Just read this. Great piece, really appreciate the context. Seems like any sort of action on the ground is out of the question.

Its not an ideological problem or a "messaging" problem per se. Its a stylistic problem that signals to voters that they are aloof and don't give AF about their problems

They, and people like him, embody the American spirit far more than these nativist fools who don't understand what their own country stands for.

I think of that family through all of this. How bright eyed the kids were when they saw our house, my childhood home, which their father had bought. A daughter holding her own child. Children of parents who wanted nothing more but to work hard and provide for their families.

My family sold our ranch to one of them. He was a framing contractor, with the business registered in his wife's name (because she was legal). People started spreading rumors that he sold drugs. He told my dad, who he considered a friend, in anger that he "doesn't f**king sell drugs."

And it all works! In general the community improved. They worked hard and, in my experience, left things better than they found them. I could drive down some backroads and find some sheet metal shacks flying Mexican flags. And so what?

20 years later, and the school district is majority hispanic. Teachers need interpreters to communicate with parents. Undocumented migrants use family ties to build businesses, buy land, and build their own homes (literally).

If this happens and the Trump tariffs remain in place, 2026 will be an electoral bloodbath for the GOP.

If GOP funding is cut and Musk threatens to fund primary challengers and Dems, that will cause GOP reps to break ranks.

The Gulf states were tired of the Palestenian issue, a right-wing Israeli government wanted an excuse for a final solution, and angry Israelis were seeing red. The world was shocked by the attack and did not intervene. And now the fact on the ground is Gaza is destroyed.