The Worm Is Turning

 GOP members are being confronted at Town Halls even in deeply Red districts.

The operative question is whether they will listen or just stop holding town halls.

One of the reason so many of us were despondent after the election was that 2016 was a fluke of the Electoral College, but 2024 he somehow won a plurality of the vote. For people who pay attention to the news, who can tell you what Project 2025 is, who understand the 34 felony convictions, Trump's election  was a betrayal of American ideals by the American voter. Our fellow citizens decided to hand power to That Guy. 

My feeling has always been that the combination of low information voter, general anti-incumbent mood globally, and the latent, unexamined misogyny of the American voter led to Trump's victory. What we are seeing in a lot of very Red districts is that Federal programs are actually pretty popular - in fact, especially in Red districts. This is why Republicans have always run on antigovernment grievance but never actually cut the size of the government in radical ways. If you're one of these Congresscritters from a rural district you've been fulminating about "foreign aid giveaways" for decades, but you haven't actually cut USAID, because USAID buys food from your constituents.

If you want a nice summary of Trump's falling approval ratings and Musk's toxic personality, check out Richardson.

Big Bad Gubmint is a handy boogeyman to stand in for racial prejudice. Farm subsidies are fine, but SNAP and school lunches are not, despite the fact that they are literally two sides of the same coin, and despite the fact that those benefits flow to poorer, redder districts and states.

As Josh Marshall noted, Elon Musk is both unpopular and unhinged. He's a ketamine-addled billionaire at a time when literally no one likes billionaires. He's slashing indiscriminately and recklessly through important programs.  However, he's not Trump. His mad antics have created an avenue for soft Trump supporters to move away from Trump and the GOP. "I'm angry at Musk but disappointed in Trump" is the first step towards "I am voting for Democrats in 2026 to rein this madness in."