"This just in: 2025 has been a real shit show. Trump's reign of incompetent terror has already eclipsed the ham-fisted attempts of his first presidency-which was a dictatorship on training wheels. But! There is a weird silver lining here: Thanks largely to the recent thoughtless actions of King Fool, Portland is suddenly feeling itself again. Apparently it took a demented despot to get everybody in Portland back on the same page."
"If you'll remember-and I'll never forget-the city's right-leaning business leaders, politicians, and other self-proclaimed "centrists" spent the better part of the early 2020s forming cynical political action committees, writing disparaging op-eds in national publications, concocting slanted push polls, and basically doing everything in their power to convince the world that Portland was a shithole. But now? These same people-including the terminally tone-deaf Oregonian editorial board-suddenly just looooooove Portland again,"
2025 has been chaotic under Trump's escalated and erratic leadership, which intensified national instability. Portland experienced pandemic disruptions and a summer of racial justice protests that provoked a backlash from wealthy local elites. Those elites ran PACs, op-eds, and push polls to portray Portland negatively. The same elites have recently reversed course, expressing newfound pride, welcoming tourists, and supporting measures like shutting down the ICE facility to protect immigrants. The city's civic energy has reawakened, but lingering resentment remains toward earlier attacks and the people who promoted them. Many residents remain unforgiving toward those who sought to damage the city's reputation.
Read at Portland Mercury
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]