Why Dems Can Ill Afford to Share "Affordability" With Trump's Cult

by Inspector Clueso

Community

(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday, Dec. 01, 2025 Monday, Dec. 01, 2025 at 12:29:47pm PST

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Affordability. Granted, that 6-syllable juggernaut amounts to a polite way of broaching the human costs of decades of governance of/by/for the have-mores. But still. At least the term resonates with countless GOP-ravaged (and potentially enraged) voters.

Trouble is, it looks to be brazenly co-opted by the obese, orange neo-robber baron who now has the gall to dub himself “The Affordability President.”

Straining to live up to that tag, he makes nice with a Dem who calls himself “socialist”- and said Prez, “fascist.” So, let’s get real. On Mr. Trump’s part, call such shmoozing ‘strategic comity’- shades of Michael Corleone (a fictive crime boss in the mob that Trump’s former real-life consigliere, Roy Cohn, reportedly once counseled).

“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer” runs the Corleone family adage. (Let’s hope Zohran Mamdani has seen the film- and hence may prove less inclined to let Trump steal his thunder. Lunch money. Identity. Or soul.)

Fact is, Dems can ill afford to let Trump morph from villain to hero. The party that since 1947 has spiked healthcare for all now turns blind eyes to looming, grossly unaffordable spikes in insurance costs. Meanwhile, proliferating data centers look to drive power prices through the roof. Not to mention Trump’s potential multi-trillion-dollar follymongering in and near Venezuela. And so on.

Better late than never, tuskers need to own up to decades of soaring price points. Abyssal, skinflint wages. Health insurance that looks to have been modeled on exclusive country clubs. Ever more regressive taxes. And lifestyles you’d prefer not to think of, let alone try to endure.

For their part, blue bigwigs must resolve friends (viz. Mamdani) from foes. That way, hopefully, they can stop throwing their base under the campaign bus- & pull out all stops to win back power before an orange wave floods all.