In Reply to: Yes, we disagree about your premise posted by FlaBruin on March 20, 2026 at 12:32:48
part. He doesn't want the oil flow disrupted at all. He wanted to go in and get out the next day and keep everything else intact. The problem is he's in bed with someone with a much deeper agenda who's ready to see the world burn down if it means they will emerge from it as the only powerful nation in the region.
Party affiliation does not mean much. I have no party affiliation either, but my ideological alignments are very clear. So are yours. It may be that calling you MAGA is a bit of an overshoot or simplification. You may well be more MAGA-adjacent, or MAGA-happy, or functionally MAGA, and not so comfortable with the label itself. Also bear in mind that at this point, even hardcore MAGA is not perfectly aligned with Trump, and MAGA itself has always been an alliance that has been showing cracks as of late. Its factions are beginning to pull away from one another along the x and y axes of class and white/Christian nationalism.
So neither conservatives nor MAGA is fully aligned with Trump at this point, but in behavior and in public posturing, are subservient and/or deferential to him. At least that's been the case until he started that war with Iran.
My world has black and white in it, but it's mostly in shades of gray. I see gradations everywhere. It's just that Trump's decisions and the MAGA coalition tend to hit the "black" end of my scale consistently. If you want to see my gray side, you need to look at my interactions with democrats, centrists, and people I see as the rational center-right. (I also have color in my life, but those are reserved for personal things: people, art, places, etc.)
Posting these just as a matter of clarification, because making sure that I am coming across correctly, whether the person agrees with me or not, is the Achilles' heel of my discussion board posting life.