A self-limiting virus

December 7, 2024

We are stuck in a news cycle in which Trump is making mind-numbing nominations, and his henchmen are making ludicrous proposals to eliminate $2 trillion from the budget. This state of affairs will stretch into early January. It is not a good place to be because we are in a partial state of suspended animation, experiencing unrelenting bad news with little room for resistance and action. That will change after the 119th Congress begins on January 6, 2025, and confirmation hearings begin.

As painful as the nomination process has been and will continue to be, it provides a clear view of how Democrats will reclaim Congress and the presidency over the next four years. In short, Trump's nominations and budget proclamations are so outrageously bad that they will act as self-limiting viruses on the future electoral prospects of the GOP.

To be clear, I am not saying that we can sit back and wait for the GOP to implode. I am saying that we should be ready for the implosion and should do everything in our power to accelerate it.

Trump ran on a populist agenda that was filled with lies from start to finish. But many supported Trump because they were fooled by claims he would magically reduce inflation, protect Social Security and Medicare, cut taxes for the middle class, and deport 10 million immigrants in his first year in office—all while reducing federal expenditures by 30%.

Trump supporters who are paying attention to his post-election actions should be experiencing the sinking feeling that they were the “mark” in Trump's con game. They are suddenly hearing proposals to cut Social Security and Medicare, cut veterans’ healthcare, eliminate tax credits for childcare and dependents, allow pharma companies to raise the prices of prescription drugs, and extend tax cuts for the rich while imposing tariffs on tens of thousands of everyday consumer items.

Even if Trump's supporters haven’t started to get that sinking feeling yet, they will—and soon. The painful epiphany that they have been duped is inevitable. Trump's delusional belief that he has a “mandate” is encouraging him to swing for the fences in the ballpark of depravity.

As I wrote yesterday, we must distinguish between what Trump says he will do and what he can actually accomplish. While the damage inflicted will be bad, it won’t be as bad as his outlandish promises. Our job is to make Trump and the GOP choke on every ridiculous, mean-spirited, half-baked, greedy, out-of-touch, oligarchical proposal designed to enrich Trump and his already-rich pals—regardless of whether he is able to deliver on them.

One post-mortem criticism about the 2024 campaign with which I agree is that Democrats were “too nice.” While we should always honor the truth, the truth about Trump is much uglier than portrayed in Democratic campaign ads. We can’t repeat that mistake.

The good and bad news is that Trump will make it nearly impossible for us to repeat that mistake in 2026 and 2028. Yesterday, I discussed his obscene proposals to decimate the social safety net and agencies critical to the protection of the health, safety, financial security, and national security of all Americans. Today, the media is highlighting the fact that Trump is intent on creating an oligarchy financed, populated, and run by billionaire donors.

Reporting by the NYTimes this week disclosed that Elon Musk donated a quarter billion dollars to help Trump win. See MSNBC, Here’s how much money Elon Musk spent to help Trump win the election. That staggering amount does not include the combined heft of Musk’s Trump-friendly algorithms and bots that boosted pro-Trump posts and suppressed posts for and by Democrats.

Having his campaign financed by a handful of billionaires has resulted in a cabinet that can only be described as a haven for billionaires (actual and aspiring). See Axios, Trump's billionaires set to take government by storm.

The chart below summarizes and supplements the data from the Axios article above:

Other nominees of substantial wealth are omitted from the above list because they have effectively concealed their net worth.

One downside of having a government of oligarchs is that they have no conception of the daily struggle faced by most Americans. For example, eliminating Head Start may seem trivial—even virtuous—to a billionaire who will never know food insecurity. However, for hundreds of thousands of children, Head Start provides 50% of their daily intake of calories. Kids can’t learn while they are hungry and undernourished. Musk and Ramaswamy have proposed entirely eliminating Head Start, apparently oblivious to the fact that they are denying a vital source of daily sustenance to hundreds of thousands of children.

The twin aims of the second Trump term seem to be revenge and greed. His nominees have been selected to advance those aims on the backs of the working-class that Trump duped into voting for him. They will eventually figure out that Trump has lied to them—especially if we remind them of that fact in words of one syllable every chance we get.

Concluding Thoughts

We are enduring the painful part of the cycle as Trump announces nominations designed to destroy the federal government while enriching his wealthy friends. We must remember that Trump is sowing the seeds of the GOP’s defeat with every outrageous nomination and ludicrous pronouncement. If we can hold that thought, we can make it through the next few months. Don’t cringe and cower; remember and prepare. The 2026 midterms have already started—and Trump is undermining his party every day. Let’s do everything in our power to leverage Trump’s depravity to our advantage.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

Daily Dose of Perspective

The Cone Nebula is so-named because of the prominent pillar located at the bottom right of the nebula. All of the nebulsity in the image below is part of the object named NGC 2264, which is 2,700 light years from Earth. The upper part of NGC 2264 is known as the Christmas Tree Nebula.

Enjoy!