• InvalidName2@lemmy.zip
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    5 days ago

    I won’t claim to be super optimistic, but I’m in a conservative region in the rural south where the cracks are showing and people aren’t just ignoring it anymore. Folks are starting to talk openly and vocally in opposition.

    If you’ve never lived in a conservative, rural area before then know that it’s the type of place where “Fuck Biden” signs littered the yards of so called Christians while gas pumps and egg shelves were covered in “I did that” stickers. You hear someone verbally bashing a Democrat politician or liberals while you’re standing in line to check out, then you know it’s a day that ends in Y.

    It’s hard to stress how jarring it is to hear anybody expressing any degree of dissatisfaction with a Republican policy / politician in this area, in public, around strangers. And that’s especially true when it comes to criticism of Trump. But let me tell you, it is happening with increasing regularity.

    People are pissed that grocery prices are only getting higher. They’re upset that they have to wait in line for 45 minutes at the post office because there’s only 1 employee working. They are absolutely livid that the local hospital may be closing down because of medicaid cuts.

    They’re talking about this in public with strangers. And they’re blaming Trump. There’s no push back. I’ve literally never seen this before.

    Obviously a day late and a dollar short, since the time to have done the easy thing was back in November 2024. But at this stage of the game, I’ll take whatever fickle alliance I can get.

  • whosepoopisonmybutt@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    You know, I could kind of understand what they’re trying to do and why they would support it if they were cutting social programs and also lowering everyone’s taxes. That’s not what they’re doing. They’re cutting social programs, raising everyone’s taxes, and giving tax cuts to the wealthy.

    Anyone who thinks that Republicans care about workers is a fool.

    • jballs@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      5 days ago

      For a party that has constantly messaged themselves as being for free trade and lower taxes, they sure do love restricting trade and jacking up taxes.

      • teamevil@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Same party that is SUPER into states right’s and smaller government until they’re not.

        Republicans are really just a bunch of Confederate racists who really like protecting pedophiles.

    • marcos@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Yeah… The thing is, if your country doesn’t import things, it has to stop exporting too because foreigners don’t print your money.

      Adam Smith kinda of discovered that¹, but it’s too recent a thing for politicians to learn.

      1 - Not with all the details, but he discovered the overall issue.

      • Lyrl@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 days ago

        An economic podcast I listen to has covered how much foreign investment the US net trade imbalance has led to, for exactly that reason: foreigners had dollars from US entities buying more stuff than they sold, those dollars had to come back to the US, and investment ended up being a huge way that happened. If the trade imbalance actually reduces, likely that investment rate will be the first thing to drop. We’ve already seen hints of it with softened demand for Treasury bonds.

        • marcos@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          The entire “the Dollar being the reserve currency of the world” thing happened because of the US trade deficit.

          It has been slowly reversing since the pandemics, and a lot faster now… What ironically means that whatever exports numbers those companies are getting, it’s inflated and unsustainable.