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Hold my beer [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-28
For decades, the unofficial motto of the GOP has been, Government Does Not Work; Vote for Us and We Will Prove It. Thus, no matter how counter-productive the action, think of government shutdowns, debt ceiling brinkmanship, etc, they went ahead with them because damage to governance is a feature, not a bug of their agenda.
Thanks to mainstream media both siderism, and the lefts proclivity for reflexively attacking or blaming Democrats for the atrocious conduct of the right, the GOP has learned there is no serious political price for their destructive conduct. Consequently, the right becomes ever more emboldened.
So here we are. Felonious, a fascist, in power and a gusher of performative Executive Orders that have brought the destruction of good governance to a new level.
I have written a series of posts under the hashtag MoreStupidShit to point out how they will fail as unconstitutional or phsically unattainable, but how destructive they are nonetheless. Their primary function is performative, i.e., to shore up support with his base, and stoke outrage from his opponents. The latter serves to deflect from how much they are hurting his supporters with the sugar high of 'owning the libs'.
The tariff threats may not pass constitutional muster, but the mere threat will call into question scores of business models. That will result in costly changes which in turn will be passed along to consumers. If implemented, they most likely will fail in court, but by the time the dust settles the irreparable harm will be done.
Take those imposed on the EU. He risks hundreds of thousands defense industry jobs just as Europe has realized it must increase defense spending, and at the very moment we need to expand our materiel production capacity. The US is not the only game in town when it comes to state of the art weapons systems, and most already have higher price points than competitors. The EU has continued purchases to cement relations with a powerful, reliable ally. Tariffs and bullying over Greenland, another bit of performative bluster, i.e., More Stupid Shit, radically change that calculus.
Mass deportations and round ups are another example. There simply isn't the infrastructure to accomplish his stated goals, but he has engaged in destructive performative acts nonetheless. Food production and processing workers are already longer showing up for their shifts out of fear, the effects of which are coming to your supermarket shelves soon.
Now there's impoundment of funds for domestic spending. Just as those directed at foreign aid will give our rivals, i.e., China, to supplant our influence by pointing to our fickleness, this reinforces the GOP goal of convincing citizens that government does not work. By the time the dust settles over litigation, the order is struck and the flow of monies resumes, the damage will have been done.
Oh, and the problems the monies were appropriated to address will have continued to fester.
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