We seem to be turning into a low trust society
Or at least a lower trust one.
Commenter “Snow on Pine” puts it well:
One way to appreciate just how profound and deep a fundamental transformation is already on the way to being brought into being here in the US is to view this creation of tribalism, violence, uncertainty, insecurity, mistrust, and lack of confidence in our key institutions as a transformation intended to transform the US from having been an almost uniquely workable, cooperative, and relatively safe and peaceful “high trust” society — one in which substantial social and economic progress has been made — into the type of unsatisfactory low trust society which generally prevails in the rest of the world.
A “low trust” society in which any and every person and institution outside of your immediate family or group is just naturally an object of suspicion—is your natural enemy—someone or some institution which is out to hurt you, cheat you, or to rob you of what is yours, out to do you or your family, neighborhood, city, state, or particular group dirty.
Such a low trust society is—to one degree or the other — a “failed society”, one in which very little trust and cooperation is evident, chaos and violence are high and, thus, a society in which it is very hard to make any substantial or lasting social or economic progress.
It does seem intentional. The left/Democrats have long seen their own road to greater power as appealing to a bunch of special interest groups that together will add up to a majority, if only a bare majority. To that end they pit group after group against what used to be the US majority, and seek to alienate, vilify, and demonize the largest racial group in the US, which is white people. They believe that the divisions and enmity work to favor the left, and the distrust and suspicion can enable the federal government to take on more power.
The more distrust and chaos and fear, the more the feds can say “we’ll solve your problems!” Even the war against local police serves that end, because then the idea is that a federal solution will be required and even welcomed. Neither individuals nor communities will be allowed to protect themselves, and they will be so divided and feel so threatened that they would have difficulty mounting an effective response anyway.
That’s the plan, but it’s running into some snags so far. One is that increasing numbers of people in the left’s favorite ethnic groups (black people, Hispanic people) don’t like the idea and are starting to see that they’re the ones who are suffering most at the hands of the left. If that phenomenon increases, it may reach a point that will make it very difficult for the left to accomplish their ends. The same is true if white people see themselves increasingly threatened as a group, and significant numbers of white Democratic voters start abandoning the party as well. We may start uniting against a common enemy: the left.
Let’s hope so.
The idiocy of the leftist slogan “diversity is our strength” (leftists do love their insipid and mindless slogans) notwithstanding, it was a left-leaning professor (Robert Putnam of Harvard) who produced, some years ago, a study (later expanded into a book entitled Bowling Alone), which demonstrated, despite his initial reluctance to publicize the results, that social trust within a community or within a larger polity was eroded through the artificial and rapid introduction of non-assimilable groups into an existing population. This is exactly what any person well-informed about history and science would have predicted, but it is seldom acknowledged except by certain brave souls, such as the South African expat Ilana Mercer, who often posts incisive commentary at Townhall.com.
I grew up in a high trust society. The family car always had a key in the ignition. Our front door was never locked. The grocer and druggist ran a tab, which was expected to be paid each month. And it was. School lockers never had locks. People shared tools with one another, expecting they would be returned. And they were. It was a different time. I miss it.
A big worry around here these days is leaving your car outside the garage for any time, especially at night. The catalytic converter may be gone in the morning. Alarm systems, surveillance cameras, extra strength locks, and guns are common in most urban neighborhoods today. Exhibits of low trust. Not to mention the constant need for on-line security. The crooks, con-artists, swindlers, and fraudsters are everywhere. It’s sad.
What has gone wrong? I can point to two things. (Not the only things, though.)
1. A growing lack of fathers in homes.
2.The war against the Boy Scouts.
Fathers and Bopy Scoutmasters had a large impact on the characters of young men (Young men commit most crimes) back in the day. Both institutions have been under siege by the Democrats for many years. Those aren’t the only things, of course, but they were big when I was a kid growing up.
We need good dads and scoutmasters to help youngsters find a straight path and develop an ethical core. Simple, no? Ha, going back to the days of my youth would take a major revolution in political and social thinking. Not going to hold my breath waiting for it. 🙁
I agree with all that has been said.
I would add that we are also an ill informed society. Last evening after dinner, my wife asked a guest what he thought of the Rittenhouse verdict. Although I cringed that she brought that up at that time, I was confident that we were on the same page. I was wrong. It became painfully obvious that he did not even know what she was talking about. This man is a professional. I suppose that is better than the situation with my daughter–who is also a professional. A few days ago we stumbled into a conversation about the verdict; something I normally would avoid. It became obvious that her factual sources were completely 180 degrees from mine. The conversation turned acrimonious before I finally cut it off. She actually believed that Rittenouse was armed with a military style, automatic assault rifle–after all it is even called AR; and that he carried it across the state line illegally.
It is hard to develop trust, when you cannot even agree on basic fact. As we know the sources of false facts frequently overwhelm the truth.
In my area there are an increasing number of cars being broken into, and while those who have been victimized complain, it appears that many of them had left their cars unlocked.
They apparently insist on believing that today’s society is the high trust society they grew up in, and/or want to believe that people are generally honest, and not more and more of them thieves.
Of course, as to who are just thieves statistics seem to show that a very small minority of people commit the vast many of crimes.
To catch vigorously prosecute, and lock up these career criminals for long periods of time would seem to.be the obv solution.
@ j e > you beat me to the Bowling Alone study, so I’ll go with Neo’s Door #2 “increasing numbers of people in the left’s favorite ethnic groups (black people, Hispanic people) don’t like the idea and are starting to see that they’re the ones who are suffering most at the hands of the left.”
Not the Bee, a couple of days ago, linked an essay from the website Wrong Speak, and I was so captivated by the author that I read a half-dozen others.
https://notthebee.com/article/read-on-as-thoroughly-based-black-man-andrew-b-coleman-dismantles-virtue-signalling-leftists-and-their-white-savior-syndrome
(His name is actually Adam; the corresponding headline is correct; I’ve noticed that fixes seldom extend to URLs, because that probably causes too much linkage chaos.)
The article itself. Powerful and so true:
https://wrongspeak.net/you-are-our-villains-pretending-to-be-our-saviors/
In case you missed it today, Ammo Grrrll’s post is a fitting counterpoint. Easily found, so I won’t add the link.
Other recent posts by Coleman:
https://wrongspeak.net/why-is-there-a-growing-black-conservative-movement/
https://wrongspeak.net/conservatives-the-people-that-want-to-be-left-alone/
I’m currently working on a post (tentative title, The Great Liquidation), discussing the way in which the key structures that support American society..or, in some cases, any viable society…being kicked away, sold off piecemeal, or just wantonly destroyed. I’m talking about physical structures, legal structures, and social structures.
The point about High Trust>>Low Trust transition is definitely worthy of inclusion in this list of bad things.
I also hope to wrap the post up a few signs of potential hope…
A visit to the FBI’s “Uniform Crime Statistics” (presuming the haven’t already been monkeyed with in the name of wokeness and “social justice”) is very informative as to just who has been committing all of the violent and other crimes in this country, and it ain’t the Amish.
Wrong Speak is a group platform, founded by Coleman, and has a (surprise!) diverse group of writers.
https://wrongspeak.net/contributors/
These appear to be “normal” people, not professional pundits.
It’s a nice change.
I haven’t read too many more (yet; they are kind of addictive), so can’t speak to their range of ideological diversity, but if we average them with any given Democrat site I think things would come out even.
I was prepared to argue with this poster’s viewpoint (Thomas St. Thomas), until I got close to the end. Could be a useful piece to send to wavering liberals, as the site is not yet a knee-jerk VRWC toxic name.
https://wrongspeak.net/is-critical-race-theory-racist/
Another “wedge” post, by Rachael Jean.
https://wrongspeak.net/majority-privilege-is-real-yet-inevitable/
And I really liked these, both by Coleman.
https://wrongspeak.net/the-difference-between-the-elite-elitists-and-why-it-matters/
https://wrongspeak.net/the-insinuation-that-black-conservative-thought-is-not-their-own/
I have noticed a start of a conservative trend among people that I know, that used to be stalwart Democrats. I think the excesses of the current Democrats are forcing people to wake up, and start paying attention.
At least I hope so.
http://www.amerika.org/politics/what-is-a-middleman-minority/
“At this site, we promote the idea that instead of blaming certain ethnic groups for the dysfunction of our society, we look at diversity itself and see that it inevitably produces conflict, culture erasure, and genocide.
The middleman minority theory backs up our view:
In many countries around the world, particular ethnic minorities have played the role of tradesmen and small businessmen. These groups include the Jews in Europe, the Chinese in Southeast Asia, the Indians in Africa, and the Parsis in India (Eitzen 1971; Palmer 1957; Porter 1981). These middlemen occupy a unique position of. intermediate status as they operate between the elite and the masses, between the producers and the consumers (Bonacich 1973). The similarities in the social, political, and economic situations of these various groups are reflected in what has been referred to as “the Jews of” metaphor (Zenner 1991, pp.52-54). For example, the Chinese have been described as “the Jews of Siam” and “the Jews of the East,” and Indians as “the Jews of East Africa.” Indeed, this metaphor has been applied to many different ethnic groups by both Western and non-Western observers.
Middleman minorities are often hated by both sides of the host society’s distinct status gap. Middleman minorities are perceived as being clannish, disloyal, and unscrupulous outsiders.
If a group of higher-IQ — let us say on average above 95 — minority people comes into a foreign land, they will immediately seek out a niche, generally consisting of the economic activity that for cultural reasons (even if aesthetic) the host population avoids.
This puts them into a horrible position. They have a niche, sure, but at the same time, a detested niche, and any time things go wrong, they are suspected of using this niche to manipulate others.
This came to the front in the L.A. Riots where the impoverished Black residents of South Central saw their Korean shopkeepers as exploiting them, despite being businesspeople risking an investment that no one else would take.
Diversity makes enemies of us all.”
It does seem intentional. The left/Democrats have long seen their own road to greater power as appealing to a bunch of special interest groups that together will add up to a majority, if only a bare majority.
In 1921, when the theses on the united front were issued, the issue of unity was conceived of one in which communists would seek to establish certain common goals with the opportunist parties, and then reveal the opportunists as traitors when they failed to take the fight to its logical conclusion. As the tide of revolution receded, it was seen as a good idea – if you’ll permit us to stretch an analogy – to hitch the cart of communism to the social democrats and hitch a ride until the next revolutionary wave came along. In order to accomplish such a manoeuvre, it was understood that the dedication and commitment of the communist parties would ensure that they were left ideologically unscathed by this dangerous manoeuvre. What this left out of account, or at least failed to take nearly seriously enough, was that the Third international, formed in 1919 was itself a sort of federation of parties, for despite acceptance of the 21 points being the condition of membership, many of the parties nevertheless included strong opportunist wings.
Out of that came the modern version of the United Fronts… ie. womens movement, gay rights movements, etc… and all being the victims of the same race (as in germany dictating all were victims of the same race/religion)…
each group is made up of hundreds of contradictory groups like tiny fishing nets catching things and standing for everything and nothing at once… how do you resolve women who think men looking at women is hostile in one faction with women who find liberation in showing their nude bodies to men for money as a career choice? you dont… you just pretend to foment both, tell them they are great no matter what twisted wacked out thing they do (just as long as that puts them on the side that grants power), and do what you want as their factions represent every point including contradictory ones, so you cant misrepresent them… anything you do they see as power in their favor… its truly genius…
and like a quilt of women, gays, trans, homeless, addicted, criminal, etc… they will storm the Bastille and cut the heads off of the target on behalf of those that pretend to represent them in exchange for the power to help cut heads…
Oh… and the funniest part is what bella dodd clues us into… that this is run by very wealthy families and groups of means… which is why people like musk and others dont fear the revolution but think to embrace it… with that they win permanent rulership for their posterity over everything else..
Oldflyer wrote: “Last evening after dinner, my wife asked a guest what he thought of the Rittenhouse verdict. Although I cringed … ”
Talk politics at Thanksgiving, and you’ll save on Christmas gifts. Follow me for more holiday tips.
… I stole that joke — how’s that for low trust 😉
Generally speaking homogeneous societies tend to be high trust. Good chunk of GDP in the Nordic countries is attributed to lack of heterogeneity in the society. A good book on this topic is Trust: The Social Virtues and The Creation of Prosperity
by Francis Fukuyama
Speaking of Thanksgiving, loved the person on a major TV network whose suggestion for dealing with inflation in the cost of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner was to ditch the Turkey, to serve a lot of sides instead, and to charge each guest for the cost of their meal.
What a classy and elegant solution!
@Snow on Pine:
Wait until you get the North Korean Newsreader extolling the virtues of Grass Soup.
@ david foster > “discussing the way in which the key structures that support American society..or, in some cases, any viable society…being kicked away, sold off piecemeal, or just wantonly destroyed”
Be sure to check out Victor Hanson’s post with a similar theme.
https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2021/11/24/losing-confidence-in-the-pillars-of-our-civilization-n2599609
Andy reminds us of “Trust” by Fukyama.
THANKS!
AND Mesonman’s short essay and long commentary remind me that the US is uniquely fragile in this respect: because we are the most heterogeneous nation in earth. And absent a unification around the idea of America as an ideal, we have no glue remaining to be a coherent and governable nation.
Destroying this ideal and possibility, and our history of renewing and reinvigorating it, is precisely the Woke/neoMarxist/CRTs objective.
Deny them this prize and it’s “Game Over,” man!
@ j e – back to Putnam’s book Bowling Alone:
“that social trust within a community or within a larger polity was eroded through the artificial and rapid introduction of non-assimilable groups into an existing population.”
I don’t remember that argument from the book, and a quick search on the internet isn’t turning up that assertion. It seems plausible, but determining whether plausible hypotheses hold up is the point of doing the studies. Do you have a reference, so I can see what you think Putnam used to support that claim?
If he did make the claim as stated by j e, with supporting evidence, then I would venture to suggest that the existence of all three factors simultaneously is what really “breaks” the trust bonds, and not the factors individually.
Otherwise, the high trust era of the early 20th century would not have been so characteristic of a nation comprised of so many different immigrant groups.
Additional resources for the interested:
Here’s an article by Putnam himself summarizing his thesis and research; “trust” is a factor of the primary theoretical construct.
https://www.historyofsocialwork.org/1995_Putnam/1995,%20Putnam,%20bowling%20alone.pdf
https://beyondintractability.org/bksum/putnam-bowling
Summary written by Brett Reeder, Conflict Research Consortium
Chapter by chapter explanations; this is the one about trust.
https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Bowling-Alone-The-Collapse-and-Revival-of-American-Community/section-2-chapter-8-summary/
I note that the decline in thick trust is amply illustrated by the rise of Trump Derangement Syndrome and its negative affects on family and friends with differing opinions. People have always fallen out over politics, but I don’t think there was anything as vehement in the era Putnam studied, and perhaps not since the Civil War, until the disruptions of the 1960s.
Wikipedia isn’t too bad, although very brief, and points out something interesting that might have been more prominent if Putnam was doing his study today:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone
Compare to the relevant section from Putnam’s own article, linked at the beginning of my prior comment.
Up until the recent revelations about the corruption of the Obama-era FBI, DOJ, Department of State, Congress, and the White House, Americans still had a relatively high level of trust in most institutions of government.
The additional revelations about corruption predating Obama and continuing after his tenure didn’t help.
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/05/17/public-trust-in-government-1958-2021/
Thin trust got a lot thinner.
AesopFan..thanks for the VDH link!
‘One is that increasing numbers of people in the left’s favorite ethnic groups (black people, Hispanic people) don’t like the idea and are starting to see that they’re the ones who are suffering most at the hands of the left.’
I have been saying for decades that the left may not like how their antics turn out. The Virginia election demonstrated that majority of (for example) Hispanic’s voted Republican. Also, people of colour are active followers of God. Many are Christian.
The heathens are about to wake up to the reality that the majority of people do not like their views on life.
@ Artfldgr – “hitch the cart of communism to the social democrats”
Tracking down your sources is always an interesting exercise. I thought that Bella Dodd was the best clue; however, the above phrase proved to be the key to the Internet Archives.
From the International Library of the Communist Left:
http://www.sinistra.net/lib/upt/comlef/cote/cotesdacoe.html
..and so forth with Artfldgr’s excerpt.
The infighting of the British Marxists in 1996 didn’t hold my attention, sorry; however, what I turned up about Bella Dodd did, because it shows that the loss of trust & social capital in America (per Putnam) was not in any way accidental.
He might have been right about the contribution of generational trends and the isolating effect of television (and radio before that, and the internet afterwards), but the seeds were sown in the garden by the communists, and cultivated assiduously.
(continued to another comment)
Why is there so little social capital in America?
Because the communist left has been deliberately eroding it for at least a century.
https://unconstrainedanalytics.org/forgotten-testimony-dr-bella-dodd-warns-about-communism/
Selected quotes follow, including these:
(The linked article is in my next comment in this series.)
They weren’t making much of a secret of it, were they?
But as Artfldgr often tells us, people didn’t listen.
Or not enough, anyway, and those that did were vilified and marginalized.
And about that Bowling Alone thesis (I don’t know if Putnam ever referenced the CPUSA, but he should have):
Why do Socialist leaders like Bernie Sanders have 3 houses?
Because that’s what they’ve always had.
But wait! There’s more!
Some of which I recognized from other commenters and general “conversation” on the internet, but we really do need to bring it all out into the open again.
Free if you order today!
Setting themselves up as anti-Fascists so that people would assume anyone opposing them must be fascists; manipulating the black population in service to the revolution; control over money; control over language by changing the meaning of “good” words; creating conflict if none exists already, so it can be exploited to drag the public to the left.
Teacher’s unions, including New York’s, were explicitly a part of that last technique.
Seriously, RTWT – and that’s just excerpts from her testimony.
(continued to another comment)
The LINKs from the aforementioned sources.
A very short excerpt from the 77-page document.
https://unconstrainedanalytics.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Bella-Dodd-June-July-1953-HUAC-Testimony-1.pdf
AesopSpouse has often remarked to me that it seemed odd to study Constitutional Law without ever being required to read the Constitution itself, and that was at BYU law School in the 1970s, where the LDS Church explicitly holds as doctrine that the Founding and the Constitution were divinely inspired and supported.
At least they still studied the precedents and cases!
Her 1954 book, “School of Darkness” – full pdf.
http://genus.cogia.net/
And a short review.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/bella-v-dodd/school-of-darkness/
Surprisingly, the left hasn’t completely corrupted her Wiki entry, perhaps because it is too well documented.
Doesn’t mean nobody is trying.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bella_Dodd
Looks like the “I only learned about it in the press” is an old technique of the left.
Pardon me, The Left.
My feeling is the Left is just about Power.
And spreading their woke dogma.
It’s their abuse of trust to gain more power, that is reducing it in the US.
And once trust / credibility is lost, it’s hard to regain.
Trump showed how corrupt, politicized, and incompetent the uniparty / elites are. He ripped the masks off.
Great topic. One of the values and norms of a western democratic society must be high-trust.
What is necessary for TRUST? I think it is:
(1) Integrity
(2) Competence
(3) Mutual respect
In a high-trust society, you can count on the other party to: (1) do the right thing; (2) do it properly; and (3) treat you the same way that they would want to be treated. I used to live in such a society, but not any more.
Many examples come to mind, but I keep going back to the 2020 election. Public officials clearly didn’t act with integrity. Many openly broke the law (e.g. interfering with observers). When the results didn’t add up (e.g. more votes for President than the total vote count), officials fell back to the “dog ate my homework” excuse: the failure is due to clerical errors. In other words, we’re not corrupt; we’re incompetent, and you can’t prove otherwise. And through it all, leftists look down on their political enemies. (Not fellow Americans, but enemies to be beaten or stupid rubes that must be controlled for their own good.) In years past, foreign observers were shocked to discover how loosely-controller our elections were. Compared to other countries, our elections are based on trust. After 2020, that theory no longer works.
Can the system survive the leftist tribalism? The rule of “divide and conquer” worked well for the British in India, but I’m not sure that leftists can carry it off. But I may be optimistic.
Can the country survive the lack of trust? Probably not. For one thing, we need trust to maintain a vibrant economy. Furthermore, our Constitution, with it’s separation of powers, depends on it. We trust the President to abide by his oath of office to faithfully execute the laws passed by congress — even the ones he doesn’t like. We trust that prosecutors, judges, and officials in the DOJ will act with integrity to serve justice, even though they have few controls on their actions. And then there’s the Intelligence community monitoring our every move …
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” — John Adams
Many everyday folks who are progressive actually believe the crazy (including many of my own friends and family). They believe that police are killing thousands of innocent, unarmed African Americans every year. They believe that the criminal justice system is irredeemably racist. They believe that Rittenhouse was a white supremacist wannabe-Rambo who showed up at a peaceful protest spoiling for a fight. They really believe that we would have eliminated COVID a long time ago if only everyone had done exactly what Fauci said.
I think a big part of the problem is that once you pull too hard on one of those threads, the whole sweater unravels. Losing one’s entire philosophical view of the world is painful. People resist that. I’m sure that there are some Gramsci disciples who are deliberately sowing chaos to obtain power. For many, though, I think the fear of losing a worldview is a more powerful motivator.
The result is a self-reinforcing feedback loop of decline. From the right, we can see the difference between the media coverage of the Atlanta massage parlor shooting and the coverage of the Wisconsin parade massacre. We can see the president repeating lies about Rittenhouse. We can see that the COVID restrictions are not working and that Fauci is a demonstrated liar. How can we believe anything they say? Add that to the things that the left wills themselves to believe and you end up with exactly what neo calls out – a low trust society.
I’m don’t see how this cycle ends without getting through to the mass of people who believe the progressive jiberish in good faith. That’s one of the reasons I’m so hard on Trump. I can’t think of a better way to give ordinary progressives permission to continue believing their comforting lies than to offer an uncouth jerk like Trump as the only alternative. There were some conservative policy victories during the Trump administration, sure, but on the whole, the progressive lies gained ground from 2017-2020.
This was the strategy in Russia in 1917: chaos. See: https://thejongleur.com/articles/it-s-the-same-old-revolution
My 91 year old mother just forwarded a Penzey’s email, with a message about their “great sale” I should take advantage of. I had dropped Penzey’s from consideration after the 2016 election, but nevertheless was gobsmacked to read the copy of the email they sent their customers, and that my mother felt perfectly comfortable sending to me.
It starts: “What has the Republican Party, the NRA, and Russia all in bed together like Charlie’s grandparents at the beginning of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? Fear. Fear sells guns, gets Republicans elected, and destroys American values. So comfy-cozy under the covers those three are.”
And gets worse after that….
American culture isn’t crumbling, it’s being razed.
Tapdancing for low-trust is always about power, never about what it is said to be about.
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/487741/
Bauxite boiled down: Orange Man Bad. But Orange Man Bad prevents you and your oh so sensitve and progressive accomplices from seeing what the the venal, racist, creepy, and corrupt President Brandon is doing?
Otay Bauxite. Pride in one’s folly?
“…creation of tribalism, violence, uncertainty, insecurity, mistrust, and lack of confidence in our key institutions…”
Who is Abner Doon?
Seen at another blog’s comment section:
https://twitter.com/bevo_fox/status/1464157973052203011
A commenter makes an observation that is almost certainly correct.
helena: “if kyle had been shot and killed i feel like the story we would be remembering is “antifa good guy with a gun kills right-wing active shooter” because kyle wouldn’t have been there to defend himself and there wouldn’t have been a trial demonstrating his innocence”
American culture isn’t crumbling, it’s being razed.
Penzey has a competitor who is, if I’m not mistaken, his sister. Buy spices from her company. She’s selling spices, not politics. Penzey’s kept in business by people who tolerate his self-indulgence.
Thanks to the Dgr and Aesoofan for the Bella Dodd info. Like termites eating away at a foundation, the Communist have been slowly hollowing out many of our institutions. And they have been able to disguise their activities because we have all forgotten her testimony and how true it was. The hour is late. The Communists are seeing the end of their Gramscian march coming nearer. Turning them back with the MSM in their corner will be doubly hard. The MSM manages to keep the “useful idiots” from seeing the truth.
Thank goodness for the conservative blogosphere and a few conservative news outlets (Fox, Newsmax, OAN, & NY Post.)
I think the following has been commented on by this blog: Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov’s Four Stages of Marxist Takeover: Demoralization, Destabilization, Crisis, and Normalization.
https://spectator.org/yuri-bezmenov-crisis-america/
Also, the radio news headline yesterday was Biden’s drooping poll numbers. But the report said ~80% of Dems approved of his handling of his office!
Art Deco: Need a name for Penzey’s competitor. Let it be lost on no one that Penzey’s home is in Wisconsin, and that it now has spice stores in about 50 US cities, all run by Democrats. It is invading the South. It kinda operates on the ChiComm model.
Penzey’s competitor is The Spice House https://www.thespicehouse.com/