Trump said that if elected, he will do his best to get homeless people off the street. He wants to bring back mental institutions. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

In mental institutions, these people can get treated and hopefully turn their lives around.

I'm a liberal, and I don't want to help the homeless if that means giving Trump credit

I'm a liberal, and I think Trump is awesome if he can pull this off.

I'm a conservative and I don't care who gets the credit, just as long as we can solve this problem.

I'm a conservative, and I think it was a bad idea for the government to give free drugs to drug addicts.

I'm an independent, and I don't understand why homeless Americans have to sleep on the sidewalk, and illegals get the posh hotels.

Updates

+1 y

You're wrong. We need to be concerned about both. We don't need children stepping on dirty needles.

[WhiteSteve]

I’m happy to see the homeless helped, but it will have to be on the taxpayers’ dime, because, like prisons, I think that’s an absolutely terrible thing to privatize.

[Asker]

Who said it would be privatized?

[WhiteSteve]

Nobody, yet. But the general mood in the Republican Party and their voters seems to be this underlying principle of “well, I shouldn’t have to pay for that!” I just wouldn’t want to see it turn into what the prison industrial complex has, and then there’s profit incentive to keep them full, rather than just “as needed” use. Mental institutions used to be a MESS in their heyday, all kinds of abuse, sexual assaults by the staff on residents, and there was even a time when being gay would’ve gotten you locked away.

My main concern is the reasons WHY we bring mental institutions back like they used to be. If it’s a genuine good-faith effort based solely on human compassion, I’m all for it. If it’s based on “EW, gross homeless people are on the street, and I have to look at them!”, then we aren’t approaching it with the attitude we should.

[Asker]

Homeless people are gross. Pissing and shitting on the sidewalk is gross.

[WhiteSteve]

Well, there’s the problem. We should be motivated by THEIR quality of life, not ours.

[Asker]

I'm glad you're not in charge.

[WhiteSteve]

Fair enough. But I think America’s greatest moral flaw as a nation is that our North Star is comfort and prosperity, and not universal decency and good will. This place will always be broken until that changes.

[Asker]

"Nobody, yet. But the general mood in the Republican Party and their voters seems to be this underlying principle of “well, I shouldn’t have to pay for that!”"

I've never seen that in the Republican party. But since the Democrats refuse to put criminals in prison, building tons of mental institutions would be cheaper than the catch and release crap we have now.

[WhiteSteve]

You’re 30-35 and haven’t realized Republicans are the “but muh taxes!” party? I guess they’ve transitioned to silly manufactured social grievances as of late, but they still hate paying taxes, especially when it goes to helping people who aren’t them.

[Asker]

You're full of shit. Trump wants to fix this problem, and all you can do is criticize it. Nice.

[WhiteSteve]

You can’t possibly tell me the Republicans aren’t all about social grievances in 2023. Is that what you’re up in arms about? Like what’s not factual about that?

As far as Trump fixing the homeless problem, I explained my position on it in general, and Trump or anybody else would need to be approaching it with compassion as the main priority, actually genuinely trying to help, and not just motivated by getting them out of sight and out of mind. It’s not specific to Trump, and he’s done nothing about it yet to criticize, so I’m not really sure why you’re getting all wound up.

[Asker]

What has Biden done to help the homeless? (I'm not talking about the homeless in Ukraine)

[WhiteSteve]

Ok, are we talking about Joe Biden now? I’m fine to talk about him, but you’re hopping around at this point. What would you like to zero in on and discuss?

[Asker]

Let's discuss what Biden's plan is for the homeless.

[WhiteSteve]

Ok. I’d probably approach this with the caveat that I don’t really believe in the idea that America goes as it’s President goes, we’re deliberately set up so that that’s not the case. So Joe Biden or Donald Trump or literally anyone else aren’t just going to walk in the door and just solve homelessness. Congress is involved, state and local government are involved, etc, etc. It’s like saying the president is responsible for high/low gas prices or a good/bad economy, we’re dumbing it down WAY too much to look at things through that kind of lens.

Anyway, here’s Biden’s plan. What part of it do you object to?
www.whitehouse.gov/.../

[Asker]

I'm doing a million things right now. Just type a few sentences about his plan.

[WhiteSteve]

Lmfao, I’m not going to summarize it for you, you’re the one who wanted to discuss that topic. If you’re busy, that’s fine, I’m not in a hurry. We can pick it up later, or we can pull the ripcord on the discussion, I have a hockey game soon anyway, haha, it’s all good either way to me.

[Asker]

Pull the ripcord.

[WhiteSteve]

Good enough🤝

[jahaims]

Mental health assistance would help society as a whole.

[Asker]

Agreed. I hope Trump will do it.

[exitseven]

He should just let cops do their jobs. 20 years ago you never saw homeless camps in the middle of cities where people are living and working. I want to New York City about 20 years ago and stayed in Manhattan. There were plenty af panhandlers and bums sleeping on cardboard boxes at night but when the sun came up they were all gone because the cops chased them away.

[gorydetails]

This sounds like a perfect idea. We also need drug addiction centers.

[Asker]

For as long as I can remember, I thought that every problem had at least one solution. Trump tries to fix things and that makes the left hate him. It's 22° right now where I live, and I have to cringe when I see someone sleeping on the sidewalk. Biden will give trillions to the ukrainians, and nothing for Americans. That makes the left very happy.

[gorydetails]

There are even a few democrats who are looking back and if they ignore the hate propaganda they believed, they see Trump was right on just about everything.

[Asker]

I just saw last night where Obama's Eric Holder agrees with what you just said.

[Anonymous]

A lot of the homeless are going to be a lot of the immigrants that Biden let him unfortunately but hopefully somebody can take care of this problem

[Asker]

If we get a real president, instead of our Chinese puppet, Mexico will be dealing with this.

[Opinion Owner]

Yeah hopefully we do

[Pohjolan]

I think that talk is cheap and that the guy is a con artist.

[Asker]

Of course you do. You're a libtard. You worship the guy with dementia.

[Pohjolan]

If by libtard you mean everyone who is not worshipping Tramp then you would be correct.

[Asker]

No, I mean that a librtard worships a criminal with dementia.

[Pohjolan]

Look I do think that Biden shouldn't run for a second term but I would prefer a bag of cheetos with a tie and a wig over Trump.

[Asker]

How long have you lived in America?

[Twalli]

Plenty of homeless people don't need mental instutions.

[Asker]

90% of prisoners in prison are there for drug related charges.

[Twalli]

Which is an entirely different issue

[Asker]

No, it's the same thing.