Democracy: a week gone and we are not doing so well

 

The Black Knight is optimistic. The stuff is just piling up day by day. Is there anything we can do? Sure, the voters WILL protest, espeecially in places like LA. In 2017 in congress there was good resistance to Trump. And his henchmen were incompetent. But so are Democrats now. My take is that the last hope they had of immediate action went with the Trump supreme court. After that there is nothing to do but wait. If we are lucky Trump will last 2 years. He only had a 1-2% win.

Well, the Democrats do not head any committees involved in any of this.

Anti-science

We had no idea. The MAGA folk are outraged at the whole world. We paid experts to invent and then get approval for a vaccine in record time. But...they were offended just by the fact that educated people told them to get vaccinated. If not for you (you are a tought guy) but the common good. But no, they have no need to do that. It is a zero sum world fot them. If he gets vaccinated, someone else but benefit from that.

I had this written up when the book came out. Now with RFK Jr inserting wacko ideas into healtcare, it is again relevant.

Peter Hotez's book describes how anti-science has become problematic. It can even prevent government funding of research.

Biology is still quite a mystery to the layman. Their approach to it is political and grassroots activism. You can read about politics and Fox News' campaign to oppose science in the name of freedom in other books. However, here the opponents of vaccines are described quite accurately. The factors you do not immediately see are also explained to some extent. Consumers are consumers of misinformation spread by a systematic machine. It is not worth basing your opinion solely on social media.

Who benefits from opposing vaccinations? Hotez mentions at least the trolls hired by Putin on social media. They spread false information about almost everything. Disinformation here and elsewhere, as well as the chaos of the pandemic, were Putin's goals. Local groups then seize on the false information to spread as facts. Scientists with important titles were also hired to come up with false information. The book mentions Jeffrey Singer, who wants to popularize all science. Scientists should no longer be in the role of "gatekeeper", but with the help of the Internet, a person could compile the information themselves and act on it. Even if a substance had been found to be ineffective against Covid, if it does not cause medical harm in a certain dose, a person would be allowed to try any substance on themselves.

There is also a large group of peddlers of fake medicines and “vitamins” circulating on the Internet. Hydroxychloroquine and a couple of others were popular during the corona pandemic. The criteria by which medicines and vaccines are tested and developed are not easy to read with the experience and education of a layperson. It is easy to grasp the simplest explanation. It is easy to exaggerate the risks of vaccines. In the case of Covid, it was not known that the mentioned risks and health problems in the Covid vaccines were the same, but more dangerous if you got Covid itself.

The functioning of the immune system is not understood by the layman. It is only understood that when you get the vaccine, you need to wait a while for the immune system to be ready to fight the virus. But at least that is clear. Those who have been vaccinated are starting to doubt whether the vaccine was of any benefit if you got Covid anyway. The statistics that support vaccines are tables, and they cannot be summarized in some Twitter-style message.

The book lists political groups that work in the healthcare sector. There is also a section on climate change and those who oppose anything related. All the January 6th rebellion groups, the Proud Boys and the like, are involved in sending threatening messages to Peter Hotez. He came into the picture during the pandemic and was even on television much more often than Anthony Fauci.

Anti-vaccine groups were ready since 2015 in Texas and California. When Donald Trump was elected president, opposition to science was in full swing. All government projects during the pandemic had to be modified stop depriving freedom. Public health in the US operates at the state level. State recommendations put in place, and in each state there is a person in public health leading that.

Public health operates at state and county level. Quarantines and tests were ordered. Now this was seen solely as the enemy of the individual and no compromise was made if there was even the slightest risk to the individual. Before the pandemic, there was misinformation about vaccines and autism in children.  Now the opponents had to come up with new claims. After all, the people being vaccinated were mostly adults.

At the local level, school parent councils first intervened in the use of masks because vaccines were not initially available to children. The same group of patents continues to operate and is now acting with the support of Governor DeSantis by restricting anything related to gender and minority groups in school textbooks and teaching.

Hotez explains exactly what happened during the pandemic in a few paragraphs. In the rest of the book, he continues to offer communication as a solution. He himself, although he is mainly a researcher in a large hospital system in Texas, has gone to the media as a defender of science. Hotez suggests a campaign in which prominent figures are hired to communicate with the media. They should be supported by organizations, so that the skeptical would agree to listen to the message for a moment. If the state hires them, they will not be believed.

There is hope: the young people

 I am as tired of the first week of Trump as we all are. Trump got in and his politics are summed up by exclusion. His voters wanted to exclude foreigners. That is happening. Now the process continues to exclude anybody but the most conservative and the wealthiest. Inclusiveness and democracy have no part in the Trump four years.

I had a lecture today from Roman Pryjomko. He has been involved in world politics since the 1990s. His one slide showed some hope. This is a South African, Fasija Hassan, who came into politics demanding in. "We will break down the door." Old men and women were holding all the power. Nelson Mandela quit at 80. He said the octagenarians have no right to govern. They cannot understand change.

If you want change, here is your chance. Quit following news from Facebook and TikTok. Find out what is going on. Get involved. I'll come out put up your yard signs. It is your turn.

A Tipping Point -- History has changed

                          

The first Trump term and now the 2nd will push the US in a certain direction. Trump will not get too much credit from the historians. It will be noted that there was a shift. The voters are not happy and part of it is that the US Constitution is no longer working for us citizens the way it did in the 1900s, even though the Reagan years.

 The result will be a US with a big army and some strength. But no longer keeping military bases all over the world and cruising aircraft carriers. Those were around for the purpose of providing a base in a place where there was not a lot of US support. Middle East, Asia, Russian neighbors. Aircraft carriers do not enter the Baltic as those are now all NATO countries. And they never did. The people with libertarian views saw this patrolling of the planet as waste. Now they will get what they want. Part of the America First idea. A zero-sum game of global scale. What  money goes abroad is away from my pocket. The problems that arise will pile up in the next few decades. Several epidemics will go out of control.

 The other trend that we will see is that red states are on their own. The South will be poor. Even federal highway money will be less and less. The blue states will continue as they did. They produce a lot of income and will take care of their own. They will invent their own healthcare.

 Healthcare will change. Traveling to a different state may require travel insurance, in case you get sick. The states will become little countries. Sharing only the military and the dollar. Federal spending will tighten and will run a lot like the EU. Some states will need to be bailed out from time to time. Catastrophes will need special laws for recovery, each one. Some kind of financial arrangements are made. Somehow the states will get independent economies. Don't ask how, I am not an economist.

ADDED 2-1-25

"It’s been clear for quite a while now that red America and blue America are becoming like two different countries claiming the same territory, with two different versions of the Constitution, economics, and American history. But Babel is not a story about tribalism; it’s a story about the fragmentation of everything. It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It’s a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families," writes Jonathan Haidt.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369

Trump Explained

One factor that went in favor of Trump was that Trump had formed a bond with tens of millions of voters in 2016. That group was never going to flip. If you had a discussion with a 2016 Trump voter criticizing Trump and explaining how some thing was better under Biden, they were insulted. An accusation about Trump was insulting that voter personally. Harris on the other hand was "just a politician and a DEI hire."

Number one issue was: foreigners. Very well planned straw man from Trump, cats and dogs and all.

There is a general feeling of "the Democrats did nothing" among Trump voters doing poorly. I will address that at the end.

A second thing that has been a factor for decades that leads to people picking someone like Trump is a Foxnews related item. It has been around longer, but Fox has really capitalized on it an repeated it endlessly. It is the belief that the federal government does not work.

Those Trump voters are now anxiously waiting exactly that. Dismantling the federal government. "It does not do anyhing."

A number of things all came together to give Trump just some 1-2% more in a few states: inflation, vaccinations, wokeness and a good number more. It's kind of like the Santa Ana winds promoting fire. They just happened at the right time. Many of those will not be repeated in 2028, so let us look at some factors that DID make him the favorite among MAGA and the undecideds.

Donald Trump is a showman. He liked to be on stage, he likes audiences. He is at home at a Trump Rally. In fact he is still campaigning. He will do this for several months. His major plan to deport all the migrants that he labeled a danger will very likely start in 2025. The cost and details will need to be worked out. Laws covering immigrants have just border partol funding. Not deporting millions.

And he is a con man. None of that was convincing for me. I do not support mass deportations. Since I had no fear of immigrants, I also did not see it as an urgent issue to solve. So how did he create the intense fear of foreigners for tens of millions? Rejection of all culture not your own.

It took me a few books of MAGA type of politics and explanation of the support to learn one thing. The supporters do not see Trump as a politician. Somewhow that makes him on their side. The voters can "smell" a poltician right away, and that is what Harris and Biden are. Politicians who do not say exactly what the voter thinks are on "the other side."

I'm trying to see what 49% of voters saw in a man who is very clearly just an asshole. To most of us. And of his messages, only the hatred and deporting of aliens is a clear messge. How is he able to convince rather simple folk that tariffs on imports will fix their issue with prices? And how did they ever end up liking him? On the other hand Harris was as normal as you could imagine, and they went "I just don't believe she worked at McDonalds" or used some other trivial item to dismiss her.

He talks and talks. Migrants, Hannibal Lecter, tariffs, China. It did not really matter. There were 49% of voters that understood something that he said. It was probably not factual. But it was an outcome they wanted. A true demagogue. Trump appeared genuine to them, and the hatred of certain groups by Trump is genuine. Making fun of liberals appeared somewhat humorous, but these too are real threats. Also the cultural trends have gone quite a ways toward the left in the past few decades. All that needed to be erased too. In the Reagan era this was a big issue, that is why we did not get gay marriage till later.

So part of MAGA era support is for throwing out all the WOKE stuff. TV ads did focus on liberals allowing trans-gender people to identify as such and the schools then at least approving this. In fact, on the local level, schools have been a big issue for ten years. They think schools should teach basic skills. The other stuff, history and so on, cannot address race and gender issues. It was a platform issue due to all that happened during the pandemic. Federal funding for schools is at issue. It may be a lot for poor states. Other states fund themselves.

His opponent was relatively unknown. As VP she could not claim that she personally did some presidential deed. Biden was in on it. The voters also look at a candidate and immediately form a gut feel. The few people I talked to in person had no real feeling for Harris, other than a couple of them noted that "she sounds like a politician."

Voters are not able to make any statistical or financial estimate of anything they are deciding on. If Trump said something often enough, it was taken as the probale outcome or truth on any matter.

Trump also took credit for several things Biden or Obama did. I still hear MAGA folk repeating the thing about Child Tax Credit. That was 2021, not Trump.

Turning real threats such as climate change into conspiracy theories also made the MAGA folk almost a club. They now proudly say things out loud that they were afraid to. This also includes racism. "I'm never going to call a man in a skirt a woman."

And there are a good..half?...of people going to rallies that absolutely love Trump. For "shaking up things." For owning the libs. Woman in Milwaukee on Jordan Klepper video. In the video she has cackling laugh over it. "He showed them." And "he is one of us." Paraphrasing from a few minutes.

Biden did none of that, a few speeches here and there. But he was so in the back ground, so presidential, that in this social media world it looks like he did nothing. Fentanyl deaths are down under Biden, but nobodyd said a word about it this year.

Apart from Trump himself, the hatred of government produced the Trump cult. This is a decades old phenomenon.

One more aspect of being disgruntled is that the voters believe the "Democrats have done nothing for me." Biden actually improved healthacare costs and support. But I have to admit that despite ACA, the health care is still a mess in the US. The Democrats have done their best. But lobbyists are always there. Let us see how Trump does with that, but the promise is only to cut ACA. He intends to cut corporate tax. That will do absolutely nothing for MAGA folk. A few will lose some tax benefits, none will gain any.

The economy: Trump promised to "fix" the economy. That will not happen with tariffs. The tariffs might bring some jobs, but lose some. He was going to make things affordable. Well, they will be, once wages catch up with inflation. Prices will not come down. Nothing to do with Trump. It is just how inflation works.

Democrats

The collection of strawman issues the Trump dumped on democrats is largely false. There is a tiny bit of truth about  "the Democrats did nothing" that MAGA folks claim. Income disparity is large. This is the result of Democrats being unable to tax the wealthy. The income of the lower middle class is largely dictated by corporations which now run the country, no matter what party is in power. Democrats could offer regulated healthcare and safety nets. The income itself is by coporate standard. The support of corporations during the pandemic did almost nothing to you the worker. Both parties are resposnible. Trump was never the solution.

The European economy is such that you do not pay much for education and can get better jobs and earn a nice living. You are more independent while working. But as you retire, they are much the same as us. Life there is not so much about collecting wealth.

Democrats

We have a good number of young congress people that speak out about real issues and live in mostly blue districts. Those people are in the news often. AOC, Maxwell Frost, Jasmine Crockett and others.

But not all Democrats are as outspoken and will not discuss the Second Amendment much. And then there is the economy. Trickle down does not work, but voters are always confused and turned off when you bring up taxation. Benefits are easier to discuss. But even there, bring up benefits that everybody would get. Independent voters do not care much about Medicaid, for example. Just something they would need when they are old and poor.

The complaint about Democrats not doing anything for the working class may be true, but on the other hand voters have given them very slim majorities. Social Security reform (actually simple: tax higher income) cannot be done. Compare that to a Republican win. Social issues and scare tactics got Trump elected. The result is giving more power to corporations and the rich. This happens over and over, every GOP president and under Clinton. It is just inching year after year to extreme capitalism. They dictate many national policies now. The Supreme Court is also on their side now. Just a rubber stamp to strip down "big government."

Repeal of their own ACA healthcare by congress and replacement by extreme profit making insurance plans is one more thing that the MAGA voters voted for. Employers will still have some control of insurance gotten through them.

The other thing that rules politics is money. Many Democrats are forced to be rather centrist. Not their personal view, but they may be in a district that would go to the GOP if they did not have big money to spend in campaigns. To get the votes and the money (big corporations, lobbies) they are closer to the center. They can hold leftist views on social programs but taxing the rich is another matter.

Republicans

I have tried to summarize the election, indpendents, MAGA folk and Trump in a number of posts. To simplify things, let us look at just actual Republicans.

The general principles are:

1 government is bad, taxes are bad

2 if we have some programs that people could benefit from, the majority will be ripping off the honest tax payer. Entitlements are for lazy Democrats.

3 Science is bad, because Democrats run funding to it. Plus many things there clash with our beliefs, the Bible. There are no vaccinations in the Bible.

4 We have to keep some millitary. This is because the vast population of the world is not like us. They do not look like we do and think like we do. Keep them out. And the poor as well. We have our own poor.

5 To get rid of anything Democrats started, just cut funding. If it results in some disaster, blame them. Bring back minimal funding a year later in a quiet way. No news on this!

6 If there is some service the federal government does well, we must stop it. We do not want to give them ideas. BECAUSE:

7. Every problem from city to state to the federal level is better solved by the FREE MARKET. Privatize everything.

The Brainwashing of My Dad: How the Media Was Used for a Right-Wing Revolution

 A summary (it was originally in Finnish, so a few odd bits of grammar and vocabulary may remain).

Jen Senko's book was published 2021 and went unnoticed by many. After all, there were dozens of books in the wake of Trump's term that described the MAGA movement and Trump supporters. However, this book focuses more broadly on how the 2016 election came about, and how Fox News played a central role in it. They started their propaganda against the left some twenty years ago with a cable TV program that looked like a news channel. The movement was also helped by Rush Limbaugh and talk radio hosts like him. Rush could talk for hours on end without any guests.

The book describes the author's dad Frank in the midst of all this. His whole character became angry and racist for a long time. However, reading the book is rewarding, as Frank finally realizes his mistake at the age of about 90. The film of the same name, produced by Jen Senko, is available to watch on Amazon or YouTube. Frank's change began just when Rush Limbaugh began broadcasting his program to the entire national network. Frank did not discuss politics much with the family when he was younger and had always voted Democratic before that.

Now he had changed his mind almost immediately after retiring. There was time to listen. The whole talk radio industry was taking off from the mostly uncontrolled radio broadcasting that Reagan had allowed by the FCC. The technology was ready to broadcast AM broadcasts across the country, and Limbaugh had many competitors. Everyone was chasing the same audience, white males who had time to listen, and daily life might not have been so interesting. Limbaugh pointed out who was to blame for their situation: liberals, feminists, and foreigners. Rush also began to hate science, so there was no evidence that nicotine was a drug, or that smoking was a risk. He preached this and more to his followers.

The Democrats did not have a similar radio show to incite hatred against the right. The Tea Party was in full swing in politics, and libertarians even went as far as Congress to declare that the federal government had too much power. The book describes the target audience of Fox News. Cable television or satellite dishes reached all rural areas, and it became the only source of information for millions. Frank in the book got more content to follow in his life from Fox News. His wife had to flee to another part of their house while he spent hours blasting the programs.

The book emphasizes Fox's role during the pandemic. The misinformation it spread about vaccines and disease treatment reached Fox viewers, who tended to believe everything they heard. The Fairness Doctrine of radio and television was intended to give all parties a voice to broadcast, but here it was clearly detrimental to society. Fox owner Rupert Murdoch had gained quite a bit of power at that point. The Telecommunications Act, passed by Congress in 1996, allowed the same company to own newspapers, television, Hollywood film production, Internet news, everything possible under one roof. They could each have a CEO, but Murdoch controlled them all. When the target audience is the same, the company is in a monopoly position.

Much of the country has other channels available. But when news channels started reporting what Trump said on Fox, for example, they unknowingly boosted Fox's ratings and revenue.

 Senko's book focused on this single Fox News viewer. The role of the media in manipulating well planned political concepts was made clear in the book. But what makes people believe in conspiracies in general? Jan-Willem Van Proojien has written a book on the subject called “The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories”.

The short book goes through familiar examples from the right and other more violent single-issue groups. The general idea is of our own group and its opponent, a powerful and secret conspiracy that controls our lives. Humanity has always had a tendency to do this. We look for some kind of factor, an “agent,” if we cannot otherwise explain some events. Fear is also always present when conspiracies are invented. Something in life makes a person afraid of an external entity that they can do nothing about. People who preach the threat of conspiracies spread fear. If the conspiracy is not stopped, the victim/believer is depicted as committing some type of violence themselves.

The left may have its own conspiracy theories. It happens in South American countries, for example, where there is a dictatorship, and everything negative that happens in a country must somehow be blamed on the dictatorship.

Looking Ahead to Somewhat Hopeful 2026 and Later Elections

The situation

Trump is heading into Season 2 as President, but just a president in a reality show. Not a fully functioning one. He only thinks about how he looks. Polling may have some influence, but can also be dismissed as "fake." This is my take, based on four years of Trump. He could be much more dangerous, but his main concern is loyalty at the top, so my hope is that he will be less functional at ruining our lives. But there are some concerns, listed below.

We had an election and 49% of voters heard something they agreed with from Trump. But other than the general "we will raise tariffs" or "we will remove all the illegals," there were no specific solutions offered. He just presented them somehow with a determined voice. So here we go again. We did this once already. Why was it confusing to MAGA folks that Trump handled most things badly, including the pandemic? We don't know. They will have expectations, and their feelings will turn to apathy about politics sometime. It is quite unusual Trump lasted more than eight years.

Donald Trump appeared on the national scene mostly in 2015. Somehow many things happened and Trump went with his hunches and after quite a mess of nine years (his mess) got elected and here we are. It is not because anyone likes Trump, it is because he was somehow effective with a completely fake strawman argument. If the faithful supporters do have any feelings toward him, it is more the kind when you support the alpha male and somehow think he is on your side. A very small group are extreme followers of simply power. The Mar a Lago crowd and the guys who then somehow burn in a Tesla outside a Trump hotel. Don't ask me. I do not understand them.

A few voters idenfify as patriots. It remains to be seen what kind of patriot Trump is this time. The rest idenify him as the authoritarian and are used to that type of leader. Harris was a difficult figure for many a voter who were used to a white male, even if they were themselves from another group.

The Onion summarized the the two types:

Looking ahead

It will be difficult. And Trump will do a lot of damage in two years. Or even the last weeks before he is sworn in. The Supreme Court may help push extreme small government and social program changes for two years. But we must look ahead, too.

First the January mess. Trump getting his big party thanks to Billionaire money. And we are now moving toward the days when the chaos cabinet for Trump is assembled. A lot of it is putting in department heads to strip down their own department. But Trump is also showing his might over the senate. The senators still worry about re-election in 2026 and 2028. I assume they think they can run Vance in 2028. 

But Vance is nothing, all bluster. Oh, he would run if there is enough support for him in the primaries. But if the MAGA folks are still intrested in politics in 2028, those are all he will get in 2028. It really does not matter if it is he or a more established Republican. They do not have anyone that can speak to MAGA (not the Trump way) and also get the independent voters by scaring them about "losing America."

The economic issues will not be solved. Trump promised nothing directly and the tariffs will not bring income of jobs to MAGA voters. With that, two years may not be enough. In four years MAGA voters will have apathy. Some foreigners were deported. A lot of things were deregulated. "What did Trump do for me?" Nothing.

It disturbs most of us that the 49% of voters would want to give Trump free hand at whatever he does. They may have been frustrated at congress achieving very little. But to most of us that is still preferred to having a dictator. The presidency does not need to be empowered more. And especially by a man controlled by whims and vanity.

I am still sticking to my prediction that we will have a different president every four years. That would also include the prediction that all old candidates are scrapped. Democrats in the primaries will not run Harris or Wlaz. It will be a governor.

SOCIAL MEDIA

I don't have a solution to this. The people Trump captured are not easy to reach via social media, podcasts etc. The strawmen arguments and conspiracy theories were entertaining. "They are eating our pets." Or, maybe just attention grabbing. We have none of that. Just light hearted poking fun at how stupid MAGA voters were.

The four years to 2028 election

The goal is to prevent him as much as possible. Prove that democracy works even here, and that by 2026 we will have this under control. Isn’t this a bit of an expensive experiment? First going to the Trump extreme, then bringing those essential things back. Trump can do a lot in two years. The failures in our constitution are obvious. If the president has the House and Senate and the supreme court, there are only the states and lower federal courts to hold him back.

Because Trump pulled out so many politicians from the house, he won't be very effective the first half year. He will attempt to deport as many aliens with the funds he has. Executive orders for many things. The other problem is what is happening with the budget just before Christmas and the first half year. We just have to see. 

We can sort of make some guesses about Trump. He acts impulsively and will not back out of things he decides: Nippon Steel is not buying US Steel.

What is not guessing is that his cabinet is there merely to destroy the administrative state. Mike Johnson is openly talking about SMASHING it.

Trump starts right off with tariffs. A very astute analysis by this poster. Trump is campaigning. What he does best.


                 

And this is partly the reason for his popularity. He campaigns and takes credit continuously. He makes himself the news.

Biden did none of that, a few speeches here and there. But he was so in the back ground, so presidential, that in this social media world it looks like he did nothing.

And we are still wondering about the 2024 election. What has become bolder is simple racism. Telling immigrants outright to go back where you came from. Immigration is not a trivial change for the immigrant. Some that have made it here and got some kind of job actually feel very much American, and would make good reliable workers. Those are the people that built America. If they have learned English, very few are willing to go back. They are even able to tolerate some hate toward their nationality, as so many of them have nowhere to go back to. There is not a way to make a living there, and they own no property back home.

The New World Order

While we sit and wait for Trump world, there is a claim about our future that looks unstoppable. Capital has reached a point where the average person has no way to stop the way it shapes the world.

The Trump phenomenon with its cultural issues makes it look like some people are getting what they wanted: getting back to "traditional values." But that may just be a trivial effect from Trump, the supeficial part. It of course matters to liberals and multiculture and any individual that does not fit into Mike Johnson's world. But the bigger shift is to a world pretty much run by coporations and wealth. We all have worked for wages, but this is control of us in a much bigger way. The plan is to make us completely dependent on giant corporations that employ us.

The corporations and billionaires have supported candidates with very conservative social issues mainly because that is who they can get in. The corporations do not care about trans gender or healthcare. They only want control of taxes and minimum wage and also some trade. Trump is not the perfect candidate for them. Corporations are globalists.

Democratic principles can be thrown out according to Yuval Harari. Our skills are going to be worthless due to AI taking over even a lot of service jobs. Our vote therefore does not count much, and the world where our worth is little is coming.

The irony is that Trump was allowed to present it all as a grand scheme to take us back to the 1950s world. Those male and female roles and values. The manufacture of consumer stuff is in fact never coming back and Trump will never raise the wages of the white working class. Their only power is to support the social issues that he brought to the front of everything. They may even feel good about "owning the liberals."

Having been rather powerless for decades, MAGA folk may not notice much change in the next few years. The rest of us are all yielding our poltical power to wealth. Corporations and billionaires. We have about as much power at that point as people did under communism. The power we had by electing liberal polticians that would allow at least our multicultural nation to exist. And some minimal welfare and regulated health insurance.

The educated classes will be struggling as well, as many of our jobs can be automated but may need some supervision. And the AI collected data and summary may need to be approved by a human before an AI decision takes effect. But we have often changed jobs and skills, so our chances are slightly better.