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Americans Want to Be Rich

Millions of those now alarmed by surging tariffs voted for Donald Trump to return to the White House, @reihan and @CharlesFLehman write. They thought a second Trump presidency would mean fulfilling that most American of desires—the desire to get rich.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/04/trump-tariffs-supporters/682370/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYYMk5rp20seh9HC41lI0yhg&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

********* What the Comfort Class Doesn’t Get

“In the past eight weeks, life for working-class Americans has deteriorated in real ways. And the pundits and politicians, on all sides, will watch it from a safe, comfortable distance,” Xochitl Gonzalez writes:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/class-money-finances/682301/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYcBLofehlwSNNOvuqj3cZTo&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

********** $$$$$$$$$$I Should Have Seen This Coming

Trumpism has replaced conservatism’s core values with just one: the raw pursuit of power. @nytdavidbrooks on how the conservative movement dies:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/05/trumpism-maga-populism-power-pursuit/682116/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYeDxKseefM40bhX28If37LE&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

“In the long term, Trumpism is doomed. Power without prudence and humility invariably fails. Nations, like people, change not when times are good but in response to pain. At a moment when Trumpism seems to be devouring everything, the temptation is to believe that this time is different.

But history doesn’t stop moving. Even now, as I travel around the country, I see the forces of repair gathering in neighborhoods and communities. If you’re part of an organization that builds trust across class, you’re fighting Trumpism. If you’re a Democrat jettisoning insular faculty-lounge progressivism in favor of a Whig-like working-class abundance agenda, you’re fighting Trumpism. If you are standing up for a moral code of tolerance and pluralism that can hold America together, you’re fighting Trumpism.”