What makes Trump a Republican?

Does either party have to support a candidate that declares himself/herself to be a member of that party and manages to get on the primary ballot for that party?

I’m sure this is a somewhat naïve question. But another thread (started by Saint Cad) polls on whether the GOP should support Trump. Which got me to thinking: What are Trump’s qualifications to be a Republican? Is he really a member of the GOP? Does anyone who manages to get on a number of state ballots automatically deserve the support of the party?

(I could have asked this in the poll thread, but it’s easier for me to not have to weed out all the, “Boy, I can’t believe how stupid this question is!” posts from the ones that are responding to the poll.)

No one is. America’s two big parties do not have memberships as such – no membership cards, no membership rolls, no membership dues. And no way to expel a member – if Lyndon LaRouche says he’s a Democrat or David Duke says he’s a Republican, then he is one and there’s nothing the party can do about it.

Here’s my list of positions that Trump and the GOP have in common.

  1. Cut taxes on the rich.
  2. Against abortion.
  3. Anti-immigrant.
  4. Against Obamacare.
  5. Against the Iran nuclear deal.
  6. For minimal restrictions on the the right to bear arms.
  7. Doesn’t believe in climate change.

I’m sure that there are plenty of more similarities than differences.

For #2, you’re way off base. NOBODY believes Trump is anti-abortion, and even he got tired of pretending he is. He now states that the GOP platform should remove the anti-abortion plank.

Surprise (not)!

As for Obamacare, Trump doesn’t want a free market solution. He wants a different, bigger and “better” government healthcare system. He wants to EXPAND government involvement in health care.

Another major difference is trade deals. Congressional Republicans love free trade deals. It’s one of the few things that they agree on Obama with, as the Trans-Pacific has shown.

Trump opposes free trade deals, saying they drive American jobs away. He and Bernie don’t sound much different on that.

I agree with one and five. Everything else is opportunistic rhetoric. I have no cites. It’s just a feeling I have.

So what? It wasn’t as if Mittens took abortion particularly seriously either.

Not really-most of his plans are standard conservative positions like medical malpractice reform and block-granting Medicaid. I mean I grant that he isn’t totally blind and realizes that some form of universal healthcare is necessary in a developed country.

Here, it is TRUMP who represents historical Republican and conservative principles. Remember that the Republican Party until World War II was the party of high tariffs and the same was the case with conservative parties around the world.

And I’d say that’s his main appeal to his working class supporters. Because both parties have always been pro-trade, there is an untapped group that are mostly conservative socially, but face economic hardships that make them hate the idea of jobs going overseas.

Heck, I’m pretty sure it fuels a good portion of the anti-immigrant fervor. “They took our jobs” is not just a South Park joke, but a real belief. It’s not the breaking the law they care about.

And he has a genuine point here. Outsourcing only helps shareholders and CEO’s and only in the short term, it generally gives a lower standard of service and it can cause problems with intellectual property theft, supply chain quality and loss of inhouse skills which may become important again in future.

Both parties have been slavishly pushing globalization and unlimited free trade which eventually must lead to a race to the bottom on worker wages. Whether he believes in it or not, he’s tapped into a genuine source of mass discontent here.

I can’t believe no one has caught this but No. 1 is wrong. Trump wants to increase taxes on the rich, not cut them.

Could you show some proof of that? Though, early on, Trump talked about increasing taxes on the wealthy, when his tax plan actually came out, it gave the wealthy a big tax cut, not an increase.

Cite: Analysis of Donald Trump's Tax Plan | Tax Policy Center

Cite: The biggest winners under Donald Trump's tax plan - CBS News

Maybe you should read this analysis of Trump’s so-called ‘plan:’

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/apr/07/politifacts-guide-2016-candidates-tax-plans/

If you don’t want to read the whole thing, I’ll cut to the salient part:

[QUOTE=politifact.com]
Trump is promising tax cuts across the board. While that may seem enticing, virtually every analysis shows his plan, more than any other, would add trillions to the federal debt over the next decade.

And contrary to what the GOP frontrunner said during April 3’s Fox News town hall (“the very rich are going to end up paying more”), it’s the uber wealthy who would get the most in tax cuts. That being said, here are a few key points of Trump’s proposed tax reforms:

• Consolidate the existing seven income brackets (from 10 to 39.6 percent) into three with rates at 10, 20 and 25 percent;

• Increase the standard deduction from $6,300 to $25,000 for single filers and from $12,600 to $50,000 for joint filers and phase out most itemized deductions (except for charitable giving and mortgage interest);

• Eliminate the estate tax, the alternative minimum tax, the Affordable Care Act taxes, and the marriage penalty.

Under this plan, 37 percent of tax cuts would benefit the top 1 percent, according to the liberal Citizens for Tax Justice. The Tax Policy Center calculated the average tax cuts for the rich and the very rich: $275,000 or 17.5 percent of after-tax income for the top 1 percent, and $1.3 million or nearly 19 percent for the top 0.1 percent (those making over $3.7 million).

Middle-income households, meanwhile, would pay $2,700 less in taxes, equal to a 4.9 percent reduction. Those making the least would also see the least trimmings — a cut of $128 or about 1 percent in after-tax income.

At the same time, Trump’s plan would increase the number of households paying no income tax at all from 77 million to 110 million.
[/QUOTE]

It’s possible to cut taxes percentage rates on the rich but them end up paying more actual tax, by closing exemptions and loopholes: Offshoring profits, trusts, various other tricks. Trump has made some noises about doing this, whether he would follow up on it is another thing.

You may be right, and that may be why no one’s mentioned it yet. I was going by what Trump was saying several months ago. Since I decided I definitely didn’t want to support him, I haven’t been following him like I had before. As it stands now, Trump’s website says the following:

Cite

So it looks like he’s for eliminating some of the tax benefits the rich use to lower their tax debt, but as to how this plays out with his revised four tier tax rate, I couldn’t say. It’s conceivable that under his plan the rich may pay less even after loophole closures and so on. I don’t know, I haven’t run the numbers. But he has definitely backed off from what he was saying last fall. This highlights one of the reasons I no longer support him: I really have no idea what he’ll actually do once elected. This has always been one of my main complaints about Hillary Clinton but Trump is more of a wild card than even she is.

What makes Trmp a Republican?

He doesn’t care about U.

Although I never took his anti-abortion stance seriously, do you have a cite for the claim that he’s changed it (or that he’s asked it to be removed from the Republican platform)?

I mean, I know it’s time for- the ‘Etch-a-Sketch’ move now that he’s pretty much assured of the nomination. But switching on abortion would alienate a lot of the traditional conservative voters who are contemplating holding their noses and voting for him. If they stay home, he loses in a landslide.

Hmm…so your expert analysis on Trump’s own tax plan is…Trump’s own website?

Umm…yeah…I’ll trust PolitiFact over that, thank you very much.

I doubt The Donald has even read his own campaign’s position papers or website policy statements. He will say whatever pops into his head that he thinks might, at that moment and in that place, win him votes. He’s moved considerably to the right from where he was in the Nineties, when he was schmoozing with Howard Stern, the NYC glitterati and the Clintons. He is only a Republican now because he saw an opportunity to run for President this year and build his brand. I suspect, deep down, he’s just as surprised as everyone else at how far he’s come.

I don’t think there’s a way to expel members, but the parties do have actual memberships. You have to register in some way to be a member of the party. I don’t know if candidates ever have to register as a member of the party, or even to hold positions in the party structure, or if it makes any difference at all outside of restricted primaries and getting your trash picked up in the Town of Cortlandt in New York, but there is a definite established legal status of being a member of a political party.

Did you even read what I said?