Understanding the MAGA Voter

The default way that rank and file Democrats think of MAGA voters is that they are “stupid,” by which they mean low IQ.  While it is true that MAGA voters are typically poorly educated (Trump: “I love the poorly educated”) (2/3 of MAGA voters are NOT college educated, while half of Democratic voters are college educated), that does not make them stupid.  And they feel disrespected, not without cause, by their better educated sisters and brothers.  Intelligence may correlate with education but history is replete with brilliant minds of little formal education and foolish PhDs.  In addition, my own definition of stupidity is stupid by choice (“don’t bother me with facts, my mind is already made up”), not by low IQ.   And stupid by choice (let’s call it “operational stupidity”) is much more pernicious than stupid by low IQ.  The clinical word that describes this kind of lazy and stubborn stupidity is “confirmation bias” (“I will only listen to news sources that support my own beliefs”).  But confirmation bias is not exclusive to MAGA voters.  A MAGA voter listens to Truth Social and Fox News, but a liberal voter listens to MSNBC and late night talk TV.  Indeed, confirmation bias seems to be universal among humans.  So, maybe we are all kinda stupid, apparently no one likes admitting he was wrong!  Or likes to THINK, rather than react without thought!

The Vanity of Donald J. Trump

I performed a Google search for “list of all things named after Donald Trump.”   This is what came up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_things_named_after_Donald_Trump.  Check out the web page, it’s fascinating.  It is 10 ½ scrolling pages long and it has a total count of 226 items, most (200?) of which were of his making.  This is the top level breakdown: Real estate, 49; Hotels, 24; Golf courses, 26; Casinos, 11; Streets/roads/government buildings, 20; Arts and media, 40; Food and drink, 7; Sales/retail/side ventures, 25; Transportation, 2; Species, 3; Tributes and homages, 12; Satirical and critical, 5; Political parties, 2.

Presenting ... Jesse Welles

Our Gangbusters’ Economy

Our GDP (Q3, 2025) stands at $31,095 billion, up from $19,958 billion (Q2, 2020), a total increase of 55.8%, for an annual increase of 8.8%; up from $1,089 billion (1970), for an annual increase of 6.4%.

The Dow Jones Industrials stands today (12/26/2025) at $48,176, up from $21,917 at 03/2020, a total increase of 120%, for an annual increase of 14.7%; up from $839 (1970), for an annual increase of 7.8%.

Antifa

The president of the United States – Donald John Trump – has issued an executive order designating “Antifa” as a terrorist organization.  Which means that anyone believed to BE Antifa has broken the law and can be arrested, tried and convicted for being a domestic terrorist.

But let’s look at this.

Censorship

This piece is the offspring of CBS cancelling Steven Colbert and ABC suspending Jimmy Kimmel.

What is free speech, anyhow?  The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads in part: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”  To make a point of it, the Constitution only forbids Congress (or the federal government) (the 14th Amendment added state governments to who was forbidden) from abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.  But freedom of speech only protects a speaker from government prosecution, it does NOT protect him from being fired by a private corporation, for any – or no – reason at all.

Ben Franklin speaks

On September 17, 1787, just before the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were asked to sign the document, Ben Franklin asked his fellow delegate from Pennsylvania, James Wilson, to read his considered closing remarks.

Antisemitism in America: A Solution

Before I start, I must declare my bias.  I am biased against stupid human beings.  But by that pejorative term, I do NOT mean low IQ persons, I mean people who are ignorant (in one field or another) and have no interest in fixing their ignorance with facts and history.  Another qualification is needed: none of us can have an interest in every field, and that is fine.  But if someone has a need to share his opinions on a subject, despite his ignorance of the facts and the history of that field, he qualifies as STUPID in my mind.  And, potentially dangerously stupid, too.

OK, please show us examples of stupid people, stupid Americans.  Americans who do not care about facts or history.

The Common Sense Party

America needs the Common Sense Party because our democracy is a sham and the two major parties are corrupt beyond repair.[1]

We believe that many if not most elections are won or lost at the margins, by voters who are not bound by their party affiliation.[2]  This means that our “third party” candidates stand a real chance of winning if voters know that we exist and appreciate what we offer them.  What the Common Sense Party promises is unprecedented in American political history.

Low-Income Housing

A hypothetical.  Imagine, ...

I am a retired senior, and my sole source of income is my monthly Social Security check.  I rent an apartment on the South side of town, and I pay probably less than most of you because I cannot afford to pay much more.  But I do not live in low-income housing, and this is NOT a quibble.  Low-income housing is government subsidized housing.  The reason that I can pay so little to rent my apartment is manifold: I live far from the cultural center of town, I do not live very close to any big box stores (where I typically shop due to their low prices), I am not close to any hospital, and I have no luxuries.  If some low-income housing was less desirable than my apartment, it would cost less to rent than my apartment without a government subsidy.  So, by definition, low-income housing – housing that is partly paid for by the government – is more desirable than my place but costs its tenants less than what I pay for my place.  Which means, partly, that someone who could afford the rent of a place more desirable than mine is losing out to someone who cannot afford the rent.  And that is a solution that no classical economist would favor.