I don’t give a fig about his political philosophy. America and the world have enough antibodies to fight off that infection.
I am concerned with his lack of common decency and civility and respect for the people he lords it over, which is a lot more contagious than political philosophy.
Really? Are we talking in the last year or so, or are we talking over his lifetime? If the former, I think he’s been pretty staunchly anti-Roe v Wade. That’s not a minor issue. He’s also been pretty staunchly pro-Scalia type SCOTUS justices. He’s been pretty consistently anti-Free Trade Deals. He’s been pretty consistently anti-immigration from Muslim countries.
The only thing I expect to get out of a Trump presidency is SCOTUS justices that are closer to my way of thinking and perhaps a renewed respect for federalism among those supporters of an ever strengthening federal government, especially concerning the executive branch.
It’s perfectly fair, and factually accurate, to point out that Trump has expressed a number of contradictory views that are less policies than vague statements of intent. For example, I welcome anyone to explain coherently how a Trump administration will simultaneously increase military and infrastructure spending, lower taxes across the board, and reduce the national debt, as Mr. Trump appears to have promised.
I really have no idea what you are complaining about.
I agree largely with every part of this, but at the same time I won’t condemn good policies simply on the basis of motivation. He’s not going to be a king, the congress has as much to do with the efficacy of any policy as he does. Every president, every politician is motivated by self interest. It is more the congress that worries me than Trump himself because they will fail to take advantage of his ego. I can see already that on both sides they foolishly want to challenge him, and I hope that the side of worst intentions does that the most so he reacts counter to their desires. To simplify his motives to merely money is short sighted, it is ego that drives him, and if his ego leads to some good policies I won’t condemn them.
That said, I just doubt any of that will happen, he’ll likely be a ‘loot the treasury’ supply sider and saddle us with more debt. Not that it matters because we’ve passed the point of ever paying off the debt we have already rung up along with the debt we’ve committed to in the future. But I will be pleasantly surprised if he manages to enact a couple of minor improvements.
Reforms of almost anything I can live with easily; ripping apart and starting over from scratch I would save for maybe the ACA. And since he is already watering down a lot of his more flamboyant statements from the campaign I will probably be comfortable with a lot of what he gets through Congress - after they add their changes to it all. In the end, like most of us, I will just have to wait and see how it goes.
I’m okay with him nominating SCOTUS justices who will uphold Heller, so long as they also uphold Roe and Obergefell, which I think is entirely possible.
I’m also okay with fixing the ACA, even if they have to “repeal” it first and call the new version Trumpcare. I just highly doubt Congressional Republicans will come up with anything better.
The rest of his platform is 100% vile.
Support for infrastructure is, as a Presidential policy, sort of like a policy that the U.S. flag should have stars on it. Every President does this.
In his first year in office, Barack Obama signed an infrastructure bill costing almost a trillion dollars. Does anyone remember that?
SOAT hits the nail on the head. The only subject on which Trump has been consistent and detailed is his love of taking other people’s money. His plan is to enrich himself and inflate his own ego. Nothing else matters to him. If that leaves a trail of bodies behind him, what does he care?
“His own words” is overgenerous, since he didn’t actually write the book. I will extend the benefit of the doubt and assume he read it; at the very least, he signed off on its content.
Simple - he’ll merely grow the economy by 50% per annum.
(reminds me of the STNG episode where Q becomes a member of the Enterprise crew. The crew needs to find a way to put a moon back in it’s orbit, and Jordi asks Q if he has any suggestions, and he says it’s simple - just change g, the gravitational constant.)
His policy on having nude woman on woman photos involving the first lady available online impresses me.
Seriously, he’ll make some good decisions, by accident if for no other reason.
This is perfectly worded. Well done.
I liked a handful of GWB’s policies, so I don’t see any reason I couldn’t like some of Trump’s.
But if his policies are just Paul Ryan’s? I think very very little of those policies.
As others have said, the devil is in the detail. There is no such thing as “a policy” that doesn’t involve detail.
One of Trumps (impossibly vague) campaign promises was to reduce the H1B program, which was in direct opposition to Clinton’s call for expanding it. Which I agree with, even though it places me uncomfortably close to the “DEY TOOK ER JERBS!” camp.
I do think that many companies use H1B workers as a way to depress wages for all workers, despite the fig-leaf requirement for paying the H1B workers “prevailing wages”. And that’s not even counting the numerous cases of fraud and outright abuse.
I certainly don’t expect Trump to lead any substantive reform, besides limiting the number of visas. But limits wouldn’t be the worst place to start.
My opinion here is admittedly self-serving, since I’m hoping to escape academia and find a way to get a Real Job with a molecular biology PhD…
The infrastructure bill sounds more or less like another stimulus bill, which I thought was a stroke of genius.
But I want to see how it is rolled out before I cheer too loudly. If projects are mainly going to be devoted to maintaining our current infrastructure, with nothing going to expansion–like bringing broadband to rural areas–then that’s not what I want to hear. If there’s no attempt to award contracts to small businesses before multi-national corporations, then I’ll also only feel “meh” about the whole thing. I’ll also feel disappointed if most of the jobs are minimum wage, and if there’s no effort made to make hiring fair and non-discriminatory.
You could replace “politician” with “human” and treat this as a tautology. Even those motivated solely by Christian charity want the associated feelings of grace and religious fulfillment.
But to apply this “tautology” as you have is much too cynical. Many, probably most, statesmen have strong feelings of what is best for the country and get most of their satisfaction by leading the country in (what they think is) a correct direction. Yes, Obama will become very rich when he leaves office — that’s the American way — but to imagine his policies were chosen specifically to maximize that wealth is wrong. Not just wrong, but precisely the sort of cynicism that leads to electoral tragedy.
“Not that it matters”? :smack: Are you also uninterested in fighting climate change because it’s “too late”?
Debt can be reduced — recall that Bill Clinton made excellent progress in the 1990’s. But if debt spirals out of control it will eventually be calamitous: America and its dollar will suffer huge loss of prestige and economic strength; such a debacle might well be the event that transfers world leadership to China. But it is not inevitable (the financial markets tell us they don’t think it is) and to condone fiscal irresponsibility by calling devaluation or default inevitable is, again, much too cynical.
The stimulus of 2009 was a one-time response to emergency. Doctors use adrenaline to treat anaphylactic shock but don’t prescribe it for daily use. Similarly, massive fiscal stimulus would be a big mistake now — what then would the U.S. do when another financial crisis hits (as it soon will given the GOP’s lust for misregulation)?
Such simple changes are always available when 51% of Congress agrees; I hope we didn’t elect Trump for such simple things. 
And please note that tax deductions are important only for people in highish tax brackets who itemize deductions — this is hardly a program designed to help Joe Public.
Trump is surrounding himself with aggressively militant security advisers, and anti-immigrant domestic advisers. This will lead to aggressive activities at home or abroad which will distract attention from Trump’s economic policies. With a trillion dollars of spending, even a few hidden crumbs will be enough to enrich Trump and his friends. I’d say that’s his agenda: Increasing national debt by trillions so he can pilfer billions. I offer America the same advice I offered Thailand when it selected a Prime Minister of this ilk — offer the guy a few billion dollars just to go away.
Trump has supported a lowered tax rate for overseas profits being repatriated which is something I would support.
America, almost standing alone[sup]*[/sup], taxes the overseas income of its citizens and corporations. But the corporations can delay that tax indefinitely by holding their overseas profits in accounts outside the US. Currently there is nearly $2.5 trillion in such overseas profits parked offshore. When the corporations look to expand they then have a ready source of capital in those overseas accounts which encourages them to build the next manufacturing plant overseas.
Net result is that current tax policy discourages creating new jobs in the US using profits from overseas. This tamps down the potential growth rate of the American economy and leaves blue collar workers out of work.
I’m totally fine with deporting people here illegally. It’ll never happen but I’d be fine with it.
I’d also be fine with term limits on House and Senate.
My problem with Trump is that he lies a lot. Not just like a regular politician who tries to obscure the truth. Trump out and out lies a lot. To the point where a) he isn’t expected to tell the truth, and b) there is no telling what his policies will be or whether he will stick to them once started. And I thought this was a character flaw. Shows how little I know.
It is sobering to realize how dumb I thought that man was and how smart he in fact is. He controls the narrative all the time. Need to take the transition off the front pages for a few days-no problem. Throw a tantrum at Hamilton. The media including social media reminds me of the dogs in the animated movie UP. SQUIRREL! problem solved.
So to answer the OP, no I will never be comfortable with his policies because I will never believe anything he says nor trust anything he does. He isn’t that kind of person. Hopefully some of his actions will benefit the population. Hopefully he wants to benefit the population. But I can’t be comfortable with Trump because I don’t trust him.
You are restating your OP. Of course there are things he could do that I would agree with. The operative word is “do”. Your OP asked about policies. Different thing. A policy is future tense (at least that is how I understand the word). I don’t know of any policies that I agree with because I don’t trust him to keep his word. I hope that he does keep his word and implement some policies that I agree with-but I won’t believe it until I see them actually done-past tense.
It depends on your definition of highish. I’m just a lowly civil servant and it would help me tremendously.