I think it’s like a parent, they may get dementia, leave the family to pursue drugs or a lover, or even turn abusive, yet you still love them on some level. I imagine a number of the Jews who survived the Holocaust also still loved Germany after the war.
A country is much more than its government. Even if I end up leaving the US, I’ll still feel a sense of “home” when I meet another American or something. Even if I’m no longer welcome there, I would still call it my home.
You can hate what someone has become while still loving them.
And I absolutely do hope that things will improve. I think the American spirit is still alive and well, it’s just going through a bit of an episode right now. I agree with a few of the things Trump is doing (cutting waste and trying to uncover fraud), but I absolutely hate the way he’s going about it, and I disagree with the apparent longer term plans.
I sincerely hope we all survive this and the next admin can undo the worst of it while keeping most of the good changes. We’ll see. I feel like the next few months will be incredibly important.
What Trump says they’re doing and what they actually are doing are complete opposites. “Getting rid of fraud” while pillaging public coffers with huge conflicts of interest and corruption. “Efficiency” while cutting people illegally and indiscriminately, then paying them to come back and do nothing. It will take a long time to recover from this.
Here’s a big one: cuts to Dept of Education. We’ve spent a ton on education since 2000 w/ nothing to show for it, while at the same time making college more expensive. I blame fed student loans on making college more expensive, because it increased ease of access to funding (thus increasing demand at colleges), without actually preparing kids for school better, so we ended up w/ tons of kids either dropping out or getting useless degrees and being saddled w/ debt they can’t discharge in bankruptcy.
Trump isn’t actually fixing the core of the issue though, he’s just moving student loans to the Treasury. Ideally we’d completely end the program, increase Pell Grants a bit, and leave access to education to the states.
I think it’s like a parent, they may get dementia, leave the family to pursue drugs or a lover, or even turn abusive, yet you still love them on some level. I imagine a number of the Jews who survived the Holocaust also still loved Germany after the war.
A country is much more than its government. Even if I end up leaving the US, I’ll still feel a sense of “home” when I meet another American or something. Even if I’m no longer welcome there, I would still call it my home.
You can hate what someone has become while still loving them.
Great point, I will always regard it with a wistfulness.
And I absolutely do hope that things will improve. I think the American spirit is still alive and well, it’s just going through a bit of an episode right now. I agree with a few of the things Trump is doing (cutting waste and trying to uncover fraud), but I absolutely hate the way he’s going about it, and I disagree with the apparent longer term plans.
I sincerely hope we all survive this and the next admin can undo the worst of it while keeping most of the good changes. We’ll see. I feel like the next few months will be incredibly important.
What Trump says they’re doing and what they actually are doing are complete opposites. “Getting rid of fraud” while pillaging public coffers with huge conflicts of interest and corruption. “Efficiency” while cutting people illegally and indiscriminately, then paying them to come back and do nothing. It will take a long time to recover from this.
Right, which is why I said:
Some of the changes are good, and but many are just outright cronyism.
What I mean is that I can’t think of any changes at all that are good.
Here’s a big one: cuts to Dept of Education. We’ve spent a ton on education since 2000 w/ nothing to show for it, while at the same time making college more expensive. I blame fed student loans on making college more expensive, because it increased ease of access to funding (thus increasing demand at colleges), without actually preparing kids for school better, so we ended up w/ tons of kids either dropping out or getting useless degrees and being saddled w/ debt they can’t discharge in bankruptcy.
Trump isn’t actually fixing the core of the issue though, he’s just moving student loans to the Treasury. Ideally we’d completely end the program, increase Pell Grants a bit, and leave access to education to the states.
So then what is he doing here that is good?
Mostly signaling where the problems are. Ideally we’d be fixing issues with legislation, not EOs though.