Marx argued for heightening the contradictions. What he meant was that efforts like labor unions actually hurt the proletariat by improving their living and working conditions. What was needed, he argued, was the full cruelty of bourgeoise capitalism to be felt by the working masses. This was "heightening the contradictions." Things had to be terrible for "the revolution" to happen.
Well, we are about to heighten the hell out of those contradictions.
The coming devastation of SNAP is the first thing that will be felt all over the country. Then, the exploding health care premiums will devastate the middle class.
Which brings me to the Democrats endgame on the shut down. Lot of Republicans seem almost gleefully eager to immiserate their own voters. If they ram through a CR by eliminating the filibuster for it, and the health care increases kick in - does that matter? If all these rural voters lose SNAP benefits - does that matter?
I've always been skeptical of this argument, because it seems to me that people have picked their parties based on things besides tangible policy positions. I wager we will see a lot of "I'm really disappointed Trump has increased the price of groceries, killed my SNAP benefits and made my insurance unaffordable, but at least he's not a Democrat."
What's more, do you even want to win? Like on tariffs - which are all clearly illegal - do you want the Court to rule that they are illegal? Or does it serve to benefit you electorally when the economy finally sputters and dies?
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