Reasons People Vote Trump

[ajax18]

Are you sure you would like Nikki Haley's policies. The establishment GOP wanted to privatize social security and maybe even phase it out. Trump understood this was a political impossibility.

Actually, my question was: why do conservative Christians insist on Trump rather go with somebody without the "personality" liabilities like Haley? It wasn't whether I, as an atheist libertarian, would vote for Haley. So are you saying that an example of a Trump policy that earns the conservative Christian vote is his position not to change social security?

I think Canpakes has your number on that, but, assuming this is your position, that Trump isn't touching social security, and that's why Christians need Donald Trump instead of Haley, I think we should consider what you actually just said.

You didn't say that Trump believes in social security, you said he knows it's a political impossibility. Why is that? Lots of old people may get scared and not vote for him if their benefits are touched. What is Trump about more than anything else? To secure his power through election fraud and placing incompetent yes-people into institutional positions who will do his bidding, no matter how illegal or stupid it is. To personally use the DOJ to go after his enemies. Once he's successful, what is it that Trump doesn't need anymore? Anybody's votes. Once he doesn't need to compromise to stay in power, your own words suggest he will then chop up social security however he feels like it.

The accusation that Trump will lock up his political opponents is pretty rich coming from Democrats who have already done just that.

[ajax18]

Are you sure you would like Nikki Haley's policies. The establishment GOP wanted to privatize social security and maybe even phase it out. Trump understood this was a political impossibility.

Actually, my question was: why do conservative Christians insist on Trump rather go with somebody without the "personality" liabilities like Haley? It wasn't whether I, as an atheist libertarian, would vote for Haley. So are you saying that an example of a Trump policy that earns the conservative Christian vote is his position not to change social security?

I think Canpakes has your number on that, but, assuming this is your position, that Trump isn't touching social security, and that's why Christians need Donald Trump instead of Haley, I think we should consider what you actually just said.

You didn't say that Trump believes in social security, you said he knows it's a political impossibility. Why is that? Lots of old people may get scared and not vote for him if their benefits are touched. What is Trump about more than anything else? To secure his power through election fraud and placing incompetent yes-people into institutional positions who will do his bidding, no matter how illegal or stupid it is. To personally use the DOJ to go after his enemies. Once he's successful, what is it that Trump doesn't need anymore? Anybody's votes. Once he doesn't need to compromise to stay in power, your own words suggest he will then chop up social security however he feels like it.

Canpakes is right. I hope Trump does phase out social security. I hate it. But he won't do that to his older supporters who have already had their forced retirement savings stolen. I can compromise on that if it wins the election.

I'm not sure what you're scared of? No taxpayer funded gender reassignment surgery for criminals or illegal immigrants? No forcing Catholic charities to pay for abortions? No puberty blockers without parental consent? No social security? You're going to be working till you drop anyway. Why do you want to pay social security tax as you toil away through your golden years?

[Brack]

Who is Trump insulting and exactly what policies are ruining peoples lives?

Trump's plan for tariffs will very likely reignite inflation. Link
https://thehill.com/business/4945577-tr ... omy-trade/

[Gadianton]

I see, so you still can't point to a specific Trump policy that makes Trump necessary as opposed to a candidate without all the baggage. Didn't think so.

I'm left with my continuing belief that Trump supporters support him because of his unhinged personality and his aspirations to to be dictator for their culture war.

(by the way, there's a difference between prosecuting actual crimes that happened and repeatedly provoking and threatening ones staff and fellow world leaders to manufacture evidence for crimes against one's political opponents, or just threats to jail ones opponents just 'cuz.)

[Res Ipsa]

Who is Trump insulting and exactly what policies are ruining peoples lives?

Trump's plan for tariffs will very likely reignite inflation. Link
https://thehill.com/business/4945577-tr ... omy-trade/

The four keystones of Trumpenomics are highly inflationary. Tariffs raise the price of the foreign goods that are subject to the tariffs. Right now, the primary tariffs are chips, batteries, and EVs, to avoid the US from being 100% dependent on China for those goods. That’s coupled with investing in those same areas. I’m not a fan of tariffs, but at least they have some rationale when we’re talking about growing production of specific goods.

Go to your local Walmart. Start checking where all that stuff for sale is made. Now tack on 20%. That will be your Trump tax. And that will permeate through everything, just like the oil shock did in 2021.

But it’s worse than that. Our trading partners will retaliate to protect their own industries. And that will put American companies out of business. You want to go back to entrenched 10% stagflation? That’s the way to do it.

Second, more tax cuts when the economy is running fine. Inflationary.

Third, mass deportation of workers. Housing costs are already astronomical in many areas of the country. So, take away the trade labor that builds those houses. If the roofing trades have to pay more for labor. House prices go up.

Fourth, artificially holding down interest rates. The Fed smooths out the boom and bust of the business cycle by controlling interest rates and the money supply. It worked like it was supposed to following the 2021 inflation spike. But Trump has been mouthing off about the Fed not doing the right thing (I.e., making Trump look good). He wants control and he could get it directly from Congress or indirectly, through threats. Keeping interest rates artificially low is also inflationary.

Trump seems to think he’s discovered a way to make other countries pay for the cost of government — raise tariffs and eliminate taxes. Wow! What a very stable genius! There’s a reason why the last major use of tariffs in the US was over 150 years ago — they make both us and our trading partners worse off.

But that won’t matter. No matter how bad the economy gets, we can count on our friends Ajax to blame some Communist somewhere.

[canpakes]

I'm not sure what you're scared of? No taxpayer funded gender reassignment surgery for criminals or illegal immigrants? No forcing Catholic charities to pay for abortions? No puberty blockers without parental consent? No social security?

ajax, federal rules mandating that necessary gender-affirming care is provided to transgender prisoners has been in place since the beginning of the last Trump Administration. It isn’t an automatically-conferred benefit. So far, the number of inmates under Bureau of Prisons authority that have been provided with gender-related surgery is … 2.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/16/us/p ... arris.html#

I’m pretty sure that Catholic Charities organizations have not been forced to pay for abortions due to their protection under the 1st Amendment, with the only relevant challenge to that being from the State of NY directed to the Diocese of Albany, in an ongoing court case that even the Supreme Court punted on a few years ago -

https://catholicvote.org/catholic-dioce ... e-mandate/

Perhaps the last significant scandal related to this subject was when the Federal Government investigated Virginia-based Commonwealth Catholic Charities for helping an immigrant obtain an abortion, in 2008 -

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna25285412

Puberty blockers aren’t going to change Jane into John, or vice versa. They don’t work that way. There are few States that allow these to be prescribed for minors without parental consent, and there are specific situations and rules governing when and how that can occur within those States -

General information: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-con ... t-20459075

State of Washington example; rules on when minors can be given puberty blockers without parental consent: https://www.washingtonlawhelp.org/resou ... 20services.

I’m not sure how Trump has managed to con anyone into believing that any of these are actual threats dire enough to put him back into office, so that he can suck more government dollars from taxpayer pockets and into his golf resorts and family’s bank accounts. Is MAGA really so afraid of 2 transgender federal prisoners, a court in NY, and some homeless teens delaying puberty that they let these things overrule common sense to the point of slavishly believing everything said by a convicted fraudster and grifting con artist that spends his time trying to sell Chinese bibles, cheap-ass sneakers, worthless ‘trading cards’ and crypto scams to his voting base?

Ajax, I have to think that in your heart of hearts, you know that if he’s elected, Trump will never follow through with a serious effort to deport any significant number of illegal residents. He’ll make some bluster about it, enough to get the MAGA base all excited and happy over the possibility of seeing brown families tossed into trucks and hauled away, while grifters like Lara, Candace, Bannon and Carlson cash in on the supposed coming attractions. But, no matter how much Stephen Miller hides in a dark corner of the White House aggressively rubbing himself against his desk trying to massage his little Nazi trouser soldier to a remigration ejaculation over the possibilities, the whole scheme just isn’t going to move past basic court challenges and administrative incompetence. It’ll just be an expensive boondoggle that you’ll pay for first and make excuses for later, after Trump figures out a way to monetize his half-hearted effort to further enrich himself.

That’s my bet. Bookmark this post. If I’m wrong, I’ll buy you a MAGA hat that isn’t made in China.

One thing’s for certain, though - Trump would be able to impose some exciting new tariffs that will make everything much more expensive for you. But, if Trump’s the one either picking or draining your wallet, maybe you’ll consider it a privilege and an honor.

[Res Ipsa]

I did some research into the legal issues involved in gender reassignment surgeries for prisoners or detainees. The eighth amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, requires a certain standard of medical care for people that the government takes into custody. That’s black letter constitutional law. The state doesn’t get to execute a prisoner who has a burst appendix by letting him die.

I won’t go into the detail of the standard, but the question of the conditions under which gender reassignment surgery is constitutionally required is percolating through the courts. Suffice it to say that it’s not something an inmate gets on demand. Even a diagnosis of gender dysphoria is not sufficient. Even a case of dysphoria for which gender reassignment surgery would meet the standard of care for medical treatment is insufficient. The cases involve gender dysphoria that causes multiple suicide attempts or other serious self-harm. Those situations are pretty rare, which is why we see a total of two in the federal prison system.

I’d lay odds that the cost to taxpayers per year would be less than the cost of the Secret Service staying at Trump’s resorts on his golf trips. But Trans-people are icky and unnatural and sinful and the economy is actually going quite well, which is why Trump’s closing argument is Transhysteria. In the last week, his campaign has spent 5 million dollars on TV ads about the economy and nearly 30 million on Trans hating ads. https://www.thebulwark.com/p/Trump-goes ... anti-trans Other MAGA politicians who tried the strategy got burned. I guess bullying doesn’t always pay off. We’ll see.

ETA: In a recent Gallup poll, of 22 issues in this election, the economy was number one. Gender reassignment surgery for prisoners was dead last.

[Res Ipsa]

I see, so you still can't point to a specific Trump policy that makes Trump necessary as opposed to a candidate without all the baggage. Didn't think so.

I'm left with my continuing belief that Trump supporters support him because of his unhinged personality and his aspirations to to be dictator for their culture war.

(by the way, there's a difference between prosecuting actual crimes that happened and repeatedly provoking and threatening ones staff and fellow world leaders to manufacture evidence for crimes against one's political opponents, or just threats to jail ones opponents just 'cuz.)

A gentle reminder, Dean Robbers, that in MAGA land, prosecuting a Republican for actually breaking a law is political persecution, while prosecuting a Democrat for not breaking the law is Justice.

[Moksha]

The accusation that Trump will lock up his political opponents is pretty rich coming from Democrats who have already done just that.

Is this like the Say the Opposite game? Is it to minimize Trump's statements?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

The accusation that Trump will lock up his political opponents is pretty rich coming from Democrats who have already done just that.

Is this like the Say the Opposite game? Is it to minimize Trump's statements?

You just unlocked MAGA2.0.