Maybe there’s an argument that this is a smart move. But playing your base for fools does not seem like a smart long-term strategy to me.

The idea that you will “keep fighting” is a pathetic joke. You are nothing but a Quisling at this point. Resign in shame and disgrace.

I think an underappreciated consequence of the end of the Cold War is that the collapse of Soviet communism convinced a lot of American oligarchs they had nothing to fear any more and that such concern for the poor was unnecessary. That is certainly how they’ve been acting for the last 35 years.