Charles Roberts, a historian
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ckroberts.bsky.social
Charles Roberts, a historian
@ckroberts.bsky.social
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https://charleskennethroberts.wordpress.com/ read my blog if you want
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Reposted by Charles Roberts, a historian
unavaleable.bsky.social
like this is basically it, the melts melted under pressure
More than anything else, this is what led some Senate Democrats to cut a deal: Trump’s willingness to hurt people exceeds their willingness to see people get hurt. I want to give them their due on this: They are hearing from their constituents and seeing the mounting problems, and they are trying to do what they see as the responsible, moral thing. They do not believe that holding out will lead to Trump restoring the subsidies. They fear that their Republican colleagues would, under mounting pressure, do as Trump had demanded and abolish the filibuster. (Whether that would be a good or a bad thing is a subject for another column.) This, in the end, is the calculation the defecting Senate Democrats are making: They don’t think a longer shutdown will cause Trump to cave. They just think it will cause more damage. If I were in the Senate, I wouldn’t vote for this compromise. Shutdowns are an opportunity to make an argument, and the country was just starting to pay attention. If Trump wanted to cancel flights over Thanksgiving rather than keep health care costs down, I don’t see why Democrats should save him from making his priorities so exquisitely clear. And I worry that Democrats have just taught Trump that they will fold under pressure. That’s the kind of lesson he remembers.
November 10, 2025 at 4:27 PM
ckroberts.bsky.social
Especially given that the alternative superpower is not status-quo-happy USA, as when the USSR collapsed, but status-quo-overturning China.
July 15, 2025 at 4:09 PM
ckroberts.bsky.social
In a lot of ways that's the best case scenario? The USA is way wealthier and more powerful than Russia ever was; a declining USA is a threat to international order, not just local states, in a way that a declining USSR/Russia never was.
July 15, 2025 at 4:09 PM