"She was going to a frat house, she knew what she was going to get."
Oh yeah?
If that's what frat houses are for, close them all entirely, immediately.
The orange conman a Nazi? Oh, come on, if he were a Nazi he'd have police in the streets beating and shooting the public, and he'd have the free press banned from the White House and he'd be threatening a free and fair election. Oh, wait a minute.....
Instead of chastising Americans who are giving up on capitalism, stop and understand why.
These aren’t people against free markets, small business, or personal success. They’re against a system that has allowed healthcare, housing, and even groceries to become unaffordable, the minimum wage to become one of poverty, and the middle class to be destroyed.
People are upset that the American Dream has become a fantasy. They’re upset that working hard doesn’t pay the bills, and that politicians only serve billionaires, corporations, and special interests.
If you want the public to embrace capitalism, you have to show that it will work for them. We need universal healthcare, living minimum wages, quality job opportunities, and secure retirements.
We need big money out of politics and politicians that work for the many, not the select few.
We've reached an incredible point in the American economy.
You can make $25 an hour.
More than THREE TIMES the federal minimum wage.
Work 40+ hours a week.
Take home around $2,800 a month.
And according to the traditional 30% housing rule, you're supposed to find a $1,200 apartment.
There's just one tiny problem.
The $1,200 apartment doesn't exist.
We're still giving people financial advice based on an economy that disappeared years ago.
The math isn't broken.
The assumptions are.
BOOMER: "Nobody wants to work anymore."
YOU: "I work 50 hours a week."
BOOMER: "Doing what, on a computer?"
YOU: "Yes. It pays $58,000."
BOOMER: "I made $18,000 and owned a house."
YOU: "That's the whole point."
BOOMER: "We didn't complain, we just worked."
YOU: "You worked one job and got a pension. I work one job and get a 401k match if I'm lucky."
BOOMER: "Nobody handed me anything."
YOU: "College was $600 a year. Your first house was 2x your salary. Your employer covered your family's health insurance."
BOOMER: "That was normal back then."
YOU: "Exactly. It was normal. Now it's impossible."
BOOMER: "So what do you want, a handout?"
YOU: "I want what was normal."
BOOMER: *silent*
You didn't outwork us.
You just lived in the version of the country where working was enough.
Trump has gone from being a somewhat skilled gaslighter, to a tired old stuffed animal with a pull string. Chunks of stuffing are leaking from wounds in his hands, ankles, and neck. He has no heart or brain. And if you pull the string, you get 1 of 5 messages:
I ended 8 wars.
Prices are way down.
I won in 2020.
It's the greatest economy ever.
The Pope is weak on crime.
Let me say this as clearly as possible, because people keep getting it wrong.
Republican lawmakers didn’t stick with Trump because they were hypnotized...terrified...or somehow helpless.
They stuck with him because he’s one of them.
Trump didn’t corrupt a moral party. He exposed a corrupt one.
If Trump were merely embarrassing...reckless...or rude... they would have dumped him years ago. Politicians abandon liabilities fast. What they don’t abandon...are mutual liabilities.
Trump normalized behavior that many of them were already guilty of: ethical shortcuts...financial murkiness... abuse of power...contempt for oversight... lying as policy.
He didn’t invent the rot...he gave it cover.
And here’s the part people don’t like to hear:
For a lot of Republicans in Congress, Trump isn’t the risk.
Accountability is.
Trump absorbs attention like a sponge. While everyone is watching his circus...others operate quietly in the shadows. He’s not a distraction...he’s a shield. A very useful one.
Once they crossed certain lines together...election lies, January 6th...obstruction...weaponization of government ...there was no clean exit.
Loyalty became self-preservation. Defection meant subpoenas...investigations...and career death.
That’s why the so-called “good Republicans” vanished.
They weren’t persuaded. They were purged. Retired. Primaried. Marginalized. What you’re seeing now isn’t universal agreement...it’s selection pressure.
Only those comfortable with ethical decay remain.
This is how systems rot. Not with villains twirling mustaches...but with people who decide, one compromise at a time, that survival matters more than principle.
Trump didn’t take over the GOP.
The GOP recognized itself in Trump.
And that’s why expecting them to “come to their senses” is a fantasy.
You can’t ask people to enforce standards that would incriminate them.
The alliance holds...because it has to.
That’s not psychology.
That’s incentive structure.
And until people stop confusing fear...with complicity... they’ll keep being shocked by behavior that was always predictable.