Political Theater at Its Best

Recent politics looks like a bad movie we’ve seen too many times. Not quite a disaster movie, and some of it borders on comedy, but more like the Gong Show (for those of you who can remember it). I realize this may sound like disgruntled sarcasm on my part. Mea culpa. But, how could one not? We have an erratic president, Epstein, failed tariffs, floundering Democrats, socialists, wealth taxes, and high prices all playing out at once. Quite a plot.

President Trump is the star of this movie being that he is trapped by his own rhetoric. He promised over and over to his MAGA followers that he would release ALL of the Epstein files. After much foot dragging and pressure from GOP House members he finally relented.

I have no clue if he had some notorious role in Epstein’s crimes but it looked like he had something to hide. We all know that he was a bad dog in his prime and that reputation followed him to the White House making him his own worst enemy. Losing control of this issue is a stunning defeat for Trump. Now that the files will (hopefully) come out it raises another question: If not himself, who is he protecting? It better not be his cronies.

The comedy part of this movie is that Trump is now scrambling to find ways to lower high consumer prices caused in part by his tariffs. He promised voters he would bring down the high prices that were “ALL BIDEN’S FAULT” and that tariffs would be the cure. Oops. Not happening. Consumers are angry about high prices on things like beef, bananas, and coffee. I think this is a good example of the term “irony” since he just cut tariffs on beef, bananas, and coffee. Maybe he’ll learn from that. 

The next star is Senator Chuck Schumer (D., NY). He lost control of his party and gained zilch after a 43-day government shutdown. All we heard during the shutdown was poor people are going hungry and dying from lack of government subsidies and it was all the Republicans fault. The Democrats goal was to force Republicans to make permanent those temporary Covid subsidies to middle-class families. It’s government-run healthcare creep. But they lost the game of chicken when eight Democratic senators crossed the cease-fire zone and voted with Republicans to reopen government. Poor Chuck.

Then there is the Democratic Left proclaiming the socialist victories of Mamdani in NYC and Katie Wilson in Seattle is the path to Democrat success at the mid-terms. This will really be fun to watch. They both have about the same policy goals. Free this, free that, rent control, and tax the rich to pay for it. Since I’ve written about Mamdani previously I’m not going to get into the details here, but, assuming they get these policies enacted, they will fail and we’ll see these wonderful cities get worse as the wealthy class leave town or figure out how to avoid the taxes. Mamdani ought to be reminded that the top 1% pay 48% of City income taxes.

And, lastly, I can’t leave California out of the current zaniness. One of our unions, the socialist Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is proposing a wealth tax to support union healthcare workers. They want to get it on the next ballot. They want a 5% tax on billionaires’ assets in excess of $1B. This isn’t an income tax: it’s a tax on stuff they own like stock in their companies, investments, real estate, jets, yachts, homes, Ferraris, art. But they say don’t worry it will only be a one-time tax (wink-wink-nudge-nudge).

This appeals to the masses who don’t have billions. Hey, who needs a billion dollars? It’s unfair to the rest of us. They need to pay their fair share! Take it from them and give it to the needy. 

The top 1% of taxpayers already pay 46% of all federal income taxes; the top 10% pay 76% of income taxes. It’s probably the same percentage in California. A 5% wealth tax would kill the golden goose by the mass exodus of job-generating entrepreneurs from our fair state. Guess what. We need them to pay our bills.

I don’t know how all this will end. It’s like watching lab rats trying to get through a maze. My guess: Epstein? If Trump is protecting his cronies it will be bad for him and the GOP. Ditto with high prices. Socialist ascendancy? Trump keeps the GOP Congressional majority. Democrats move to the center? They win at least one of the Houses. 

Good show/bad show? Keep watching and find out.