Answer for Michael Lewis and His Questioners

Michael Lewis, great author, did an "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit.com. Here's one of the questions and his answer (in pink).

I think there's a solid answer to 3.

In 1993, Bill Clinton and the Congressional Democrats passed a budget which led some years later to a balanced budget with small surpluses for the future. It required 50 Dem senators and Veep Gore to pass it. The Republicans taunted Democrats who voted for the legislation. They had been telling people it would ruin the economy. It was successful, though, and Newt Gingrich even joined-in when he became Speaker of the House of Representatives.

When W Bush was elected, they blew it all up for tax cuts to their rich benefactors (many of whom depend on US debt for the huge wealth they've accumulated, but have no uses for).

Democrats realized the pointlessness of tackling the debt and have ignored it since. Dems fight for power and hope one day the Republicans will return to sanity and unite with us to solve problems like "the debt".

One can expect that if the Democrats get sufficient power in Congress and the presidency, that they will return to working on that issue.

Veep Debate Issues

There are a thousand issues, so it can be difficult to decide where to focus. Is it "the economy stupid" or "inflation" or something else? To me, there are many issues which can easily be debated, and the Republicans will have no answer. The most obvious recent one is "why did Donald Trump kill Immigration Reform legislation which he continually calls for?" But, there is another one that lingers.

The Republican Party is a coalition, just as the Democratic Party is. They generally support the idea of less government, especially taxes, and a strong military. But, the Trump MAGAs bring another element to the fore, one that should never have been in American politics. It's that there are MAGAs who "just want to see the world burn". They tried to overthrow the election of Joe Biden, and in so doing were happy to overthrow the United States Constitutional government.

That part of the Republican coalition makes it entirely criminal. That can be seen by the large number of them facing criminal charges and going to jail. Even if you weren't considering that part of the coalition, the rest would be rather extreme, but lower taxes and support for the Christian Right isn't new. As long ago as Ronald Reagan, that was part of the coalition. Even the inept George W. Bush didn't bring any revolutionaries into the party. It's not acceptable.

No patriotic American should twist their thinking to believing that it's somehow acceptable. It should be rejected out of hand, and Donald Trump with it.