Some of what I have heard from Donald Trump is viscerally pleasing. His immigration reform and border control policies are exactly what I want to hear from a candidate. Well…actually….just some of it, if I ignore the really stupid parts like making Mexico pay for the wall, and creating a minimum wage for H1B visa holders. And the pie-in-the-sky parts about improving community safety and how we deal with poor kids is just political blather.
Refugee program for American children. Increase standards for the admission of refugees and asylum-seekers to crack down on abuses. Use the monies saved on expensive refugee programs to help place American children without parents in safer homes and communities, and to improve community safety in high crime neighborhoods in the United States.
His other position papers are superb. Really good stuff. Well, at least that’s what all of his supporters tell me, because I have never read them because they do not exist. His website has a tab for “Positions,” with a grand total of one topic. And that concerns me greatly. I want a nice detailed description of what the candidates are thinking about a myriad of topics. Bluster and anecdotes and reminiscences about the supermodels he has banged are entertaining, and red meat for his supporters, but I want to know more about his political philosophy, which right now seems like a cross between Hughie Huey Long and George Pataki.
What really concerns me is his conspicuous lack of discussion about the rule of law as it applies to the chief executive. I have seen the results of almost seven years of a president who is comfortable sidestepping, or running roughshod over, the legal and constitutional structures controlling government.
I do not want a president who is comfortable with “getting things done” at the expense of the very laws that limit those things to that which has been approved by the legislative branch. I do not want a president who acts as if he were the only arbiter of the correctness of his decisions. I do not want a president who is transparently narcissistic, who is absolutely convinced of the brilliance of his thoughts, and sees others as impediments to success.
We have one right now, and I don’t like it.
So, until Donald Trump articulates his policies about the important issues of the day, I will continue to be extremely skeptical of his candidacy. Do I like some of what he does? Oh, absolutely. The thumb-in-the-eye to the GOP is an everyday delight. His careful anti-PC tone is amusing and needed. But that’s not enough. I want to hear how he will deal with our burgeoning regulatory state, how he will repair the damage done to our relationships across the globe, how he will rein in a Justice Department that is out of control and overtly racist, who he will nominate for the Supreme Court, how he will repair our armed forces.
It’s a tough job being president, and while I relish the thought of an executive with experience outside of government, Donald Trump (unlike Fiorina, the other business(wo)man in the mix) has rarely had to answer to anyone, except the bankruptcy courts. I want to see how he deals with co-equal branches of government that might not be supportive of what he wants to do.
Will he support and defend the Constitution of The United States, or will he act as he has so often in the past, willfully and without regard for anyone or anything other than his base self-interest.
It’s “Huey” P. Long.
CBD, I admit I’m just going by the ol’ gut instinct here, but Trump has already shown that he can learn to be effective in more than one field, and I suspect he can apply the same abilities to the presidency.
For me, at least, he doesn’t start out despising over half the country’s citizens and preferring the company of traitors, terrorists, religious extremists and race-baiters. Those strengths are enough for starters.
I have no doubt that should Trump wander off the Constitutional reservation, Congress will slap him down speedy-speedy. He does not, after all, have the cloak of being from the Preferred Race going for him; neither does he have — as far as I’ve seen, anyway — the slavering, uncritical adoration from the public.
In short, he’s going to be judged by the same legal, moral and ethical standards applicable to almost all presidents (except Choom Boy and Bubba Clinton). He will have to keep his nose clean.
You ask: “will he act as he has so often in the past, willfully and without regard for anyone or anything other than his base self-interest?” Maybe, but if he does, he’ll pay for it. And — my opinion, again — he has no history as a serial law-breaker. At worst, he has on occasion been a law-bender.
Ah…you’re one of those swamp people, so I guess you should know!
[Thanks]
I wish I could be as sanguine about Congress as you, but they have demonstrated a total lack of intestinal fortitude about absolutely everything in the past several years.
I think a President Trump will run them over with very little effort.
As I have often stated, I like Trump’s presence in the race more than support him as a candidate.
That said, he is upsetting the plans of the GOP-e and their stooge candidates while elevating the conservative and outsider candidates.
We’ll just have to wait and see if he implodes over the next 11 months to see if he implodes before the convention and then if (big “if”) he gets the nod, if I will vote for him.
So far, I like what he’s doing and I’ll probably vote for him if he does indeed get the nod.
When you come down to the nut of the thing, one of the best things about Trump is the people who hate him: can a guy who is despised and vilified by such Stalwart Conservatives as Ed “Poppin’ Fresh” Morrissey, George Will, Jonah Goldberg and Bill Kristol (not to mention the never-popular Club For Growth) be such a bad dude?
He is the only candidate I can remember who makes both Democrats and Establishment Republicans break out in hives. That makes me happy; he’s doing what I would do if I could.
Now, if he does the OTHER things I would do if I could, like closing the borders, straightening out the mess illegals have caused, protect the Constitution and make government our servant again, I predict a pretty rosy future for the lad!
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