As you read the negative comments about Donald Trump here and elsewhere, most of the focus is on his personality and irreverent behavior. There is a lack of real substantive rebuttals to his policies on the issues. Many of his critics dismiss him prematurely never researching his positions ready to believe negative media portrayals. For this reason, they cannot understand why Trump is rising in the polls - and they never will. For working Americans of all stripes, there is a real concern with jobs, wages and the economy as well as the things that impact these issues such as taxes, immigration, foreign trade and Obamacare regulation. Add to this the fact the a majority of Americans feel the country is headed in the wrong direction with national security, foreign policy and energy independence and you begin to see why Trump’s message is resonating.Donald Trump has a revitalization plan for our economy. This includes lowering corporate and personal tax rates and reducing government regulation on business. Repatriation of off-shore dollars held by multi-national corporations alone, once rates are lowered, is estimated to bring two to three trillion dollars back into our economy. Let me go into some detail on these topics that you may not have seen before:
Taxes - Trump has developed a tax policy that would reduce the top tax rate from 39.6 to 25 percent at the same time increasing the standard deduction to $25K for single and $50K for married filers. He would drop the corporate tax rate from 35 to 15 percent with a 10 percent rate for repatriation of funds. See the plan here.
Immigration - Trump has received his most fervent criticisms for his statements on immigration, but few have reviewed his policy proposals which you can see here. These are common sense policies that simply enforce laws that are already on the books. It does not involve mass deportation as the media has suggested. If you enforce the laws as they were intended, the system will work properly. In a fifteen year period starting with 1998, we’ve had 25 million people immigrate to America and a full third of these, about 8.5 million, have come illegally according to the census bureau. And this figure is based just on what has been documented. The actual number is likely to be much higher as those coming illegally generally avoid revealing their status.
Foreign Trade Deals - As with all of our foreign trade deals, the promise was more jobs for Americans as well as cheaper consumer products. Instead, we lost jobs. NAFTA resulted in a net loss of one million jobs. When China entered the WTO, another three million jobs were lost. With the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that is taking place now, the projections are that we will experience two to three times more job losses than what we have had to date from our existing trade deals. Many of Trump’s critics, conservative and democratic alike, have warned his positions will invoke a trade war with competing tariffs on imports and exports. What many do not realize is that China, and many other trade partners, already apply defacto tariffs with a 25% VAT tax on any imported goods. China also artificially lowers the value of it’s currency as compared to the U.S. dollar and gives Chinese corporations large state subsidies to insure that they remain competitive against foreign counterparts. To compete, a host of other Southeast Asian countries are forced to do the same thing and this is why most of the focus of Trump’s plan is on China. The damage is already done and China relies heavily on trade with the U.S. to support it’s growing economy; an economy that has been built on the backs of U.S. workers. See Trump’s plan here.
Healthcare Reform - Trump would propose reforms to healthcare through Congress that would restore economic freedom and free market principles. More than 60% of the Obamacare co-op insurers that offer Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage have failed so far and more are on the way. The key reason is that what ACA provides is not insurance; It’s welfare paid with taxpayer dollars. And a critical component of the ACA law was not addressed in the rush to enforce ACA involving the taxpayers subsidy of insurance company profits. A bill was later proposed to provide these subsidies but that bill was killed. This did not stop the Obama Administration from funding these subsidies anyway and that has now been deemed illegal by the Federal Courts. As more private insurers fail, we will eventually end up with a bloated, bureaucratic single-payer Medicare system by default that will cause trillions in deficit spending. It’s clear we have not fixed the problem yet as more people lose their healthcare as well as not covering a majority of those uninsured persons that were targeted in the first place. Trump’s reform plan is here.
Military and Foreign Policy - The U.S. Army has been reduced to Pre-World War II levels. Our Navy is smaller than it's been since 1917. Our Air Force is smaller and older than any time since 1947. The Iran Nuclear Deal does nothing to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear arsenal in 10 years and gives them $150 billion with which to build it. ISIS has been steadily increasing it’s size and territory causing a mass refugee crisis in Europe. China is building military island outposts next to international trade routes, Iran is capturing and humiliating our military personnel and Russia and China are buzzing our military planes and ships. We appear to be a country in retreat. Many of Trump’s foreign policy statements are here.
Energy Independence - Trump understands that energy independence is crucial to long-term economic vitality and national security. Fracking is responsible for turning the U.S. from a net importer to exporter of oil for the first time in our history. Yet, the Obama Administration has not allowed fracking on government land nor off-shore exploration and drilling, The coal industry has been destroyed through regulation and the XL pipeline remains unapproved; a measure that would reduce delivery costs from 50 cents to 5 cents per barrel. His policies are here.
I’m not endorsing all of Mr. Trump’s statements. However, many of his plans for energizing our economy make sense to me. Economic growth lifts people out of poverty, shrinks our deficit and provides funds needed to make Social Security and Medicare solvent again. It’s remarkable how little the Democratic platform even discusses the economy and the deficit. Their focus is on higher taxes and more spending. In effect, they are for jobs but not employers. This is obviously an unworkable contradiction.
It’s clear that there is a large amount of dissatisfaction with our government and the state of the economy. We’re growing on a 10 year average of less than 2 percent when the average for the 20th century was 3.5 percent. The prime lending rate is at zero and the labor participation rate is 62 percent similar to the economic malaise in the Carter era. Consumer spending is down and personal savings are up in the 5 percent range indicating there is a lack of confidence in the future. This is bringing unprecedented numbers of voters to the polls and they are not looking to establishment candidates like Hillary or Bush. I think we’ll see a large number of blue-collar Democrats, Independents and Republicans coming out to vote for Trump and I think he will win.
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- Illegal immigrants, no matter where they come from (though the majority of them are from Mexico), are not Americans. The US government doesn't have the obligation to serve those people. Trump isn't discriminating against Mexico, he is against illegal immigrants. If they get amnestied, it will be unfair to LEGAL immigrants like me. Check here on how difficult it is for a foreigner to stay in US by hardworking. What is H1B Visa Lottery Process ? USCIS Random Selection
- Terrorists, no matter what religion they believe in (though the majority of terrorist attacks happen in Islamic countries), should not enter the US. The US government doesn't have the ability to filter out who are terrorists. Trump isn't discriminating against Islam, he is against terrorism. If undocumented refugees from the Islam world can enter the US freely, we don't know whether some terrorists are hidden like Trojan Horse.
- Although Trump has given many outrageous speeches, all of these are under the freedom of speech and should be protected. However, liberals are trying to silent him by protesting and even using violence. People have the impression given by the media that Trump supporters are all bigots, but the reality is, you never see Trump supporters blocking the highway to stop Bernie Sanders going to a rally, you see the opposite. 20 Arrested as Crowd Turns Violent Outside Trump Rally
- Trump attacks so many people harshly. However, whoever he attacks, he is attacking that person personally, which has nothing to do with that person's gender, race or any other labels. The media misunderstand this and whenever he attacks any female public figure, the media thinks he is attacking all women. This is busted by Melania's speech. Melania Trump gives first-ever stump speech in Milwaukee
- Comparing to social issues such as LGBT marriage, abortion right or global warming, our more direct threat comes from economic recession and terrorism. As a musician, I understand that people will only enjoy music when they are not starving. The Democratic Party focuses too much on things that won't increase the productivity at all. In fact, as we see from Europe, high welfare will reduce people's incentive to work hard and slow down the economy. If we are following Europe, we will lose our energy and gradually give our No.1 position to the rising China.
- I come from China, lived in US for 4 years. Before I came to US I was a liberal but gradually I am turning to conservative, although I am an atheist. When I was in a top-100 public high school in US, what the average American are studying in math and science in 12th grade, Chinese students have already taken those in 10th grade, and it's mandatory. Everyone must take them. I got 2400 in SAT subject tests in Math II, Physics and Chemistry, which seems like a miracle nerd in American high schools, but it's so normal in Chinese that if you don't get 2400 you will be laughed at. The “safe space” that liberals created in our educational system forbids people from laughing at others on academic performance, but weirdly it's allowed to criticize someone's sport skill. We can watch how fast other students run but not allowed to know what grade our classmates are getting. This has made our country so uncompetitive that anti-intellectualism prevails in our educational system, and half of the PhDs in US are given to international students.
- More and more of these highly educated people are returning back to their home countries because they can't find well-respected jobs here, or even when they find the jobs, they get kicked out of the country because they are not lucky enough to get on a lottery for H1B visa. We don't have enough quotas for those high-skilled people, only about a dozen thousand per year, and now the Democratic want to set 13 million illegal immigrants free? I can guarantee that once they have done that, so many of these graduates will feel so disappointed about this country and decide to return to their home country. This will be a huge loss for the US. OUTSPOKEN SCIENTIST SAYS: “AMERICA HAS A Secret Weapon – H1B or ‘Genius Visa!'” [VIDEO]
- As an Asian, one of the minority groups in US, we are betrayed by the Democratic Party. They are depriving our opportunities to the blacks and Hispanics. College admission should be solely based on academic performance and merit, and if merit is affected by economic status, then also give more opportunities to students of poor families. This has nothing to do with race, with the color of skin. In California the SCA-5 act is basically like "If two students have the same SAT score and same household income, one is Asian and one is Hispanic, the Hispanic kid will get the offer." Nothing is more racist than this, and this "affirmative action" is exactly what the Democratic Party wants.
- I am in a very liberal college that almost everyone supports Bernie Sanders. I am the only one who claim to support Donald Trump in public, and this has caused tension with me and other students. Not only the students, but also the school officials tried to silence me because they think my voice would "create hostility on campus". I have never verbally abused anyone, but the liberal students are attacking me with the dirtiest words they have in their vocabulary. The school is still blaming me for "stirring the tranquil water". If the liberals still dominate our educational system, both our 1st and 2nd amendment will be gone. The Republicans, no matter you like Trump or not, have to be united and protect our rights from being deprived by those liberals. If we lose this election, 13 million more popular votes will be added to the Democratic Party in 2020, and the Republican Party and the conservative movement will lose FOREVER!
The great thing about Donald Trump is that no matter what position you espouse...Donald Trump has held both sides of that position. An evangelicals gut reaction to this should be dissonance.
He might have been global cooling, he might now be global warming, so let's call him Climate Change and make sure we cover our bases.
Understand I am grateful to Trump for some of the things he has done. My patriotic friends make valid arguments about why they support him, including:
- Absolutely wrecking the media at every turn.
- Disrupting & embarrassing the establishment republican donors and consultants.
- He seems to understand that illegal invasion can destroy a sovereign country. Even some european countries are now sealing their borders. This should be an issue that will galvanize Americans.
However I realize that the only reason these things need to happen is because evangelicals, who are taught that civic duty is a God given responsibility, have collectively been asleep at the wheel for decades.
The right leaning demographic is the largest voting block in the country and would never lose an election if they were unified in message and purpose.
Sadly an evangelical is now someone who doesn't consistently vote with their core principles, or support a Christian "evangelical" ideology. You can make early comparisons to what has become of the now reliable "secular jewish vote" on the left.
Evidence?
TRADEOFF
Here are some of the values not usually prized by evangelicals that are ignored with the Trumpster:
- Abortion - check
- Amnesty - check (until mid 2013 anyway)
- Profanity - check
- Publicly boasting about infidelity - check
- Mocking POWs - check (I am no fan of McCain)
- Fraud - check (referring to Trump U.)
- Political Bribes - check
- Praised by Harry Reid and Jimmy Carter - check
- Reference to Two Corinthians - Check (Obama's bible quote about glass houses was better, but still)
- Apophasis - check (Huckabee was guilty of this as well)
The list could get pretty long, but it tells us much more about what an evangelical ISN'T than what Trump IS.
"He cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep"
I don't consider myself a bigot, if you are using the simple definition of bigot, a person who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people or ideologies. As a disclaimer, I strongly dislike criminals. I don't think that's unfair, especially when their crimes affect everyone eventually, even if the effect on me is just to raise the taxes needed to fund the law enforcement offices, court systems, and prison, jail and rehabilitation facilities.
That being said, I think Trump has been labeled a bigot unfairly. He has advocated preventing persons entering our country illegally, and enforcing current immigration law. His comment that a large percentage of those persons illegally entering here commit a disproportionate number of criminal acts is accurate. 20% of the felons in our penal institutions illegally entered our country. If in fact we only have 12 million illegals in the US that is a very large percentage of those illegals committing crimes serious enough to mandate prison terms, especially when many illegals committing crimes here are just deported, instead of being incarcerated. Those would not be included in that 20% figure.
Trump also said that refugees from countries with terrorist organizations should be prevented from entering this country until we can have some assurance they are truly refugees, and not terrorists. I don't think that is unreasonable or unfair, especially when very rich countries like Saudi Arabia have taken in virtually no refugees.
I am supporting Trump in part because he wants our current immigration laws enforced and wants to prevent illegals from entering our country. I was raised in New Mexico and have several relatives that are Hispanic and a few that are a combination of Hispanic/Caucasian/Black. I love them all. But then again, they are all legal citizens of this country. I think that loving and wanting to protect your family members from criminals and terrorists does not mean you are a bigot.
I also support Trump because I am tired of political correctness degrading the quality of our lives by forcing people to accept behavior that most people find objectionable. I believe in tolerance, not in forcing people to accept as normal those things we know are not normal. For instance: Men who think they should be a woman being allowed free access to the women's bathrooms and locker rooms.
If that is bigoted, then probably 80% of Americans are bigots. More likely 99%, but there are a few people who won't admit their true feelings. Trump Boosted By Party-Switching, Mid-West Democrats, So Racism, Sneers NY Times
Anonymous
Answered 14 Jun 2016
I support him. WHY? Because he does NOT follow the POLICY OF APPEASEMENT.
It is a great privilege that they (killed) died by the hands of the followers of Allah..
These were the words of the teacher teaching a class of almost entirely of non-muslim students.
Result- Students showed marginal protest. Some even complained to the principle.
Action- Status quo … no action.
Why? Because my country is a secular country. And we are taught to tolerate. If any action is taken against the teacher, it would make news for he is a minority Muslim. Media would get critical shouting the same “religion has no terrorism”and Dear politicians would come forward to protect the rights of the Muslims in the society.
Result- Students showed marginal protest. Some even complained to the principle.
Action- Status quo … no action.
Why? Because my country is a secular country. And we are taught to tolerate. If any action is taken against the teacher, it would make news for he is a minority Muslim. Media would get critical shouting the same “religion has no terrorism”and Dear politicians would come forward to protect the rights of the Muslims in the society.
Just few hundred kilometers away, there is another country.. a high contrast nation… where incidents like these are very common to happen.
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