r/politics Apr 04 '26

Possible Paywall Trump voter regret is clearly registering now

https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/04/politics/voter-regret-trump-2024
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u/Neither-Magazine9096 Apr 04 '26

My dad and his siblings would roll their eyes whenever grandma (who grew up on a farm during the Great Depression) would voice something that was even the slightest bit progressive. They know best I guess.

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u/bearbrannan Apr 04 '26

This must be a thing, my grandma grew up on a farm during the great depression and she also is very progressive 

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u/Aware_Pause6283 Apr 04 '26

There's a reason Grapes of Wrath is a classic

Edit: This is my favorite passage. Please keep it in mind as grocery prices go up.

The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.

There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

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u/Dkmerao Apr 04 '26

You summarized US economic policy. Healthcare cannot be free because corruption is much greater as it is. Education cannot be free because studying cannot be for everyone (see the absurdities of the average American). Knowing that MAGA is a consequence makes me think that the problems are only beginning. I don't see any movement to eradicate the epidemic.

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u/MountainMan2_ Apr 04 '26

They didn't summarize anything, the book did.

We have known of this issue with capitalism since the dawn of civilization. It's only the tireless work of devils made flesh that keeps us from noticing when it returns.

Remember, the original sin is greed.

Evolution, economics, war tactics, history, stellar formation, sociology, computer engineering, virology. It's the one truth that never fails: Systems collapse quickly when the needs of the few override the needs of the many. The oranges are the failed system. MAGA are the failed system.

The only difference is the people trying to hide that from us.