While I personally in no way wanted Trump to win, I have to concede that my disdain for him stems more from the Trump “person” than the Trump “policies”. That is not to say that I agree with much of his policies. For example I think NAFTA is far from the “worst deal America has ever signed”, I believe it is impossible to be a super power AND be isolationist in today’s global economy and I detest his outward racism. However with all that said, there are IMO two silver linings to his winning; first something many have said before me, this win is akin to “throwing a brick through the establishment window” and should (hopefully) light a fire under the democrats to get their shit in order.
But I personally take some solace/hope in knowing that Trump has shown in the past that he has several democratic leanings and said as much as late as 2015. While his trustworthiness puts him somewhere between Bernie Madoff and Suge Knight, at least he is not Mitch McConnell. If I can remove my feelings that he is a scumbag crook, a joke of a business man and an arrogant Orange Judas… I have to admit I think the country would be worse off if Ted Cruz won the Presidency!
You want the real answer? I don’t think any of us has the slightest clue. The man showed so little substance during his campaign that he could almost literally do anything as president and I’d not be surprised.
Even though I think he is an odious human being, I think that the majority of his moronic campaign promises were just pandering, and will be quickly forgotten once he actually starts to lead.
And, there’s no way in hell that Cruz or Rubio would be preferable, and they might have beaten HRC, too.
I could think there is truth to this, except his cabinet names are not encouraging. And, I think he is going to delegate damn near everything to other people.
I’m curious on how he’s going to play along with Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell.
My worst fear is that he buddies up with them and starts pushing through their agenda and puts up Supreme Court noms on their recommendations.
I’m optomistic he still has a grudge against them and tells them “take a hike, the voters didn’t want you and neither do I. I’ll be listening to all sides before making any decisions going forward.”
Not at all. As I just posted in the “great things” thread: he’s not an ideologue, he has almost no political debts or loyalties, relatively few enemies in Washington, and he takes great pride in his ability to make deals. He’s made a million kinda-sorta promises, but only a few his supporters are going to really hold him to and leave him if he breaks (i.e. build the wall).
He is profoundly narcississtic, but part of how that plays out are deep-seated desires to be loved, and to build things he can take credit for. Bill Clinton pretty much had that need to be loved, too, and it was part of what made him a successful centrist. For moderate “I just want Washington to get things done” types, he may well prove to be an excellent president.
Take a look at this thread about his proposed Cabinet appointees. Just take a look, and read a bit through it. What’s done is done and so we all want to look for the silver lining, some sign of hope and decency. And all I see is a list of names that look like the most-wanted from a recent escape from an insane asylum.
Man, the State of the Union address is going to be something else, isn’t it?
“I built the wall; it’s a big, beautiful wall; Mexico paid for it, and wiped out our deficit at the same time; the troops – we love the troops, don’t we? – the troops smashed, and I mean absolutely smashed, the forces of Radical Islamic Terrorism, smashed 'em bigly, which is why the Nobel Prize Committee, they just this week told me they’re gonna rename the Nobel Peace Prize, gonna start calling it the Trump War Prize.”
While I’m a free-trader and just think “comparative advantage” before going to my happy place when Trump talks trade…
Trade with China. Some of their practices like currency manipulation dumping steel below costs (subsidized because they are government owned), and stealing technology by barely pretending to enforce any intellectual property protections make the current situation less than free trade.
I’m not that confident he can take a nuanced approach that manages to avoid a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies though. :eek:
