Make America great again, bring back jobs, fix the trade imbalance with China, work for the little people instead of corporations… he promised to take the US back to the time when it was an undisputed superpower and economic growth was high, with opportunities for all. And all the opposition and media said was no, no, no, it’s not possible, you can’t do it. We can’t win a trade war against China, we can’t get a better deal, we can’t go it alone. It’s like they were saying the US was weak and powerless, and Trump was saying it was strong and powerful.
It’s in the eye of the beholder indeed, but I think that was the view that drew some voters to Trump.
Some people like strutting and preening. But were any other candidates offering to renegotiate NAFTA at all? Trump was a very different candidate in a time when people are unhappy with the status quo. (And everyone knew the Americans were going to throw the Kurds under the bus no matter who was in power.)
Yeah, it’s hard. But think how immensely popular cheaper and more uniform prices for drugs would be. Imagine if Biden could say he would sign a bill to slash the price of insulin and other common medications within 100 days of being elected.
I’ve also seen a suggestion for transparent pricing in hospitals so people needing routine ops could shop around, and you could save money by getting doctors to follow best practice guidelines rather than doing every possible test and procedure, but I suspect that would not be popular.
Could the paperwork be reduced gradually by requiring all insurers to follow some kind of unified standard?
We should just nationalize all the health care insurance companies, converting 100 percent of their employees to government workers, and then slowly apply efficiencies in a way that doesn’t put an entire industry out of work.
I don’t understand what you’re getting at, at all. Virtually none of what he promised came to be, and those things that did, can barely make that claim. Remember the cornerstone of his campaign promise to build a wall paid by Mexico?
If you’re trying to convince me that he successfully gulled the rubes that voted for him in 2016 and managed to rabble rouse another 8-10M this time around, then I grant him (and you) the victory of that argument. But I ask again, wherein lies the truth and fact of his claims and victories? Have coal and oil jobs returned? Has manufacturing returned? Where is the improved healthcare and infrastructure? Did the US defeat China in trade? Did the US achieve denuclearization of NK? Put a stop to Iran’s influence in the ME? Checked Russia in Syria? Put China on notice in the South China Sea? Is the US more powerful in the world? Has the US projected it’s strength, power, leadership around the globe?
You appear to be interpreting pretty much everything in the best possible light for Trump and his supporters, no matter the facts – i.e. that Trump is the “candidate is more likely to advance the common aims and interests of US Christians” (health care isn’t a common interest for Christians? fighting racism isn’t a common interest for Christians? Are you just talking about white Christians?); that the Democrats’ efforts are “quite obviously not working”; that the Democrats pay no attention “to the woes of the rust belt”; that protectionism creates or protects jobs; that Democrats (rather than Republicans and Trump) are driving “riots and looting”; that Trump ran an optimistic campaign (and the Democrats didn’t); that Democrats believe that “meritocracy is racist”; that Democrats believe that the difficulties of black people are the fault of white people as a group; and much, much more. Pretty much all of this is just GOP talking points. These aren’t even close to factual statements, and in general they are contrary to the facts.
TBH, I was thinking more of why he won the first time, so it’s not so relevant to this election. But you asked how his campaign could be seen as optimistic and positive, and I’m trying to explain how it could be viewed that way.
When you’re wondering how Trump managed to pick up millions of new voters, those are pretty relevant, right?
No, no, and no. Health care is a common interest for Americans, but not for Christians especially, ditto fighting racism. The issue was originally raised talking about Christian immigrants from China, so not only white Christians, and as far as I can see US Christians as a group are most interested in culture war issues like abortion and freedom of religion/legality of discriminating according to their religion, and what values society is based on.
I got that from Michael Moore, so maybe it’s not too reliable…
I don’t know if it does or not. Isn’t the usual argument against it that it raises prices?
The Republicans promised to clamp down on it and make the streets safe, which is the important part for many people.
That’s what Critical Race Theory is claimed to mean by Republicans. And then voters can read the news and see that tests are being eliminated at many selective schools because they admit the ‘wrong’ racial balance.
Look, it’s not so much that they are claiming Democrats directly support these things, but that Trump and the Republicans are promising to fight against them.
Them why do you say these things as if they are true, rather than GOP talking points? That’s what GOP shills do - repeat talking points as if they were facts.
Okay, but having (arguably) failed in virtually all projected goals, Trump was rewarded with an additional 8-10M votes. So it’s relevant in the here and now if we are trying to understand the motives of his supporters and reasons for the growing support. So there may well be “optimism” among his supporters. The questions is, optimism about what?
In politics, the only way “failure to deliver on promises” hurts you with your base is in the primaries, not the general election. In the general election, all you have to do is be “less-bad,” in the eyes of your base, than the opposing candidate.
So even if Trump only got 400 miles of border wall built, rather than 2,000, that’s still considerably more wall than Hillary or Biden would have built; so goes the logic.
This goes directly to the point I made earlier. Most Trump supporters don’t even understand how to think about the problem. In this case, how to manage illegal immigration. In the 21st century, it isn’t with physical barriers because that is not how the majority of the illegal immigrants get into this country.
Maybe he does, but he doesnt think he does, and that’s the problem. bad water is a invisible problem that can be ignored, like global warming. More $$ however, is instant gratification.
History is full of horrible evil environmental pirates who cheerfully dumped tons of poisons into the water or air, just to make a extra buck.
All I can say is that the Trump supporters I’ve talked to seemed pretty happy with his performance. Probably it is just people who didn’t bother voting last time (didn’t think he had a chance?) but knew it was going to be close this time getting out to vote.
Thanks, I had a look. Can’t easily watch a long video, but I’ve seen some of the guy’s tweets. Don’t really know what to think, of him or CRT.
Which shows their priorities. Pretty much none of his promises kept, but all of the racism/hatred/cruelty his campaign showed. The cruelty wasn’t a sideshow – that was the point. Cruelty was what many, many of these people wanted. Why is it so hard to accept this? Some Americans wanted cruelty and hatred, voted for cruelty and hatred, and got cruelty and hatred, as they wished.
Maybe I just have a more optimistic view of humanity than you? Or maybe it’s that Trump supporters were boasting about how great he’s been for the economy and before covid had the lowest unemployment rate for 50 years, rather than how racist he is? They may be factually wrong for all I know, but that’s not at all the same as wanting hatred and cruelty.
Democrats were crushed in Florida because the GOP and Super PACs spent a huge amount of money telling Cubans and Venezuelans that the Democrats were socialists and would recreate the conditions they fled. It had nothing to do with Bernie or AOC; Bernie lost the primary. It was all to do with local right-wing talk radio, which frankly was a brilliant idea by Marco Rubio’s people or whoever set it up.
Nothing very concrete that I can recall. The economy doing great, unemployment low, blue collar workers better off (supposedly, pretty sure it wasn’t a blue collar worker who said that). And how he made a deal with Kim Jong-un, renegotiated nafta, was getting concessions from China. Also how great it was that he’d appointed conservative SC judges. And everyone objecting to him was just suffering Trump derangement syndrome.
But were any other candidates offering to renegotiate NAFTA at all? Trump was a very different candidate in a time when people are unhappy with the status quo. (And everyone knew the Americans were going to throw the Kurds under the bus no matter who was in power.)