{"id":208799,"date":"2025-12-01T00:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/208799\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T00:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:09:09","slug":"my-brother-believes-that-america-will-never-buy-socialism-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/208799\/","title":{"rendered":"My brother believes that America will never buy socialism \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

My researcher, Andrew Trunsky, suggested gummies as a Thanksgiving side dish. He knows the annual toast to president Donald Trump<\/a> at my family\u2019s Thanksgiving dinner sets my teeth on edge. Maybe edibles would lead to a lighter vibe. But I\u2019m still recovering from my wild ride 11 years ago when pot was legalised in Denver and I flew out to write a column and had a night of extreme paranoia after nibbling off the end of a THC-infused candy bar.<\/p>\n

So this year, I\u2019m swallowing the toast as I usually do, with a gulp of the Trump Champagne my brother serves.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Kevin, here is his annual letter from the right \u2013 but not always correct \u2013 side:<\/p>\n

Red lights are blinking for both parties. <\/p>\n

New York<\/a> voters chose Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, a socialist Elmer Gantry with little experience, to be mayor of the world\u2019s most important city. President Donald Trump held a chummy Oval Office meeting with him that made it look as if the president was ready to trade jobs.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s election was propelled by younger voters enthralled by his promises of free things. From a rent freeze to free buses to government-run grocery stores to a $30-an-hour minimum wage, he made the case for a socialist society.<\/p>\n

On Friday, a resolution was brought to the US House of Representatives<\/a> floor condemning socialism. Ninety-eight Democrats<\/a> voted against it.<\/p>\n

Cracks are showing in the president\u2019s ironclad hold on the Republican Party<\/a>. Congress all but forced him to agree to release the Epstein files<\/a>. But after he castigated his most slavish supporter, Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a>, as a \u201ctraitor\u201d for pushing the release, Greene announced she would resign her House seat, later denouncing \u201cthe wicked snow globe of Washington DC\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MarjorieMarjorie Taylor Greene will step down in January. Photograph: AP <\/p>\n

This is a loss. Greene was a loyalist. She gazed at Trump with a Nancy Reagan level of adoration. Trump is transactional, and he\u2019s always open to bringing you back for another deal. But he is oblivious to the fact that when you threaten someone to the point that she considers herself a \u201cbattered wife\u201d, sometimes it can\u2019t be fixed.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s telling a Bloomberg News reporter \u201cQuiet! Quiet, Piggy,\u201d and calling a Times reporter \u201cugly inside and out\u201d, was beneath contempt. Our mother always told us: \u201cThere is never an excuse for bad manners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six congressional Democrats released a shameful video without giving any context encouraging service members to disobey illegal orders, thereby threatening the foundation of our military: the chain of command. But instead of shaming them, Trump posted on Truth Social that it was \u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!\u201d causing the oily senator Chris Murphy to warn that the life of every Democratic congressperson was in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Democrats won governors\u2019 races in New Jersey and Virginia, but the Virginia race was muddied by unearthed 2022 texts sent by their candidate for attorney general, Jay Jones, musing about killing the then-speaker of the Virginia House and watching the man\u2019s two young children die in their mother\u2019s arms. Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat who was elected governor, refused to ask Jones to drop out of the race. Jones was elected anyway, showing how Virginia feels about decency.<\/p>\n

It had been a bad year for Democrats. After regaining office, Trump proceeded at breakneck speed to undo much of the damage the Biden administration had wrought, immediately closing the border and deporting criminals. The Democrats resisted, but their leaders kept getting trapped on the wrong side of the argument. Boys in girls\u2019 sports (and locker rooms), LGBTQ+ teaching in lower grades with no opt-out, and no parental input on gender identification.<\/p>\n

Senator Chuck Schumer, one of the least popular Democrats, especially with progressives, shut down the government to mollify his party. In exchange, he got nothing. Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement (perhaps to day trade).<\/p>\n

One of the most disgusting spectacles playing out right now is the resistance to and demonisation of Ice agents by elected officials in major cities. They have put law enforcement officers in harm\u2019s way. As the son of a police officer, I am repulsed to hear political lightweights like governorJB Pritzker of Illinois, mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago and governor Gavin Newsom of California paint ICE agents as, in Pritzker\u2019s words, \u201cjackbooted thugs\u201d and encourage interference with officers.<\/p>\n

\"ImmigrationImmigration activists clash with NYPD officers as they block a garage used by Ice vans during a protest against a purported ICE raid on Canal Street on Saturday in New York City. Photograph: Stephanie Keith\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

If Trump gets overconfident in the face of such idiocy, here\u2019s some advice: Remind Ice that we are trying to deport criminals with violent police records, not landscapers. Do not let Stephen Miller convince you that the deportations must rise, and do a better job of communicating what you are doing.<\/p>\n

And do not underestimate the power of grocery receipts.<\/p>\n

Voters see them three times a week. Trump looks out of touch when he tells voters their 401(k)s will show how great the economy is. Many don\u2019t have a 401(k). Lower tariffs on food items. Do not lose voters over a bag of potato chips.<\/p>\n

Surveys have shown the country might like a third political party. It could be the democratic socialists, a slow-growing cancer for Democrats. (If Republicans can\u2019t address affordability better, democratic socialists will poach Republican voters, too.)<\/p>\n

Socialism has never worked anywhere in the world. The United States is built on capitalism, and that has served us well for almost 250 years. Democrats can only hope that Mamdani is a huge flop on Broadway.<\/p>\n

Happy Thanksgiving! \u2013 This article originally appeared in The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My researcher, Andrew Trunsky, suggested gummies as a Thanksgiving side dish. He knows the annual toast to president…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,16142,356,13,14,6,70180,15098,11,12,15,16,66626,969,5,12159,7,8,384,94727,65,66,67,47005],"class_list":{"0":"post-208799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-democratic-party","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ice-us-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","16":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-marjorie-taylor-greene","22":"tag-new-york-city","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-republican-party","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-us-house-of-representatives","29":"tag-world","30":"tag-world-news","31":"tag-worldnews","32":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115641408935291861","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}