Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Saturday, June 2, 2018

The Puke Funnel

The Trump Puke Funnel of news outrages is hard to follow.  It just keeps coming and coming.  North Korea are our friends and Canada is a strategic threat?  Subsidizing failing coal plants by forcing grids to buy from them?  I'm sure that's not corrupt. Abusing the pardon power to reward political cronies and send a message about his own legal troubles?  Possibly allowing insider trading by releasing the jobs report early?

That's just two days in Trumpistan.

News stories that would dominate coverage for weeks disappear in hours before the avalanche of terrible policy and worse personal decisions that emanate from the White House.  Democrats - always prone to handwringing defeatism - are concerned that the sheer magnitude of Trump's misconduct will allow him to escape judgment.  Fareed Zakaria thinks that Steve Bannon and Donald Trump have a cunning plan to salvage the midterms on the back of the immigration and trade issues.

This is bullshit.

People don't vote policies.  Not usually.  If they did, Democrats would be the ones controlling all three branches of government.  They vote narratives.  Trump's narrative takes two forms: massive corruption and performative cruelty.  They reinforce each other, too.  Trump beats up on the little guy to empower and enrich the big guy.  Consistently.

The Puke Funnel is simply the aggregate weight of these stories creating a narrative about Trump that should create a bigger wave than we might think.

We'd better hope so.

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