Unless you’re suggesting we stuff ballot boxes or something, each Doper is just 1 person, 1 vote.
The GOP began targeting state legislatures and governorships a couple of decades ago. They got a majority of them in 2010 and have held an advantage since then. This was part of their plan to implement gerrymandered congressional districts in as many states as possible. Now we have multiple states with more voters choosing Ds but because of gerrymandering the GOP has the advantage not just at the state level but in U.S. House delegations.
I have posted more than once that the DNC needs to do more grassroots work and rebuild at the local level. I recently said something along those lines in the thread about who should be the D nominee in 2028. My point was that the focus should be on 2026 but was told to shut up and go away by more than one poster. The Democratic party still thinks change can be implemented from the top down rather than the bottom up. Failure to win elections will continue until that attitude changes.
Trump is wanting to be a tough guy, but he’s reminding me of Farkus from A Christmas Story, with the “Republican” party in the form of Mike Johnson as Farkus’s little stooge. Who can be the Ralphie that bloodies him?
Article summarizing polling of US citizens on their views on Canada, economics, and tariffs.
Why are we behind AUSTRALIA? Everything is poisonous there or wants to eat you or your baby.
“We’ll save Australia, don’t wanna hurt no kangaroo. Build an all American amusement park there… they’ve got surfing too”
So how can Canadians address the misperceptions that are revealed by that survey? I mean, the idea that Canada is taking advantage of the US when we sell the US our oil at less than the world market rate is both ridiculous and infuriating! Do facts truly mean nothing anymore? Has ignorance won, once and for all?
Yes. Remember this is the same man who spoke about how good a deal he negotiated with the USMCA and four years later it is the worst treaty ever. The chocolate ration has been increased from 30g to 25g.
You got oil. They got bugger all.
Merkins go to Australia on summer vacations for sun and surfing;
Merkins go to Canada on summer vacations for mud and mosquitoes;
Merkins can walk across your border, need the PAC Fleet to reach Oz.
And your damn polite attitude is just so unAmerican.
Germany is running a huge trade surplus but has a lacklustre economy.
Excerpt:
[Trump] sees tariffs as a simple tool to achieve multiple objectives: shrink America’s trade deficit, rebuild its manufacturing might and generate a gusher of revenue for the government. On every count he is wrong.
Mr Trump’s dalliance with tariffs in his first term already shows that they did nothing to narrow America’s trade deficit. One reason is that the dollar tends to strengthen when tariffs are applied. The first-order effect of tariffs is to reduce American demand for imported goods, leading to less demand for foreign currencies. But when fewer dollars are sold, the greenback’s value increases which in turn depresses global demand for American exports. The result is that even as Americans buy less from the rest of the world they also sell less to it.
To truly shrink its trade deficit America would have to undergo fundamental economic changes, with its savings rate increasing or its investment decreasing. It is not obvious that either change would be desirable: high investment, in particular, is vital if America is to hold its own in new technologies, including artificial intelligence. A monomaniacal focus on the trade balance has no bearing on the economy’s real strengths. Just look at Germany and China today, both running giant trade surpluses and both mired in lacklustre growth…
The record from recent tariffs also proves that they do not magically create jobs in American factories…
In Mr Trump’s most feverish moments, he has talked about completely replacing income tax with tariffs… data from Mr Trump’s first term demonstrates that the real cost of tariffs is borne, to a large extent, by American consumers through higher import prices. Besides, the banal reality is that tariffs will barely move the fiscal needle. Even if import levels were to remain constant, a 10% universal tariff would fund little more than a twentieth of the federal budget. In reality, imports would not in fact remain constant but rather would decline…
(Limited gift link and normal link, same article.)
I found this little gem in today’s New York Times - “Canada still intends to launch a retaliatory tariff plan against the United States, despite the fact that the executive order putting the U.S. tariffs in effect includes a clause that warns that a retaliation by Canada may lead to broader or higher tariffs by the United States, according to two senior Canadian officials with knowledge of the plans.”
They started a trade war against their closest ally, and Canada is just supposed to take it or it will get worse?!? Fuck right off!!
I’ve never been this angry at the US in my life!
I am so angry at my country right now but feel powerless to do anything.
I’ve been talking to family in Canada and it’s just breathtakingly insane.
My life is over and I am just waiting to die to get off this treadmill.
Please don’t talk like this. This will pass, it isn’t nation destroying. Just another day in crazylandia yes, but it is a trade war, not a war. Cheers.
Not yet.
Quite right.
This all sounds good, until some people end up homeless as a result of unemployment, or people like me, recently comfortably retired, suddenly have to sell a bunch of stuff and move into some crappy joint (I don’t necessarily believe that this will happen, but it certainly could happen to many), if Canada has to tighten belts, resulting in pension reductions and health care cutbacks etc etc, for no good reason whatsoever except for some autocrat’s personal issues and whims.
This is a terrible thing.
I sort of get this and there are times, thinking about what’s going on in the US, that I almost literally, feel sick.
And the fact that half of the American voting public thinks this is ok, and just unquestioningly sees nothing wrong with any of this, is appalling.
The west wasn’t a bad place after 1945 (and I acknowledge that the US deserves massive credit for this), but to just arbitrarily decide that throwing this away in favour of a “might makes right”, dog-eat-dog world, just blows my mind with incredulity.
Yes it comes and goes. I am OK at the moment but on fragile ground.
We have a family reunion in Canada in July and I’ve talked to my cousins about postponing it due to the craziness unfolding but they seem to want to move ahead with it.
I just retired from CAE in Canada, and we were so interwoven with CAE folks from around the world, including the US. I have to wonder what regular team meetings will be like from now on. Will everybody just pretend that none of this is happening? In a business context, it’s sort of like your family reunion situation.
There are downsides to having a psychopath as a neighbour, Ukraine can vouch for that.