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naraburns

nihil supernum

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naraburns


								

								

								
								
									
								
								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
nihil supernum

				
				
				

				

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				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 7, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There is an old saying, old enough that many Mottizens may be too young to ever have heard it, that "it takes a Nixon to go to China."  The aphorism points to a political tendency where certain political moves are too "on the nose" for the party that seems most likely to do them, which strangely allows the other party to get away with it.  Reverse the polarity and you get the occasional observation about conservatives being hawks but progressives actually starting wars and conflicts (though Trump has, I think, successfully brought that particular observation into closer parity).


So yeah--I wasn't kidding when I said "Trump is a lib," at least by the standards of the US culture war circa 1990.  Small government conservatism had its last apparent gasp in about 2009 with the "Tea Party" movement.  Trump has already demonstrated both his willingness to mail everyone a check (during COVID) and the consequences of doing so (rapid, albeit not immediate, inflation).  Interesting that the total budget didn't really go back down even though I'm no longer getting direct deposits from the federal government.  How is all that money being spent now, instead?  Who is getting enriched by the profligate feds if it's not individual citizens?  But another way of looking at all that is to say--well, now we have more data.  Let's try it again!


A Democrat in the same position might face heavy opposition on such a broad distribution, even from their own party--see also "Obamacare," as well as interminable arguments over how "equal" distributions shouldn't be made because there are more important voting demographics some people who are in greater "need" than others.  Trump isn't going to give us real welfare reform but it might actually take a Republican to manage it, and for the moment, he's the "Republican" in that position. He faces the slim but far from impossible prospect of an impeachment with conviction if the midterms go sufficiently badly for him.  As per the usual, he has presented the idea in a garishly populist and self-serving way, but like Nixon going to China, Trump has continuity with his first term in office as the man genuinely shifting the Overton window on UBI.


For better or for worse.