{"id":136,"date":"2024-12-20T18:41:18","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T18:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/?p=136"},"modified":"2025-05-08T21:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T21:16:09","slug":"burn-it-all-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/20\/burn-it-all-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Burn It All Down!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

At Issue:<\/strong> What drives the compulsion to “burn it all down,” championed by figures like Steve Bannon and now embraced more broadly following the 2024 election? This appeared to be the message voters sent to Washington in November 2024. Though a minority sentiment, the flaws in the electoral college system have made it the prevailing reality.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2024 U.S. election was driven more by “feelings”<\/strong> than “facts”<\/strong>\u2014a phenomenon that isn’t inherently negative but should serve as a wake-up call for those striving to lead responsibly in an increasingly chaotic information ecosystem. People are busy, and the ways we consume information continue to evolve rapidly. Unfortunately, this era of the “Big Lie”<\/strong>, propagated both domestically and by foreign adversaries, has left many misinformed. A case in point: a significant portion of Americans believed tariffs were income flowing into the country rather than costs passed on to consumers, largely offsetting massive tax cuts for the wealthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, prices are up, and a substantive debate about inflation, its causes, and solutions could have been constructive. But Americans weren\u2019t \u201cfeeling\u201d it, despite robust economic performance both domestically and relative to other G20 nations. As one analyst succinctly put it, the electorate simply wanted to burn it all down<\/strong>. Trump had a much longer runway to frame this narrative. By the time Kamala Harris tried to counter it, she lacked both time and opportunity to refine her message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics argue that Harris’ pivot to the center\u2014under the guidance of “middle-way” advisors\u2014alienated her from an electorate craving authenticity. She came across as a teacher’s pet<\/strong> at the front of the class, while Trump gleefully played the troublemaker<\/strong> in the back. The Democrats\u2019 strategy of pitting one flawed figure against another fell flat. The party doesn\u2019t need a “bad boy” to compete with Trump; it needs a candidate who can authentically connect with voters, not merely promise to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s disruptive messaging has led to catastrophic decisions by a swath of the electorate driven by emotion rather than evidence. The irony is stark: those intent on \u201cburning it all down\u201d are unwittingly dismantling their own futures. When the ashes settle, Trump\u2014the self-serving class clown\u2014will have already walked away unscathed, having made certain he and his allies prosper amid the ruins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was never about empowering the disenfranchised. It was about gutting the administrative state to hand even more wealth to his elite friends. If \u201cburning it down\u201d truly meant making the rich pay more taxes and redistributing wealth to benefit the working class, it might be a revolution worth fighting for. But Trump\u2019s revolution is an illusion<\/strong>\u2014a smokescreen to dupe his followers into thinking they\u2019re part of a grand uprising when, in reality, they\u2019re merely pawns in a rigged game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a startling piece from <\/em>Mother Jones<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Issue: What drives the compulsion to “burn it all down,” championed by figures like Steve Bannon and now embraced more broadly following the 2024 election? This appeared to be the message voters sent to Washington in November 2024. Though a minority sentiment, the flaws in the electoral college system have made it the prevailing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[18,22,5],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-government","tag-trump","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.operamode.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}