I mean, I know this is just about “no brownies allowed”, but I’m still idly wondering how much more “extreme” US visa grants can really get.
Like, an acquaintance of mine was plumb refused entry for a week-long comic-con centric vacation on the grounds that her criminal rap sheet had one (1) item on it, namely breaking a window once when drunk (she hadn’t even *meant *to break it - she’d just kicked at the storefront because they’d tossed her out of the bar). If the bar is already that high for tourists, I can only imagine what it must be like to apply for residency… And I can’t fathom what more the administration is *supposed *to do to match Trump’s insane standards. Does he plan on hiring Maat to do the heart feather scale thing ?
Nor did one happen in the Obama administration. However, since Trump is determined to do just the opposite of whatever Obama did, perhaps we can expect one.
Tourists? Central vetting agency for immigrants? How long before the thump admin starts vetting citizens? He can use the Chinese Social Credit System as a model.
I’ve heard rich people say that wealth is just a way of keeping score after a while, so maybe there is some of that. The Koch brothers do what they do more because of ideology I believe. Their dad had a bad experience with communism, now they want to force America to match their ideal. What sucks is if you listen to a Koch brothers in an interview (I forget which one) he talks endlessly about how the American people don’t like special interests controlling politics, and he is too oblivious to understand that he is describing someone exactly like himself. A wealthy, well connected special interest trying to force his agenda on an unwilling population (even hardcore conservatives, when polled, do not support a libertarian agenda).
FWIW, wealthy people aren’t a monolith politically. There are lots of wealthy democrats and liberals. Alan Grayson and Nancy Pelosi are each worth about $30 million. Ned Lamont is worth 250 million. also while 250k+ a year in household income isn’t wealthy (just upper middle class), that demographic was evenly split in who they voted for.
I don’t support plutocracy, and don’t want a country where a handful of billionaires basically write our policy and control our politics. However the democrats have their own billionaires and millionaires (thank god) to negate some of the damage the rich on the GOP side are doing to America.
I don’t think the GOP rank and file are motivated by plutocracy. GOP politicians are, but GOP voters are motivated by white nationalism and oversized egos (they think they are the morally superior, authentic backbone of America).