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Let me start by noting that I am a former Congressional staffer - currently in politics - and a Republican who is not generally a fan of, and did not vote for, President Trump. To this I would add, without going too far down the rabbit hole, that my conservatism is of a Tory stripe and is not common among American conservatives.
My credentials proffered and my sins thereby confessed, the President has some wins to his credit. Some I support - his approach to North Korea has been remarkably shrewd. Some I do not - I did not support the tax cuts, which acknowledging that they may have boost the economy from its Obama-era sub-par growth rates.
However, the totality of the former President's accomplishments do not outweigh the damage that has been done by his abrasive style. The nation is going through a period of cultural tumult not unlike the 1960s and 70s, but Mr. Trump - often for reasons that seem scarcely more than about his personal pique - is content to pour salt in the social wounds.
In this Mr. Trump is the anti-Reagan. Reagan's style, coming into office in the wake of two tumultuous decades and 5 - yes 5! - failed presidencies, was to calm ruffled feathers. This was captured brilliantly in a cartoon of the period that showed a pollster asking a voter what he thought of Reagan's policies - #@*!! was the response. Next panel - What he thought of Reagan personally - "Oh nice guy, friendly, jovial'"
This is not an unimportant point. The President is constitutionally head of state. That is that he plays a symbolic and ceremonial role that should, ideally, unite the country. Suffice to say, Mr. Trump has been a disastrous failure in that role. This aside from the significant policy differences he has with his late illustrious predecessor. (See also trade policy. See also immigration.)
In that connection, Mr. Trump has the approval ratings to prove the point. When the economy boomed under Reagan, his job approval rating hit an eye popping 71%. By contrast, with an equally booming economy, Mr. Trump is about where Reagan was at the bottom of the 1982 recession and again during the Iran-Contra scandal.
That said, at least to date, the nation seems to be content to drink from the same poison it has been drinking for both the last presidency and this one. (The differences between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden could be measured with a micrometer.) The polls show Democrats are not even happy with their own President - and so they want Mr. Trump because they think that he would be easier to beat by the other Mr. Trump.
So it goes. "The fault, dear Brutus, lies not within our stars, but within ourselves."
President Trump fought not only the Democratscbut also RINO Republicsns and a hostile media. He is a successful business man and if somebody pushed him his default setting is to push back. From day 1 he had to deal with attacks on all sides. He managed to deal with all of it and leave office with an astonishing list of achievements. His approval ratings were a fabrication judging by the turnouts that he gets in his rallies. I live in a real moonbat state on the coast. In the summer of 2020 I heard there was going to be a Trump parade with boats at a local beach. I was going to go to the beach anyway so I checked it out. I just expected a few dozen boats. I had to park a quarter mile away and walk to the beach. Not only was the beach packed with people carrying American flags and Trump signs but there was a parade of about 2000 boats. . out with flags and Trump decorations. It was amazing. And there was absolutely no violence of arrests. Needless to say not a word about it was seen on the fake news.
@exitseven Sorry, no. Mr. Trump could not even get his wall built. His politics, like Mr. Biden's, are populist in nature. They enflame a sense of grievance, resentment and envy, but in terms of practical accomplishments, they did not amount to much.
As far as the support for Mr. Trump, I do not doubt it is real. Again, in a populist era - and we have been here before, see also the late 19th century, see also the 1960s and 70s, - the sense of grievance is palpable and the most effective leaders are those who play on that sense of grievance.
Please note the difference with President Reagan - a president with significant and real accomplishments. Reagan struck a tone of good nature. He stood for certain policies, but sought to calm the turbulent political waters he inherited. The net effect being that he had a record breaking re-election and was then succeeded by his own Vice-President.
Suffice to say - and I won't go through all the historical comparisons here for reasons of space - Mr. Trump came nowhere near Mr. Reagan's popularity nor his public policy accomplishments. Mr. Trump was, at best, adequate, and he succeeded only in stoking the cultural fires - to the detriment of the nation's larger interests and stability.
He couldn't get the wall built because he faced opposition. You notice Biden did not finish it, instead letting in millions of illegal immigrants from who knows where. They don't even track them and have lost track of some 86,000 immigrant children. He also sold off the remaining fence panels for scrap prices instead of installing them. Then I hear he wants to continue the fence which I find hard to believe. At least Trump got along with the leaders of other countries instead of antagonizing them and insulting them like Biden. He was too busy falling down. And you damn well know that Biden doesn't run things. Someone else is pulling his strings.
@Daniela1982 So? Reagan faced opposition - a Democrat controlled House especially - and yet got his agenda through.
Politicians face opposition. It is in the nature of the beast. The truth is that Mr. Trump had it within his administrative authority to build the wall, he simply did not bother to do so.
In any case, I am hardly making the case for Mr. Biden. I am merely pointing out that Mr. Trump's populist politics is not so much shaped by a policy agenda as by a sense of grievance and resentment. This not exactly conducing to a stable social order.
Indeed, I would argue that - grant that they each portray different villains - you could measure the differences between Trump and Biden with a micrometer. Both are content to stoke the cultural fires, tear down institutions, and were (and are) broadly ineffective in accomplishing their policy goals.
As I have said, you could measure the differences between Trump and Biden with a micrometer.
What? Trump was building the wall but then Biden took office and stopped it.
@Daniela1982 Trump hardly put any effort into it. Four years and only part of the wall built? It was not exactly a top priority of the Trump administration.
In any case, to repeat, my point is that, at the end of the day, Mr. Trump does not offer any positive agenda. His riff is against "the elites" and such. The problem, of course, being that in a democracy, the people do not decide, they decide which elites will decide. "Elites" representing a standard of excellence and expertise without which a society cannot survive.
For example, the American people talk a ferocious game against government. That people has the following profile - 1 in 6 who works, works for government. 1 in 7 is a Social Security recipient. 1/3 of all families will receive some form of government transfer payment. Less than half pay ANY Federal income tax.
Mr. Trump - like Mr. Biden - did nothing to seriously challenge that reality. To repeat, his is a politics of grievance, absent any serious policy agenda. Hence the wall. Nice to have, but it was mostly to satisfy the public's sense of outrage. Thus he spent little effort to complete the project.
Don't get me wrong. There are things I thought Mr. Trump did rather well. I thought his handling of foreign policy was especially well suited to the post-Cold War world.
However, as I have said, at the end of the day Trump had no real serious policy agenda - in contrast to, for example, Mr. Reagan who I thought was the best President in my lifetime. (I was born at the end of the Kennedy administration.)
After four years of Mr. Trump, the economy was adequate - nowhere near comparing to the Reagan years. His foreign policy was generally good, though tinged with a tone of isolationism which is now working against the country. Yet for all that, he offered a tone that was counterproductive and culturally disruptive and the nation is paying the price for that - in the form of Mr. Biden, ironically.
I like Ramaswamy, and if the country wasn’t on the verge of collapse he would be an ideal anti-establishment candidate. Nikki Haley is the GOP Hillary Clinton and Ron DeSantis has the worst campaign advisors I’ve ever seen.
I don’t have a lot of faith that there is much left to salvage of the US, regardless of who we elect. So I want Trump because I want the elite who have hurt us the last 4 years to feel the same pain we have. They’ll never see the inside of a prison cell so the best we can hope for is subjecting them to the mental anguish of dealing with 4 more years of Trump. If we can ruin their corporations and billion dollar investments that’s a bonus. I would also settle for them losing their cash cow of war mongering, hopefully Trump can bring us back from the edge of WWIII- but it may be too late for that too.
I'm a Moderate who votes for whoever will do the best job in any role. I believe we could benefit from a decent Republican or Democratic president at the moment, but Trump isn't reasonable. So many Republicans assume that if a person hates Trump they must be a Democrat. No, he's just a terrible person who only made this country worse. Give us someone reasonable to vote for on either side and I'll pick the better option regardless of party.
Aside from the fact that Ramaswamy dropped out, I can't believe Nikki beat him. Trump will be the candidate going up against Newsom.
If he doesn’t pick Vivek he won’t win the youth vote. He won’t get my vote either
No. I’ll still vote for Trump. But it is looking very likely that Trump will pick Vivek as his VP. It seems to be what the people want and I highly doubt he will disappoint the people.
I just heard the two of them give a speech, and Trump said the two of them will be working closely and for a long time.
I wish Trump would just announce this today, and then have Kikki and Ron throw in their support for the Dream Team. They need to start campaigning together.
All Biden has to run on is: "Trump said he's going to be a dictator."
And that's what Trump said. He jokingly said he would be a dictator for ONE day, to fix Biden's mess.
Nikki won’t drop out for Trump. She’s getting votes from democrats. DeSantis might drop out next though.
How? They shouldn’t be allowed to vote in Republican primaries. They’re trying to give Nikki the nomination spot to prevent trump from becoming the nominee
Knock yourself out
Opinion
20Opinion
I'm not a Republican or a Democrat, I'm an American.
I'm not a Conservative or a Liberal, I'm an individual.
I'm not on the Right or the Left, I am free!
Oh the Irony of a united nation, whose political system is a game of choosing sides.
A politician is a professional liar and promise maker (breaker) for profit.
Partisanship and ideological polarization are cancers.
Strive to have less opinions on the basis that opinions without power to affect change are just noise in your head. Judge less, love more.
partly trump but consider, trump was BUSINESS not career politicians in contrast to biden. trump earned respect. despite his mouth.
Swarmy talks out of both sides of his face, just like Trump, Haley, DeSantis, et. al. He scammed his way to money as well. There isn't a candidate running who is worth two shits on either side, and the only ones who would be are smart enough not to want it.
Just an FYI, Nikki Haley's given name is Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She, who says the "USA is not a racist country and never was a racist country", knows that if she ran under her real name, she'd be done before she started, especially in the south.
wrong reason, "Nikki is my name on my birth certificate. I married a Haley".
@strateguy632 Riiiiigggght... just like "we're not (an never have been) a racist country", except for the racism she and her family experienced which she wrote of in her books and memoirs. Hmm... she's just another politico who says what's convenient, and she was a trumper all the while she served in the UN. Now she'll rail against him in the primaries and kiss his ass in the end. I've seen this movie before.
Kind of. Strength in the nominations has little correlation to success in elections. Trump has half a divided party, that’s half of a third of the electorate that always votes Republican. Moderate Republicans are fed up and disengaged because they’re tired of being bullied. They won’t knock doors in the campaign and may even stay home on election day. Biden will get his third that always votes Democrat, and the election, as always, will be decided by the third in the middle. They may be pissed at inflation, but also remember the chaos of Trump’s first term with not much to show for it. Actually, Trump could lose to Biden by even more this time…
it depends on the computers used, chinese components ahem.
Democrats are trying to convince Republican voters that Trump cannot beat Biden so they vote for somebody else. Trump is shown to beat Biden an all swing states , some he is ahead by double digits. The democrats are already planning a coup in case Trump gets re elected. They are frightened to death
Are them evil Democrats planning to use 200.000 or how many mules this time?
@DryGermanGuy I don't think they can win like that again Trying to keep him off the ballot in swing states might be what they will try this time
All of those j6 people who were wrongfully put in jail/prison won’t be able to vote. Trump is also turning off a lot of independents and some republicans too.
I bet they will try to manipulate the voting machines because that worked well last time!!!
@SolitarySolace If the democrats were not scared to death why are they using the courts to fight Trump instead of letting Biden take him on fair and square?
When happens when Trump wants to debate the big guy. and he will not do it? How do the democrsts explain why he cannot debate? what will the American public think when they see that Biden is completely unable to do the job?
I hope he is not. But I don't want him to be removed from the ballot. I'd like, instead, for republican voters to show they had their fun marinating in hate but are ready to grow up and face reality. However they don't want to be viewed as facing reality so for that very reason Trump will definitely be the nominee.
I'm an Independent and there is no option for me in the poll.
Deep down, I'd really like to see new blood from both parties in the 2024 Presidential election. Let Joe and Donald enjoy their retirement.
young tried... but failed to attract followers.
No. I hope Donald Trump dies in a fire of his own creation, and everyone can sing and dance and celebrate the orange d-bag's demise... as there is absolutely nothing on this planet nor any other that wouldn't benefit in some way from him ceasing to exist.
very hate style. haters!
I don't care. But I recently found he can be president even if convicted of his criminal charges.
If Trump is the nominee which mostly like he will be since he's blowing out his competition then he most likely will be president next year.
Honestly I don’t even care who wins the Presidency anymore. I used to be passionate about presidential elections but looking back I realize it really doesn’t make much of a difference which party is in charge. Especially in the executive branch.
honestly i don't know the alternatives. but when the alternative is biden, i'd go for trump any day of the week.
How come no one wants to admit we all did better when Trump was in office?
I know the hate will come, but it was true, Biden has been an epic failure. Or should I say Obama's third term.
the day you wrote this, rama' dropped out. his support fell to 2% he failed to attract followers.
No, I hope Trump is the Democrats' nominee. The head explosions alone would make it worth it.
Trump will be the nominee and all four court cases will fail.
Why does no one think of paying that man for changing sides in return.
This way no one can complain when shit hits the fan.
paying who? trump is rich can't buy his changing
@strateguy632 = He's greedy. And his daughter and son in law also want a share.
They say they want him to be the nominee, but their actions say otherwise.
My preferences in order:
1. Vivek Ramaswamy
2. Ron DeSantis
3. Trump
4. RFK Jr.
5. Nikki Haley
...
300,000,000. Joe Biden
Ramaswamy is, like Trump, an authoritarian asshole.
He will be
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