Reposted by abbey steele
The anti-Trump coalition is a negative coalition, defined by what it opposes. Durable political change requires a positive coalition, defined by what it believes and the principles that will defend. Here is my outline of those principles... and the stakes.
www.liberalcurrents.com/the-republic...
![Let’s consider just five items in the bill.
1. $46.5 billion for border barrier construction.
“Planned investments,” the House Homeland Security Committee reported, “include: completion of 701 miles of primary [border] wall, construction of 900 miles of river barriers, 629 miles of secondary barriers, and replacement of 141 miles of vehicle and pedestrian barriers.”
How much is $46.5 billion? Adjusted for inflation, it would be:
2.7 times what the first Trump administration spent building over 400 miles of new 30-foot-tall border wall ( $16.45 billion minus an unspent $2.2 billion 2020 dollars).
1.7 times the value of all the USAID programming that the Trump administration unlawfully canceled in 2025 ($27.7 billion).
About a quarter of the cost of the entire Apollo space program of the 1960s and 1970s ($25.4 billion in 1973 dollars).
1.2 years of operating a universal free pre-K program for all U.S. children ($351 billion, in 2022 dollars, over 10 years)
The equivalent of providing $6,300 to each migrant whom Border Patrol apprehended at the US-Mexico border during the entire Biden administration, including multiple handouts for repeat crossers (about 7.4 million apprehensions).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:t5hgkoxrsxpe3wfisqfeymg5/bafkreibwjlps2ksxrilh2xbvshk4jyclh77bahudt4erfdsure6x64gxny)
