Likewise ‘National security’.
Trump administration 2024-2028
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Brad Sallows
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Something wrong is surely going on, but it's not incipient fascism. There are at least four big political struggles going on in the US right now: extreme left progressives vs moderates in the Democratic party (extreme left is still ascendant), neo-cons vs Trump in the Republican party (neo-cons have faded to insignificance), Democrats vs Republicans, establishment vs populists. Republican populists currently have the most control, so they are under attack by Democrats (whether extreme or moderate), neo-cons, and anyone who was vested in the pre-Trump establishment status quo for how politics and power worked in the US.
It would help a lot if people could recognize mere populism without trying so hard to attach it to fascism.
Brad Sallows
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Fucking shame that people might have to be paid more. The proper living wage is somewhere above statutory minimum and below what the gentry want to pay their landscapers, nannies, and crop pickers. Doesn't everyone know that?
PrairieFella
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What do you consider extreme-left policies being pushed in the USA?
Do you not consider any of what's happening to be overreach? Deportation to foreign countries, snatch and grabs in unmarked vans by unmarked cops on the streets, inflammatory rhetoric, threats of political arrest, etc?
Do you not consider any of what's happening to be overreach? Deportation to foreign countries, snatch and grabs in unmarked vans by unmarked cops on the streets, inflammatory rhetoric, threats of political arrest, etc?
daftandbarmy
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Which, paradoxically, can kill the jobs meant for the people it intends to help because businesses don't work for government
Pros and cons to raising minimum wage
Minimum wage hikes can help or harm low-income workers. A more effective tool may be expanding the Canada Workers Benefit.
policyoptions.irpp.org
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It would also help if "populist" leaders didn't act like absolute autocrats whose ever musing and rage storm are considered to be legitimate populist policies.
If we take the label fascist out of the discussion, is everything still okay with this brand of populism?
Brad Sallows
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Boys in girls sports. Lax border controls and lenient welfare for people in the country illegally. Weak to no enforcement of some categories of crimes. Proposals to stack the USSC. Weakening of the 1A.
Sure. These things are simultaneously true:
1. Those things are wrong.
2. Some of the people complaining about the current examples were silent or supportive when different administrations were doing similar things. Their position was and is approximately "laws for thee, but not for me".
3. Tit-for-tat is a viable and recommended strategy for correcting defective behaviour. Turn-the-cheek has been tried and failed.
Everything going on is about politics and the gaining and exercise of political power. It's not a moral or ethical debate; "two wrongs don't make a right" doesn't apply. As severe as circumstances are, this is what it took to initiate change. That reflects back on the people who failed to do the right things when they were asked nicely. People behaving badly for short-term political gains created this situation.
A humane practical productive solution for the immigration fight would be immediate widespread amnesty. That's impractical without some kind of mechanism to wipe out whatever Democrats think they gained or might hope to gain by lax enforcement. If Democrats can't be trusted to not repeat what they've been doing, an alternate solution is to empty out most of the illegals they tried to allow in so that they'll be starting from scratch, so that the cycle will be understood not to be "mass-migration-and-mass-amnesty", but "migration-and-mass-deportation".
On "threats of political arrests", it was and is a mistake for some Democrats to boast they would or will get Trump. Keep that in mind the next time someone talks about finding a way to go after Trump in the courts or with impeachment without first having some offence in mind.
PrairieFella
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Also, I reject that Trump is a populist. There is nothing remotely populare about increasing prices by initiating a global trade war with tarrifs, putting secret immigration police or the military out on the streets or cutting billionaires a cheque at the expense of the working class and their benefits.
He hasn't even satisfied the ancient concept of panem et circenses style populism, nevermind anything remotely populist in the modern sense.
Brad Sallows
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Define "okay". Mainstream Republican and Democrat government in the US includes renditions, detention away from US courts, drone assassinations, regime change, war-making without Congressional authorization. Using purely utilitarian measures, are more people in the world better off with Trump in charge?
Brad Sallows
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Why so strict? A few days ago a parade (a kind of circus) was good enough to be evidence of fascism.
PrairieFella
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Just in the global economy, the answer is a definitive no.
Additionally, Ukrainians are not better off as Trump turns a blind eye to Putin, Gazans are not better off by trump ignoring / condoning Netanyahu's actions over the last 15 days.
"people in the world" are of little to no interest to Trump - indeed neither are any Americans who are not MAGAcolytes.
Trump has deliberately turned the US' back on the world, and no longer acknowledges any responsibility to the global common.
RangerRay
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I would add the demise of USAID to that as well. A lot of people will be worse off, unless China or Russia steps in. Yay?
Also, with the upcoming cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, VA, SNAP, etc., there are a lot of MAGAcolytes that Trump has little interest in.
GK .Dundas
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I still don't think Trump is a Fascist.
That requires ideology, that requires a level of thought that so far he hasn't demonstrated.
Think , Mob Boss.
Brad Sallows
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It's hard to measure, isn't it. He hasn't turned a country (Iraq, Libya) into a shithole at the cost of tens of thousands of lives, and most of the things being proposed as "costs" are not direct responsibilities of the US.
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You asked if "more people in the world better off with Trump in charge?". This was not at all modified with the idea of whether or not US has a responsibility to do so, although your question implied that it does.
So what is the issue here?
Brad Sallows
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As I wrote, "utilitarian". Degree of responsibility is a multiplier.
McG
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You argued MAGA can’t be fascist without militarization. A parade was one on a list of examples for militarization, it was not held up as proof of fascism. But hey you keep fighting those strawmen.
You clearly identify with the MAGA, and it can be tough to acknowledge fault within the in-group. Social identity has been linked to normalization and acceptance of deviant behaviour by groups of otherwise normal people.
There is some horrible things happening in the US and people are talking about that. You want to change the conversation and quibble about whether MAGA (and Nazis too for that matter) are fascist enough to be called fascist. Does it really matter when they are building concentration camps? wielding the power of the state against legal, media, and educational organizations with opposing views? Seeking paths to revoke citizenship of undesirables? Acting unrestrained of the constitution or checks & balances? Do you really think the other side did something similar enough so that this is okay?
daftandbarmy
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Meanwhile, in New York...
Donald Trump threatens to arrest NYC mayoral Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City and a state Assembly member, called the threat "an attack on our democracy."
Donald Trump threatens to arrest NYC mayoral Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City and a state Assembly member, called the threat "an attack on our democracy."
www.usatoday.com
Mandan is a naturalized citizen, so of course Trump has mused out loud on camera about looking into that- on his usual “a lot ofMeanwhile, in New York...
Donald Trump threatens to arrest NYC mayoral Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City and a state Assembly member, called the threat "an attack on our democracy."
Donald Trump threatens to arrest NYC mayoral Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City and a state Assembly member, called the threat "an attack on our democracy."www.usatoday.com
People are saying…” standard.
Trump falsely questions Zohran Mamdani's citizenship, threatens to arrest him over ICE operations
As he departed the White House earlier Tuesday, Trump continued to attack Mamdani, calling him a "total nut job" and "bad news."
abcnews.go.com