I think Trump has been judged unfairly. He has barely taken office and there are these fierce and emotional demonstrations about how evil he is. Even Madonna is recommending (to an audience of millions) blowing up the White House.
Everyone has flaws. One black Trump supporter pointed out that while Trump is racist, he didn’t think Trump was any more racist than most white people. Trump is just less sophisticated and unskilled with using politically correct paens to hide his inner prejudices. Thus he is seen as more honest than Hillary because he is very poor at hiding his flaws and inconsistencies.
For all the negative things about his real estate business excluding blacks, it’s also true that Trump was the first person to desegregate his Mar-a-Lago resort. Everyone else in the area refused blacks and Jews. Trump openly welcomed them.
A former employee, Barbara Res, said that Trump basically ‘profiled, but didn’t discriminate’. He definitely held prejudices, but when it came to business, he did business with anyone. He hired plenty of Mexicans in his hotels. He didn’t really respect women as a category and shamelessly lusted after them, but when it came to work he was work-minded. The picture I get of Trump is that he’s really more of a boor than a psychopath or ideologue. He’s not out to deliver anyone a world of hurt, or to impose a religion and way of life on others. He’s like a lot of real estate developers and building contractors, macho seeming guys who puff themselves up like cockatoos.
In any ordinary circumstance, Trump would be a very poor choice for the White House. However the world is now in a state of transition. The old elites who got rich from globalization have no answer to the many people structurally out of work or disadvantaged by globalization. They just keep preaching more free trade and more migration.
There is a real American carnage going on. Vast sections of continental America have been hollowed out economically thanks to free market competition from China.
It is glib and dishonest for the coastal-based liberals to just say, well, get out of town and migrate then!
You’re asking people to uproot themselves in the millions from their families and towns and massively migrate to where the jobs are.
If 20 million people moved out of the Midwest and Rust Belt, 4 million would go to NYC, 3 million to LA, 1 million each to Houston and Chicago and Atlanta. Housing costs and infrastructure pressures would skyrocket. A new white urban underclass, drug abusing and discontented, would pop up. Many people would turn to religion for comfort and vote Republican. And tell me the libs won’t be hating on them?
Because no one would champion their cause, many of the declining white middle class voted Trump.
I don’t know if Trump can deliver. But if he delivers, I think America, and American democracy, would be much better off. Before you start getting into some global ideal of admitting all Mexicans or Muslims who want to enter the USA, you need to make sure your own citizens are doing fine. Athenian democracy took care of Athenians first. Venetian Republic took care of Venetian interests first. USA needs to start taking care of its own people before it tries to be some sort of global examplar. The decline of the US middle class is NOT good for democracy.
Trump the populist is a lot less dangerous than someone like Hitler or Mussolini or Mao or Stalin. Unlike these four dictators, Trump is not tied to any ideology. History has shown that people tied to ideologies are the most likely to do the worst things because they are deluded by their religion and their ideology. Trump may be slow to recognize that he has done something wrong, but once he sees it, he can change.
I don’t believe in giving Trump 4 years. But 1.5 years is fine, until the campaigning starts for the Midterm elections. If the Republicans have been pragmatic and truly patriotic in their policymaking, they will deserve reelection and strengthen their majority in Congress. If the Republicans have focused their energy on religion in schools and other measures that don’t take care of the Middle Class, they will lose their majority and Congress will have a deadlock.
Problem is, Republican party is too full of ideologues. The swamp monsters. USA needs more fresh blood not tied to established interests. All the old idiots in Congress need to get out. John Lewis needs to understand that his heroics 50 years ago are not relevant as a selling point for reelection in 2018. You need more energetic, engaged and intelligent people like Cory Booker, and less geriatrics resting on their laurels.