Trump and Corporations

They are bending at the knee. But it is all just business. Democracy is not essential for business, power is. Power over competition or a market. Power over federal regulation,

The effect of Trump on us voters for the past three presidential terms has been extreme. There are his fans and then the rest of us: get out of my life, Trump! But then there are corporations. And I never understood this part of politics.

Corporations are the one thing bigger than Trump in our lives. And in a way they are similar. Corporations do not care about you. You just make a deal for some benefits when you work for them. But even if your employer has some symbolic founder, the corporation is never your friend.

Then there is Trump and the corporations. Tim Cook brings some sort of goofy award to Trump. They sit with Trump in Windsor Castle. They still have power. But corporations are only about stock value. They really have no principles. Like Trump. They have the wealth to deal with many issues. If Trump has to be bought, buy him. They cannot risk the future of a company past Trump. They sacrifice in the short term for the long term survival. They can keep doing this for a while. Many corporations provide an essential service and two or three companies are essentially a monopoly in any field. We will pay more for cell phone service if it comes to that. We will buy food distributed by a small number of food companies. 

There is some assumption that there will be normalcy, but corporations will survive no matter what. If the government fails in a bif way, such as with transportation, then we are all in trouble.

I have to say this is about as depressing as Trump ever got for me. MAGA voters will take years to learn. Trump is holding up pretty well in public, and whatever health problem he has may not take him down anytime soon.

MAGA-voter Men are Cavemen

I am addressing mostly men here. I've met a few people the last 12 years that I spotted immediatly as Trump voters. And heard their views on real life things that had nothing to do with Trump. Many were hard working white working class. Very proud of "never collecting welfare" and generally satisfied of their role in life. Which they see as something that has nothing to do with government, other than the local politics of a city. Someone has to fix the roads and all the we have to pay by tax. Schools they are not that enthusiastic about. They hated school. They then compare theirs to other people, the educated elites. It seems you had to learn something well and pass tests. A few of them will encourage any kids they have, especially to more technical fields. But they feel like they have paid for the education of me and my kids that went to college. "They got something and I paid for it." It is a sort of envy of us and dislike of all things to do with the federal government. They do see the need for specialists and the education of them, but other tasks of the government are seen as mainly a hindrance and "too much regulation." The things to do with the environment are all seen as fake.

There is then all the other stuff to do with the MAGA men. They are the tough guys, the bread winners and women are seen as having a lesser role. Careteakers, for sure, as there are children. They long for the old days when we had very independent families and more of a rural life. A little past hunting and gathering.

Trump was seen as a tough guy, Biden (after the debate for sure) as a wimp. Trump bragged about all the things he will do. Who would imagine he starts bragging about building things, like ballrooms. Before the election it was just about tearing things down that were "too much government." Trump has been proud of every single thing he has cut down. Also part of the caveman mentality. You have to show daily the achievements to your tough males of your clan.

The Atlantic in its story on resistance by David Brooks summarized the "achievemnets" as all in the category of male toughness (see the part after SNIP) :

For the United States, the question of the decade is: Why hasn’t a resistance movement materialized here? The second Trump administration has flouted court decisions in a third of all rulings against it, according to The Washington Post. It operates as a national extortion racket, using federal power to control the inner workings of universities, law firms, and corporations. It has thoroughly politicized the Justice Department, launching a series of partisan investigations against its political foes. It has turned ICE into a massive paramilitary organization with apparently unconstrained powers. It has treated the Constitution with disdain, assaulted democratic norms and diminished democratic freedoms, and put military vehicles and soldiers on the streets of the capital. It embraces the optics of fascism, and flaunts its autocratic aspirations. |snip|"Although Trump’s actions across these various spheres may seem like separate policies, they are part of one project: creating a savage war of all against all and then using the presidency to profit and gain power from it. Trumpism can also be seen as a multipronged effort to amputate the higher elements of the human spirit—learning, compassion, science, the pursuit of justice—and supplant those virtues with greed, retribution, ego, appetite. Trumpism is an attempt to make the world a playground for the rich and ruthless, so it seeks to dissolve the sinews of moral and legal restraint that make civilization decent."

This also ties in with all the machismo that the Joe Rogan fans display. Even taking vaccinations was for wimps.

The young men today seem to be craving some of these caveman jobs they no longer need to do. Just sitting on the couch playing videogames (Mike Johnson meme here) does not achieve it. 

A lot of the machismo is rather thin, like retired National Guard officer Hegseth talking about warrior ethos. Hegseth has served in Afghanistan. He may have some real experience. Even thinner is the machismo presented by Kristi Noem, amounting to wearing costumes with no real badges or rank. But the attitude from all this is enough for MAGA-men. Trump himself will fail with his hard leadership image when he becomes physically weak. When he can no longer climb the longer steps of Air Force 1, that is the end.

All displays of empathy are for wimps. Trump has no problem putting out an example of this. Greed and stepping on anyone to get your goals is the ideal. JD and all the others try to copy him.

All support to anyone with a need is just feeding the people that really do not need to survive. You have to stand on your own and never beg for help.

The entire taking care of citizens (as far as needs, help going to individuals) in terms of social programs and plans for our happy planet (environment) have been forever Democrat programs. All the ones Trump wants to cut. The concept is explained well in an Onion item related to the 1980 election:

Finally, there are women. Of course, MAGA men of the younger age will not find the women as easily as the Democrats. The women need to be slaves to men.

It is strange that Trump was seen as some sort of support for women in early days. This could all be framed as looking out for white Christians. He was protecting them from transgenders in bathrooms and from the "great repalcement theory." Their way of life would survive. At least in suburbs and rural towns.

If the fear and hate prevail through the next few presidential elections, there may not be a way back. The US will breawk up into red and blue regions.

Who Are These People?

Donald Trump was annoyed by Obama from the start. He entered poltics and ran for real in 2016. He, with media tools and Fox News, was able to reach people that never really followed poltics. A candidate endlessly sending social media messages was a new thing. No senator in 2016 was doing it.

I grew up in the Midwest, my high school was outside a major city. It was 60s and 70s suburbia. I had an idea of what America was and a sense of Americans. It was a predictable world, all the way to about 1990. I was never surprised by anything Reagan said.

But then Trump happened, and Fox News before that. Who are these people? They are not happy with anything. Trump most of all. Other than enjoying babbling to crowds or the press, the rest of his day is spent with hate and revenge.

The large numbers of extreme right wingers are into being tough men. Those that have deficiensies might as well die. Their thinking is Nazi era eugenics. The master race will survive.

I avoided these people for most of my life. But for 50 plus years I did not even know they were there in that number, 30-40 million voters. There are entire communities consisting of nothing but MAGA voters.

We had hippies and college and all sorts of experiments going on in the early 70s.

Our bands poked fun at the establishment. We were content doing our own thing most of the time. Politics was not much. We had a bad president, we got rid of him.

America swings left and right in some 8-10 year cycles. The current extreme right authoritarians only won by 1.5%. Yet they cannot stand us or pretty much anyone who is not a white Christian. And education is apparently bad. 

We invented most of the nice things you are enjoying. Technical stuff, cancer cure etc. We went to college for that. It was not necesary for them and it turned us into elites. We understand stuff well, and pretty much produce all change. They work for an hourly wage and simply produce things or provide a service.

We were never so persistent in our efforts to wipe out the opposition as Trump is. to keep himself out of jail. But he only has the MAGA hatred tools to do it with.

So, to simplify our hippie ideal of the 70s, and compare it to now, we are in a new swing in politics. Not just right and left. Now it is love and hate. They have absolutely no tolerance. Democracy is tolerance. That they have forgotten.

We will have to characterize these people sometime later. But it is worth pointing out that even though they clearly have sharp views on much of life and us, most of it is still just hate. Hate and fear. And they have a leader, Trump, who is psychologically at some extreme. His feelings are a bad model for anyone, and I think he lacks empathy altogether.

Added Note from Lynn on Threads, explaining these folks:

"I am not a Trump supporter but I think it has something to do with permission structure. Trump allows/enables us to be our worst selves (greedy, sexist, racist, victim, violent). Kindness, generosity, manners, responsibility and self-control are now "woke."