Pic Of The Moment: What A Difference A President Makes

[EarlG]

Poll: 55% say U.S. is on the right track, a new high

Follow @demunderground

[speak easy]

1. Wow. This is a FDR/1933 level turn around

And its put numbers on something most of us are feeling.s

[sandensea]

3. It's amazing how history repeats itself.

First as tragedy



Then as farce

[speak easy]

4. Often forgotten: 40% voted Hoover in 1932

and that number was closer to 42% , sans one-party states in the south.

[sandensea]

5. True. Many in the (then-pauperized) middle class bought into the 'FDR is a socialist' tropes

There goes old history, repeating itself again.

[speak easy]

6. Then Langdon (GOP) won 36.7% of the vote in 1936.

I'm not excusing the 25% of the population who would be partial to 'owning the libs' by marching them into a gas chamber, but at times of utmost partisan rancor, it is worth remembering that American politics is tribal.

[sandensea]

8. No doubt about it. You see that senseless tribalism in many democracies.

Some right-wing parties - especially in Europe - actually have something to show for themselves, however flawed.

But in cases like today's GOP, they run on 100-octane tribalism - nothing but. And there was another, almost parallel case:

Trump's old pal Macri in Argentina.

His 4 years in office were not only a 180-degree turn on everything the smug bastard promised in his 2015 campaign - but an abject failure as well, complete with a 1929-style financial blowout and a record-setting IMF bailout at Trump's insistence (a major but as-yet unreported Trump scandal).

Yet he garnered 32% in the first round, and a full 40% in the second round - after a well-oiled "they're coming for your dollars" scare campaign.

The trick? White identity politics - which was effectively dog-whistled at by Macri (like the U.S., Argentina has an eroding white majority - and many white voters don't like it).

[speak easy]

9. 40% for Macri. Woe & Wow.

[sandensea]

12. Sure. They've got their deplorables too.

I mean, a lot of Macri voters were just misinformed (Argentina's cable news is like having 4 Fox Newses, and 1 MSNBC).

But a good many are all-out bigots.

[BobTheSubgenius]

13. I wonder if there has been any Teutonic influence filtering down over the last 7 or 8 decades.

[sandensea]

16. A little - but it's mostly grandchildren of Spanish and Italian immigrants

Their problem?

A lot of them resent seeing so many "Indians", when 30 or 40 years ago they were a lot fewer in number. They also associate them with crime, poverty, and other social ills (much like Black people are among Republicans here).

Nowhere more so than in Buenos Aires - where (largely Indigenous) immigrants from Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru often settle.

When you combine that with the economic malaise that has gripped the country for most of the past 40 years, it makes for very fertile ground for 'white anger'.

Not coincidentally, Macri's hard-right 'Together for Change' coalition does best in Buenos Aires (and Córdoba, which has similar issues).

It's not unlike what we've seen to some extent in the Rust Belt states since the 2008 Bush debacle.

[speak easy]

14. I guess if your foreign currency reverses are going up in smoke

like a constellation of Roman candles, the arsonists will have plenty of other ideas about who is to blame.

[sandensea]

17. Exactly. Macrinomics was a lot like Bushonomics - and turned out the same way.

And like our GOP, their response was to deflect the blame unto "undesirables."

For a lot of people, as you know, that works just fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=98&v=uBvZMnKrfbU&feature=emb_title

A Macri voter, in a 2019 rally, referring to the opposition:

"That bunch of Indians! They stick money in their pocket to attend those rallies!!"

"Bunch of Indians?"

"Yes! Bunch of Indians!! 'Cause at least half of them are from Bolivia!"

[speak easy]

18. Oh lord

[onetexan]

2. K&R

[lagomorph777]

7. But let's go interview some more Trump supporters and appease them.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. K&R

[demtenjeep]

15. absolutely wonderful

spot on perfect

[Cha]

19. TY!