Update 2/7/2025 The question for those who voted for Trump in 2024 is: Did you vote for this? Elon Musk figured the best way to bring efficiency to the government is to eliminate government programs that have some humanitarian assistance and call them socialism or corrupt. They may have stepped on a very large group of Trump supporters: evangelical and Catholic Christians who deliver much of the aid to Africa funded by USAID, driven by the religious belief that this is part of their mission.. https://time.com/7212791/usaid-christian-foreign-aid-freeze-evangelical/ Lauren Boebert cheers Trump and Musk's moves to 'dismantle' USAID, but Colorado Democrats raise alarms | Colorado In DC | coloradopolitics.com
Continuing with the original post.
The Trump package plan will contain unpleasant surprises and unintended consequences. Opponents of Trump should consider it an opportunity in preparation for the midterms instead of moping around. In the upcoming Trump administration, what can opposition voices do? What messaging can work? How can we get those messages across when the MAGA message media silo is so powerful? Would the British opposition technique of a shadow cabinet be a mechanism to organize the resistance in the media?
If the pundits and polls are correct, the price of eggs was more than they were before COVID was the ultimate reason Trump won over low-information voters, those voters are doomed to be disappointed. Trump can't deliver. He cannot roll back prices and he does not have the power to do it. In fact, inflation will raise its ugly head again because so many of his policies are inflationary. and prices will rise above those of the Biden administration's handoff to the Trump regime. Mass deportation, tariffs, and loss of tax income to the treasury are all inflationary. Voters will be in shock when there are unintended consequences of unpopular policies they did not know were part of the Trump Project 2025 package plan. A backlash is inevitable. Democrats need to be ready to pounce to win in the 2026 midterms or 2028. Update 1/17/2025: the bench mark of Biden's handoff to Trump: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/is-donald-trump-inheriting-the-best-economy-in-history/
Update: 12//16/2024 https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/12/major-trump-campaign-points-evaporate.html Trump now admits he probably won't be able to roll back grocery prices. The Biden Crime family: the witness of Ukraine energy company bribery admits he lied. Emerging, the rule of oligarchs feathering their own nests.
On the horizon is a long list of unpopular public policies that the Trump administration will try to implement. Many of those unpopular policies will be an unpleasant surprise because Project 2025's strategy and activation plans were ignored or because their media sources failed to report them or dismissed them as just jokes or wish lists. https://open.substack.com/pub/thebulwark/p/calling-trumps-win-a-mandate-is-ridiculous-no-support-for-policy-agenda?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=imm3e
If those in the working class and struggling middle-class voters who voted for Trump think that MAGA will just cut out "unnecessary expenses" and find out that what got cut was access or affordable coverage of health insurance they could get when they had pre-existing conditions or lost employer insurance, someone might be surprised and angered. When Trump voters learn they had to work more years before retirement, and social security benefits were also chopped or some find their small business had to be closed because their help got deported, there will be an inevitable backlash. When those working for wages find they no longer get overtime, someone is going to be ticked. When food for school kids is cut, and access to women's health care access to birth control, and abortion pills are blocked, there will be a backlash, especially from those who were unaware of what came with Trump's package plan. The question is when, not if, Trump voters figure this out. Will it be before the 2026 midterms or the next presidential election cycle? Democrats simply saying "I told you so" and "You were conned" are not effective responses, but better could be"This is the pain you are feeling, and we feel it too. Here is how to fix it. Mr. Fixit flubbed it but note the tax breaks for the rich were preserved." Update: Biden's address before the Brookings Institute, 12/10/2024 Biden touts economic legacy, warns of Trump’s tariffs
We can also blame the right-wing media silo, who directed their focus to two issues. immigration and inflation, and ignored and downplayed many very unpopular policies that came as part of MAGA control of nearly all of the levers of federal government power as laid out in Project 2025.
Here is the real challenge Democrats face. It is also probable that the news cycles will be dominated by Trump's revenge tour he had promised, and what is going on elsewhere in the Trump administration will be overwhelmed by sensational hearings and prosecutions, while backroom dealings will go unreported and unfocused. Buried in the news will be that the reason so many of the services treasured by the middle class and the poor is that "reducing government waste and expense are policies to offset the lack of income from the loss into the treasury income those tax policies favoring the rich will cause." The connection must be made by Democrats that tax policies for the rich is what is causing the cut in programs that made your life easier. It isn't class warfare; it isn't just unfair; it is why and how people are feeling the pain.
One challenge Democrats have in getting their message to Trump voters is that MAGA media is controlled and owned by the US equivalent of Russian oligarchs who have their own agenda, including keeping their corporate and personal taxes low and regulations even lower. Democrats need to get focused on the unintended consequences, cut through the revenge tour noise, and make a case for reasons to vote MAGA out in the next election cycles., including the 2026 midterms and in 2028.
What can Democrats do to break into the MAGA media silo.? Speaking with one voice is essential to keep the focus on their message. Rapid response is also critical as each unpopular consequence is revealed in the same new cycle The voices need to be simple and credible. Pete Buttigieg showed how to do it on FOX but that needs to be multiplied in the many channels, including social media.
Here is a suggestion: take a page from MAGA and other political bodies. The Democrats have got to be ready to promote and ride the backlash with a coordinated message and then get their spokespersons with the same message on all of those media outlets.. The coordination must come from one political source orchestrating the strategy such as the DNC, the Democratic Party Chair. The British use shadow cabinets. Shadow cabinet members are credible heavyweights like standing committees with designated spokespeopyle and are ready to go at a moment's notice. Members of Congress become the bullhorn, blowing the same tune to magnify and repeat and repeat again and again.
Since most politics are local, on-record votes by Congress people for policies that harm their constituents should also make news in House members' hometown media, print, radio talk, or social contacts. Federal administrative action harm can also be brought down to the state, district, and local levels. Trump is going to force GOP Congressional representatives to take votes that are unpopular in their districts under the threat of primarying the disloyal. Democrats should not let them off the hook with silence the time the harm is done, and again at the next campaign cycle, too. For example, if the tariff policy results in retaliatory action by, say, China that causes massive layoffs with local impact in certain congressional districts, the state or local Democratic party could make sure constituents know who was to blame at the time and again at the next election. If cutting Medicaid causes the local hospital to fold, that too is fair game. Loss of workforce because of wide-reaching immigration sweeps is another local opportunity. A local issue for my county is federal antitrust action against a merger of Kroger and Albertson. If that DOJ action is dropped under orders of Trump or his compliant AG, and the state suit approves the merger, our county will see a lot of pain.
Business interests may be the only guardrails Trump will face per a recent analysis and to Trump, it means what the stock market is doing. If that begins to tank due to inflation rising again, maybe he might begin to see the folly of high tariffs and immigration policies causing a labor shortage, as he tries to live up to his campaign policies to mess with both. Much more at https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/11/storm-clouds-on-horizon-for-elon-musk.html
https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/19/business/guardrails-trump-economy-stock-market-bonds
update 12/4/2024 This should be instructive to Trump. He had already attempted to pull off a coup on Jan 6 and never met full accountability for his role. If he, too, faces frustration for failing to achieve his priorities through ordinary democratic order and tries to declare martial law to suppress opposition, the other 49% who did not vote for him could have other ideas, as those in Korea did. He is already planning to use extraordinary powers, declaring a national emergency to use active military, to carry out his mass deportation plan.
South Korea martial law lifted, growing calls for president Yoon Suk Yeol to resign: Live updates | CNN
