In reality, the Trump 2024 victory was not as massive as the right sells it. It seemed big, because he got all the swing states we had been breathlessly discussing for 90+ days at that point. Because he got all the swing states, we could now start saying “mandate” and saying that the libs got destroyed. And in reality, they did: they lack the House, Senate, SCOTUS, and the top chair. If the filibuster or the 60-vote didn’t exist, we’d all be wearing MAGA hats by now.
Whenever Elon speaks now, though, he talks of “the mandate” (a big term for GOP and MAGA, which Elon — hey, remember when he was all-in on DeSantis?) and he frames the mandate as “government reform.” I think most people are of two minds on this. Most people do not want to work and then pay some of their money into bisexual frogs in Paraguay. I get that. There is bloat, and dumb programs, that can be cut. Ideally, the end goal of those cuts would be: “We need less money to operate now, so we won’t tax you as much.” I don’t think that will be where this particular arc ends up, but I would love to be wrong.
The semantics of what drove the supposed mandate are important, though.
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