One of the things President Trump has done well, although unintentionally, was get a lot of people to expose who they really are and what they really think about America, politics, and the voters.
And -- for a lot of them -- it's not a good look. This writer is grateful for Trump for shining a light on this, and here's an epic thread explaining exactly what this means
🧵 In the Era of the Golden Scalp Weasel came the Great Unmasking.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
What do I mean by this? Well, get yourself a snack and beverage of choice and I shall explain.
All set?
Let's get it.
Ready?
The Golden Scalp Weasel is Trump's hair. I thought this was obvious, however, I've had questions. So. That.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
What, however, is the Great Unmasking?
The Great Unmasking is that people are being forced to state their actual positions, not simply make mouth noises about issues.
For far too long a lot of people just made noise.
The Great Unmasking is that now politicians and pundits are revealing what they truly think about voters and about the base and about having to actually do all those things that they promised for all those years.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
This writer thinks some of the Never-Trump crowd (think Jen Rubin or Tom Nichols) are so broken by Trump because they absolutely loathe us voters for not listening to them and electing Trump in 2016. We got to see exactly what they thought about us.
The Great Unmasking is the masks being dropped. It is that the response to Trump shows the true and beating heart of the various and sundry pols and pundits. And it is necessary and long over due. I'll focue on immigration, trade, and foreign policy.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
Long overdue.
Let's start with immigration. 1986 is nearly 40 years ago. *stares bleakly into the distance* 1986 matters because, in 1986, the American public was promised the payment of enforcement next Tuesday for the hamburger of amnesty now. Well. We all know how that turned out.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
This writer was born in 1983 so...*also stares bleakly into the distance*
For nearly 40 years, the GOP's position was we will absolutely fund the wall and enforce the borders and go after employers. By which I mean, that was the GOP position during election season. Once in office, well, we can't actually *do* any of those things, Because Reasons.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
Because reasons.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
The various and sundry provisions of Title 8 of the USC, you know, the ones passed by Congress after public debate and after compromise by our elected representatives have not been repealed. Yet for nearly 40 years, de facto, they were.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
This is the important part:
Laws which are not enforced are de facto repealed, no matter the de jure. Along comes Trump and he begins enforcing the laws and regulations on the books, the ones Congress passed and the power that Congress (impermissibly) delegated and people lost their minds.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
'Laws which are not enforced are de facto repealed' -- YEP.
It's cruel, who will pick the crops, it's disruptive, pick your favorite screeching. Trump proved and is proving that the laws and regs on the books right now are sufficient. And thus all those who refused to do so before were proven liars when they said it couldn't be done.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
All we needed to get things done was change presidents.
Let me move on to trade. NAFTA and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China are a quarter century old. (Yes, I know NAFTA was reworked as USMCA) It has been well long enough to look at those policies and ask if those policies achieved the stated goals or something else.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
It's a fair question to ask.
Yes, yes, people will reply to this with charts showing how much better things are and look at the line going straight to the moon and *sneer* you just don't understand. Oh. I understand. I understand absolutely that a country is not an economic zone and people are not widgets.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
People are definitely not widgets.
There are very basic questions that people refuse to answer in any coherent fashion. Why is child labor acceptable when other countries do it? Why are environmental regulations only applicable to the West? What level of worker protection and safety should all companies follow?
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
Ask those questions and -- by and large -- all you'll get is crickets.
Why is it acceptable for other countries to have tariffs on US goods while the US has either low/none on goods from those countries? Do you think people really are widgets? The reason why I ignore nearly all economic discussions is because people refuse to answer these questions.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
Like we said, crickets.
Now? Now Trump is ripping all of those obfuscations away. I have no idea if Trump's current actions will work. I do know that the past quarter century has not provided the benefits that the NAFTA/PNTR advocates claimed. China has not become any more free.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
China is definitely not free.
Turning the US economy into a service and knowledge based jobs economy does not work for anyone other than the Front Row Kids. Be a Mandarin or be the one serving the Mandarin coffee is not a healthy society.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
It is not.
How many times do I have to type this? Theory is beautiful and helpful only so far as it describes reality accurately. Reality always, always wins. And the theory that a globalist free market economy is what we have currently does not pass the slightest brush with reality.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
Reality always wins.
People are being forced, kicking and screaming, to have their eyelids pulled back ala Clockwork Orange to see the world as it is vis a vis trade and they do not like that one little bit. And they are telling everyone. That knowledge is quite good to know.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
Yes, it's good to know.
Lastly, foreign policy. The fall of the USSR was over 30 years ago. Many of us have been asking for a quarter century what is the point of NATO? Why are there still bases in Germany? When, exactly, will European countries start defending themselves?
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
When J.D. Vance asks these questions, people flip out.
Then there's the refusal to declare war and the related refusal to take actions to win the wars the US is in. The neocons are both incapable and unwilling to admit that the various adventures abroad have been an unmitigated disaster for anything other than improved prosthetics.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
Brutal but honest and accurate.
The last quarter century has been an unmitigated failure of foreign policy. Yet when Trump says enough, we will hold NATO members to the treaty obligations, we will question what the direct US interest is in Ukraine, we will look at how this helps America First, he is the idiot.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
He is not the idiot here.
The masks are off. All the pretty little lies and all the assumptions about how the world should work by all the people who think the same way no matter political party affiliation because they all went to the same schools and were taught the same fundamental premises are exposed
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
Totally exposed.
In the Era of the Golden Scalp Weasel came the Great Unmasking. People's actual beliefs and actual view of the public and their actual refusal to look at what theory has been to reality are now on display for all to see. This is a good thing.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
A very good thing.
Let us have these arguments, loud and true. Let people state, forthrightly, what their fundamental premises are.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
Let the lying stop.
Let oxygen hit the wounds to stop them from festering.
The Great Unmasking is painful. It was also inevitable.
It was inevitable.
I have no idea what will happen. I know from my study of history what generally happens and would like to avoid the whole ego defense but make it occur in the real world and involve weapons bit, please.
— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) April 7, 2025
We shall see. For our sins, we shall see. Have a red panda. /fin pic.twitter.com/45c4rfOkei
Well said.
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