Inverse question

Who do you trust? is a familiar question. In the current peculiar situation, the inverse question is vastly more important. The inverse is a bit clumsy:

Whose trust do you want?

Corporations and “journalists” and most politicians have declared openly that they DO NOT WANT to be trusted by customers and readers and voters. They only want to be trusted by the Big Donors.

In older terms, aristocrats DO NOT WANT to be trusted by peasants. Doing anything that might let peasants approve or trust you is feeding the trolls. Aristocrats only want the trust and approval of higher aristocrats.

This Breaking Points clip discusses the Teamsters choosing not to endorse Harris. The decision violates classic political strategy. When you want politicians to listen, you need to punish and reward specific actions. Your support must depend sharply on reciprocal support. Unconditional approval gives you no leverage, and unconditional hatred gives you no leverage. Krystal points out that Democrats in congress worked hard to bail out the Teamster pension fund when it went bankrupt. No Repooflican went along.

Normally the Teamsters would reward the party that saved their pension fund. Now they’ve declined to reward, which means they’ve lost their leverage.

Why did they do it? Because unlike corporations and “journalists”, the union wants to be trusted BY ITS OWN MEMBERS, not by aristocrats. Most Teamsters are supporting Trump for cultural reasons, despite universal Repooflican punishment for unions. The management wants their trust, so it sacrifices its own power.