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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 4, 2024

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I don't think anything of the sort will happen. Biden and Kamala are way too chill and upbeat about this. I don't trust it. They are busy cooking up some Steele Dossier V2 or some new rule making red tape so that Trump will be tied up with bullshit for 4 straight years trying to unfuck their executive orders.

They are busy cooking up some Steele Dossier V2 or some new rule making red tape so that Trump will be tied up with bullshit for 4 straight years trying to unfuck their executive orders

They don’t need this, Trump will do it himself. There was a prescient story in 2018 or something like that where GOP operatives in the Trump White House said the thing they were most scared of was Dems swearing fealty to him, honoring him with big dinners and awards and speeches, calling him great, having big celebrities stop by and pay their respects, and then just quietly whispering in his ear that the people don’t really want all this right wing stuff, why not fire this guy and that guy and just do this and you’ll be loved etc.

And the sad thing, of course, is that it would completely work. Trump loved having Kim Kardashian in the White House. If Oprah and George Clooney and Obama come along and say how impressive he is and how presidential he is, and all he has to do is a couple small tweaks here and there, he’ll do it. The one thing he won’t budge on is tariffs. Everything else is malleable.

Any minute now, the Democrats will bend the knee to Donald Trump, their sworn enemy, tripping over themselves to recant each of their decade-long records of anti-Trump rhetoric, so they can tell him he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. The likes of Oprah and George Clooney and Obama can surely overcome these unfavorable initial conditions to convince The Rockstar Formerly Known As Orange Bad Man that the people definitely don't care about that whole tidal wave of illegal immigrants thing that happened for the last few years. Taylor Swift will dramatically un-endorse Kamala Harris, acknowledge that he kinda had a fair point with the childless cat lady thing, and lay the groundwork for some progressive Supreme Court justice appointments. I bet Kathy Griffin will convince him that proudly holding his severed head on a magazine cover was actually a sign of respect.

Fortunately, JD Vance appears to have first dibs on this strategy, and seems more than willing to swallow his pride.

Man. I want to argue with you, but I think you enjoy being miserable.

It's a distinct possibility!