Most Political Stuff is Simple

There’s been a lot of dumb political moves from the current Trump administration. You don’t get to these levels of disapproval via cleverness (and I endorse Steve M’s sentiment here):

That said, here’s a simple political move that will probably be effective:

It’s no fun being played by a bunch of dumbshits, but all credit where it’s due. They refused a Democratic “compromise” that would fund the rest of DHS except for ICE, and then they hit the middle- and upper-middle-class where they live: in the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry lines. These are the people who will yell pretty loudly and expect to be heard, unlike most “leftist” Democrats. I’m guessing a DHS funding bill will pass fairly soon.

The targeted TSA Pre shutdown is fuckery, and probably technically illegal, but frankly it’s extremely small potatoes compared to most of Trump’s corruption. It’s simple and effective.

Unlike the Ezra Kleins of the world, I think most politics is like this: simple. That doesn’t mean easy. For example, it’s a simple political fact that it’s better to rely on small donors instead of a bunch of rich folk, because what the small donors want is probably more popular. That doesn’t mean that it’s easy to do that, and the proof can be found in almost every fundraising report of a Democratic politician. “Holding the line” on things like the Big Billionaire Blowjob, or ferociously opposing ICE, or obstructing Republican appointments is simple. It’s clearly not easy, because it’s not being done.