Now That It’s Bad. People Realize What Was Good.
The grass is always greener on the other side. You don’t know what you’ve got till it's gone. The concept that people don’t realize how good life is, or what matters, until it has worsened, is immortalized in expression and song.
Now that America is falling apart and trying to take the world down with it, people are realizing they were wrong about what the problems were and who the bad guys are. Trump is such a destructive force that he is even upending elections in other countries, such as Canada, where the Conservative party was far ahead before Trump’s antics made them yearn for more liberal leaders.
Unfortunately, here in America, we have to endure this self-inflicted pain and suffering to learn these lessons, but now that we’re in this mess, it is an opportunity that shouldn’t be wasted. Trump’s distractions, whether pretending to be the pope, demanding a military parade on his birthday, or wanting to reopen Alcatraz, aren’t working because the damage he is causing is evident to all.
This is a moment when the entire conversation about what our nation needs can be restructured around promoting the solutions we know work, but have been forgotten or overlooked because of the parade of boogiemen meant to distract us.
Despite Trump voters citing immigration as their second most important issue and the constant fearmongering from Republicans about violent criminals invading our country, support for immigrants has risen dramatically since Trump took office.
Rounding up hard-working people with no criminal record and sending them to a notorious prison half the globe away, used to house brutal gang members, along with detaining legal visa holders peacefully disagreeing with the American government, was a step too far that opened hearts and minds.
Republicans have demonized Ukraine throughout the tyrannical Russian invasion. Speaker Mike Johnson withheld approval of an aid package for months until he was sat down and shown the intelligence on the conflict, making him do a 180 to approve the aid as fast as he could. Ben Shapiro, a professional fast-talking misinformation machine used to push forward conservative ideology, recently sat down with Zelenskyy in Ukraine, while Russia was breaking the Easter ceasefire agreement, and returned home to make the case that supporting Ukraine is in America’s best interests, which is and always has been the truth.
These breakthroughs aren’t isolated. Seeing how poorly Trump and Vance were treating Zelenskyy, watching Russia purposely bomb civilian areas, including playgrounds, all while Trump claimed Ukraine wasn’t doing enough to achieve peace, made people finally pay attention to what is happening. This past March saw a drastic flip in America’s perception of our involvement in Ukraine, with the highest number of people saying that America isn’t doing enough to assist Ukraine since the war began. Before, the prevailing opinion was that we were doing too much and had been that way since October 2023.
The most surprising reversal may be the sudden change in views on trade. America First was the slogan used by Republicans for the last few years, despite the disgusting history of that phrase. The number one issue for Trump voters was the economy, and they were, in full Brexit style, cheering on the tariffs that were supposed to make us all rich when they cast their ballots.
But as of April, the sentiment has flipped. The majority desires free trade agreements—the same free trade agreements that were already in place before Trump took office and led to incredible American prosperity.
One key issue that Americans haven’t fully grasped yet is that we can’t cut our way out of debt. We must tax the rich.
Before the Covid pandemic, Trump’s Tax Cuts had already exploded our deficit. Those tax cuts remained throughout Biden’s presidency as they were written to expire at the end of 2025. Republicans, despite their constant cries about the level of our debt, are looking to make these cuts permanent. A move that the Congressional Budget Office says will cause our debt-to-GDP ratio to hit 200% by 2047, a level that would wreak havoc on America’s economy, even more than the turmoil we’re witnessing today. Given that the estimate was made before the negative GDP growth caused by Trump’s ignorant tariffs, that debt level might arrive much sooner.
The current administration is already spending at a higher rate than the last two years, growing the debt faster than before. In addition to wanting to make those tax cuts permanent, Trump wants to increase the military budget by ~$160 billion annually, further increasing America’s deficit.
Trump has gone from saying tariffs would make us all rich to claiming they are a negotiating tool, to saying there will be short-term pain, to now saying that Americans will need to be good patriots by accepting austerity measures, such as buying their kids fewer gifts and trying to survive through an increasing cost of living, all while billionaires get richer. This ever-evolving narrative, and the negative impact already felt, has turned the country against tariffs, but not yet onto demanding we tax the rich.
If there was ever a moment to convince working-class Americans that it isn’t the spending that’s the problem, it is the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, this is it. But is it possible to reach people before Republicans finalize their awful budget that will make our lives and our nation’s debt worse, or will we have to live through that pain, too?
We will find out very soon.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/658193/support-greater-role-ukraine-climbs-high.aspx
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/05/truump-agenda-trade-polls-elections-immigration/
The Debt Will Explode
Since before the election, Republicans have talked about enacting a budget full of tax and spending cuts they claim will bring the deficit under control. The House and Senate have submitted their proposals, but must still reconcile the two bills into a single unified budget.