BlueMoonAcrossThePond
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 27 Oct 2020
- Messages
- 5,980
- Team supported
- Manchester City
If you're a conservative, Trump did much to advance policies to your liking. Though I disagree with many of those policies, Trump's conservative positions are not the reason why I, and numerous other Americans, detest him.
Below, I enumerate Trump's worst traits - from my perspective - attempting to order them from most egregious to less so:
1) Trump is an inveterate liar.
For example, upon election Trump proclaimed that he had the largest audience in history attending his inauguration; whereas photographic evidence clearly shows otherwise.
Unfortunately, Trump's lies are far more insidious than simple mistruths. Coming from the President of the United States and backed by his party and news outlets such as Fox, Trump created an environment where truth no longer matters.
Outlets loyal to Trump will convey whatever message Trump wants and label the message as "gospel truth" regardless of veracity - and an overwhelming majority of his base will believe him.
Trump succeeded in labeling most of the free press as "fake news."
Many Americans now get their news from opinion pieces broadcast by Fox/Breitbart/Parlor and the like; opinion, however, is not news - but this distinction is lost on Trump adherents.
As a result, we now have - in America - approximately 50% of the population believing in falsehoods promulgated by right-leaning media regardless of truth.
This is disastrous!
If the populace cannot agree about what is true and what is not - then rational decision making is impossible.
Rational, science-based decisions are immediately important with regard to the Covid pandemic.
And more important still - for policy with regard to climate change.
Trump has so poisoned truth and the belief in science, that Americans will make extremely poor choices in matters of national/global importance simply because fact-based reasoning is impossible.
2) Trump cares nothing for Democracy at all and simply wants to extend his hold on power by whatever means possible.
He did his best to circumvent the peaceful transfer of power following a fair election by means legal (court cases) illegal (pressuring election officials to "find" votes for him) and treasonous (IMO Trump knew full well that the crowd he gathered on January 6 would riot and break into the Capitol).
In this same vein Trump pressured the Ukrainian Government to "look into" Hunter Biden and withdrew $400 million in military aide until/unless the Ukrainians found "evidence" of some sort of Hunter Biden complicity/wrongdoing.
In short, Trump abused the power of his office time and again simply to amplify his chance at reelection.
3) Trump sows division whenever possible.
He portrays any opponent of his in the worst possible light and attacks him or her or them relentlessly. Too, Trump rarely criticizes any group/person however radical who supports him.
Proud Boys - "Stand back, and stand by" - he exclaimed on national stage - this statement later became a slogan for the Proud Boys and was seen as a sign of support among its members - 100% intentional on the part of Trump. A wink and a nod to white supremacists, but vague enough to later deny intent and accountability.
In short, Trump thrives by sowing hatred among Americans - making it ever harder for conservatives and liberals to agree on anything.
4) Trump is unfit for office.
Trump doesn't care about running the country. At all. He's simply concerned about ratings and reelection.
To wit - his mixed messaging/failure to address the Corona virus. On the one hand he's all in with a "warp speed" vaccination effort - on the other, he's all in with the built-in conservative resistance to do anything at all for the public good if it's inconvenient - wearing masks? - not necessary - social distancing - ridiculous - Free Michigan - Free Pennsylvania - and so on.
But his Corona virus response is just the tip of the iceberg.
On foreign policy, Trump has no clue whatsoever. He let North Korea hoodwink him into pursuing their nuclear program unopposed. He tore up an (admittedly less than optimal) multi-nation agreement with Iran to stop their nuclear program. What happened as a result? - Iran became even more confrontational and resumed pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Trump is so inept - and frankey dangerous - that an unprecedented number of members of Trump's own cabinet reached the conclusion that Trump is unfit for office and have publically gone on record with this opinion. It even came to the point where cabinet officials were contemplating the invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.
As reported in the press - Trump simply doesn't study policy decisions - and will radically change his mind from one position to the next based on whomsoever last spoke with him.
Then there's the Lincoln Project.
And the genesis of a group of traditional Republicans to break off and form a new party - and so forth.
Never, ever, in my 50-odd years on earth have I witnessed such an intra-party rebuke/rejection of an elected President.
5) Trump is immoral
He cares nothing whatsoever except for himself and for promotion of same.
He has sex with other women - on multiple occasions - while married.
He regards women as sex objects - on tape.
He regards Americans who fought in wars past as "losers." Trump was eligible for draft during the Vietnam war - but avoided the draft 5 times - once for "bone spurs" in his feet (in spite of being healthy, young and athletic). By all accounts he found a doctor willing to diagnose him with this condition making him ineligible for the draft.
He's racist (or at the least is willing to promote racist ideas to further his political ambitions).
Muslims - ban them from entering the country.
Mexicans (a slight on South Americans in general) - bad Hombres. Stop those Mexicans from entering the country - and hope for more Norwegians to migrate.
African Americans - consider the Charlottesville incident - "very fine people on both sides." Whereas one side consisted of white supremacists.
Asians - Trump referred to Covid-19 as "The Chinese Flu;" at the same time Trump loyalist and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway labeled the outbreak as "Kung Flu." Very cute - and tacitly racist.
Perhaps some blame for the outbreak lies with the Chinese government - but officials need to be very careful with their words. A very few top-ranking Chinese officials might have contributed to the outcome of the pandemic - but this is a far cry from blaming all Chinese let alone all asians for this disaster; the common folk had nothing whatsoever to do with the pandemic.
===
Lest you think that I'm some sort of radical leftist, I'll leave you with this.
Up until Trump was elected I was a staunch conservative and supported the Regan and both Bushs' Presidencies; too, I very much liked Nixon.
But Trump was off-scale, massively wrong for me in all five points outlined above.
And - full disclosure - I've become less and less conservative as time goes by. I'd classify my politics at this point in my life as centrist Democrat.
===
I hope that this long post of mine will be read by some few Trump Republicans who are perhaps a little uncomfortable in their support for the ex-President. Perhaps - I hope - my post will at least convince a few such to question the wisdom of supporting an immoral individual for the office of President who is both unfit for office and further, who will actively undermine Democracy simply to remain in power.
For those so inclined, please find a moral, trustworth, capable conservative to advance your cause. Who knows? - I might even end up voting for such a candidate; but never, ever, will I vote for Trump or those of his ilk.
Below, I enumerate Trump's worst traits - from my perspective - attempting to order them from most egregious to less so:
1) Trump is an inveterate liar.
For example, upon election Trump proclaimed that he had the largest audience in history attending his inauguration; whereas photographic evidence clearly shows otherwise.
Unfortunately, Trump's lies are far more insidious than simple mistruths. Coming from the President of the United States and backed by his party and news outlets such as Fox, Trump created an environment where truth no longer matters.
Outlets loyal to Trump will convey whatever message Trump wants and label the message as "gospel truth" regardless of veracity - and an overwhelming majority of his base will believe him.
Trump succeeded in labeling most of the free press as "fake news."
Many Americans now get their news from opinion pieces broadcast by Fox/Breitbart/Parlor and the like; opinion, however, is not news - but this distinction is lost on Trump adherents.
As a result, we now have - in America - approximately 50% of the population believing in falsehoods promulgated by right-leaning media regardless of truth.
This is disastrous!
If the populace cannot agree about what is true and what is not - then rational decision making is impossible.
Rational, science-based decisions are immediately important with regard to the Covid pandemic.
And more important still - for policy with regard to climate change.
Trump has so poisoned truth and the belief in science, that Americans will make extremely poor choices in matters of national/global importance simply because fact-based reasoning is impossible.
2) Trump cares nothing for Democracy at all and simply wants to extend his hold on power by whatever means possible.
He did his best to circumvent the peaceful transfer of power following a fair election by means legal (court cases) illegal (pressuring election officials to "find" votes for him) and treasonous (IMO Trump knew full well that the crowd he gathered on January 6 would riot and break into the Capitol).
In this same vein Trump pressured the Ukrainian Government to "look into" Hunter Biden and withdrew $400 million in military aide until/unless the Ukrainians found "evidence" of some sort of Hunter Biden complicity/wrongdoing.
In short, Trump abused the power of his office time and again simply to amplify his chance at reelection.
3) Trump sows division whenever possible.
He portrays any opponent of his in the worst possible light and attacks him or her or them relentlessly. Too, Trump rarely criticizes any group/person however radical who supports him.
Proud Boys - "Stand back, and stand by" - he exclaimed on national stage - this statement later became a slogan for the Proud Boys and was seen as a sign of support among its members - 100% intentional on the part of Trump. A wink and a nod to white supremacists, but vague enough to later deny intent and accountability.
In short, Trump thrives by sowing hatred among Americans - making it ever harder for conservatives and liberals to agree on anything.
4) Trump is unfit for office.
Trump doesn't care about running the country. At all. He's simply concerned about ratings and reelection.
To wit - his mixed messaging/failure to address the Corona virus. On the one hand he's all in with a "warp speed" vaccination effort - on the other, he's all in with the built-in conservative resistance to do anything at all for the public good if it's inconvenient - wearing masks? - not necessary - social distancing - ridiculous - Free Michigan - Free Pennsylvania - and so on.
But his Corona virus response is just the tip of the iceberg.
On foreign policy, Trump has no clue whatsoever. He let North Korea hoodwink him into pursuing their nuclear program unopposed. He tore up an (admittedly less than optimal) multi-nation agreement with Iran to stop their nuclear program. What happened as a result? - Iran became even more confrontational and resumed pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Trump is so inept - and frankey dangerous - that an unprecedented number of members of Trump's own cabinet reached the conclusion that Trump is unfit for office and have publically gone on record with this opinion. It even came to the point where cabinet officials were contemplating the invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.
As reported in the press - Trump simply doesn't study policy decisions - and will radically change his mind from one position to the next based on whomsoever last spoke with him.
Then there's the Lincoln Project.
And the genesis of a group of traditional Republicans to break off and form a new party - and so forth.
Never, ever, in my 50-odd years on earth have I witnessed such an intra-party rebuke/rejection of an elected President.
5) Trump is immoral
He cares nothing whatsoever except for himself and for promotion of same.
He has sex with other women - on multiple occasions - while married.
He regards women as sex objects - on tape.
He regards Americans who fought in wars past as "losers." Trump was eligible for draft during the Vietnam war - but avoided the draft 5 times - once for "bone spurs" in his feet (in spite of being healthy, young and athletic). By all accounts he found a doctor willing to diagnose him with this condition making him ineligible for the draft.
He's racist (or at the least is willing to promote racist ideas to further his political ambitions).
Muslims - ban them from entering the country.
Mexicans (a slight on South Americans in general) - bad Hombres. Stop those Mexicans from entering the country - and hope for more Norwegians to migrate.
African Americans - consider the Charlottesville incident - "very fine people on both sides." Whereas one side consisted of white supremacists.
Asians - Trump referred to Covid-19 as "The Chinese Flu;" at the same time Trump loyalist and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway labeled the outbreak as "Kung Flu." Very cute - and tacitly racist.
Perhaps some blame for the outbreak lies with the Chinese government - but officials need to be very careful with their words. A very few top-ranking Chinese officials might have contributed to the outcome of the pandemic - but this is a far cry from blaming all Chinese let alone all asians for this disaster; the common folk had nothing whatsoever to do with the pandemic.
===
Lest you think that I'm some sort of radical leftist, I'll leave you with this.
Up until Trump was elected I was a staunch conservative and supported the Regan and both Bushs' Presidencies; too, I very much liked Nixon.
But Trump was off-scale, massively wrong for me in all five points outlined above.
And - full disclosure - I've become less and less conservative as time goes by. I'd classify my politics at this point in my life as centrist Democrat.
===
I hope that this long post of mine will be read by some few Trump Republicans who are perhaps a little uncomfortable in their support for the ex-President. Perhaps - I hope - my post will at least convince a few such to question the wisdom of supporting an immoral individual for the office of President who is both unfit for office and further, who will actively undermine Democracy simply to remain in power.
For those so inclined, please find a moral, trustworth, capable conservative to advance your cause. Who knows? - I might even end up voting for such a candidate; but never, ever, will I vote for Trump or those of his ilk.
Last edited:
