Apparently I’m not the only one who has taken note of the fact that the Democrats only have a single plank in their platform – Trump Hate.
For now, though, the left’s only issue is “We hate Trump.” This is an instructive hatred, because what the left hates about Donald Trump is precisely what it hates about America. The implications are important, and painful.
Not that every leftist hates America. But the leftists I know do hate Mr. Trump’s vulgarity, his unwillingness to walk away from a fight, his bluntness, his certainty that America is exceptional, his mistrust of intellectuals, his love of simple ideas that work, and his refusal to believe that men and women are interchangeable. Worst of all, he has no ideology except getting the job done. His goals are to do the task before him, not be pushed around, and otherwise to enjoy life. In short, he is a typical American—except exaggerated, because he has no constraints to cramp his style except the ones he himself invents.
Mr. Trump lacks constraints because he is filthy rich and always has been and, unlike other rich men, he revels in wealth and feels no need to apologize—ever. He never learned to keep his real opinions to himself because he never had to. He never learned to be embarrassed that he is male, with ordinary male proclivities. Sometimes he has treated women disgracefully, for which Americans, left and right, are ashamed of him—as they are of JFK and Bill Clinton.
But my job as a voter is to choose the candidate who will do best for America. I am sorry about the coarseness of the unconstrained average American that Mr. Trump conveys. That coarseness is unpresidential and makes us look bad to other nations. On the other hand, many of his opponents worry too much about what other people think. I would love the esteem of France, Germany and Japan. But I don’t find myself losing sleep over it.
The difference between citizens who hate Mr. Trump and those who can live with him—whether they love or merely tolerate him—comes down to their views of the typical American: the farmer, factory hand, auto mechanic, machinist, teamster, shop owner, clerk, software engineer, infantryman, truck driver, housewife. The leftist intellectuals I know say they dislike such people insofar as they tend to be conservative Republicans.
Very correct.
It seems every issue comes back to hating Trump.
Hatred is what rules in liberal lexicon.
This is one of those instances that just because someone says something, doesn’t make it true. While it is true that many people hate Trump for any given reason. His crudeness, his constant lying, or his complete lack of foresight just to name a few. He does NOT represent the “typical American”. I don’t think that the typical American has cheated on every wife they have ever had. I don’t think that the typical American makes up lies to fit their small view of the world. Remember, this is the same man that pushed the Birther movement for YEARS.
Yes, many Democrats are running as Anti-Trump this year. But that isn’t the ONLY stance they have. Pro-Choice. Immigration reform. Healthcare. Environmental concerns. Universal background checks on firearms. Living wages. Tax Reform. These are all things that democrats are running on this election cycle. You may disagree with the positions, but to dismiss them is ignorant. And for Owen to post something like this is nothing but propaganda.
My biggest concern about this is the hatred toward intellectualism & experts. The right has done their best to portray every expert and intellectual as better than the average person and sow a distrust in anything they have to say. Taking people who have probably studied a particular field their entire life and completely ignoring that because there is a a single voice of dissent, or because of some sort of inferiority complex that people have is absurd. And you see it in all aspects of study. From climate information to vaccination to the economy.
PS. I believe that Kevin is a secret liberal. Anyone that focuses that much on a particular subject is closeted.
Jonnyv,
I would consider myself a liberal in the classical sense.
Problem is, modern day liberalism with its insanely authoritarian policies in terms of economics, language, and speech….as well as its overt racism, corruption of gender biology, and it’s insane thirst for huge, destructive government…has totally destroyed what it means to be a liberal in the classical sense.
You could say that modern day liberalsim has so resoundingly corrupted the term liberal, it’s hard to say the term “classical liberal” has any meaning anymore. That is why I more readily use the term “conservative”, because the language has been so corrupted by the disease of modern day liberalism.
Some would argue my foreign policy stance would not be “classical liberal”, but John Locke did not live in a globalist world like today where insane evil lurks everywhere and attacks can start anywhere on the globe. John Locke supported defeating evil. I go a little further than Locke and support defeating evil before it does a lot of damage to our nation. I supported the attacks in Middle East by George W, it has decimated the evil and kept us safe from further terorism for almost 2 decades. I did not support Obama’s surrender to ISIS. I supported Trump defeatring ISIS.
So secret liberal in the totally perverted modern day sense?….NO, not by a long shot.
Wow, I totally missed when the US surrendered to ISIS. And on top of that, once again just because Trump SAYS we have defeated ISIS doesn’t make it so. HE LIES. Remember that. ISIS still exists, and it was the Obama administration that began the chokehold on them, the Trump administration has continued most of the policies implemented. The Trump administration HAS recaptured more land recently than Obama, but a large portion of the fight was done under the previous administration.
Much like the economy. Trump has done very little to change the trend that was started in the previous administration. To his benefit, he hasn’t screwed it up either. Unemployment has been declining at a pretty steady rate since 2010. Of course Trump HAS helped blow up the deficit some more. And at some point we will need a real adult (democrat or republican) to step in and raise taxes and cut spending to get us out of that. But the current spineless republicans and conservatives don’t want to hear that now. They will wait until a D is in office to harp on that again.
This almost parallels the hateful behavior the Teaparty displayed 10 years ago.
Strange as it may seem, but the D candidates up here (Evers and Baldwin included) have all sorts of planks in their platforms; health care, tax reform, transportation, environment, education, etc. I am truly surprised that those of you down state haven’t picked up on that. Must be the confirmation bias running rampant in those parts.
And by the looks of the transcripts of every trump speech in memory, hate is high on his list of policies, just below untruthfulness.
Pat,
The Tea Party did not hate Obama, they hated his socialist, leftist policies.
Tea Party is much classier than Antifa, Black Lives matter, and other violent leftest organization occupying Portland and sometimes Seattle.
Tea Party members had day jobs.
Not to “thread drift”. But this article from one of the biggest tech websites is interesting.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/29/18027032/foxconn-wisconsin-plant-jobs-deal-subsidy-governor-scott-walker
The writer of the article loves authoritarian strong men; people who are unabashedly amoral. It is interesting to see how he compares Trump to the average man. I do agree that there is no point hating Trump, because in a sense he is average. He is a huckster and a crook with maybe an IQ of 100. There is nothing extraordinary about him.
Perhaps the only redeeming stance Hillary took in the last election was when she described half of the Trump supporter’s as a basket of deplorables. I think it was a mistake for her to back away from that. The problem with the Democrats is that they lack the courage to take a real stance on issues. Instead of advancing a single payer system, breaking up big pharma and fossil fuel monopolies, and holding Wall Street accountable they offer up some crap on gun control and gender neutral bathrooms. Instead of creating a job bill to create green energy and improving infrastructure they go to a global conference and talk about trading carbon credits.
Right now, our country does need strong men, but not the stupid and the corrupt, rather, the intelligent, the courageous and the virtuous. Someone that can stand up and say climate change is a problem and we can face it. Someone who believes we can build what we need to survive it.
“The Tea Party did not hate Obama,“
And no one hates Trump.
Pat,
Oh yeah, name the policy of Trump that generates the foaming liberal hate?
With Obama, I could always name the policies I oppose. With Trump liberals have a hard time doing that.
That doesn’t change the fact that there was sooo much hate for Obama and Hillary.
Pat,
Can’t name the policies, can you?
Tell me you stand against tax cuts, sonI can laugh at you.
Sooo much hate.
Pat,
Laughing at you for being against tax cuts is hate?
Not hate, just the realization that would make you a real Gump in political arena.
Kevin,
There are a lot of reasons for people to not approve of Trump. On the top of the list is his lack of morality, which is something that Republicans used to care about.
Pat,
His lack of morality when it came to women was well known during election. Thanks to Bill Clinton, that is no longer a disqualifies to be president.
I’d like the president to be faithful to his wife, but Bill Clinton has taken that off the list of qualifiers.
What are his policies you oppose? You are typical liberal playbook, can’t name any of Trump’s policies you oppose!
Name just 5 you oppose.
(I am against trade wars personally, but they seem to be producing amazing results, so I may be wrong on that!)
Kevin,
I gave you one reason people disapprove of Trump. Another reason people disapprove of Trump is that he is untrustworthy due to his inability to tell the truth.
Pat,
That is not policy, that is just hating Trump.
Liberals were fine with Obama lying all the time and Clinton lying under oath, why is it a problem now?
The difference is: Liberal media did not pound Obama and Clinton lies day in and day out like they do on Trump’s alleged lies.
Another standard conservatives can’t take seriously because liberals surrendered this issue long ago.
Kevin,
Sounds like conservatives surrendered this issue too. I guess that makes conservatives as bad as liberals. Perhaps even worse due to their inability to have a spine when it comes to standing up for morality. Conservatives used to expect that from liberals, and now emulate and embrace it.
Pat,
Conservatives have not surrendered the issue.
I criticize Trump on these topics all the time.
It just means the punishment for this is no longer removal from office, thanks to Bill clinton.
You act like these are removable offenses, they are not.
Kevin, I OPPOSE TAX CUTS! When the economy is booming, and it would make more sense for us to pay down the debt and reduce the deficit. We should be looking at places where we can also cut spending. It makes no sense for us to give giant tax breaks to corporations when we should be using that money to get to a place of fiscal responsibility.
These newest tax cuts have done very little except explode the deficit and debt. If it is one thing Trump is good at it is driving things into the ground and walking away.
It seems like whenever a republican gets in office the deficit explodes. Then a democrat has to come in and begin to clean it up. Just to have a republican wreck it again.
Fucking waterhead.
Johnny,
You can always voluntarily send your tax cut back into the IRS.
Will you be doing that?
“Name just 5 you oppose”.
Environment
Freedom of speech
Education
Human/civil rights
Tarriffs
Fiscal responsibility
Moral character
How many more do you want?
Kevin,
“It just means the punishment for this is no longer removal from office, thanks to Bill clinton.”
Bill Clinton had nothing to do with not being remove from office. He was impeached by the House of Representatives, but failed on the two articles of impeachment in the Republican lead Senate.
I agree with Jonnyv on the debt. If I have debt that needs to be paid down I don’t take a pay cut to do it so my boss can have more money.
You took Chapter 7 to avoid paying the sex abuse lawsuits.
Kev, no I won’t be doing that. Because even if I did that AND every person in the US did, it would barely make a dent. It needs to be done across the board from people to corporations and cut military costs and benefit spending. Until we do that, nothing we do will make any impact. And hey, maybe we start actually taxing churches and religions. Close loopholes and end subsidies on things. And even when that is DONE, it will take 10-20 years until we get our debt in control. How many times do we need to see that Trickle Down doesn’t work?
But again, feel free to stay quiet about that subject now and bring it up in a few years when a D is in office.
Waterhead.
Jonny,
If you are unwilling to send your tax cut back in, stop trying to force others to do what you refuse to do!
Nord, I’m against tarriffs as well.
I’m curious what specific policies of top 4 on lost you oppose? I know nothing of Trump being against free speech. He does criticize the PC liberal speech censor hacks, and I love that.
You were very generic.
You dare say Trump is immoral when Obama openly advocates killing of babies, especially black babies by abortion? Trump is against killing and racism. On that issue alone he is far more moral than Obama ever was.
So who’s President? The stupid Trump, or the Smartest Woman in the Galaxy, Ever?
Don’t stop, there, Kevin!! FDR, JFK, LBJ….then Clinton. And there are substantial rumors about Obozo.
In contrast, umnnnhhhh…..gee……..only ONE Pubbie this century and last….
Huh.
Dad29,
You are right, but continuing to the long list of liberal immorality in White House May have seemed like piling on. I try to be gentle.
But you are entirely correct!
Yes and no. The tax cuts have encouraged corporate entities to remain in the US, or return thereto, because US corporate rates are now favorable compared to Germany, France, Mexico, England (and others.) That’s a “plus” because more entities means more tax revenues. It’s a “minus” because each one will be paying less than in (say) 2015.
The spending is out of control, and has been since LBJ, with only a couple of VERY minor cuts. But spending is not really under the control of the President (albeit he can utilize rescission–rarely done—). That’s the Congress, which is largely composed of whores. It is the spending which must be cut, hard.
Pro Tip: Don’t hold your breath.
We note that Johnny V would delete the defense of the US, which happens to appear in the Constitution, yet NOT delete Dept of Education, HHS, or EPA, which are NOT Constitutionally -mandated and which are simply cancers.
Hmmmm.
He would increase taxes on “corporations”, apparently not realizing that “corporations” are actually “shareholders,” meaning one of two things: prices go UP to cover the tax load, or Granny’s dividends go DOWN to provide cash for taxes.
So JohnnyV goes trifecta!!! Knocks off Granny’s income, leaves her without defense from foreign enemies, and spends like crazy on festering carbuncles.
Well played!!
I think it is confirmed that JonnyV is mentally feeble and needs voting access revoked.
It really is amazing how effectively Trump has spent the last three years living rent-free in the heads of his opponents.
Just like Obama lived rent free in the noggins of the conservatives for 8 years.
No, Lleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeroy, Obozo didn’t live rent-free in my head. It was occupied with more significant matters.
And that’s the difference: the Lefties do not have anything else in their pretty little heads.
Well, he sure occupied folks like O’Connell, trump, Ryan, etc. The lint in your skull was and still is of little consequence.
dad29, I think you may need to take a reading comprehension test. No where did I say I was going to delete the Military budget. Just that it (along with other departments) could get cut back. Your ilk are always saying that the gov’t cant run anything without screwing it up, but you don’t think that the military has fat to trim? The Air Force just got busted buying coffee cups for $1200 each. Our proposed military budget is 639 BILLION. You don’t think that you could knock 5 or 10 BILLION off of that and anyone would notice? Are we more safe this year than we were last year when the budget was 606 Billion?
And as far as corporations passing down the costs, does your example go both ways? Because I don’t think I am paying less for anything since the tax cuts went in place. But you swear that if we reverse the tax cuts suddenly everyone will be paying more for goods? If we wanted to incentivize companies to stay here there are better ways we could have done that, Trump took an axe to a surgery instead of a scalpel. But, that is his way.
So yes, I would have no problem reversing the tax cuts and trimming the military (and other) budgets. No one is losing their home if we reversed the tax cuts to what they were. And you are just fear mongering when you try and spread that BS.
Congress takes their cues from the President. If he wanted to cut the budget, he could make that happen. And while you may not have liked him, at least Obama was on the right track with slowly lowering the deficit most of the years he was in office. There was no way he was going to be able to lower the debt, no single president has that much time in office.
Such fine debaters you find here at B&S!
At least the mother of my children hasn’t been reprimanded twice by the state, once for perjury.
https://compendium.wicourts.gov/app/raw/002551.html
You can have a seat now, John Foust.
Ridiculous. Clinton reduced the debt (albeit Congress stuffed that down his throat.) Even Carter reduced the debt.
See: http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrExlS1DdpbAHcArlijzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBtdXBkbHJyBHNlYwNmcC1hdHRyaWIEc2xrA3J1cmw-/RV=2/RE=1541045813/RO=11/RU=http%3a%2f%2famericanationaldebt.blogspot.com%2f/RK=2/RS=niH4I67e6PaL8ivM2SqXle8mq5I-
Now then. Name a BETTER WAY to keep corporations here (or move to the US). You said there are “better ways.”
A 10% reduction in Pentagon spend? We agree there are stupid spends in the military, but 10% cut is actually very serious. Manpower? Benefits? R&D? Replacement equipment?
With the tax cut a lot of people are paying less for electricity and natgas. Not here….but in other states. Let’s put it another way: maybe you have not seen price increases due to the tax cut. Hmmmmm?
Your link didn’t work for me. Do you have any screenshots, Paulie?
dad29, you are right, that Clinton did it, but when he came into office the deficit was “only” 203 Billion. Obama lowered it from 1.3 Trillion to 666 Billion in the 8 years he had. It was lower, but it went up in his final 2 years.
When I say that there is no way to lower the debt, it is because I believe that a president can’t turn it around in 8 years when it is going to be at almost 1 Trillion again. I think it will take a minimum of 10 years to chip it away. But, I would be happy to be proven wrong.
Clinton raised taxes and republicans fought him. They passed while we experienced a booming economy. While I don’t think the two directly relate, I do think that you can raise taxes while the country is prospering to pay off our debt and not HURT the economy.
While tax cuts don’t hurt the economy either, they haven’t been proven to provide any additional GDP or lower our debt/deficit.
As far as where to make cuts in Pentagon spending, I honestly don’t know. What I think is that there are ways to do it, as there are in any department. We probably could cut back in manpower and replacement equipment. I wouldn’t want to see pay or benefits cut for our service people. I work in the tech industry, and I am sure there are redundancies that could be consolidated between branches if it was examined.
PS. dad29, this is the type of convo that I enjoy on this site. No name calling or demeaning the other person. Just an honest exchange of ideas and beliefs. The world needs more of this.
You’re a born liar, John Foust.