Donald Trump for president?

[Braivo]

13 hours ago, newtogolf said:

You don't typically change your views on issues like gun ownership and abortion unless you've had a life changing experience, which to my knowledge he hasn't.  If he has changed and is truly a conservative then he'd be near the top of my list.    

More likely, he probably doesn't have terribly strong views on either, so it is easy for him to move a little right without much internal conflict. What he has shown is that he is a man of his word. He keeps promises even if they are detrimental to him. If he says he supports 2A and pro-life causes you can be sure he'll advocate for them in office. He also has a CCW permit from what I understand. 

12 hours ago, Lihu said:

What makes Trump different than everyone else is that I trust that he will do what is good for business and economic prosperity all around.

We can fight abortion and gun control on our own, but we all need a strong economy.

Guns aren't going anywhere, never will. Unfortunately, abortion isn't either. This election isn't about social issues, this is about changing the playing field completely. His immigration and economic proposals will make this country great again, a place where free speech allows everyone to debate the topics of the day. 

[newtogolf]

13 hours ago, Ernest Jones said:

PS: Reagan was a colossal douche bag. 

 

IMO Reagan was the best POTUS our country has had in my lifetime.  He took the mess Carter made and turned things around.  

[Elmer]

On 2/12/2016 at 3:41 PM, Fourputt said:

Why would you think that making America great again would involve rolling back to anywhere?  You take what was was good from previous eras that's still pertinent in today's world, add in what has been improved upon since then, and combine them to move to a level above any of those.  Easy to say, harder to do, but it certainly doesn't involve rolling back to the bad old times.  That really wasn't a well thought out statement.

It was well thought out, the statement was just not well received by you.
Simply put every era has layers and trends. Economic, sociological, cultural, educational, etc....
So simply saying "great again" is generic and disingenuous.
What Does Trump plan to do to make us "great again"?
The problem is for every stride forward there is someone who is being left behind!
You want to teach "intelligent design"? Then you are leaving out the evolution people. You want to leave climate change out of the text books, you are cherry picking science. 
You want to teach evolution, the bible people are not happy!
You want to not afford Trans Gender equal rights, they must take a step back and hide.
You Grant them open equal rights, the more conservatives feel as if they their "rights" are not taken into account.
You want religion and G*d taught in school?  because I dont ! So on a issue like that, only one of us is going to be happy!
 

Plain and simple when you say "America great again" everyone gets an idea of a period or reason why america was great again.
I know people personally who are of the firm belief that America was "great" during their childhood during the 50's and 60's.
However what they fail to realize is that during that time they lived in a bubble. Their lives may have been decent, but that is because they were unaware of the issues that others had to endure.

So what is Trump going to do to make us better? Because my life is pretty good and I would assume the same of those on this forum.
We are not the poor, the downtrodden, the unemployed, the shunned! We get to spent expendable income and free time on a game. We have it much better off than the person who mows the golf course!

[Jeremie Boop]

44 minutes ago, Elmer said:

It was well thought out, the statement was just not well received by you.
Simply put every era has layers and trends. Economic, sociological, cultural, educational, etc....
So simply saying "great again" is generic and disingenuous.
What Does Trump plan to do to make us "great again"?
The problem is for every stride forward there is someone who is being left behind!
You want to teach "intelligent design"? Then you are leaving out the evolution people. You want to leave climate change out of the text books, you are cherry picking science. 
You want to teach evolution, the bible people are not happy!
You want to not afford Trans Gender equal rights, they must take a step back and hide.
You Grant them open equal rights, the more conservatives feel as if they their "rights" are not taken into account.
You want religion and G*d taught in school?  because I dont ! So on a issue like that, only one of us is going to be happy!
 

Plain and simple when you say "America great again" everyone gets an idea of a period or reason why america was great again.
I know people personally who are of the firm belief that America was "great" during their childhood during the 50's and 60's.
However what they fail to realize is that during that time they lived in a bubble. Their lives may have been decent, but that is because they were unaware of the issues that others had to endure.

So what is Trump going to do to make us better? Because my life is pretty good and I would assume the same of those on this forum.
We are not the poor, the downtrodden, the unemployed, the shunned! We get to spent expendable income and free time on a game. We have it much better off than the person who mows the golf course!

So, your life is pretty good, that's fantastic. Mine is pretty good too, however I also know that there are things we need to improve on in our country. Perhaps our country is still "great" but the problem is, it's not as "great" as it once was in many areas. As mention previously, educationally and economically we have slipped far from where we used to be. I don't care about religion in school, considering the only schools I know of that still teach religion are Christian based schools. What I care about is how far we've fallen in math and science. What I care about is our country's continually increasing debt. What I care about is the future of our country, not how good I'm doing right now. Things like Social Security need to be addressed now because they will be of very great importance when I get older.

[Elmer]

9 minutes ago, Jeremie Boop said:

So, your life is pretty good, that's fantastic. Mine is pretty good too, however I also know that there are things we need to improve on in our country. Perhaps our country is still "great" but the problem is, it's not as "great" as it once was in many areas. As mention previously, educationally and economically we have slipped far from where we used to be. I don't care about religion in school, considering the only schools I know of that still teach religion are Christian based schools. What I care about is how far we've fallen in math and science. What I care about is our country's continually increasing debt. What I care about is the future of our country, not how good I'm doing right now. Things like Social Security need to be addressed now because they will be of very great importance when I get older.

We can always improve on alot things. But I would never go as far to say that we are no longer great, or we are a mess as many on the right have indicated.
The problem with education is that 1/2 the people dont want to pay the teachers. The other half object to what is being taught. Dont even get me starter on the attacks on teachers and Teachers unions.
Economy could be a little better, but it appears that Wall Street and business owners like trump are still making lots of money. 
Where the economy needs to be better is for the lower and middle class. Tax breaks for the rich and corporation may bring temporary employment to town, but the middle class is still paying their taxes.
And when the corporation decides they can make more profit by moving the company overseas they are gone and we are left with the unemployment. 
But this is just a part of capitalism. We keep thinking that corporations and stock holders have hearts!
Regarding Debt. We are "fighting terror"!
Every time a republican candidate talks of "fighting terror" or "boots on the ground"  I think of 2 things:
1-why are they so willing to send my kids 1/2 way around the globe to fight!
2-"fighting terror" cost $$$$$$$$$$$$$

I think Trump might be the only republican who would acknowledge Bush's failed Iraq war and the cost!
The rest of those candidates have no issue spending billions towards our military 
and then rationalize the over spending by promising to cut a small entitlement program all in the name of "fighting terror"

[Braivo]

5 minutes ago, Elmer said:

Regarding Debt. We are "fighting terror"!
Every time a republican candidate talks of "fighting terror" or "boots on the ground"  I think of 2 things:
1-why are they so willing to send my kids 1/2 way around the globe to fight!
2-"fighting terror" cost $$$$$$$$$$$$$

I think Trump might be the only republican who would acknowledge Bush's failed Iraq war and the cost!
The rest of those candidates have no issue spending billions towards our military 
and then rationalize the over spending by promising to cut a small entitlement program all in the name of "fighting terror"

Right! Trump is the only candidate not in a hurry to start more foreign wars or get use entangled with Russia in Syria. He doesn't answer to defense contractors that support these wars because they produce a river of demand for them. 

[Lihu]

26 minutes ago, Elmer said:

We can always improve on alot things. But I would never go as far to say that we are no longer great, or we are a mess as many on the right have indicated.
The problem with education is that 1/2 the people dont want to pay the teachers. The other half object to what is being taught. Dont even get me starter on the attacks on teachers and Teachers unions.
Economy could be a little better, but it appears that Wall Street and business owners like trump are still making lots of money. 
Where the economy needs to be better is for the lower and middle class. Tax breaks for the rich and corporation may bring temporary employment to town, but the middle class is still paying their taxes.
And when the corporation decides they can make more profit by moving the company overseas they are gone and we are left with the unemployment. 
But this is just a part of capitalism. We keep thinking that corporations and stock holders have hearts!
Regarding Debt. We are "fighting terror"!
Every time a republican candidate talks of "fighting terror" or "boots on the ground"  I think of 2 things:
1-why are they so willing to send my kids 1/2 way around the globe to fight!
2-"fighting terror" cost $$$$$$$$$$$$$

I think Trump might be the only republican who would acknowledge Bush's failed Iraq war and the cost!
The rest of those candidates have no issue spending billions towards our military 
and then rationalize the over spending by promising to cut a small entitlement program all in the name of "fighting terror"

Everyone wants to pay the teachers more fairly, the only people who don't want to pay teachers more are school administrators. They are designed to fight teachers unions. There are roughly two administrators for every teacher. Does that sound right? That's one of the main reasons why education costs are so high.

Obamacare? That just adds another layer of unnecessary salaries on top of an already overblown medical insurance business. Again, the only people who want to cut doctors' salaries are these administrators who want to "contain" the cost of health care. Of course, they don't want to cut themselves, so they cut doctors fees. It's an integral part of the system.

The main issue I have with our fight with terror is that it is ineffective in its implementation and added many more administrative costs to traveling.

The economy is backwards, because our government is way too big. We need to do something about this ridiculously big government and the overblown "private" administration to service that huge government.

If we continue to add more administration to all our systems then pretty soon those few that find jobs in this country will be working for the government. There will be no private industry because they will all move to China (or abroad somewhere).

[RandallT]

I thought Trump had a shot of putting this election away when he was asked what "conservative" means. He could've said "fidelity to the principles of individual freedom and limited federal powers that are clearly spelled out in our constitution, which have contributed to the free-est and most innovative society in the history of the world."

In my mind, Trump blew it, and he said "conservative" means to conserve what we have, or some such mush. He did mention not spending ourselves into oblivion but he failed to make it clear that he would trim our budgets substantially (or how he might go about it). 

We are broke and it is not in any way charitable to spend money we don't have. 

Our latest budget submission from was for over $4Trillion!!! And we only pull in about $3Trillion per year. Duh. I seriously don't understand the thinking a federal government should be much more than 20% of our GDP. That seems like plenty to me. 

By growing our federal bureaucracy- we inevitably create less freedom for people. I hold that as a self-evident truth. More rules mean less innovation. More power to Washington- and less accountability/responsibility because the bureaucracy is too big to get transparency. It's too slow to investigate who did what wrong, and elections are too infrequent to get any meaning accountability frankly. Yet many think the answer to a dysfunctional federal government (which we all agree exists) is to make the federal government bigger and more intrusive. Duh.

It is not "looking backwards" to insist on restraining the power of any tyrants who might take the reins of power in Washington DC. One good thing to come out of a possible Trump presidency will be that the left will suddenly find clauses in the constitution that limit presidential power. Will be music to my ears.

I sadly voted against Reagan when he was around, not seeing things then the way I do now. I really thought Reagan was a douche then, and I fought hard to see the best in Carter (now I am embarrassed!). Now I look back at Reagan's life and have come to see what a good man he was. None of us are perfect, and certainly I don't worship him, but I cannot think of a more towering figure who represents my beliefs today (other than the religious right stuff which I strongly disagree with), and he did it with grace and clarity. If only Trump were a Reagan. Sadly not so, at all.

[Golfingdad]

1 hour ago, Jeremie Boop said:

So, your life is pretty good, that's fantastic. Mine is pretty good too, however I also know that there are things we need to improve on in our country. Perhaps our country is still "great" but the problem is, it's not as "great" as it once was in many areas. As mention previously, educationally and economically we have slipped far from where we used to be. I don't care about religion in school, considering the only schools I know of that still teach religion are Christian based schools. What I care about is how far we've fallen in math and science. What I care about is our country's continually increasing debt. What I care about is the future of our country, not how good I'm doing right now. Things like Social Security need to be addressed now because they will be of very great importance when I get older.

Aren't these statistics only measured versus other countries?  Are we judging how "great" our education system is based solely on whether or not our kids perform better versus kids from Germany or Japan or elsewhere?  If so, we can't really say that we are less great than we used to be in those areas, can we?  All we can say accurately is that other countries have improved at a rate faster than us.  That is not to suggest that we still can't improve, but it should be kept in perspective.  It's not (necessarily - we could be) that we're taking steps backwards, but simply that we're moving forwards more slowly than some others might be.

[acerimusdux]

2 hours ago, Elmer said:

So simply saying "great again" is generic and disingenuous.
What Does Trump plan to do to make us "great again"?

Hasn't Trump been pretty specific about what he means by it though? There might be others in this race who want to teach religion in schools, oppose the teaching of evolution, oppose the teaching of climate science, etc., but isn't it clear Trump isn't one of them? So why bring all those things into it, when that's clearly not what he means?

Every time he's asked this question, Trump goes directly to economic issues and foreign affairs: bad trade agreements, companies shutting down and moving production overseas, companies hiding profits overseas, the ineptness of the federal government when it comes to enforcing existing immigration laws, the ineptness of the federal government when it comes to taking care of Veterans who have proudly served this country, the ineptness of the federal government when it comes to our negotiations and dealings with foreign adversaries.

You can agree or disagree, but I think this is the stuff he's actually running on.

 

 

[Lihu]

17 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Aren't these statistics only measured versus other countries?  Are we judging how "great" our education system is based solely on whether or not our kids perform better versus kids from Germany or Japan or elsewhere?  If so, we can't really say that we are less great than we used to be in those areas, can we?  All we can say accurately is that other countries have improved at a rate faster than us.  That is not to suggest that we still can't improve, but it should be kept in perspective.  It's not (necessarily - we could be) that we're taking steps backwards, but simply that we're moving forwards more slowly than some others might be.

This is true, but the fact that many more foreign students are accepted (relative to the past) to our best universities than domestic students speaks toward our failure to teach our children in an effective manner. We spend far too much time making new slogans like "common core" instead of actually teaching core concepts to our children.

 

19 minutes ago, RandallT said:

I thought Trump had a shot of putting this election away when he was asked what "conservative" means. He could've said "fidelity to the principles of individual freedom and limited federal powers that are clearly spelled out in our constitution, which have contributed to the free-est and most innovative society in the history of the world."

In my mind, Trump blew it, and he said "conservative" means to conserve what we have, or some such mush. He did mention not spending ourselves into oblivion but he failed to make it clear that he would trim our budgets substantially (or how he might go about it). 

We are broke and it is not in any way charitable to spend money we don't have.

This is more or less what you wanted to see him say, I think he tempered it because a large number of the voters work for the government.

[newtogolf]

14 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Aren't these statistics only measured versus other countries?  Are we judging how "great" our education system is based solely on whether or not our kids perform better versus kids from Germany or Japan or elsewhere?  If so, we can't really say that we are less great than we used to be in those areas, can we?  All we can say accurately is that other countries have improved at a rate faster than us.  That is not to suggest that we still can't improve, but it should be kept in perspective.  It's not (necessarily - we could be) that we're taking steps backwards, but simply that we're moving forwards more slowly than some others might be.

We aren't as great as we used to be.  When we were really great we were leaders.  We had a military that was feared, our economy was 2nd to none, we were independent of other countries in terms of products, oil and food.

Today our military is tired and antiquated (especially the Air Force and Navy), we're not self sufficient, most of our products come from overseas and manufacturing is limited to specialty products and small businesses.  Countries taunt us and make ridicule our leaders.  We seem to negotiate from positions of weakness rather than strength.  

Education wise, we haven't kept pace with other countries and have lost ground to others. If projections are correct the next generation will be the first to have it tougher than their parents.  The children are entitled, expecting to be handed things rather than work for them, the generation of participation trophies.  

I've seen a decline, but I wouldn't want to live in any other country.  We can be as great as we once were, but the attitudes need to change.  The sense of entitlements and free everything has to stop, people need to learn again that they have to work hard for what they want, not expect the government to hand it to them. 

[Lihu]

17 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

We aren't as great as we used to be.  When we were really great we were leaders.  We had a military that was feared, our economy was 2nd to none, we were independent of other countries in terms of products, oil and food.

We were never "independent", we just controlled them with an iron fist.

That kind of thinking is over now, it's all about negotiating fair terms with everyone. This is the main reason why I think Trump is better than any of the career politicians.

[Elmer]

35 minutes ago, RandallT said:

 

I sadly voted against Reagan when he was around, not seeing things then the way I do now. I really thought Reagan was a douche then, and I fought hard to see the best in Carter (now I am embarrassed!). Now I look back at Reagan's life and have come to see what a good man he was. None of us are perfect, and certainly I don't worship him, but I cannot think of a more towering figure who represents my beliefs today (other than the religious right stuff which I strongly disagree with), and he did it with grace and clarity. If only Trump were a Reagan. Sadly not so, at all.

One good thing that can be said about Carter is he lives what he believes. I think he has been the most Christian President and continues to donate his time and ability in a manner that Jebus would be proud of.
His administration was a dumpster fire!

As a far as Reagan goes, the Iran Contra thing never sat well with me. If the selling of arms occured without his knowledge, he either was not running a tight ship or should have prosecuted Casper Wienburger for Treason!
Can you imagine what they would say about Obama if someone in his administration had sold weapons to a foreign country without his knowledge.

If Trump becomes POTUS he would have 200 executive orders in the 1st 48 hours.

 

[Lihu]

1 minute ago, Elmer said:

One good thing that can be said about Carter is he lives what he believes. I think he has been the most Christian President and continues to donate his time and ability in a manner that Jebus would be proud of.
His administration was a dumpster fire!

As a far as Reagan goes, the Iran Contra thing never sat well with me. If the selling of arms occured without his knowledge, he either was not running a tight ship or should have prosecuted Casper Wienburger for Treason!
Can you imagine what they would say about Obama if someone in his administration had sold weapons to a foreign country without his knowledge.

If Trump becomes POTUS he would have 200 executive orders in the 1st 48 hours.

 

Who knows if this is not happening or not? I'm sure the oval office learned their lesson from Iran-Contra, don't get caught again. . .

[Jeremie Boop]

44 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Aren't these statistics only measured versus other countries?  Are we judging how "great" our education system is based solely on whether or not our kids perform better versus kids from Germany or Japan or elsewhere?  If so, we can't really say that we are less great than we used to be in those areas, can we?  All we can say accurately is that other countries have improved at a rate faster than us.  That is not to suggest that we still can't improve, but it should be kept in perspective.  It's not (necessarily - we could be) that we're taking steps backwards, but simply that we're moving forwards more slowly than some others might be.

I think it's pretty clear that "slipped" means we haven't kept pace, not that we've taken steps backwards.... 

[Golfingdad]

50 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

We aren't as great as we used to be.  When we were really great we were leaders.  We had a military that was feared, our economy was 2nd to none, we were independent of other countries in terms of products, oil and food.

Today our military is tired and antiquated (especially the Air Force and Navy), we're not self sufficient, most of our products come from overseas and manufacturing is limited to specialty products and small businesses.  Countries taunt us and make ridicule our leaders.  We seem to negotiate from positions of weakness rather than strength.  

Education wise, we haven't kept pace with other countries and have lost ground to others. If projections are correct the next generation will be the first to have it tougher than their parents.  The children are entitled, expecting to be handed things rather than work for them, the generation of participation trophies.  

I've seen a decline, but I wouldn't want to live in any other country.  We can be as great as we once were, but the attitudes need to change.  The sense of entitlements and free everything has to stop, people need to learn again that they have to work hard for what they want, not expect the government to hand it to them. 

This sounds like a politicians speech from 2012, 2008, 2004, 2000, 1996, 1992, 1990, 1986, 1984, 1980, 1972, etc, etc.  It's all vague soundbites with no actual substance that is true if you want to make it true.

Far and away, the most telling statement in there is the bold.  You make it sound like we're going to hell in a handbasket, but you're happy to be along for the ride.  As am I.

55 minutes ago, Lihu said:

We spend far too much time making new slogans like "common core" instead of actually teaching core concepts to our children.

In fairness though, the goal of common core IS to try and better teach core concepts to our children.  It may not be as effective yet as they hoped, but it's not for lack of trying.  It's not bad because it has a catchy name.  And I'm willing to bet that they didn't spend that much time or energy just coming up with the name.

[Dave2512]

Was at two bars last night and politics came up in casual talk with strangers. Not one Trump supporter. Surprisingly most were pro Sanders, wide demographic variance too. I asked one couple if they would vote for him even if it became obvious he was unelectable and they looked at me like I was nuts. He is gaining steam, his rally in Denver was massively attended. Despite not encountering any Trump fans it's clear people on the street are tired of the status quo.