Suggesting tariffs was his way of saying "stuffs so messed up I will make radical change" to the angry working class. It also harks back to the early 20th century which he loves.

The Dems didn't really have an inroad to that demographic. Suggesting federally granted home buying credits just sounded like another financial scheme from on high and missed the mark entirely imho; there was no bigger economic discussion happening there.

No, tariffs are his way of saying "magic wand make economy good" to people who don't (but can and should) know better.

All of this assumes that policy suggestions from democrats can reach republicans. Because of filter bubbles this is simply no longer the case.

It is wild to me that GOP has become the working people's party somehow.

Probably because they don't have much leverage in this area, with Biden continuing some of Trumps policies on tariffs.

Targeted tariffs as part of a trade war is significantly different than the proposed universal tariffs to "eliminate taxes" that he's proposed.

AKA: we figured out how to pass a consumption tax which disproportionately hurts poor people without calling it that because we know it's universally unpopular. When billionaires effective tax rate drops to what will probably be 1%, the wheels are going to REALLY fall off.

It isn't the poor that fund either political parties.

Not their campaigns, no. But the labor of the poor make the world go around. And their votes count just as much as a billionaires.

> And their votes count just as much as a billionaires.

Billionaires fund, and in some cases directly craft, the narratives that shape the voter’s perception of the political landscape.

Solid point, I just wanted to emphasize the potential power of those at the bottom. Sadly they also aren't educated as thoroughly and so become prey to be exploited.

For this they would need to unite. Those who fund to influence are doing so, so that it never happens.

Isn't it Biden that increased tariffs on certain imports from a certain country to 100%?

Just EVs, and how many Chinese EVs were we importing before the tariff increase? All I can think of are some Polestar models and the entry level model 3.

How many will not be imported due to tariffs, squeezing customers to buy them at double the price it would be, or go for an overpriced locally made EV.

Musk admitting out of the 10 largest EV manufacturers, 9 are not in the U.S.

I bought a German EV, so that wasn't Chinese made. BYD can always open factories in Mississippi, just like Japan did, which will probably happen eventually unless our relationship with China becomes really really bad.

Because the entirety of the Trumpist response is “nuh-uh.” Watch the videos of people giving explanations of tariffs to attendees of Trump rallies. “That can’t be right, he wouldn’t be doing it then” is essentially all the deeper anyone will go. Almost none of the people who support him don’t think beyond their delusion that he has their interests in mind.

You're saying 50% of the US are stupid and those same 50% or so are the Trump voters.

Somehow that does not compute.

During which presidency did prices go up more? During Trump's last "Tariff" presidency or during the supposed anti-Tariff Biden?

"Watch videos of" is why we're banning TikTok. Just kidding. Or maybe not. I can find stupid people in any camp (well, in some more than others) and make a video about how clueless they are. It's super patronizing to just say your opponents are stupid and IMO one of the reasons why the democrats lost these elections (no shortage of other reasons).

The delusions don't stop at any demographic or party unfortunately. We just live in a post truth, post civil discussion, polarized, society.

I’m saying about 50% of the people who voted in the last three elections—not 50% of the population—are stupid, yes. And I think that’s borne out by the absolutely terrible and destructive policies articulated by the people they voted for.

What’s so hard to understand about that?

The 50% voting for Trump aren't all stupid. Though many are indoctrinated, taught to embrace confirmation bias, the bandwagon effect, and to fear the other.

IME they're a diverse group who all bought some just-so stories explaining why life was so much better 4yo. Rose tinted glasses and a repeated call to look to the past to some idealized time that never existed.

All that reinforced by a lot of loud distractions to avoid the awkward fact that the pandemic was a disaster, the tax cuts ballooned the deficit more than Biden, benefited mostly the rich, insiders lining their pockets, racking up pardons, and foreign policy that was openly corrupt.

IIRC it was the Trump administration that was mostly responsible for getting a vaccine out in record time.

It's really hard to reflect on the pandemic. There were certainly some funny anecdotes like bleach or horse medicine but there were also some serious professionals who tried their best. We also don't really know what the other possible outcomes could have been given other actions.

I'm sure plenty of rich were lining up their pockets in the Biden presidency as well. Do you have some sort of resource/evidence that there were higher level of corruption during the Trump presidency? Something systemic, not anecdotal. Trump supporters say Biden is corrupt. What is an objective measure here?

Running a deficit during tough times (pandemic) could be the right thing to do.

> Do you have some sort of resource/evidence that there were higher level of corruption during the Trump presidency?

Okay. How about leveraging the presidency to make a boatload of money from his private business.

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/cre...

Also, the Ukraine call, Georgia call, Egypt bribe, flagrant nepotism, that one time he denied funding to the post office because he thought mail in ballots would harm his re-election.

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-53772526

Appointing people to agencies who wanted to dismantle them instead of carrying out their mission like Betsy DeVos for Dept of Edu and like Robert F Kennedy will apparently do for HHS because fluoride and vaccines are sus

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/cre...

Creating an atmosphere where loyalty is more important than founding principles which is an environment in which corruption can flourish.

That time he incited a mob to storm the capital because Mike Pence wouldn’t over turn the election results like he wanted.

> [...] the Ukraine call [...]

Eh, maybe he shouldn't have been impeached for that call. President Biden's son had a strangely lucrative position, which he appeared not to be qualified for. And Biden was very involved in pressuring the Ukraine government to fire a prosecutor who was investigating that same energy company. There's a lot of public corruption in Ukraine, which was one of the factors leading to the election of their current president (according to what I've heard anyway).

This doesn't mean that Biden is definitely corrupt, but it does look very suspicious, and seems worthwhile to investigate. Our country is sending a lot of money to Ukraine. We deserve to know everything here.

Already investigated by a republican committee.

See references 14, 15, 16, 17 of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biden%E2%80%93Ukraine_conspi...

> A joint investigation by two Republican Senate committees released in September 2020 found no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden. A sweeping Republican House committee investigation of the Biden family has found no wrongdoing by December 2023.

And sure, it’s weird Hunter was involved but it’s also weird the guy who brags about being rich still won’t show us his tax returns despite it being something every other president has done and gone as far to make up stories about the IRS while at the same time saying he’ll release them when he can. Joe released his tax returns, it’s all on the table.

Joe appears to be held to a much higher standard than Trump. Like… if Joe asked Kamala to overturn the election results like Trump did to Pence the republicans would be outraged and try to bar him from ever being president again, not that he would because he’s a good person at heart and for which he’ll get no praise, because it’s obvious not to do that and we don’t give out brownie points for abiding common sense.

It’s only bad when the other guy does it which is also why they latched onto Joe’s garbage comment even though Trump has called his opponents, trash, vermin, sick people, the enemy within and encouraged his supporters to call them satan worshippers and gets a free pass. Oh snowflake dems hate being called enemies of the state. He’s doesn’t mean it he’s just trolling the abuse of presidential powers like any reputable statesman would.

But we’re so inundated by the constant flood of news that one scandal replaces itself and it’s hard to remember all the other ones that came before it. We’ve grown numb to it. At this point I’ll just be happy if we make it to the next election in one piece.

> And sure, it’s weird Hunter was involved but it’s also weird the guy who brags about being rich still won’t show us his tax returns […]

You’re so quick to drop the question of the Biden family’s involvement in Ukraine and you pivot to Trump’s tax return, but the billions of our tax dollars and lives lost in Ukraine now make that a MUCH more important issue than Trump’s tax returns.

Congressional investigations blah blah blah, obviously they can’t get anywhere. Trump was impeached for trying to get information right from the source, and it was very stupid. We should get that information, hopefully he takes another shot at it. We’ll see what happens.

Loyalty over credentials, here we go again. Did you say the last election was stolen? Great, welcome to office.

Tulsi Gabbard - Director of National Intelligence

Matt Gaetz - Attorney General

Pete Hegeseth - Secretary of Defense

Marco Rubio - Secretary of State

Trump's presidency was as much the cause for inflation as Biden. The two main drivers (apart from exogenous supply chain issues) were massive stimulus and keeping rates low for too long. In true Trump fashion, he promised "the biggest" stimulus and effectively forced the dems to promise and deliver an unprecedented package. Trump also signed into effect massive stimulus himself during his term and raised the debt/GDP to historic levels which was inflationary. Trump appointed Powell who stood behind the decisions to keep rates low even as inflation was rapidly growing. What's funny is I think Powell actually ended up doing a decent job and that a lot (maybe not all) of that stimulus was good. The problem with Trump is he makes long-term bad decisions to appease to his less educated voter base. He does this on a level I've never seen a politician do it. The only thing he cares about people admiring him and only him. That's why the minute someone like Powell gets a bit of spotlight, he starts getting jealous and puts them down. He would have done better as a medieval ruler than the leader of the world's largest democratic bureaucracy. Like a mob boss he is all about loyalty and pays little attention to the abilities of those he leads.

I dunno - I heard about tariffs in every single Harris speech. I don't get ads because of my location, but they were clearly saying it.

I think the issue is that people don't know what tariffs even are, call it a tax increase and it hits home more.