What is the line from that speech from Spencer Tracy I posted? Marching backwards into the dark ages or something like that.

David, you are an intelligent man that obviously knows history. It matters to you and seeing it, understanding it, you can see when it is repeating itself. Part of our politics now, the strategy that MAGA has taken I'm sure you know, Republicans have taken before it was called MAGA, is to poison the well. To make the whole process so reprehensible, so awful, so dangerous to your life in fact, that good sane people will choose not to participate in it. That they will get loons and scum to be all that is on the ticket, and the choice for people will be so abysmal, they will just want to ignore it all. To wish it will all go away. To not participate, which we know is surrendering your fate to the scum like Trump, Gaetz, Marge Greene, Elon Musk...who once in, work as hard as they can to make the whole process even more disgusting and vile. 

It comes down to you run into people, as you did, and they either don't know what is going on, they just say "Well, I don't trust either side." or they just want to avoid saying they are for either side because they don't want to have the discussion at all. It's poison that they want to bury their heads and avoid. 

My friend John, you met him, tries to put together a dinner at least once a month of old friends, high school pals, old co-workers. Now putting a group of people in a room these days does mean there will likely be differing opinions on what is going on in the world. I'm invited to most of these, except when one guy would attend that was a huge Trump MAGA guy, in which case John preferred not to put me in the same room with him. He was an older guy, actually had the Trump gold sneakers, and would buy the garbage Trump sells. I did not really know this guy, he was a friend of a high school pal, also a MAGA fan, that would sometimes get invited along. There were incidents where other people at the dinner clashed with this guy and it got ugly and John felt, I would definitely make it ugly...I did not deny this. I'm cool if going in somebody says "Let's just have a good time, no politics." and if everybody follows that...so will I.

There are two guys, both MAGA, that could not follow that rule though. One, the old high school pal, John always thinks it is funny when I argue with him, but the other older guy, not so much. That he felt would get too unhinged. Anyway, that issue has been removed, the guy died at the beginning of January, so no more worries about clashing with him. The other guy, the old high school pal, he's still around and at our January dinner he was mostly talking about his mother just passing and the fallout of that. So, in the same month he lost his mom and his Trump loving pal.

John said "Don't get into politics with him, Reg, he's hurting." and of course, I agreed. 

Needless to say, as we sat at the bar, the guy decided to do a toast to Trump winning, and he looked right at me and said "Don't be a sore loser!" 

I let that pass but said I was not drinking to Trump. So, he loudly toasts Trump so that other people in the bar can hear him. I don't know what it is with Trump fans but they are always determined to rub people's noses in their love of the guy. Needless to say, the group of guys that I am with, do not raise their glasses but another group of guys sitting at the bar that we don't know, get up and say "We want in on that!" and they walk over to us to join the Trump toast. So, the five of them do their toast, loudly, and the rest of the crew I am with sit there shaking our heads. The rest of the bar ignores them.

Then it begins, they start having a joyous discussion of Trump's victory. So, I look at John, he shakes his head and looks down. I say to the guys in the little Trump orgy, "Hey, OK, so you won. What do you think is going to happen now that Trump is president again?"

John gives me a hard look. 

The guy I went to high school with says "The country is going to be like a huge casino, except every time we pull the handle on one of the slots, we win!" 

My eyebrows raise so high they might have actually left my head. John looks worried. 

"Seriously?" I say "You know that's an interesting analogy because Trump bankrupted the casinos he owned which really took some talent to do that. So, far more likely he does the same to our country. When you pull that handle it might come up all cherries, but nothing is going to come out of the machine."

There is a moment of silence, I am raining on the parade, they are all staring at me, and I think John thinks I am going to get into a fist fight. 

Since nobody is saying anything, I say "You guys can start by enjoying the tariffs he's promised. That should get things rolling...downhill." 

The Trump crew looks at each other and someone says "The tariffs that will help the country? The ones that will force people to buy stuff made in the USA?" and laughs. 

My high school pal then delivers the punchline "What's a tariff?" he asks. 

One of the Trump goons says "It's good for the country, it makes foreign companies have to pay more so US goods are cheaper." 

"Wow, studied that one, did you?" I say. 

"A tariff is a tax, Brian, and despite what your pal there thinks, it is a tax you, the consumer, will pay, not the foreign companies. Your cost of goods will rise, including American made goods. Honestly, you should have looked at that before you voted for Donald. I mean there is an information superhighway now available to you where you can learn about these things, so you don't get conned. I won't get into what a trade war is and retaliatory tariffs and what that historically does to an economy because I am supposed to be here to have dinner and drinks and not talk about politics or morons."

At this point John starts pushing me away from the bar. He's got me out of my seat and he is shoving me toward an empty banquet room.

"This is a good time for me to let you in on a little secret." he says smiling "Let's just go over here for a second." 

"I didn't start that." I say and he nods. 

"Mostly I enjoy it when you go at Brian but not in a bar when you could get us in a fight." he says. 

I laugh and say "I don't think we were going to get into a fight."

"You think it is a good idea to call a bunch of guys we don't know morons?" he says "You know these Trump clowns are also gun nuts. You have a unique way of insulting people that pisses them off." 

"Wow. I thought I was being funny." is all I can manage in the moment.

"Not to them. You are making them feel stupid."

"Well..." I say and smile and put my hands up.

"I was not going to tell you this, but Brian does not vote. Not even registered. He has never voted in his life and Trump is the first politician he has ever paid any attention to, and I think it is just because he likes how he talks." 

"So, he makes all this Trump noise, and he never voted for him?" I ask. 

"That's right."

I start laughing. 

"So, when you go back over to the bar, don't say anymore insulting shit to those guys. Just ask Brian if he voted for Trump. You can embarrass him all you want but leave the other guys out of it. Please."

"OK." I say and try to act sincere. He shakes his head at me again. 

Back at the bar, team Trump has been preparing comments to make to me. I cut that off immediately saying "So, Brian, how many times did you vote for Trump? Two, three, four? I mean I know he's so good you could not just do it once."

Brian looks at John realizing immediately what he told me and now knows he is going to get embarrassed in front of his new Trump buddies. 

John smiles "Now Brian, tell Reg how many times you voted for Trump. Don't lie, it is not nice to lie."

Sheepishly, Brian admits he did not vote for him, never voted in his life, but says if he did, he would vote for Trump. His new Donny loving pals look a bit peeved and they go back to their seats on the other side of the bar. 

John gets a big smile on his face and says "See, that's why we don't talk politics at the bar."

This is what we are dealing with. People are typically horribly informed, have no idea what they are voting for or not voting for, and certainly don't know any history. 

I figure that some of these people are going to realize Trump is screwing them and it does not have to be a lot of them because the margins are slim. When they go to the store though and see a bag of coffee has gone up three dollars overnight...that might make an impression. I don't know if they ever will grasp the history.