A major part of the American Dream is comfort.

By comfort I mean a lot of things, including not having to give a shit about anyone else other than those in one’s immediate circle. One of the lasting aspects of Reagan’s legacy is the creation of  hyper-individualistic enclaves where some Americans turn away from any sense of community, especially if there is a chance that this community includes people from other races, economic standing, sexuality, etc. These are especially prevalent in suburban and rural areas. “We look out for our own” became “we don’t care about others.”

There are also the people who are not all that engaged because they prefer not to engage, who treat the idea of keeping up with current events with the same level of disdain as the bottom third of any given high school civics class. These people are not bad, and might do things like run a 10K for breast cancer, volunteer during their workplace’s United Way Day of Caring, or vote on a regular basis. But they wouldn’t be caught dead at a protest; I have a family member who is anti-abortion, and she got rather indignant when someone referred to an anti-abortion event as a “protest.”

“It’s a MARCH,” she sniffed.

This is a desire for comfort, and eventually it kneecaps moments of civic responsibility. It’s at least part of the reason why Black Lives Matter protests, which were attended even by some of the comfortable, faded away and why our society during COVID shifted from “we’re in this together” to “fuck you, old people, if you die you would have croaked soon anyway so I am not wearing this stupid mask.”

This leads me to The Worst Sequel of All Time, the second term of Rotting Semi-Sentient Carrot Donald J. Trump. There were a lot of people with the sad/hilarious idea that they were just going to tune out Donald Trump and live their life in blissful ignorance, which was as realistic as believing you can sleep while 50 NFL offensive linemen pogo dance in the apartment above your bedroom. The Bulbuous Orange Nightmare and his drug-addled co-president, Little Punk Billionaire Elon Musk, have in two months turned out to be the antithesis of comfort for a lot of Americans.

Donnie and Elmo could have played it a little cooler and just focused on tax cuts and destroying due process for immigrants. Let’s face it, a lot of Americans have some mortifying views on immigration and would not feel their comfort being threatened if Central Americans and/or Middle East Muslims get snatched off the street and thrown into jail without a hearing on the regular. Given the not-close-to-reality views that too many Americans have about federal workers and exactly how “bloated” the federal government is, some job cuts would be met with a shrug, at best. It’s relatively easy to carry out authoritarian rule and target specific groups in America if you play the game properly, if you take advantage of built-in xenophobia, fear, and general apathy.

But no, The Dipshit Twins and the Project 2025 Gang has a lot of ambition in them so they are currently throwing tens of thousands out of work and cutting the fat and by fat I mean cancer research and staffing for parks. This is resulting in a lot of pissed off people showing up at town halls and protests. Many of the folks venting at these events probably wouldn’t be caught dead at a protest just a few months ago.

Then there is Donald J and the Ketamine Kid’s efforts to destroy social security. Not cut it, destroy it. And lie like a cheap rug about fraud. Axios reports the following:

Musk and colleagues insisted Thursday that Social Security is plagued by fraud, claiming that 40% of calls to phone centers in some cases were fraudulent and that 15 million “living” people age 120+ were on the agency’s rolls.

The idea that 40% of calls to phone centers are not people worried about their benefits but were calls from fraudsters is exactly what a right-winger on ketamine would say. Social Security is called the Third Rail of American Politics for a reason; messing around with it will enrage people. Normie moderates won’t reply to such a threat with “well now you know, people on the left do bad things too.” Trump’s approval is slipping and Musk is currently about as popular as a fart in a rush-hour subway car, any harm done to Social Security, Medicare, and/or Medicaid will send it on a rocket sled straight down.

It might even get a few of the cult members to shake off the spell and come back to reality. We’ll see. Take away people’s comfort and you’ll see some strange things.

The last word goes to H.E.R.