]

What's going on here?

[Sheilbh]

I know I've commented on it before in a European context - but there's something really, really interesting in how the far and radical right are the most successful international/transnational political movement - a sort of Nationalist International.

In Europe I think part of it is that they're often newer parties so don't exist within traditional international structures (like Socialist International). Internet culture is a huge part of it too - both the memeification but also the platforms. But also I think they're really good at learning strategies and messages and tactics from each other and adapting them - I think the traditional parties/movements are a bit more national exceptionalist. In the past I think there was more exchange - for example New Labour learned a lot from Clinton and I think Schroeder's SPD did too.

But there was that big European parliament rally in Madrid where you had (either in-person or pre-recorded speeches) from Abascal from Vox, Kast (the far-right Chilean presidential candidate), Milei, Meloni, Orban, the former PiS leader, a minister from Israel, a former Trump staffer etc. I can't think of an equivalent for the centre left, right or liberals (the hard left also do it a bit more I think). Or in this case Musk doing Milei's meme with Milei behind him - when was the last time enough Americans were aware of who Argentina's President was for that to be even plausible?

[garbon]

Do they need to know Milei for that to be enjoyable?

[The Minsky Moment]

Idiocracy got their timeline way off.

[Sheilbh]

Maybe not - but point is it's still weird to see anyone in American (or anywhere else's) politics copying the gimmick of any Latin American (or other international) politician while they're on stage clapping. There's an assumption there enough people in the audience will know, but also it's cross-pollinating. It's interesting (and I think innovative).