

It’s not clear the alternative strategy would have helped AT ALL. A very large portion of Americans actually believed that Trump would either help the economy or help the position of white folks and Christians. Everything else was a side show. That is why they elected him. Things were going pretty good economically before the pandemic and white Christians. That is why we elected essentially Hitler because we are stupid bigots.
We decided we needed to be able to shut down drug dealers by seizing their money without need for any real proof. Since then the majority of seizures, 84%, are civil most incidental to purposeless searches that turn up no crime. Many seizures are in fact under $1000 and most are under $2000. In theory you can get your money back but it often would cost thousands so for most victims its impossible to actually get money back without spending more.
Basically for decades the authorities have been acting as robbers and have collectively stolen billions from the people directly often stopping minorities for driving while black and treating the $400 in random bob’s wallet as proceeds of an imaginary crime they don’t need to substantiate. Being black and having $400 is enough.