Read on Twitter
Too many of you still think politics is about magic wands. You think Trump has waved a post office magic wand that's won him the election, and you're mad at Democrats for not waving a magic wand of their own. Nothing is ever that simplistic. Politics is about who has LEVERAGE.
Too many of you think the DeJoy hearing in the House is what's going to magically end this. In reality, the fact that he's GOING to have to testify is what shifts the leverage to the Democrats here. Now he has to start playing defense instead of offense.
Too many of you still haven't figured out that Trump can't magically drag the post office thing out through the election. If he tried, voters on his own side would eat him alive long before election day. So he won't try, because he's senile but he's not THAT senile.
Too many of you haven't figured out that this is a huge, bombastic bluff on Trump's part. He's not trying to dismantle the post office. He's trying to SCARE you into thinking he's already dismantled it, so you'll give up on mail-in voting.
Trump and DeJoy are making superficial moves like hauling mailboxes away, taking down the online tracking system, hauling out some sorting machines. They WANT you to see this. They want you to freak out, become paralyzed, and give up fighting. This only works if you fall for it.
In two different press conferences this week, Trump has screwed up and admitted in exact words that he's planning to trade the post office back to the Democrats in exchange for other concessions. Yet many of you are STILL convinced this is some long-term magic wand play for him.
"But why doesn't someone arrest DeJoy?"
He'd be out on bail by sunset.
"But why doesn't the House haul in DeJoy to testify tomorrow?
It would turn public opinion against the Democrats for being overreaching.
These aren't real strategies. They're kindergarten fantasies.
He'd be out on bail by sunset.
"But why doesn't the House haul in DeJoy to testify tomorrow?
It would turn public opinion against the Democrats for being overreaching.
These aren't real strategies. They're kindergarten fantasies.
Meanwhile back in the real world, Trump's allies like McCarthy and Rubio are already publicly admitting that their side is about to have to cave on the post office. Yet many people on our side are still yelling around about how all hope is lost.
House hearings aren't magic wands. Remember when everyone was so sure that hauling in Bill Barr to testify would finish Trump off? Remember how angry you all were at the Democrats for not hauling Barr in sooner? His hearing ended up being something of a dud.
It's not the DeJoy hearing that'll change things. It's that DeJoy doesn't want to HAVE to testify. Lawyer fees, perjury charges. He's now under pressure to pull the plug on this stunt BEFORE his hearing, in the hope he won't have to testify. That's how these things actually work.
Far too many of you are angry at Pelosi for not coming back to the House tomorrow and... waving a magic wand? Not one of you can explain what it is that you want her to immediately do, short of some histrionic stunt that wouldn't work anyway.
Most of you don't even realize that the post office battle is already over, and that the democrats have won it. Trump was hoping to scare you into giving up. Instead he outraged you into fighting back. He had a short window of time for this stunt to begin with. It's now closing.
Pelosi will negotiate a deal with Republicans that restores the post office in exchange for some unrelated concessions. Trump will whine about it for awhile. Then he'll claim he was the winner of the deal. Then he'll try to take credit for having saved the post office.
This is simply how politics works. Always has, always will. Once you realize that no one in politics can ever make a unilateral move without consequences, and that every move is about trying to gain incremental leverage over the other side, it all starts to make more sense.
Most pundits, on TV and online, never ever talk about what's really going on with this stuff – which is why they usually end up being wrong about it. I don't know if the pundits truly don't understand any of it, or if they're just pandering to what they think you want to hear.
But a whole lot of pundits got a whole lot of TV ratings and retweets this week by telling you that Trump had magically won on the post office, when in fact that's never what was going on. The pundits won't get any better until you stop letting them pander to you like that.
