February 14, 2019--Jack: Winning By Losing

"Why don't you pick up the phone and call him."

"Who?"

"You know. Jack."

"I don't want to get in the habit of calling him."

Rona said, "Calling him once every five years doesn't qualify as a habit. I suggested this because he might be a good one to ask about what we've been talking about recently. Why, after all the messes Trump has created, including the fiasco of shutting down the government, that pretty much his entire core of supporters stays loyal to him. There seems to be nothing he can do to alienate them. Even when he does something that's harmful to them. Like the tax cuts people are right now discovering has not been beneficial, as promised, to the middle class."

I said, "It is puzzling why that rock bottom 30, 35 percent stays loyal. Jack might have some insights to share."

So I called. He picked up on the second ring as if waiting for me.

"It's me," I said, "I know I never call but here I am. I have a question for you. It will only take a few minutes. If you're too busy, just hang up."

"No, no. I'm OK," Jack said. "To what do I owe the honor of this call? Every time I phone you you're rushing to get off the line."

I didn't want to get into why that might be, and said, "Rona thinks you can help with something."

"Shoot. Anything for her. You know I love Rona."

"I promise not to tell her that," I laughed, "I don't want to spoil her day. But here's the question--Why do you and your Trumper friends stay so committed to him even though he's constantly screwing things up?"

"Can you give me an example?"

"There are so many. But OK, in the news recently, take the Wall. He's clearly obsessed with it and claims during the past two years it's being built out at a fast pace even though it's well known that nothing, nothing has been constructed. Not one mile since he's been president. He's now saying it's time to 'finish' the wall. Lie built on lie. And yet you and his people don't seem to be upset about that. They and I presume you are upset with Nancy Pelosi and Democrats in general for not voting for the money he says is needed. What happened to all the winning? Isn't his appeal all about winning? On this one he's a loser."

"Once again you don't understand, you don't get it. But you called the right person to get the answer."

"I'm waiting."

"You've got it backwards. It, he's not about winning but, actually, losing." Jack paused to wait for my reaction to this radical thought--that Trump is into losing.

"I'm listening."

"I'll include myself."

"I assumed you would."

"We are angry about what's been going on in America from endless nation-building wars around the world, to all the illegal immigrants, to political correctness. We're furious about affirmative action and identity politics and the unfairness of the mainstream media. Also, we're made crazy by the drug smuggling and the murderous Mexican gangs. I could go on but this should give you a glimpse of what's on the minds of Trump's people."

I interrupted, "You're making my point for me. I mean, yes, this is the familiar list of grievances, but he's delivered nothing in more than two years to help alleviate what you and his other supporters are frustrated about. He's accomplished very little except passing tax cuts for the rich and withdrawing troop from Syria, which every serious foreign policy expert considers foolhardy."

"Again, you're showing your ignorance. For us it's not about accomplishing things of a traditional sort. Passing legislation to do this or that. We don't believe in that sort of approach because as we view things it's these kinds of government programs that have caused the problems we have."

I said, "This is familiar territory. Nothing new in what you're saying."

"So let me repeat this in words even you can understand. We're about wanting to continue to be frustrated and angry. That's the lens through which we view the world. We are pessimistic that government can make things better. In fact, it's the opposite. And so we don't want to be cooled out by getting a bone or two thrown at us. We want to remain in a rage. It's what we're about, what motivates us."

"So what about the winning/losing business?"

"If we win, so to speak, which at best will be minimal, what do we do with our anger? Being angry makes us feel alive and powerful; and now, with Trump, paid attention to. It gives us a purpose in life. So he too has to lose to remain angry. What we like about him is not getting a few more dollars for the wall or some new program, what we like, what we crave, is his expressing anger and fighting for us. Not mincing words (how he fights is therefore very important), telling it like is, showing contempt for traditions and moderate ways of talking about and doing things. For this reason we even like his public cursing."

Jack was on a roll, "His appeal to us is the result of the ways he represents our anger, our sense of being looked down to, our being thought of by your type as being deplorable. We haven't forgotten that one. To use one of your fancy words, to being marginalized. In other words, we're all about expressing grievances and frustrations. To do this you have to keep losing. We wouldn't know what to do with winning. We have so little experience with it. So Trump, who is the first president to represent us also has to lose."

I was stunned and couldn't quickly come up with what to say. He had never been so honest.

So Jack said, "Had enough for today? Remember you called me." He roared with laughter and hung up without a goodbye.

December 26, 2017--Merry Jack

"At the risk of spoiling your holiday, I thought to give you a call to wish you a merry whatever."

"To you as well," I said to Jack, "In fact I was thinking about you last week as your president and a very wimped-out Republican Congress passed that so-called tax reform bill."

I heard Jack trying to suppress a laugh. "'So called?' There are all sorts of reforms in it but not ones you like, so instead of acknowledging that you make fun of it. You don't consider the cut in corporate taxes to be a reform? If not, I don't see what you would you would see as a reform."

"Genuine and permanent cuts in taxes for the middle class, for example. This version is tipped way to the benefit of wealthy people like Trump himself who have large real estate assets and tens and hundreds of millions to pass along to their children when they die."

"I read what you wrote last week about the doubling of the standard deduction and raising the child tax credit," Jack said, "Even you agreed that it could so help lower-income people that it could turn out to be a political benefit to Republicans come the midterm elections next year. And of course 2020."

"It's true that I did speculate about that, but all the independent analyses of the bloated, nearly 1,000-page bill is that it's not only full of loopholes and carve-outs for special interests but whatever cuts middle income people will see, after a few years, will be ratcheted back and they will have to deal with tax increases."

"What did you call this? 'Speculation.' What's that worth? Speculation is another way of referring to your opinion. You love lecturing people about that. You're the one who rails about confusing facts with opinions. But now you don't have facts to back up your case but just opinions. One thing though I'll grant you is that no one knows for sure the full effect of something this huge. Especially what you and your friends mockingly say about the consequences of trickle-down. You know your history--the Reagan tax cuts rescued a very weak economy that he inherited from Jimmy Carter. There was a spurt of growth and a dramatic reduction in inflation."

"And, pay attention to this, a tripling of the national debt. Like the current bill, it wasn't paid for. The Trump tax bill will add up to $2.0 trillion to the debt. Ditto for George W. Bush's tax cut. It led to the Great Recession and a doubling of the debt. You guys call us tax-and-spend liberals. I call you tax-cut and spend conservatives. At least with someone like Bill Clinton and, for that matter, your pariah, Barack Obama--both Democrats by the way--there was growth and in both their cases a lowering of the deficit and debt."

"You call Obama's two percent of annual growth to be a healthy economy? It was during his time that the middle class got creamed. Especially men."

"You're ignoring what he inherited from Bush. The world's economy was about to go over the cliff. You guys are good at glomming over unpleasant facts."

"And you're not? How about the facts of economic growth over the past year? Trump's first year. How come you never want to talk about that? Look at the stock market and employment numbers. You and your friends say it's the result of momentum from Obama policies. That Trump had nothing to do with it. Fess up--if the economy had crashed this past year wouldn't you be blaming Trump? One thing you specialize in is talking out of both sides of your mouth."

"That's the way politics works. We're all guilty of engaging in spinning." That much I granted to Jack.

"And haven't you been a huge beneficiary of the run up in the value of stocks? How's your 401(k) looking these days? I assume pretty good. I don't hear any complaints about that."

I chose not to baited into talking about that with Jack but instead said, "Another thing you're conveniently ignoring is that tax legislation doesn't exist in a vacuum. By severely restricting deductions for state and local taxes and capping how much mortgage interest people can deduct millions of middle class people will not be happy with what they see about the value of their own assets. The value of homes, the major asset of most people, is expected to decline by as much as ten percent. And this will not just be in blue states as Republicans love to chuckle about. Millions in Texas and Florida and Arizona, to mention a few red states, will also see big declines in the value of their homes. I admit that the major hits will be in Democratic states like New Jersey and California and suburban parts of New York. High tax, high inflation states. But Republican home owners in those states will also be hurt."

"And here I thought I was just calling to wish you a merry Christmas and poke you about all the people on TV ads thanking Trump for allowing them to celebrate Christmas. About that you and I are of the same opinion. This is just ridiculousness."