XPost: or.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism
XPost: alt.home.repair, rec.arts.tv

April 6, 2025
Trump voters are pretending like they were duped. Don't believe it.

The Dow dropped 1,700 points on opening this Friday morning. Thursday, it closed after falling to its worst level since the covid era. JP Morgan
Chase said it was raising the odds of a recession to 60 percent.

This is all in reaction to the decision this week by the president to put
an average 22 percent tax on all imports. He called it Liberation Day.

As Im watching this unfold, I cant help thinking about something that may
seem unrelated to trade, economics and the harms coming our way, but in
fact is central to it all. Im talking about resentment.

Resentment is usually associated with the right. Time and again, over the
last ten years, we were told that the people who voted for Donald Trump are deeply resentful about the state of the nation: about immigrants pouring
over the border, about men competing in womens sports, about the radical
woke agenda. The list goes on and on.

It was on the strength of this resentment that voters in this country chose
for president a convicted felon and failed businessman who promised to hurt everyone in the name of making America great again.

And what I want to say this:

If you thought that was resentment, just wait.

Only five months ago, the head economist for Moodys said the economy under
Joe Biden was the best hed seen. Mark Zandi said this is among the best performing economies in my 35-plus years as an economist.

Economic growth is rip-roaring, with real GDP up 3 percent over the past
year. Unemployment is low, at near 4 percent, consistent with full
employment.
Inflation is fast closing in on the Feds 2 percent target.
Grocery prices, rents and gas prices are flat to down over the past more
than a year. Households financial obligations are light, and set to get
lighter with the Fed cutting rates.
House prices have never been higher, and most homeowners have more equity
in their homes than ever.
Corporate profits are robust, and the stock market is hitting a record high
on a seemingly daily basis.

And now?

On March 30, before this weeks tariff news, Zandi said:

Im raising my odds that a recession will begin sometime this year to 40 percent, up from 15 percent at the start of the year. Last weeks economic
data were disconcerting, including the slide in consumer confidence, punk consumer spending, and persistently high inflation. The intensifying trade
war and DOGE cuts are behind all this and with last weeks announcement of
big tariff increases on vehicle imports and the coming reciprocal tariffs, things are sure to get worse.

How much worse?

The Financial Times: one of the greatest acts of self-harm in American
economic history. [Tariffs will wreak untold damage on households,
businesses and financial markets around the world, upending a global
economic order that America benefited from and helped create.

The Economist: The most profound, harmful & unnecessary economic error in
the modern era. Almost everything he said on history, economics and the technicalities of trade was utterly deluded.

This is where we are, but never forget: this was a choice.

It was made by people who were so resentful about something something, for
now it doesnt matter what, that they didnt notice theyre wages were
growing, their expenses were falling and they had more power in the
workplace than theyd had in their whole lives.

Everything Trump claims to be doing bringing jobs back home, supporting domestic industries, revitalizing infrastructure and investing in the
future Biden actually did. Most everyone prospered, including all those resentful people. As the former president was fond of saying, Trump talks a good game, but never built a damn thing.

But that wasnt enough because seeing other people doing well, that is,
Black and brown people doing well, hurt their feelings, like something was being taken away from them, which added to the resentment they felt about a government trying to serve everyone and not just them.

The harms coming wont be an accident. Their cause will be easy to
understand. Vice President Kamala Harris saw them. She tried to warn us.
Most people didnt listen. And because these harms were a choice, its
entirely reasonable for those who didnt make that choice, but who are now living with the consequences, to be resentful of those who did, especially
if they didnt understand the choice they were making.

They believed an ignorant and stupid story about ignorant and stupid
Americans who were resentful of being looked down on for the fact of their ignorance and stupidity. And Im telling you, if they keep talking about
that, theyre going to learn the real meaning of resentment.

Perhaps fear of being held accountable explains why we are now seeing a
slew of Trump voters who are whipping up stories about how they had
absolutely no idea what he was going to do, they are victims of
circumstance, totally innocent, and how they are so disappointed, not so
much for themselves but for the country they claim to love.

An anonymous writer at www. betrayedbytrump. com is a case in point. I
didnt sign up for this. I wanted reform, not cruelty. Strength, not
delusion. Ive been a lifelong Republican, and I know Im not the only one starting to feel this way. We need to seriously ask ourselves: is this what
we voted for, or just what weve been sold? It is hard to not feel conned.
And Im angrier than Ive been in as long as I can remember.

Oh, you're angry, huh?

Imagine the anger of those who didnt choose this but are now living with it
the jobs gone, the savings gone, the future prospects gone.

Imagine the anger of those who voted in your interest in the hope of saving democracy, and protecting you from your worst self, and then hearing you
moan and groan about how youve been done wrong.

Imagine the anger of those who tried to tell you, to reason with you, as if
you were a child who doesnt understand a goddamn thing but who might snap
out of it and finally act like a responsible grown up.

Just imagine.

The worst part is there are still some Democrats who are willing to tell
the rest of us that we shouldnt look down on the ignorant and stupid,
because looking down on them only makes them feel more resentful, which
pushes them further and further into the arms of Trump.

Worst of all is hearing some Democrats choosing not to hold them
accountable for their terrible choices in the hope they might one day vote
for a Democrat, so that theres never any downside to being ignorant and
stupid, and theres never any upside to growing up.

Resentment is usually associated with the right. If there were any justice, that would change. Trump voters would be ashamed and take responsibility
for their actions. They never will, of course, meaning no one will ever
take seriously the lasting resentment the rest of us feel.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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