No. 4 of 108
June 17 2025
2 to 1. Most don’t think it is a Big Beautiful Bill. A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll says. 2 to 1 opposed even if it is 2 to 1 support by the GOPers. Perhaps it is the bigness. Or the big cuts. Or $2.4 trillion more in debt, not counting interest, which is understandable if you increase military spending more than the cuts to veterans’ care or the many things, and reduce taxes for the more fortunate at the same time. It’s math. Perhaps just understood through our lens of cautiousness as measured in delaying the many big things like trips, and homes, and cars and eating out. Consumer spending, 0.9% less last month, as prices rise and the many things become scarcer. The math of ten percent of the detained and disappeared having serious criminal charges means ninety percent are deemed criminals by identity alone, harvested from fields, meat processing plants, restaurants, construction sites. Human consequences. And lots of math. Meanwhile, Israel and Iran dig in and push farther for the fifth day.
We have become accustomed to ceding decision-making to those who represent us. That is a characteristic habit of representative democracy. As it turns out, there are innumerable good reasons to pay useful attention to the content and context of governance. The big broad strokes of political talk find their saviors and devils in the details. Part of the topsy turvy-ness of the governance moment is our attraction to the big broad strokes of righteous acts. Across the spectrum of ideology this is so. Resetting would require a different conversation. And good math.
