Books on our bookstore shelf

I have a couple of books on the middle class or working class, Rachel Maddow's last book (Putin, oil, fracking etc.). But I was curious about the last ten years or so in US politics. How did the two parties get to the point where nothing bipartisan will pass? The first book was by a favorite author, but pretty much ended with the Bush era. I am in fact looking for exactly this kind of book, but it should cover at least the first Trump year.

On to the next book I picked off the shelf:

The book covers an interesting topic, a bit narrow. I guess the point there is that we in fact need the FBI, and they do a job, which generally has little to do with politics. But in this case the interference to the election was real. You would need to read this and the Mueller report together. On a side note, it is comical that the right finds the FBI alarming now, where the hippies of the 70s lumped the FBI with the rest of the "pigs," but that was of course before 9-11. We had no major terrorism.

Next book. The author is labeled a pundit. Had to pass, one sided.

The next one was interesting too, but would I finish it? Ian Haney López is a law professor at Berkeley.

The one I bought, Pitchfork Populism,  had to do with the Trump era, and Trump appears to pop up on at least every other page. We find that Trump base is about 20% of voters. The rest are traditional Republicans and independents. The book cites many studies of various sorts, including studies on young voters, media, smart phones etc etc. It is written from a somewhat academic view point, so I suppose a Trumpist could read it as well.  But probably will not. it does not really provide them any ammo for the next election, or to ridicule or to start new conspiracy theories.

Kane states: Trump “is actually a weak, insecure, self-obsessed, delusional, disloyal, emotionally diminutive figure who hyperextends himself to overcompensate for his personal faults, ineptitude, and intellectual impotence”. Continuing: “A growing chorus believes that Trump lacks the dignity, character, civility, ethics, judgment, intellect, discipline, and composure, to lead a conga line, let alone the greatest nation on the planet.”

One more book I had to get on line:

This is a book about the Internet and politics. It is not a book that will tell you why Trump won, for example. That would require a more detailed look at the people who voted for him and their views.

With that out of the way, you do learn about how the message is spread nowadays. Even if the voters got the message from TV, the Internet still had a role in passing along the messages learned.

Whether you believe the studies and conclusions is up to you. They are explained in enough detail that you do not need to go read the original papers.

As an example, the message of the phrase "deep state" starts around page 148 and goes on to page 158. Other similar phrases continue from there on (draining the swamp etc.).

We have to give credit to Trump handlers, Foxnews et al. for feeding these short phrases to the public. What part took them for real, and how the right and left react to the media feed is examined. it was not all that sophisticated, mostly repeating a thing over and over until it became a fact in the mind of voters. Sometimes you have to tell people what they already suspect and it is less of an effort to convince the right group. If Trump says is is fake news, many believe.

I guess you have to summarize Hillary's failures as two:  lacking the short messages the right produced (though she warned us of Trump and Putin) and also failing to address the voters about their job and other needs. Healthcare was a touchy thing, as Obamacare was still ongoing, and actually quite expensive for those that did not get any subsidy.

I keep telling myself that few of the Democrats have really grasped Twitter, and it may be too late anyway. The Trump base of some 20% and many others who voted for him are thoroughly convinced they are right. We in fact cannot tell what Trump's deeds are doing now and in the long run, other than in agriculture and trade. Jobs is very up in the air (the definition of "job" is vague) and you would only find out in eight years if he helped you out. It seems that the tax cut, in any case, was small for anyone in the biggest income group.

Have not perused the book on racism and nationalism yet. The index is good, so if you have favorite topics, you can read the sections on that. This book seems to be the only real well researched one on recent elections and the Internet. You do not need to read every page.

My conclusion is that the majority of people who buy and read books are left leaning, but there may be a bit of a rise among Trumpists for a short while. Pro Trump books are a good third or more of the books on the shelf. I got as close to buying a Trump book as I will ever get. I do not want him to be selling books, as much as I like books and want to promote anti-Trump writers. The faster we are done with Trump the better. We can then deal with the white working class a little better, without a populist messing up what they actually want to say. Many state that "Trump speaks how I feel," but there may many topics where they disagree. Trump has capitalized on the fears of the white working class, that they will lose power.

Generalities and Echo Chambers

The impeachment process is unfinished. The country is more divided than ever. The Trumpists are no longer open to any facts, we will just wait to see the next election. If Trump wins, he will also lose the senate. He is then open to more impeachments. There will be more and more Ukraines.

The general belief of the right is that "government is broken" is felt more by the right and the libertarians. The libertarians, because nearly everything the government does is too much, it should just concentrate on infrastructure and keeping us independent as far as water and other resources are concerned.

The right wing in general, though, thinks it is broken, because the few things they want government to do, such as the Trump Wall, are blocked by democrats and judges.  Democrats want more neutral judges, but otherwise think government is fixable.

The left and most of media is anti-Trump. There may be some behind the scenes activity that might be labeled deep state, but it is not as deep as Trumpists think. Yes, the government may be spying on you, but blame Bush. He started Homeland Security.

The echo chamber on the right consists of following Foxnews, Russian controlled social media, One America News Network and the like. They are chasing week after week after "dirt" on democrats in Ukraine. Because Putin directed Trump there. To save his reputation, even if he never was aware of Russian tactics in 2016.

If you want to follow what happened in Ukraine, there is an excellent timeline at Just Security.

LINK

Basically, none of the push to get the Ukraine presidents (first one, then the current one) to announce that they are investigating Joe and Hunter Biden was happening till 2019. All that happened when it was clear Biden would be running. Prior to that there was an effort to explain the 2016 election interference coming from the Ukraine rather than Russia. A thought Putin planted with Trump and Trump was more than willing to promote.

ECHO CHAMBER

The worst part of life on the Internet that is mostly trash and you need to learn to use it properly.  Many, possibly most, people do not understand the Internet. Asking or searching "vaccines cause autism" and "vaccines do not cause autism" gives different results.

But you may not even be searching an issue, the info just comes right at you through Facebook and Twitter. You can use those just for close friends, but even if you just express opinions to a small group of friends, the media still feed you stuff that agrees with what you already think. This is how they get advertisement money, as every link or other item you follow from Facebok gets them income. Click click click. That is their only mission. They do not want to disagree with you.

As a result of this, you are unlikely to get info that is correct, but disagrees with what you have already stated. The social media do not care about facts.

There is a limited part of the Internet that is somewhat reliable. Outside of politics, Wikipedia is very reliable. Google searches that give you mostly published data (it could still be left or right slanted) is Google Scholar.

The Post Trump Republican Party

The Republican party has finally achieved something. They lowered taxes under Trump. That may not be what the GOP of the early 2000s was after, because they wanted to cut public spending. But this is the new party. They only want to cut taxes, not spending or deficits. They can achieve things in 2 or 4 year runs. They will be looking for a leader after Trump that has some of the appeal that he had for the working classes. Global warming, coal, foreigners, jobs, taxes. all that carries over from the Trump era. But they will be looking hard for a politician who deals with the media the way Trump did. I presume Twitter will continue. Trump is supreme there, Democrats just add some spice once in a while, and the  Pelosi "don't mess with me" message works in the same way Trump tweets do. But none of them are willing to use Twitter daily. Well, maybe AOC does, not many.

The party is unlikely to ever return to "old Republicans" such as Romney.

It will then be a different world for Republicans, trying to hang on to battleground states like Wisconsin and Michigan. The momentum is lost in Wisconsin, with state internal politics going towards Democrats lately.

The tea party and libertarian wing will always be there. But cutting benefits will not go well with the new Trump era "independents" voting for their party. With any small recession even, the new right will be feeling the effects of Trump era rules on food stamps and other benefits. Farm aid went mostly to big farms and ranches. The small farm suffered under Trump, bankruptcies went up.

The party will survive, but I believe much of the populist appeal will go with Trump. Whether Mitch goes or not, he never had the same appeal. He was simply a Trump enabler.

With the electoral college remaining, the Republicans will still get a president once in a while. The states will hang on to the right of assigning all electoral votes to the winner. Gerrymandering has been blessed by the Trump supreme court. Still, the party will not grow.

Democrats, on the other hand, will have to expand past healthcare. keep or fix the healthcare we have, but move to favor jobs and business. It can be the Warren way, with new energy project, infrastructures etc. But first you have to get a presidency and a senate. The contracts will go to private corporations so watch corruption carefully. The deep state accusations will continue. Even if they are largely fantasy.

The business of politics will continue through lobbying, that we have not been able to stop. Lobbyists can work with either party. Lobbyists have more power than the uneducated voters that went for Trump.