Thursday, March 23, 2023
PMT: Post-Trump... consensus?
I was really intrigued by this Thomas Lane piece in the Washington Post. His main point is that while there is a lot of rhetorical divide, there is broad bipartisan consensus on some very important matters of policy, specifically:
-- The view that China is an adversary.
-- Distrust of international trade agreements and a desire to rebuild domestic manufacturing
-- A desire to leave Medicare and Social Security alone
-- An aversion to tax increases except on the very rich
-- A hostility to some corporations, particularly in social media and pharma
To that list, I would add a few more (that do not come from the Trump agenda):
-- There is a broad consensus to support the Ukrainians in their defense against Russia
-- A consensus that crime is going up and must be addressed through law enforcement
On the last of these, of course, I have opinions. There is a false thesis, after all-- crime in many places (included where I live) is going down, not up.
It doesn't feel like we are living in an age of consensus-- but in some ways, we are.
