My cousin Bill just pointed out that an anti-Trump meme I posted on Facebook was mostly clickbait. I took the challenge. You’ll note that I put in the full URLS instead of making links. That’s because I want everyone to see where and who is saying things.
This time I did my homework direct. I read what Trump says about his positions, at https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions
I absolutely disagree with:
- The notion of building a 2,000 mile wall between the US and Mexico.
- The idea that everyone should have easy access to guns.
- His sexism and racism.
- The fact that he lies. A lot. More than Hilary. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/lists/people/comparing-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-truth-o-met/
First, the wall., He still plans to make Mexico pay for a wall between our countries. He explains how he plans to do that, and I have no way to refute that. I just think that it’s a really odd, not to say crazy, idea. The border is 1,989 miles, according to https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/578/~/border-in-miles. That’s a major engineering project. There has to be a smarter way to stop illegal immigration from Mexico.
Second, he interprets the Second Amendment as permitting everyone in the U.S to own a gun. This, in my opinion, does not deal with the problems that entails. Without strong background checks and mandatory training, people use guns irresponsibly. The police agree. http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=2859&issue_id=22013
As part of that section, Trump says: “We need to get serious about prosecuting violent criminals. The Obama administration’s record on that is abysmal. Violent crime in cities like Baltimore, Chicago and many others is out of control. “
The FBI statistics note that violent crime has been dropping in the last 20 years. It also describes how their statistics have to take into account the higher crime rates in places with a lot of poverty—like Chicago and Baltimore.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014
So Trump does not agree with either the opinion of police chiefs, or the FBI’s statistics. To me, that means he does not care about actual facts.
Third. I find Trump’s racism and sexism a deal killer. This is 2016. Of course, the changes of the past 20 years have upset a lot of people, who find women and black people in positions of power to be scary and wrong. But those things are here to stay. Also, it will take a lot of time and money to keep every single Muslim out of the US. And it’s racist, as in all Muslims are evil.
Here are some facts about his racism and sexism. Forbes is not exactly a leftist magazine. http://fortune.com/2016/06/07/donald-trump-racism-quotes/
Okay, most European countries, except Russia, don’t like Trump, but can anyone prove he didn’t say these things? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-sexism-tracker-every-offensive-comment-in-one-place/
Fourth, his tax plan. Essentially, he slightly lowers the rate on lower income people, which is now between 10 and 15%, to 12%. So those folks will do the math and decide they come out ahead.
Then he sets a 33% rate on everyone making over $225K.
That includes the CEO who makes $18 billion per year. (https://www.statnews.com/2016/08/24/epipen-mylan-bresch/)
Is lowering the tax rate on the 1% going to “trickle down” and create jobs? There are a lot of arguments against the trickle-down theory?
–It has created painful income inequality. https://www.thebalance.com/the-big-squeeze-3306203
–Money groups oppose it, such as the IMF and Forbes.
https://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/is-the-imf-dismantling-trickle-down-economics/
Here’s a “pro” trickle-down argument, but I find it kind of weak. As in, just wait longer, youse guys. http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-calls-it-fairy-dust-trickle-down-does-work-economist-art-laffer-says
Finally, the economy. I do somewhat agree with Trump that the NAFTA and TPP agreements have had a bad effect on middle and lower class jobs. However, that, I think, is because companies have discovered that moving their jobs overseas is cheaper.
But. He says that “Our trade deficit in goods is almost $800 billion on an annual basis.” I wanted to check that fact, because places like Snopes and FactCheck regularly report that Trump lies a lot.
The U.S. Census site is hard to follow. So I found http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/balance-of-trade And read about them. It’s clear to me that they want to provide accurate data for businesses all over the world. They say:
“The trade gap in the United States declined to USD 39.47 billion in July of 2016 from an upwardly revised USD 44.66 billion deficit in the previous month and below market expectations of a USD 42.7 billion shortfall.”
Okay, economics is not my strong point. But $800 billion isn’t even close to $40 billion. Let me know if he’s using some other data model. Otherwise, we’ll go back to Trump lies too much for me.