The parameters of this question are very rigid, and deliberately so. I’d like to know if the Trump administration has done anything specifically to curtail your freedoms or take money from your pocket. As I’m aware of the potential of threads to derail, I’d like to give a few examples of what I mean:
[ul]
[li] “I have less pride in my country” - Doesn’t count. Not material, not a curtailment of any existing freedom.[/li][li] “He rolled back environmental protections, and they’ll speed up global warming” - That might materially affect you in a few years, not right now. Unless you can figure out precisely how much extra harm this definitely caused and conclusively prove this harm has affected you materially, it doesn’t count.[/li][li] “Transpeople can’t join the military” - Does count if (a) you’re trans and (b) are eligible for military service. Doesn’t count if you’re not trans or are trans but can’t serve.[/li][li] “He’s made my health care more expensive” - Only counts if your healthcare costs have increased as a direct result of his policies. If his policies mean your healthcare costs will increase in the future, it doesn’t count.[/li][li] “He passed law X which made Y more expensive” - Counts if you use Y, or if something you use containing Y goes up in price. Doesn’t count otherwise.[/li][li] “His treatment of illegal immigrants is disgusting” - Doesn’t count unless you’re an illegal immigrant who has been mistreated either by a new rule he’s brought in or by his choice to apply an existing rule which you reasonably believe another administration wouldn’t have bothered enforcing.[/li][li] “His crackdown on illegal immigrants has made it harder to run my business” - Counts.[/li][li] “His crackdown on illegal immigrants has raised the price of goods I like to purchase” - Counts.[/ul][/li]In other words, for the purposes of this OP I want you to pretend that you’re utterly self-centred and only care about your own personal freedom and your own money. No-one else’s, not even family. I also want you to pretend you’re utterly short sighted and only focus on the here and now.
If, according to these restrictions, the Trump administration has negatively affected you then vote Yes and explain why. If not, vote no.
PS - For the record, I can’t stand Trump. However, I’m not American, so I can only vote no.
PPS - If your answer is “I don’t know”, please vote no.
The only way the Trump administration has directly affected me is that my taxes are/were now $410 less per year than before, due to TCJA. So I suppose Trump has technically benefited me, per the terms of the OP.
Per the rigid terms of your question, no, he hasn’t negatively effected me that I’m aware of. Per the fact that I am in fact not utterly self-centered only caring about my own personal freedom and my own money, he actually has.
(I’m only mostly a self-centered bastard, not entirely one.)
I was torn. I almost voted yes (because of the bump stock ban) but ultimately settled on “no” because I don’t quite feel my vague notion of “I should get one of those one day” is enough of an immediate material harm, per the terms the OP laid out. The tax cut is nice too.
Are you talking about the Trump administration only, or about Trump and Congress?The leader of the executive branch can’t pass taxes. He can’t even veto legislation if Congress doesn’t pass it first. Are are you referring only to executive orders Trump has issued? Or only to the Trump administration in toto?
Good question. I’m talking about executive orders Trump has passed, and any legislation his administration has got through Congress. I’m also talking about things like the tax cuts, which Congress passed but which the Trump administration were openly supporting.
Because I am an actual human being, instead of some fantasy notion of a theoretical pure economic actor, I reject the restrictions of the OP. Because I am an actual human being I have a negative emotional reaction to the constant barrage of flaming bullshit emanating from himself, and his sycophants. Because I am an actual human being I have sympathy for my loved ones who, because of their identities, are targets of his bigotry and resulting policy directives.
The conditions of the OP do presume sociopathy, but it’s not unreasonable to wonder which percentage of people are actually being directly impacted. Like, 100% of decent well-informed people have been negatively impacted by Trump because they’re humans with emotions who care when other people are harmed, but less that 100% of that population are being personally harmed themselves.
Excluding his attacks on the environment is somewhat dirty pool though - I have been directly effected by Trump’s harm to environment actions because he’s literally trying to murder me, and seeing it coming stresses me out.
I ignored most of the counts doesn’t count stuff. Sorry, it’s your poll but my answer. He’s negatively effected me. Reasons. My taxes went up for one thing, despite the supposed tax cuts. Goods and services I use have gone up, due to his various trade war antics. Those are tangible things. Intangibles would be his negative impact on the US image, especially with respect to our allies around the world. I say ‘intangibles’, but this could have very tangible impacts down the road…time will tell. He’s hurt the US’s standing, he’s hurt us wrt trade and credibility, and those, again, could have very tangible impacts down the road.
From a standpoint of utter self-interest the Trump administration has negatively affected me, since I can’t watch, listen to or read most domestic (and a lot of foreign) news these days, thanks to bullshit from Trump and his sycophants, as well as the counter-raving and descents into journalistic slime by his overheated opponents.
I lost out on some retirement income also, after dumping out of the stock market too early on, for fear of it nose-diving due to the White House craziness.
I would like to hibernate until after the 2021 inauguration, except I’d miss out on gardening and barbecue opportunities.
Also, I’ve noticed 10 posters have voted ‘Yes’ but only two of those voters have explained why (I’m discounting Icarus’s vote because he deliberately ignored the terms of the poll). If you’ve voted yes, I’d genuinely appreciate an example of the tangible harms he’s caused. Otherwise, I don’t know if you’re voting ‘Yes’ because you’ve been directly negatively affected or for some other reason.
Hmm…I’m not sure I’d count your first reason because that comes under emotional distress, which isn’t tangible in the same way as lost money or lost freedoms are. Also, your second reason was a financial loss based on what you thought Trump would do, rather than what he actually did.
Sorry you lost some of your retirement money though. That sucks. FWIW, I’m sure you were far from the only one who thought the markets would tank if he won.
I’m not sure how I should vote per the OP’s rules.
I do a lot of work in Federal Court. One of Trump appointees is almost certainly going to screw over one of my clients one day, although it hasn’t happened yet.
If you don’t like the restrictions of the poll, why did you vote in it? You are free to start a poll of your own with a different set of restrictions if you’d like. Your post comes off as a threadshit and your intentional voting against the restrictions given in the OP is jerkish. Do not intentionally skew the results of a poll just because you don’t like its restrictions.
Feel free to point out (and even complain about) that someone is intentionally polluting your poll, but leave the actual moderating to us moderators, please. You can say that you don’t think they belong in this thread, but do not actually order them to get out of the thread.
Unfortunately, you’d only be able to vote ‘Yes’ after the appointee screwed over your client.
It’s like with Trump’s war on the environment. As a citizen of the Earth, I know that’ll affect me tangibly some day. But because it hasn’t yet, I can’t vote yes.