The US President and his formerly favorite South African have had a major falling out. The WH says it may pull all of SpaceX's contracts, the South African says 'go ahead', and he's decommissioning the Dragon crew vehicle, the US's only safe method of getting to and from the ISS.
Meanwhile, half of NASA's efforts are heading for the chop too.
"L'État, c'est moi." ("I am the state.") Louis XIV, the 'Sun King' said about his absolute monarchy. The problem with having just one person in charge is that everyone suffers when they behave idiotically. Sadly, the once mighty US Space Program looks like being a casualty of that. Surely, this paves the way for China to be the world's preeminent space power.
Stupid people do vote for some stupid people, but more often, they vote for who is able to manipulate them easier. Manipulating dumb people can be challenging and take intelligence. But it's undeniably sociopathic especially since it's usually against the best interests of the dumb.
Currently manipulation is pretty easy if you use religion, abortion, anti gay and anti immigrant bigotry, maybe some patriotism/nationalism. Use these convincingly and you're almost a shoe-in for the republican party. Promise tax breaks to corporations and you'll get funded.
We live in a cruel world, and are still pretty uncivilized.
It's also about desperate people. Desperate people are often easier to manipulate. Especially if you promise theme easy answers for their complex problems.
Exactly what I said.