Most of us have read about “suicide by cop”–a (hopefully rare) situation where someone desiring death purposely provokes a standoff with police. I don’t think MAGA cult members are that intentional, but I do think the result will be the same. The pandemic was a precursor: data shows that the MAGA science-deniers who refused to be vaccinated against COVID died in far greater numbers than more sane Americans.
Who coined that phrase “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”?
The Trump administration has already taken a meat-ax to medical research, derailing promising research into cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s and other deadly diseases. Those cuts will hurt all of us–Red and Blue alike. But as Paul Krugman recently pointed out, the administration’s radical changes in social spending, immigration policy and tariffs won’t simply hurt tens of millions of Americans — they will land disproportionately on Red, rural Americans.
The first thing you need to understand is that while rural Americans like to think of themselves as self-reliant, the fact is that poorer, more rural states are in effect heavily subsidized by richer states like Massachusetts and New Jersey.
This reality makes it inevitable that the standard conservative fiscal agenda — tax cuts for the rich, benefit cuts for the poor and middle class — hurts the heartland more than it hurts major metropolitan areas. But MAGA’s Reverse Robin Hoodism goes far beyond the standard conservative agenda, in ways that will be especially devastating to rural areas and small towns.
I’ve previously posted about Trump’s horrendous “Big Beautiful Bill” that will rob the poor to further enrich the wealthy. The bill contains savage cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, programs that will hurt all poor folks; but will disproportionately devastate Trump-supporting rural areas.
Krugman notes that Medicaid is a far more important program than most Americans realize.
Almost 40 percent of children are covered by Medicaid, with some of the highest percentages in deep red states like Alabama and Mississippi. Medicaid pays for 42 percent of births in America. And more to my point, Medicaid covers a higher fraction of the population in rural than in urban counties. So deep cuts in the program will hit Trump-supporting regions especially hard.
Ditto the impact of the drastic cuts to food stamps.
Many people–even those who are opposed to the “Big Beautiful Bill”– fail to recognize its very foreseeable impact on rural hospitals. Hospitals in areas with low population density and a high percentage of patients who cannot pay for care struggle to stay open even now. Without Medicaid reimbursements at current levels, most will close.
Most of us also fail to understand the role that Medicaid and Medicare spending play in supporting what Krugman calls “rural and left-behind local economies.”
For example, the economy of West Virginia no longer rests on coal mining, which employs very few people these days. It would be more accurate to say that the foundation of West Virginia’s economy is federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid. That is, in deep red West Virginia, Medicare and Medicaid are directly and indirectly a major source of income.
We are already seeing the impact of Trump’s immigration vendetta on the nation’s farmers. Our agriculture relies heavily on hired workers, and some two thirds of those workers are immigrants–most of whom are undocumented. Farmers are already seeing the results of the threat: even workers who are legal residents or native-born citizens feel unsafe from the ICE goons who very clearly think all Brown people are illegal immigrants–so we see growing reports of workers decamping out of fear of arrest and deportation.
And then there’s the trade war.
In case you haven’t noticed, Trump hasn’t yet delivered a single one of the 90 trade deals he promised to negotiate by July 8. China has already retaliated, and others will follow. And U.S. agriculture is highly dependent on exports…
While many are now realizing that Trump’s policies will produce social and economic disaster, relatively few understand that the disaster will fall disproportionately on rural Trump voters. But of course it will. For the purveyor of Trump bibles and Trump meme coins, screwing the little guy has always been his personal style of grift. It remains to be seen if rural Trump supporters will awaken from their naivete.
Krugman is kinder than I am. I have given up any illusion that Trump voters are merely naive or uninformed. I’m pretty sure that MAGA voters are so wedded to their racism and grievance that they will support their own suicide if that’s what it takes to “own the libs.”
You would think that people would support their own self-interest. Instead, they slice the nose off to spite their face. Psychologically dense and living in an alternate reality, somehow, they believe they’ll get some benefit from self immolation! When medical attention becomes unobtainable, and snap benefits dry up, the howling will be deafening. Unfortunately they have to feel the pain for themselves, because intellectually, many are too stunted to extrapolate the events happening today and how they will be affected!
They undoubtedly will start working against the government they wanted, because it does not deliver for them. Which will then take out its ire on the former supporters.
Cuts to NOAA and FEMA will hit the southern red coastal states hard too. Trump has shown the way for the rest of the country to “not care…do you?”
Also of little note, but of some significance, is the fact that many Medicare recipients use Medicaid as their secondary/supplemental health insurer. Make cuts there and watch elderly poverty soar and the death rate as well.
— tax cuts for the rich, benefit cuts for the poor and middle class —
The “Big Beautiful Bill” is an attack by those from poor, rural states on poor, rural states.
To do maximum damage to what used to be America, the Beautiful, Mar-a-Largo is attacking the reason that they assumed power, poor and rural voters.
They are putting in place glory to the rich, death to the poor, and jail for the poorest.
Nobody should be surprised at the demented behavior of MAGA, their hatred of what we had, or their ultimate failure, because it’s the end of Trump’s biography of his destruction of others and his failures.
It’s like watching an addict kill themselves with their drug of choice. Their so-called self-interests go out the window as they give away anything of value to obtain their drug of choice. There is a MAGA meme that shows a husband and wife wearing MAGA hats grimacing in pain while they hold their hands on a flaming hot stove, titled “Stovetop Touchers: Owning the Libs.”
If they were only negatively impacting themselves, that would be one thing. But as Sheila has pointed out, their ignorance is hurting everyone. They are making it extremely easy for the oligarchy to run over all Americans. The Big Shitty Bill is a perfect example as the sociopathic Mike Johnson stands up everyday lying to Americans about how great their lives will be once the Republicans get Trump’s proposal passed for them. It’s one of the easiest cons in US history.
The problem is that the “opposition” has been doing the same thing to Americans since the 80s. Democrat party loyalists always bristle when I say that, mainly because they know deep inside it’s true. The DNC is just more subtle. Watching them meltdown over Cuomo getting beaten by a New York socialist should be all the evidence party enthusiasts need to snap out of it. Still, like MAGA, the party association is part of their identity – it’s attached to their EGO.
It’s all a lack of self-awareness. While MAGA hates “woke people,” they really hate Democratic Party loyalists. They associate “wokeness” with someone who supports racial and ethnic communities.
Our local reservoir, the community’s primary water source, is facing challenges. Our city and county administrations are all led by Republicans. So are our state officials. An official from the water utility company told local residents that “ATV use and horses were causing pollution in the reservoir.” He never mentioned the thousands of CAFOs in Indiana polluting our waterways. Not to mention all the farmers who are contracted to spray the manure and urine on their fields all over the county. Nope, the problem is horseback riders. LOL
I could go on and on, but the point is, “You can’t fix stupid!”
Correct, Todd. The stupid is the end result of the grievance con game. But here’s the thing that is most troubling: At worst, 25% of voters in red states voted for Harris, Biden and other Democrats. In a state of, say, 10 million, that’s 2.5 million people who get screwed even though they voted FOR their best interests. The looming disaster is underlined by the closing of hospitals and medical centers in rural, red, MAGA America. Uh, oh. Will we see a resurgence of midwives caring for pregnant moms? There better not be any postpartum issues. Mothers and newborns will die in greater numbers.
Add to that, the number one area of work-related deaths and accidents is … wait for it … agriculture. No hospitals. No ambulances. No helicopters. No doctors. No nurses. BUT, more people are employed in medical insurance companies than there are M.D.s in our beloved land. That tells us more about the priorities of the United States’ civic and business models.
Let’s give MAGA a permanent Darwin Award for killing themselves off by owning the libs, but not owning two functioning brain cells. Yee-hah!
Great post as usual, Sheila.
AND … late breaking news laced our headlines this past week. Tulsi breached the White House announcement that Iran enrichment labs ‘obliterated’, according to her intel, was not supported by evidence following the attack. Wow … a MAGA elite sidelined for reporting facts on the ground!
Now Trump searches pivot to a new headline to turn media attention that sides with far right religious piety of mothers who demanded LGBTQ literature be removed from elementary schools. Nay … no more fairy tales featuring queer elves and transvestite gnomes. Fully armed and masked ICE agents on alert to invade elementary schools this coming Fall to detect any child reading banned literature. Any child caught crying will be detained and sent to a detention center for the offense of interfering with a federal investigation.
BTW … if you find this disgusting and unbelievable … know that this is happening now under the guise of arresting “hardened criminals” during mass sweeps of unarmed and non-violent legal residents considered suspects because they do not have white skin.
If MAGA elites can’t even go with the White House claims of ‘obliterated’ nuclear sites after a billion dollar attack, then what can we believe coming from a Commander in Chief who has a history of lies going back to lying before a Selective Service Board with falsified medical diagnosis to avoid military service.
The boy just could not bear the thought of dropping his drawers during routine military health inspections. After all, Tulsi is a hot looking woman! What are you hiding Marlboro Man?
Trump trashed everything he did. Now, he gets to do it to the country. That is the current problem, but I think it comes from a long run of sociopathic ideas emanating from the Republican Party. Stephen Miller should be in a cabin in the woods writing screeds, not anywhere close to power. Self-destructiveness creates its own logic and its own reality with a joy and fervor that propels it forward. With individuals, we are lucky if we hit a brick wall that resets our brains to a more rational life. I have no idea what can stop a culture from turning lemming and charging for a cliff. The only example that comes to mind is Nazi Germany, and that falls apart on so many fronts. I am pretty sure there will be no Marshall Plan to rebuild the Untied States. Sorry to be so gloomy on such a fine morning.
Indiana will be hurt by these changes if they go through. I worked for Marion Co DFR for 25 years. People have no idea what is coming.
Simply put; when we lost the Supreme Court to Mitch McConnell we lost America, he was setting it up for what we see happening daily for whichever Republican returned to the Oval Office, then he resigned from his position of power, his job done. Now; Trump has taken away the powers of Senate and House by going over their heads to SCOTUS and has been given full power, rendering them virtually useless. Is this what he meant that if he was elected in 2024 we would never need to vote again…for any level candidate?
All of this should have resulted in the Suicide OF MAGA but here we are wondering if or when we will lose our birthright citizenship or become the primary target of nuclear war by a nation Trump finally pisses off till they take that preemptory nuclear shot.
Suicide as a way out? I sure as hell have been considering it myself; my only fear is of failure and resulting in a condition worse than my current one.
If you Google “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” they will attribute it to Bachman Turner Overdrive, but that’s not right. I first heard it from the spectacular Mae West in one of her comedies with W. C. Fields.
Keep in mind that the Republicans are setting up the bill so that the most harmful policies won’t begin until after the midterms, so the impact on the vote will be delayed until 2028. If it’s a normal midterm, the Dems will take back the House and might get more even in the Senate. It won’t be a runaway.
Thank you, Joann, for pointing out McConnell’s responsibility for the fix the country is in!!! I was going to lay that out, today. In my view, he and John Boehner birthed the Tea Party. They decided that GOP congresspeople could not even, any longer, lunch with others, because, heaven forbid, unacceptable IDEAS might get sparked in the otherwise dull brains of the GOPIGGIES!
Seeing, and juxtaposing the idea of “death by cop” with the MAGA screed, was a brilliant idea, Sheila.
Sheila’s last paragraph in today’s blog post hit the nail on the head.
As a resident of a very rural northeast Indiana county I can assure you that the local MAGA voters have been voting against their own interests for decades. It started with the financially devastating loss of a few thousand high-paying/low skill UAW union auto parts manufacturing jobs to Mexico forty years ago. Many of those workers didn’t finish elementary school and many more chose not to finish high school. With easy access to local high paying union jobs they viewed attending school as a waste of time. Then Rupert Murdoch’s genius idea to offer free cable access to Fox News managed to easily switch those former union-affiliated Democrat party voters to the Republican party. They’ve become brainwashed by Fox and vote straight ticket R. They make no effort to learn anything about the candidates they vote for. Fox continuously feeds them with lies that all of their suffering is caused by Democrat party politicians even though both our county and state governments have been controlled by Republicans for a long time.
I’ve no doubt that as the Republican party continues to make life much more precarious for rural Americans they will still blame the Democrats for all of their troubles because their favorite media sources will continue to lie to them.
My state Senator remarked that they will vote against their self-interest every time because the hate and pain inflicted on others justifies the self-inflicted pain they put upon themselves. If I suffer, you must suffer even more. Then I win.
It is irrational.
For anyone considering self-harm, please remember at your loss the pain of those who love you will be unending.
One of the most cruel things this regime has done is stop suicide hotline access. Their wish is to facilitate the deaths of those they hates. Sadly, the real source of that hate resides within themselves, eating away at their oouls until there is nothing left but a black hole. Whited sepulchers all.
What do we do? Register new voters, provide verifiable information about policies and candidates, urge participation without partisanship. Identify as you wish to be known, be honest but remember, they are fearful, especially of perceived loss of status and change.
Please note: I no longer trust state agency employees to tell the truth about any data. The takeover of public universities by partisan hacks like Bopp, the removal of traditional GOP personnel to be replaced by MAGA loyalists, should make everyone cautious about believing what they report. It will always serve the MAGA first and foremost.
My state Senator remarked that they will vote against their self-interest every time because the hate and pain inflicted on others justifies the self-inflicted pain they put upon themselves. If I suffer, you must suffer even more. Then I win.
It is irrational.
For anyone considering self-harm, please remember at your loss the pain of those who love you will be unending.
One of the most cruel things this regime has done is stop suicide hotline access. Their wish is to facilitate the deaths of those they hate. Sadly, the real source of that hate resides within themselves, eating away at their oouls until there is nothing left but a black hole. Whited sepulchers all.
What do we do? Register new voters, provide verifiable information about policies and candidates, urge participation without partisanship. Identify as you wish to be known, be honest but remember, they are fearful, especially of perceived loss of status and change.
Please note: I no longer trust state agency employees to tell the truth about any data. The takeover of public universities by partisan hacks like Bopp, the removal of traditional GOP personnel to be replaced by MAGA loyalists, should make everyone cautious about believing what they report. It will always serve the MAGA first and foremost.
My apologies for the double post.
Great essay. So true. Trump’s supporters have been shooting themselves in the feet for years now. And they think it feels so good that they cannot stop. Think about SD.
Trump’s BUB (Big Ugly Bill) will result in most rural hospitals closing. In western SD, the only hospital that would survive is here in Rapid City. Spearfish would be on the fence. Eastern SD may have further options. Sioux Falls would be OK. But Yankton, Watertown, Aberdeen, and even Pierre (the state capital) would be marginal. Everything else would close. So if you lived in Bison and were having a heart attack due to a climate change heat wave, you would have to drive 150 miles or more for help. PEOPLE WILL DIE!
And agriculture in SD is heavily dependant on exports. Soy beans, corn, sunflower seeds, sisal production will all get hit hard. If you can’t export it, there is no point in putting a crop in the ground. No crops mean no farms.
And ranching will also be hit hard as the export markets are lost. Without the export markets, prices will fall and ranches will fail.
And due to Trump’s Idiocracy, tourism to SD will take a BIG hit. Recent estimates showed the number of foreign tourists fell by over 40% in April. As tourist spending falls, so does sales tax revenue (a big source of income for the state). SD will likely need to raise other taxes in order to maintain current services. As taxes go up, people with limited incomes will need to move to more affordable states/areas.
Rural people, particularly the elderly, would move into Rapid City and Sioux Falls, further straining services in those two cities. Others will move out of state for better jobs, better pay. Population numbers in SD will drop drastically. Fewer people will mean less available tax money for the state and rural counties. Some counties will likely become untenable and dissolve their incorporation.
It will be total chaos.
AND
PEOPLE WILL DIE!
William:
thanks from NoDak,,, same issue,,,same ol same ol..
best wishes/
Both sides of the coin are rotten to the core. There’s plenty of debauchery hidden in plain sight. But people choose to ignore that debauchery because they see it every single day on the box in their bedrooms, hanging on the wall, sitting on a stand, or in their pockets! The entertainment industry, Hollywood, is a filthy and disgusting smut churning extruder! Parents let their kids unfettered access, their electronic babysitters are worse than the most brutal and depraved, affiliated or not, white slavers and human traffickers in history. And if for some reason they get caught for something, they die in prison! You are going to see more and more of this debauchery such as the freak offs by Diddy, and all that went with it. You don’t think they were involved in human trafficking? The appetite for this sort of thing is ravenous. People still try to hide what they are, and those who are participants and high ranking power brokers, whatever the stripe, will make sure these debauchery brokers will never reveal their secrets.
Like I mentioned before about all those children 17 and below, found by the US Marshals in Florida. They called them habitually missing, but some of them were extremely young. How many of those babies ended up alligator food in the Florida swamps? Because they filled some evil craving for powerful filth bags? There is no party affiliation for this sort of disgusting craving, both sides do it, while in public with their hands clasped and posing with their self righteous indignation! A society that allows these sorts of things, will never last, because it will devour itself, and is doomed for destruction concerning its heinous attributes!
Its like George Carlin said ” The Rich don’t care about you. Its a BIG CLUB and your not in it. The Rich have all the money and pay none of the taxes. The middle class does all the work and pays all the taxes, and the working poor are there to scare the sh*t out of the middle class. The Pretenders song “Middle of the Road” makes its point as well…
William,
Thanks for putting a more localized example to my earlier rant. It helps to explain what I often say: “I’m glad I’m old and have hobbies.” I don’t want to live in the coming years of this country, and I’m pretty much too old and not rich enough to emigrate elsewhere.
What a mess.
I agree that the majority of Magas vote against their own best interests based on their prejudices, hate and feeling like they’re owning the libs. Also, when the negatives of the trade wars and Big ugly Bill are being realized, the echo chamber effect of Fox news will work diligently to place the blame onto the libs/Dems.
It’s a waste of time/energy to try to convince the Maga cult otherwise. I’ve read that research shows when contradictory evidence is presented to cult members, they reject the evidence and dig in deeper into their own beliefs.
It’s so un-American and egregious that Americans who support the Bill of Rights and rule of law are being scapegoated by the corrupt political and billionaire class and persecuted, harassed and threatened by Maga. This is a strategy to keep us all miserably preoccupied while the trump regime carries out its corruption, enriching only their family and friends. They’re not by any means worth it!!!
Remember the MAGA wet dream in Sleepy Hollow in future elections through 2028, to be reminded by the all the devastating outcomes of the Senate floor election last night by then. We will remember the champions of the American People and welcome new ones with our vote in coming years. Flush the toilet and push restart button. 😅