Some people thought Donald Trump’s approval rating would have a floor around 40%.
asserted
rating → think → %
Well, it didn’t:
The nation’s disapprobation is richly deserved.
asserted
disapprobation → deserve → ?
I hardly need to go through the familiar litany of why Trump is bad — the failed war in Iran, the ridiculous tariffs, the destruction of America’s alliances and prestige, the attack on American science, the rampages of ICE, the unprecedented corruption, the authoritarianism, the election denial, the appeasement of Russia, etc.
asserted
Trump → need → Russia
I guess I just did go through it, though.
asserted
I → guess → it
It feels a little cathartic to type it out once again.
asserted
It → feel → it
If you think the GOP will return to being the party of Mitt Romney, John McCain, or Ronald Reagan after Trump is gone, think again.
asserted
Trump → think → Romney
MAGA is already morphing from a personality cult into an ideology — a deeply xenophobic, economically retrograde ideology obsessed with expelling immigrants, and convinced that wealth has made the West immoral and weak.
asserted
West → morph → immigrants
The party’s lower ranks are already filling up with unabashed fascists, Hitler apologists, and all sorts of scary people:
asserted
ranks → fill → people
GOP veterans fret about the rising generation of young staffers in their party…
asserted
veterans → fret → party
Of specific concern are those labeled groypers — technically, followers of the self-described “White Identitarian” Gen Z streamer Nick Fuentes, though it’s also used as a catch-all term of abuse for young, anti-establishment right-wingers…
asserted
it → label → wingers
Prominent conservative commentators have alleged that groyperism is spreading among younger members of the GOP, including in government — a view seemingly backed by examples like the young Trump administration lawyer who admitted to a “Nazi streak” in text messages…
asserted
who → allege → messages
The anxiety over groyperism in the GOP talent pool corresponds to a rise in antisemitism across the political spectrum, including among young conservatives…
asserted
anxiety → correspond → conservatives
A Manhattan Institute poll found that a full 25 percent of Republicans under 50 self-identified as having antisemitic views, and 31 percent as holding racist ones…
[T]he troubling anecdotes are legion: gas chamber jokes and ethnic slurs bandied about on Young Republican group chats leaked to POLITICO last fall; a New York Magazine report from just last week linking a former New York Young Republican treasurer to a social media account denigrating Jews, Black people, Muslims and gay people; a House campaign adviser fired for mocking a rape victim on X; the Ron DeSantis presidential campaign staffer axed for retweeting a video featuring a Nazi image, only to join the office of Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and, eventually, the State Department, where he works today.
asserted
he → find → Schmitt
Meanwhile, at the top of the party, election denial has become a litmus test — a profession of faith for the bizarre Trump cult.
asserted
denial → become → cult
The number of Republicans who will declare in public, in no uncertain terms, that the 2020 election was legitimate is now negligible.
asserted
election → declare → terms
And being a vocal election denier is a fast track to prominence in the modern GOP — witness Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate for the governorship of Wisconsin.
asserted
Tiffany → witness → Wisconsin
I see no reason to expect anything good from the modern GOP.
asserted
I → see → GOP
When good ideas do make their way into Republican policy, it’s generally by heroic pragmatists quietly working within the system.
asserted
it → make → system
But those small victories are becoming smaller and less frequent, as MAGA’s obsession with waging political warfare against its near-infinite roster of enemies muscles out any concern for the good of the nation as a whole.
asserted
obsession → become → whole
Americans are fed up with this, and they are very right to be fed up.
asserted
they → feed → this
But in the past, when they got bad, the solution was always pretty simple: Vote for the Democrats.
asserted
solution → get → Democrats
Democracy isn’t perfect, but it does have a natural release valve; you can always just “throw the bums out.”
asserted
you → have → bums
And that’s exactly what we used to do.
asserted
we → ’ → what
In 2006, 2008, 2018, and 2020, we grew disgusted with the GOP’s antics and elected Democrats to replace them.
asserted
we → grow → them
I think if you look at those episodes, you can see a pattern of diminishing returns.
asserted
you → think → returns
Obama was a broadly successful president on domestic policy — he implemented broadly successful anti-recessionary macroeconomic policies, reformed health care and finance, and beefed up the welfare state.
asserted
he → implement → state
Biden gave us the return of industrial policy, but his fiscal profligacy — often squandered on things like student debt forgiveness and subsidies for already-overpriced service industries — contributed to inflation and did nothing to rein in the ballooning debt.
asserted
profligacy → give → debt
On social issues, Obama was a moderate who tried and failed to curb his party’s drift to the left; Biden didn’t even try, running as a moderate but letting “woke” subordinates implement a lot of unpopular culture-war stuff.
asserted
subordinates → try → stuff
Now it’s 2026, and the Republican regime in power is far worse than its predecessors in either the 2000s or the 2010s.
asserted
regime → ’ → 2000s
Once again, we have the option of electing Democrats.
asserted
we → have → Democrats
And we should elect Democrats, this November.
asserted
we → elect → ?
There is no ambiguity here; a Congress that challenges Trump’s lawlessness, investigates his unbridled corruption, and takes a more forceful stand in favor of Ukraine will be unambiguously better than the supine GOP Congress that can do nothing except worship at the man’s feet.
asserted
that → be → feet
But at the same time, looking at the way the Democratic Party is headed, I think we should be asking how much better things will be under Democrats, including if they win the White House in 2028.
asserted
they → look → 2028
Let’s look at the type of candidates who are winning Democratic primaries.
asserted
who → look → primaries
Francesca Hong, a DSA member who is all but certain to be the Democratic nominee for governor of Wisconsin, tweeted in 2020 that we should “cancel Thanksgiving”.
asserted
we → tweet → Thanksgiving
When asked in a recent interview if she had recanted that position, Hong refused, talking about how Thanksgiving was “incredibly painful” for many people:
asserted
Thanksgiving → ask → people
As if that weren’t tone-deaf enough, she appeared to criticize herself for marrying a white man (saying “assimilation…took over”), and talked about having a half-white son as “proximity to whiteness”:
asserted
assimilation → appear → whiteness
Hong backtracked a couple of days later, declaring that Thanksgiving is her “favorite holiday”, but the damage appears to have been done — Bernie Sanders said he didn’t think he would endorse her, and prediction markets immediately began to discount Hong’s chances of beating her Republican opponent in the fall:
Some had hoped that the Democrats’ socialist faction would be able to escape some of the baggage of “woke 1”, because of their focus on class politics, and because the Palestine issue might be able to muscle aside a whole bunch of unpopular 2010s-era culture-war stances.
uncertain
issue → backtrack → stances
But Hong shows that this hope will be in vain; the DSA types are the wokest of the woke.1
asserted
types → show → woke.1
A number of leftists, such as Bernie Sanders’ former campaign press secretary Briahna Joy Gray, doubled down on Hong’s anti-Thanksgiving stance:
asserted
number → double → stance
…and 38 more, not listed.
The Aporia
