How can anyone intelligently support Donald Trump? I don't see it.
Last edited Sun Aug 28, 2016, 03:48 PM - Edit history (1)
Donald Trump is woefully reckless to be the next POTUS. While I may be a proud Democrat who supported Obama, and had strong policy differences with John McCain and Mitt Romney, I never worried that they were incompetent to be president. As Ezra Klein has written, this election isn't the normal battle between left vs. right, liberals vs. conservatives, or Democrats vs. Republicans. It's between a fundamentally normal candidate (Hillary Clinton) and a fundamentally abnormal one (Donald Trump) that poses an existential threat to the United States. Even many Republicans know Trump is an abnormal nominee.
Trump's attempting to remake the GOP, a party that nominally stood for limited government, free markets, free enterprise, and globalization, into a European-style far-right neo-fascist xenophobic populist party, replete with nativism, protectionism, authoritarianism, and hyper-nationalism, similar to UKIP, Golden Dawn, Sweden Democrats, Le Pen's National Front, True Finns, etc.
Such denunciations of Trump across the political spectrum aren't surprising in the least, given how his campaign has been fueled by hate, paranoia, hysteria, bigotry, propaganda, conspiracy theorizing, scaremongering, and scapegoating. Here's what Trump's stated, proposed, and done so far:
- disputed Obama's birth certificate and U.S. citizenship, was at the heart of the 2011 birther movement, and publicly doubted Obama was born in the U.S.
- said that by Obama's own admission, he was born in Kenya
- publicly suggested Obama didn't attend Columbia University
- suggested that Obama is a Muslim back in 2011
- said that he sent investigators to Hawaii to examine Obama's birth, but no evidence his investigators were sent
- called for implementing 45% tariff on Chinese goods and leaving the WTO, which professional economists almost unanimously think is insane
- called anthropogenic climate change a hoax created by the Chinese to make American manufacturing non-competitive
- viewed asbestos as a safe and effective fire retardant
- linked vaccines to an autism epidemic, saying he's actually seen vaccines directly causing autism
- said he saw thousands of american Muslims celebrating 9/11 in New Jersey, despite this being thoroughly debunked
- called for banning non-citizen Muslims from the U.S.
- supported creating a database for Muslims in America, and called profiling Muslim-Americans "common sense"
- defended the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II
- said he'll swiftly deport 11 undocumented immigrants, praising the 1950's era Operation Wetback as a model
- mocked a disabled reporter on live television
- said ISIS provides phones to refugees seeking to enter the U.S., without any evidence
- said that the "real" unemployment rate is 42%, despite being thoroughly debunked, and receiving pants on fire and "four Pinocchio" ratings by fact checkers
- said that the unemployment rate is 23%, despite being thoroughly debunked, and receiving pants on fire and "four Pinocchio" ratings by fact checkers
- ignorantly claimed China was part of the TPP
- alleged that Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, collaborated with Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy to assassinate JFK, and cited the Lee Harvey Oswald claim from an article in the National Enquirer
- said he has proof that Mexico is sending criminals and rapists to the U.S., even though this has been thoroughly debunked
- didn't know the difference between the Quds, members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and the Iraqi Kurds
- thought women are only valuable for how they look, with at least a dozen high-profile misogynistic comments
- defended his penis size on a presidential debate stage
- asserted that he'd have the military kill the innocent family members of terrorists, and bring back waterboarding and "much worse" (despite evidence showing "enhanced interrogation" failed to produce actionable intelligence)
- called the Geneva Conventions a problem
- stated that he's fine with prosecuting U.S. citizens in Guantanamo Bay
- vowed to seize Syria's oil fields and refineries, which help keep ISIS afloat, and then sell the oil to pay for a U.S. military campaign. However, if the U.S. actually stole the oil, it would only net about $500 million, at most. A year long excursion in Syria of 20,000-30,000 U.S. troops (which trump has called for) would realistically cost around $25 billion
- incorrectly thought Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (Hillary Clinton's VP pick) was the governor of New Jersey, despite Chris Christie being one of Trump's most vocal backers
- thought he could address America's fiscal issues by reneging on U.S. sovereign debt, an idea that was universally panned by economists since it would trigger a worldwide recession much worse than 2008
- refused to initially disavow KKK endorsements, David Duke, and other white nationalists/supremacists backing him, saying he - didn't "know anything" about Duke and white supremacists
- reposted and retweeted anti-Semitic symbols
- retweeted a bogus crime graphic comparing black-on-black murders to police violence
- retweeted a nazi-sympathizing white supremacist
- encouraged violence at his rallies multiple times, lamented about how "their used to be consequences" for protesters
- justified violence by protesters saying that the "country has to toughen up," and “maybe he should have been roughed up because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing," and “I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself, or if other people will"
- said “I’d like to punch him in the face," after Trump supporter sucker-punched a protester at a rally (and later threatened to kill him if he showed up again), with Trump saying, "He was swinging, he was hitting people, and the audience hit back. That’s what we need a little bit more of"
- said about protesters, "if you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, OK? Just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise"
- supported unequivocally his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, when he assaulted Brietbart News reporter Michelle Fields
- said a judge in the Trump University case was biased against Trump because of the judge's Mexican heritage
- said Obama and Hillary founded ISIS, then said he was being "sarcastic," and then his campaign said he was "serious"
- accused Obama of being an ISIS sympathizer
- suggested that Hillary Clinton is secretly ill, and lacks the "mental and physical stamina" to take on ISIS, perpetuating an alt-right conspiracy theory that Clinton secretly suffers from a serious, chronic ailment
- said that Putin wasn't in Crimea despite Russia invading Eastern Ukraine and maintaining a presence a few years earlier
- lied about meeting Putin in Russia
- called on Russian hackers to find Hillary Clinton's missing Secretary of State emails
- said John McCain isn't a war hero "because he was captured"
- accepted a Purple Heart from a veteran despite having been a draft-dodger
- didn't know what the nuclear triad was
- said women who get abortions should be punished
- said Ghazala Khan didn't speak with her husband Khizr at the DNC because she "wasn't allowed to" (because of her Muslim faith), without any evidence
- suggested that after the election, if Hillary Clinton wins, the "second amendment" people could take her out to prevent her from appointing pro-gun control SCOTUS judges (while he later "clarified" he was talking about having the gun lobby vote against Clinton this election cycle, many people, including in the audience, thought he implied violence against Clinton)
- suggested that the Clintons could have murdered Vince Foster
- said Clinton was responsible for the death of a nuclear scientist in Iran
- speculated that Antonin Scalia was murdered
- blamed terrorism for EgyptAir crash without any evidence at all
- threatened to open up libel laws because of newspaper criticism against his campaign
- asserted that the general election is inherently "rigged," without any evidence
- supported the spreading of nuclear weapons to other countries
- praised the 1989 Tienanmen Square massacre in China
- praised authoritarian dictators like Kim Jong-un, Putin, and Saddam Hussein
- referred to 9/11 as "7/11"
- semi-threatened the pope
- threatened to withdraw from NATO
- told African-American voters "What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump?...What the hell do you have to lose?"
- told African-American voters,"Look at how much African American communities are suffering from Democratic control...You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?"
- yelled "Look at my African-American over here" at a rally
tweeted, "Dwayne Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!"
- told Hispanic voters, "our government has totally failed our African American friends, our Hispanic friends and the people of our country... And I ask you this, I ask you this — crime, all of the problems — to the African Americans, who I employ so many, so many people, to the Hispanics, tremendous people: What the hell do you have to lose? Give me a chance."
- racially stereotyped African-Americans as being impoverished, despite only a quarter of blacks living in poverty
- wrote a full-page ad calling for the death penalty against five black teenagers in NYC who were falsely accused of rape
- said that the government hid information about the Ebola virus
- said a plague would start in America if flights from Ebola-infected countries weren't canceled
As Fareed Zakaria claims, Trump is essentially a "bullshit artist," having lost much of his connection with reality. Liars are acutely aware of what they perceive to be the truth, but Trump has shown complete recklessness and disregard for the fact.
In my view, it is exceedingly difficult to support Donald Trump in an intelligent and thought-out manner. I don't find it to be a mere coincidence that most policy wonks and technocrats, ranging from left-of-center to right-of-center in political orientation, are terrified of a Trump presidency. Top analysts and experts at The Economist, Wonkblog, Vox, Wall Street Journal, FiveThirtyEight, The Upshot, Christian Science Monitor, let alone countless think tanks across the political spectrum (Brookings, Cato, Heritage, etc.), have harshly condemned Trump's candidacy for being largely devoid of details or even broad policy proposals, let alone proposals based on the weight of evidence.
Unlike Trump, Clinton is a hardcore policy wonk and technocrat. On Clinton's campaign website, one can find spreadsheets, depth, analysis, and details. Her campaign has consistently been producing authentic, legitimate experts who provide rigorous data, studies, and economic analyses. She has a heavy bias in favor of facts when it comes to policy. The same can't be said for Trump's' campaign, which has been mainly about pushing emotional buttons, conjuring up nonsense horror stories of millions of ISIS-sympathizing refugees coming into the U.S. and the like. When one side is pointing out basic facts, and the other side is pushing emotional buttons, there's a difference, they're not equivalent.
Trump's core constituency, based on polling and other demographic surveys, are middle age, non-university educated, working class, white and male, while educated voters across all demographics are rejecting Trump. As Fareed Zakaria writes, "the single factor that best predicts a Trump voter is a college degree. If you have it, you say you will vote against him. If you don't, you're for him."
Educated voters are supporting Hillary Clinton if they're more left-leaning, or Gary Johnson if they're more right-leaning. Voters with an education are often left-of-center on social issues, rejecting Trump's denunciation of pluralism, cultural liberalism, ethnic and racial diversity, multiculturalism, and "urban" values, having an open orientation toward globalization, trade, immigration, and technology. The very few "intelligent" people to have endorsed Trump (Donald Rumsfeld, Peter Thiel, Carl Icahn, etc.) have done so mainly because they don't want a Democrat in the White House and want a conservative SCOTUS.
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Response to gobears10 (Original post)
And I always liked Fareed. He makes complex issues (that American's don't normally hear about) seem relatable. I liked him even more after hearing him call Trump a bullshitter on CNN 
At this point, I pretty much disown anyone who self-identifies as conservative or Republican. To my gay ears, it always sounds like trouble.
