{"id":1571828,"date":"2024-03-25T05:15:54","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T05:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=316987"},"modified":"2024-03-25T05:15:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T05:15:54","slug":"nyts-ross-douthat-rants-incoherently-on-trumps-bloodbath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/25\/nyts-ross-douthat-rants-incoherently-on-trumps-bloodbath\/","title":{"rendered":"NYT\u2019s Ross Douthat Rants Incoherently on Trump\u2019s Bloodbath"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s amazing how so many arguments in policy circles are transparently self-contradictory. Ross Douthat gave us a fantastic example in a NYT column<\/a> defending Donald Trump\u2019s bloodbath comment.<\/p>\n

Douthat defends Trump by arguing that his bloodbath referred to the need to protect the U.S. auto industry from Chinese cars. This is arguably what Trump meant, but not what he said. I suppose we can give a pass to someone in Donald Trump\u2019s mental condition.<\/p>\n

But the neat part of the story is that Douthat goes on to criticize the plans announced by the E.PA. to accelerate the switch to electric cars. Douthat argues that this is terrible politics since it will be forcing people to buy cars they don\u2019t want. He says people want traditional gas-powered cars and the Biden administration is pushing electric cars down their throats.<\/p>\n

Okay, let\u2019s get back to Donald Trump\u2019s bloodbath. The Chinese cars that Trump wants to keep out of the U.S. with really high taxes (tariffs) are electric<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many are now as cheap or cheaper to buy than equivalent gas-powered vehicles and far cheaper to fuel and maintain over their lifespan. This is why Trump insists on high taxes to keep people from buying them.<\/p>\n

So to recap, Ross Douthat is telling us that Biden is trying to shove electric cars down consumers\u2019 throats that they don\u2019t want, while also implicitly defending Donald Trump\u2019s plans to impose high taxes so that consumers won\u2019t buy Chinese electric cars that he apparently thinks they do want.<\/p>\n

That sort of argument might make sense on the New York Times opinion page, but not in reality-land.<\/p>\n

This first appeared on Dean Baker’s Beat the Press<\/a> blog. <\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

The post NYT’s Ross Douthat Rants Incoherently on Trump\u2019s Bloodbath<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s amazing how so many arguments in policy circles are transparently self-contradictory. Ross Douthat gave us a fantastic example in a NYT column defending Donald Trump\u2019s bloodbath comment. Douthat defends Trump by arguing that his bloodbath referred to the need to protect the U.S. auto industry from Chinese cars. This is arguably what Trump meant, More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post NYT\u2019s Ross Douthat Rants Incoherently on Trump\u2019s Bloodbath<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1571829,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571828\/revisions\/1571829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}