There’s another election in two years. Not for President, no. But let’s not advise Democrats to skip that one…
While true it was three dictators who killed most people killed by government. Hitler Stalin and Mao. The solution is not to eliminate government it is to institute checks and balances, transparency, accountability, etc to prevent this from happening.
In the Democratic Peace theory, supposedly democracies do not have these mass killings because the public would vote the killers out of office. Having a transparent, accountable government with checks and balances will eliminate this issue. You need government.
Thanks to **Kimstu **for pointing out that somewhat alert people from ***both ***sides have been warning about expansion of executive power for a while now. Hell, in its current incarnation you can take it all the way back to debate on the War Powers Act even before a lot of Dopers were born, and the concern about the “imperial presidency”.
I am not a big fan of the “both sides do it” argument but it is true that followers of both sides have the bad habit of believing that if their cause be just and their quarrel honourable, then it there is no wrong done in aiding its pursuit once in power. Limiting ourselves to this century, the expansion of the Security State and rule by Executive Order, AG/WH Counsel advisory and “signing statements”, were not effectively resisted – under GWB by a legislative and a nominal opposition that were utterly cowed by OMG TERRORISTS! OMG CAN’T LOOK WEAK ON DEFENSE! ; under Obama by one that let itself be seen as committed to 100% don’t-give-an-inch obstruction so compromises which would allow some things to be done but temper or limit them were not even on the table.
(BTW the notion that there were not hard and fast strict conflict of interest laws upon the POTUS, and we have been relying for all these years on some sort of gentlemen’s agreement on what “Is Just Not Done” under the Emoluments Clause, is flabbergasting. I suppose nobody has wanted to do this just so it would not look like they were trying to exclude a potential contender personally, but really…)
But in the next round of Senate elections, the Republicans,will probably pad their majority.
I’m afraid of all the things that have been listed.
But I have to say…the one thing I’m afraid of the most–and the thing that is almost certainly going to happen every day for the next 4 years–is mega-embarrassment. Cringe-worthy press conferences and interviews. Tweets that are not only provocative and gratuitous, but constructed like they were written by a 10-year-old. Clips from his rallies (let’s face it…those are’t stopping anytime soon) where he admits he flat-out lied to everyone during the campaign, but his dumb-ass supporters don’t seem fazed (even though they continue to call Hillary a liar who can’t be trusted).
Oh yeah, it will be hilarious at first. Fodder for all the nighttime talk shows. But eventually it will be too much for me. I’ll have to stop watching the news because I won’t be handle the buffoonery and the talking heads’ defense of the buffoonery. As a consequence, I’ll become detached from current events. I’ll be one of those people who don’t know we’re at war, who thinks everything is honky-dory since that’s how things look in my tiny bubble. Then I’ll forget to vote, and we’ll be stuck with King Cheeto for another four years.
This is true. He’s been elected and he still is stamping his feet about how he could’ve won the popular vote if he wanted. And, for less money. Just hours ago he tweets this nonsense. Will he ever act like a grown up or will he continue to act like a rich, spoiled brat at the Willy Wonka factory? Grow the fuck up, Pres. :smack:
All true. Trump will be an embarrassment, no two ways about it. He’s an over sensitive jerk and he can’t change that.
Obamacare was always going to change it is not sustainable. The only question is what will replace it. There will be time to craft a replacement that covers those who truly need help, while keeping the cost down for the rest of us. We should learn from Obamacares failure and not try to double down on it.
Trump is the most isolationist candidate we have elected in living memory. He may be emotional and naive but his instincts seem to be non-interventionist and he has plenty of level headed people to advise him.
There will be no voter suppression. Minority participation in elections tended to go up after Voter Id laws were passed. Immigrants from muslim nations might be checked on more but that nothing sinister. Illegal immigrants are breaking the law and some might face deportation for that but in a nation of laws all lawbreaking should have consequences.
Our last president had tons of international respect, he got a Nobel Peace Prize for being elected, yet that never translated into anything. International respect and five dollars will get you a cup of coffee nowadays. Why should we care what ignorant foreigners think about us?
Terrorists have proven they don’t care who is president, they attacked us under Clinton, Bush, and Obama. The war on terror is too big and spread out for the president to have any meaningful day to day role. His role is to set priorities and look at the big picture.
The environment is cleaner than it has been in living memory. We have long since entered the phase of diminishing returns. Obama had eight years and did nothing of substance on climate change just like Bill Clinton had eight years and did nothing of substance. Democrats talk a good game and then do nothing. The hope for climate change is not political but technical. Solar power is getting cheaper all the time and fracking means natural gas is cheaper than coal. Who the president is will not change any of that.
Points for immediate and full honesty. But I wonder why so many people do the same, predict the next election(s) already…without having any idea what Trump will actually emphasize, will change his fickle mind about, will be get through Congress where he does try, all the external events nothing to do with him, etc. In contrast to the situation of fall 2016 of a simple binary choice (ultimately) between two people who’d presented the same basic arguments against one another repeatedly, the race polled up down and sideways. And that proved still unpredictable. 
I’m also interested in terms of representativeness of this forum how ‘net neutrality’ scores anywhere on a list of major issues, not only in OP but resonating in responses.
At the other end of the spectrum climate is a truly big issue potentially but Obama did (though arguably important) mainly symbolic things about it. US CO2 emissions stalled or fell in recent years mainly because of lower economic growth trend and shift to natural gas. China’s have continued to rocket (coal consumption now 4 times US, was about equal 15 yrs ago), with symbolic ‘commitment’ to level them off after another 15 yrs. Very big issue, not saying it doesn’t matter at all what the US President’s attitude for next 4 yrs is, but that will be a tiny factor in where the problem ends up decades from now when the actually (not just hyped) big impacts on global life would occur.
Some of the other issues listed are important, in the hands of the US political system and concrete results might be seen fairly soon. But ‘afraid’ of the center right or center left party winning an election in 40 yard line to 40 yard line politics is still not a healthy mentality, just IMHO. Is it possible some people have just wound themselves up a little too much?
Oh come on! He’s a pussycat.
Seriously Trump above all things is a pragmatist. Sure, he’s opposed to some of the liberals’ cherished notions and they are just going to have to grit their teeth and bear it there but in other areas if a policy isn’t working he’ll amend it. He didn’t become a billionaire by ploughing on regardless when something is heading for disaster; he’ll cut his losses and change course.
Yes, if you’re an illegal alien you have cause to fear him, but then that’s the consequence of entering a country illegally and would be the same the world over. Countries need borders otherwise they’re not really countries.
If you’re gay, etc you have no need to fear him at all. He’s always taken a liberal position in this area and his company was very early in extending the same rights to all, gay couples had exactly the same benefits as heterosexual ones.
If you’re an environmentalist you should look at it this way (and I’m not getting into an argument over global warming). Trump is not President for Life. The earth won’t choke for the sake of a term or two. So no reason for fear there.
Internationally the US lost a lot of respect under Obama, mainly for not matching its words with deeds (the infamous red line, etc). With Trump the world will know he means what he says.
With health Trump has already indicated that he will keep the best parts of Obamacare. It’s the rising health costs of the policy that he intends to fix.
Enough for now. But really, there is no reason at all to fear Trump, any more than other Presidents who have rejected the direction taken by their predecessor. It’s politics as usual.
I’m neither a conservative nor a Trump supporter - I’m not even American - but Americans are indeed freaking out over nothing, purely because he hasn’t actually done anything. He isn’t even President for another month.
I predict the think we need fear most from a Trump presidency will be the total and complete lack of transparency. Trump will fail to be transparent because he’s a successful liar. His cabinet will not be transparent because they have other agenda’s to pursue. We’ll have no idea how deep and far reaching his screw ups will be.
This nation needs another Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward peeking over the Cheetos’ shoulder.
Your ignorance of American politics may excuse your lack of concern about Trump’s nominees for Cabinet & other posts.
Said the grasshopper to the ant.
Speaking as a non-American, I assure you that respect exists and Trump is causing it to erode, and will continue to do so.
Valid points thus far but I’d argue that the worst damage Trump has caused to our political discourse is: the mistrust of reputable media, the idea that lies can pass as facts with impunity, and that even a buffoon can fool half of the people all of the time as long as the crowds are large enough and you can appeal to their most basic unfounded biases and fears.
That damage isn’t likely to be undone even after Trump has served his term. I fear he’s cleared the way for far more divisive, far more extreme future platforms and candidates with a primed and ready pool of supporters.
Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily true. There are hypothetical threshold points from which it can be difficult to come back. As an example, read about the Clathrate Gun hypothesis. Of all the things that worry me about Trump it is that he will cause an event which cannot be undone. Whether it is major war, breaching some climate change threshold or just causing some kind of (near) irreversible environmental damage. I’m not worried about the economy. Economies come and go. I’m not worried about the US’s civil liberties. Anything he does or undoes can be reversed. These things will suck especially for the US but what are you going to do, you Americans voted in this joker and now you have to suffer him. It is that which cannot be undone, especially on a global level, which is worrisome.
He has made it very clear the type of person he will appoint as justices to the federal courts. He chose one of the most virulently anti-gay politicians as his running mate and he has chosen a virulently anti-gay attorney general (Pick Any LGBTQ Rights Issue. Jeff Sessions Has Voted Against It. | HuffPost Latest News).
I don’t think that things will be bad for gays because he is gunning for them; I think they will be bad because he will be perfectly willing to accept the “collateral damage” that his policies and appointments (especially judicial appointments) inflict on them.
Really? Because AFAICT, Trump above all things is a fantasist. If he thinks his shoddy casino or steaks or wine or “university” or restaurant is a wonderful thing, the fact that it is widely considered to be crap makes no impression on him.
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Sure, he’s opposed to some of the liberals’ cherished notions
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Including democracy, transparency, civil rights, etc.
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but in other areas if a policy isn’t working he’ll amend it. He didn’t become a billionaire by ploughing on regardless when something is heading for disaster; he’ll cut his losses and change course.
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If a policy isn’t working to make money for him then he’ll amend it. His business career has shown over and over again that he doesn’t give a rat’s ass if a policy isn’t working for someone else or is bringing disaster to someone else.
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Yes, if you’re an illegal alien you have cause to fear him
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To what extent, and in what respect? Deportation on penal hell ships? How much are we going to spend on rooting out and deporting productive members of US society just for not having their papers in order (when in many cases they were brought into the US as children and thus not to blame for their undocumented status)?
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Countries need borders otherwise they’re not really countries.
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But this isn’t just about increasing border security (which, beyond a certain point, is a useless waste of money because numbers of undocumented immigrants in the US have been stable or slightly declining for the past 8 years or more. We are clearly not being overrun by hordes of new undocumented immigrants). This is about throwing out people who have been successfully integrated into US society for years, just as an expensive and counterproductive act of petty spite.
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If you’re gay, etc you have no need to fear him at all. He’s always taken a liberal position in this area
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And you think that his personal beliefs are going to be the foundation of his administration’s policy here? Not, say, the hardline Christian conservatism of his Veep Pence? How you figure?
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If you’re an environmentalist you should look at it this way (and I’m not getting into an argument over global warming). Trump is not President for Life. The earth won’t choke for the sake of a term or two. So no reason for fear there.
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:dubious: You mean, no worries because it’s certain that the planet won’t literally be destroyed during Trump’s presidency? That’s it? That’s the best you’ve got as far as reassurance goes?
Not literally destroying the physical planet is much too low a bar for environmental concerns. Is he going to largely dismantle the EPA? Is he going to encourage inaction or regression on climate-change measures? Merely not destroying the earth isn’t good enough when it comes to having cause for fear about environment issues.
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Internationally the US lost a lot of respect under Obama
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That is actually pretty much the exact opposite of the truth.
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With Trump the world will know he means what he says.
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No, as I noted above, Trump is essentially a fantasist. He flip-flops on policy notions time after time, according to what his listeners at the moment want to hear, and he has no core knowledge of or interest in governmental policy to provide any realistic guides for his blathering.
Yes, he’s very open about his own petty spites and resentments. The world will know that when Trump sends a wee-hours butthurt tweet complaining about somebody who’s criticized him, he means it. But the world will have no way of knowing whether his actual policy promises will be kept or not, any more than his contractors and consultants in his business career had any way of knowing whether he was actually going to pay them what he said he would.
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With health Trump has already indicated that he will keep the best parts of Obamacare.
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Again, why do we think that something (one of the many contradictory things) that Trump said is going to be the basis of his administration’s policy, rather than the political goals of the establishment Republicans who are actually running the administration?
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But really, there is no reason at all to fear Trump, any more than other Presidents who have rejected the direction taken by their predecessor. It’s politics as usual.
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Really? Then why won’t he release his tax returns, or divest himself of his myriad business concerns posing huge conflicts of interest, or bother to attend intelligence briefings, or keep his immediate family members out of his administration’s inner circle, just to name a few? No, this is not politics as usual. This is not normal.
But at least one Trump supporter was willing to come out into the open and show us that this half-assed blather of wishful thinking and willful ignorance is all they’ve got. So thanks for that, I guess.
Many people really did fear what Obama would do to the country, establish socialism, tear up the Constitution, etc. I thought those fears just as ridiculous as I think the fear of Trump is now, that he’s going to become a dictator and (yep) tear up the Constitution. The US isn’t a banana republic; it has safeguards in place against a too overbearing President. Really, you guys seem to have no faith in your country at all.
As for illegal immigrants Trump has said time and time again that his main focus will be on immigrants who commit crimes, although liberals constantly pretend that he’s going to be swooping down and frog-marching toddlers to the cattle trucks.
Trump is going to do things that you don’t like. Get used to it. If he tries to go too far there are more than enough moderate Republicans in Congress to rein him in. The hysteria expressed by liberals since Trump’s victory and their pathetic attempts to undermine him and delegitimize his Presidency have been as embarrassing as they are futile. Trump is not Hitler. To adapt the words of a great former President (one of your own) the only thing you people have to fear is fear itself.