This ‘unpopular puffin’ meme went massively viral on Reddit and Imgur a couple days ago and shows how both the ‘right’ and general pubic sentiment has evolved from being ‘pro life’, to the realization that not all life is equal and that some life creates more economic value than others, and that policy should help the ‘makers’ of society, not the ‘takers’. The problem is there are too many people who are a net economic drain, and that we need ‘pro life’ policy for those who have the genetic/biological potential to create the most economic value.
For the past few years, many pundits and bloggers wrote off the the GOP as ‘dead’, calling it the ‘stupid party’ or that it had ‘lost its way’. Fast-forward two years and the GOP has control of all three branches of government and is is doing better than ever. It’s not that the GOP was dying. Rather, it was evolving. I’m probably overinterpreting the meme, which is merely about overpopulation and has nothing to do with the GOP, but the post-2008 GOP has obviously abandoned the shibboleth of ‘pro life’, as evidenced by Trump’s presidential campaign that eschewed ‘culture war’ issues (gay marriage, drug legalization, Roe V. Wade, etc.) in favor of ‘shared narratives’. Trump focused predominately on economics (trade deals, job creation), security (law and order), ending corruption and ‘politics as usual’ (draining the swamp), and immigration – issues that resonated with voters. And it worked, considering how against all odds, he won.
This blog, in its writings on eugenics and abortion, was correct in predicting this tectonic shift in ideological sentiment among the right. Concerns over immigration, anti-police protests, and America’s growing entitlement spending problem has made the right acutely aware of the fact that life, in and of itself, is not sacred, but rather that the economic and societal well-being of a nation depends on what ‘life’ it chooses to reject or accept. Like an immune system, a nation must have defense mechanisms to combat the internal and external forces of destruction, parasitism, and decay that threaten its existence.
Considering how I (and the vast majority of pundits) failed to predict Trump winning the primaries, let alone the presidency, trying to predict how he will govern seems like a fool’s errand, but the likelihood of mass deportations seems slim, although there will likely be an increase of deportations of immigrants with criminal records. The projections are that Trump will significantly add to the national debt, according to the WSJ Donald Trump Would Boost Debt More Than Hillary Clinton, Report Says:
Trump winning was the culmination of enthusiasm on Reddit, Twitter, and 4chan, the rise of the alt-right, thousands of frog memes, as well as a contagious message that answered to a yearning for nationalism and restoration of the ‘greatness’ of America that had been lost. The GOP knows that to win, it need only to listen to voters, not think tanks.