There may not be much schadenfreude ahead for those us observing the triumphant fascists (other than for Chief Fascist-discarded attorneys like Rudy Giuliani and a few others). So we may want to start noting consequences heading the way of Donald’s voters—who believed, quite delusionally, that none of Donald’s promised actions would touch them.
They will be touched. (Unfortunately, so will all of us who did NOT vote for the face-eating leopards. But that’s another thread.)
In 2015 the immortal observation
…was made by Adrian Bott (@cavalorn on then-Twitter—would this type of remark remain uncensored on X?)
We will be seeing surprised realization—within a year or two if not much sooner—from several groups:
Log-Cabin Republicans will find that their marriages are no longer legal, and other protections they enjoyed are now gone.
Women (mostly white women, let’s face it) who believed that the ONLY women affected by Trumpist policies would be Those Sluts, will be having a rude awakening.
Bros who assumed that they’d not only be able to taunt women online (which they’re doing), but that all those women would actually become de-facto slaves overnight, Handmaid-style, may be made happy eventually—but it will take much longer than The Donald implicitly promised.
And Trump voters nationwide will be utterly stunned when Donald’s tariffs result in rising-and-rising-and-RISING prices (as inevitably they will).
The largest group that will be Surprised soonest is undoubtedly those born in other nations: immigrants, legal and otherwise.
Recently I noted in the thread
As Trumpite Chad Wolf said on the topic today: “No one is exempt from the law.” Practically speaking the new Administration will want to show results: numbers. They will grab anyone they can get their hands on to deport, and it’s easiest to get their hands on the law-abiding who have fixed addresses (available from employers who don’t want to get crosswise with the new regime). The very people interviewed on CNN and other outlets saying ‘he won’t come for us’ are likely the ones who will be grabbed first—it will make such MAGA-pleasing television. Show a bit of their post-election interview then show them being loaded onto the buses! Donald will be delighted, and so will his fans.
So the leopards will be feasting. A lot. Those who voted for Trump, voted for this.
The biggest group to be surprised will be the older white men (Trump’s base) that realize that at a certain point that when the country is on fire that they will be burned. It might be when inflation makes eggs $10 each or that their rich white suburban school suck because all of the good teachers have quit education - but it will happen.
Now of course the new regime will be putting huge efforts into providing scapegoats for all that’s about to happen (mainly the massive inflation). Democrats will be blamed, of course–not that Democrats are in power, but they are Subversives!
And the only thing keeping them from using that old stand-by, The Jews, is Ivanka’s marriage. We’re one divorce away from hearing that The Jews personally saw to making eggs $10 each.
Yes, a lot of Trump voters who are concerned about inflation will be surprised when they discover that higher prices is only considered to be a problem to the people who are buying things. If you’re one of the people who’s selling thing you think higher prices are good.
The thing about fascists is they always need enemies, so when they eliminate one griup they have to find another to persecute. Eventually, the crowd thins and they start feasting on each other out of spite, petty bickering, and desperation.
You’re right about that, but if the sellers are American, they, too, will be paying more for stuff other than what they sell.
Meanwhile Donald will be raking in…something. (I’m convinced that he likes his insane tariffs plan because someone told him about a back-door way he could get a percentage of every tariff funneled into his own Swiss bank account.)
That’s okay: it really can’t be said enough. We need to counter the upcoming propaganda that will attempt to exempt Trump from criticism over the inflation he’ll create. The more people talk about this now, the less easy it will be for him to sell his version of the story.
True, but history shows that one group can last a nation of fascists for YEARS. I mean, if Trumpism lasts twenty years then they might succeed in driving all Jewish people underground (in both living and not senses). So they’d just move on to, I don’t know, Armenians.
Parents of special needs kids are going to be shocked to find that the Department of Education spends surprisingly little of its time doing gender reassignment surgeries during recess and a surprising lot of its time funding and managing special education.
Excellent point. And many others now benefiting from Department of Education spending, who voted for Trump, will be shocked, shocked! that whatever program is helping their child, won’t be around anymore.
Instead they will be given a free GIF of Elon Musk jumping up and down. Perhaps that will be of some comfort.
The thing about a tariff is that it unlevels the playing field.
Let’s say there are two companies making ketchup; one in China and one in the United States. The Chinese company manufactures a bottle of ketchup for $1.00 and then sells it for $1.25. The American company manufactures a bottle of ketchup for $1.20 and then sells it for $1.30. The owner of the American company is selling fewer bottles of ketchup and making less profit on each bottle sold.
Now Trump slaps a fifty cent tariff on ketchup (along with an equivalent tariff on all other Chinese goods). The Chinese company still manufactures a bottle of ketchup for $1.00 but when it arrives in America that fifty cents gets added and it now effectively cost $1.50. So stores sell it for $1.60.
The American company is now competing against ketchup being sold at $1.60. The owner’s going to sell a lot more ketchup at his existing price of $1.30. But he’s also going to realize he would also be selling a lot more ketchup if he raised his price to $1.50. He’s still selling his product cheaper so he’ll sell more than he was selling before. And he’s getting thirty cents a bottle in profit rather than the ten cents a bottle he was getting before. Trump’s tariff was a win/win for him; he increased his sales and his profits.
The loser was the customers who buy ketchup. They used to have a choice between buying $1.25 and $1.30 bottle of ketchup. Now they have a choice between buying $1.50 and $1.60 bottles of ketchup.
You noted that some American companies buy goods that are affected by their tariff. That’s true. Let’s say that tomatoes don’t grow in the United States and have to be imported from China.
Trump slaps a tariff on Chinese tomatoes and it adds twenty cents to the ingredient cost of a bottle of ketchup. The American company that was manufacturing a bottle of ketchup for $1.20 now has to pay $1.40 to manufacture a bottle. They obviously won’t be able to sell that bottle for their old price of $1.30. To maintain their old ten cents a bottle profit, they raise their price to $1.50. The owner isn’t as happy as he was in the first scenario because his profit per bottle hasn’t gone up. But there’s some good news for him. He’s still selling more bottles of ketchup than he was because he’s selling ketchup for $1.50 a bottle while the Chinese ketchup costs $1.60.
Once again, it’s the customers who are the losers with a choice between buying $1.50 and $1.60 bottles of ketchup.
And the customers can’t raise prices and pass along the increase to the next guy. There is no next guy; they’re the final stop in the line. Regardless of whatever point in the process prices went up, they’re the ones who end up paying it.
I don’t know how it will happen but Trump is not a Christian (pick up your jaw, I know that’s a shocking statement). Right now he considers evangelicals to be useful fools whom he can count on for votes. He also probably relies on for the praise he so desperately craves. But at some point in the next 4 years I believe he will throw those Christians to the leopards. Some of them might even notice.
I’d bet money that that’s happening already, abortion-wise, even though I don’t know of any particular instances. The wide sweeping and vague abortion bans that supposedly have an out for medically-necessary abortions, but contain a penalty so high and the exceptions so vaguely defined that doctors refuse to perform them anyway. I would be surprised if at least one person who could not obtain a medically-necessary abortion in places like Texas was not a Trump voter.
I think possibly high-profile leopard-enablers will also find themselves thrown under the bus, minus their face. The notion that pardons will be scattered like confetti will not be realised; it’s easier to let someone else shoulder the blame and be destroyed than it is to make excuse for them, especially when there is an eager line of replacement high-profile leopard-enablers all wanting their turn for a grab at the action.
That does seem to be the pattern, judging by his first term. I recall how another forum had a thread called The Trump Memorial Wall for all the people near him who got fired and replaced; it was a long and almost continuously active thread.
Yes. Note that Trump could have pardoned people involved in January 6, 2021 before he left office on January 20, 2021.
He couldn’t be bothered.
From post-election interviews there are at least some female Trump voters who told themselves “he won’t sign a federal ban so it’s okay.” One of the many things they don’t realize–because whatever “news” outlet they favor won’t tell them–is that Trump’s crew plan to use the 1873 Comstock Act to stop the mailing of the most-used method of ending pregnancies as well as dealing with life-threatening pregnancy complications: mifepristone.
