Yeah, They're Virtually Indistinguishable

Donald Trump's proposed budget in cruel in the absolute extreme. Its rank hatred of vulnerable people perfectly, terribly reflects how Trump was and is the inevitable endgame of Republican politics: A 100% empathy-free zone whose antipathy for his fellow humans is evident in every syllable of his disgusting budget proposal.

Last night, Hillary Clinton gave the keynote address at the Children's Health Fund annual benefit, where she was being honored. She had a few things to say about Trump's plan:
"This administration and Republicans in Congress are mounting an onslaught against the needs of children and people with disabilities, women and seniors," Clinton charged.

She said the budget, which was released earlier in the day, "shows an unimaginable level of cruelty and lack of imagination and disdain for the struggles of millions of Americans, including millions of children."
There is more where that came from. You can watch the entire address here.

Here, then, is one exception to the "there's no difference between Clinton and Trump" narrative: Trump proposed a budget that will utterly destroy the safety net. Clinton said that budget "shows an unimaginable level of cruelty."

So, a wee difference there.

Yesterday afternoon, even before Clinton's address (not like I couldn't predict what her position would be), I had some thoughts about the people who incessantly chanted mendacious garbage about the false equivalence between Clinton and Trump during the election, and the other enablers of Trump.


I cannot emphasize this enough: The idea that from the rubble of Trump's annihilation of our democratic systems and government safety net will emerge the socialist wonderland of our wildest dream is a dangerous fantasy in which people indulge at the cost of people's very lives.

Recovering from fascism, if it happens at all, is a long and painful process. In the places it has happened, there were meaningful differences between those populations and the United States, not least of which is the availability of guns to the public. The United States is a geographically huge country, with numerous distinct regional subcultures. There has already been a massive concentration of wealth among a tiny elite. None of these things bodes well for restoring what Trump erodes every day, no less for a recovery that sees more progressive governance.

If it can be achieved, it will depend on a lot of things happening that are very unlikely and a lot of other things not happening that are difficult to prevent.

"Let him tear it down and then we'll build something better than we ever had" was always an incredibly dangerous gambit. And an incredibly foolish one.

I will never stop being angry at the people who thought that was a risk worth taking, at the cost of millions of people's safety and lives.

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