Trump - Is He Worth Voting For? Things to Consider

As a Rand Paul supporter, I am disappointed but not shocked that Republican primary voters rejected Rand and liberty. Liberty has always been a tough, tough sell at the ballot box. However, the candidate that is looming large in the Republican race for the POTUS nomination is Donald Trump.

I do not view Trump as a liberty candidate.  However, I do view him as pragmatic, practical and supremely in touch with issues that affect all ordinary Americans.  Trump the billionaire NYC real estate mogul has managed to captivate Republican primary voters and even Democrat voters.

What's to like about Trump?

2nd Amendment Trump is fairly solid on the 2nd Amendment and his position on the issue from his website is here.

Foreign Policy Trump is not a neocon; in fact the neocons hate his guts. He's on record opposing the Iraq War and way back when Bush started the damn war. Trump opposed the Iraq War when it was popular and long before the horrors of Abu Ghraib emerged.

Not only is Trump on record opposing the Iraq War, during a GOP debate he blasted the Iraq War, its cost and the horrid damage to the Middle East:

"We've spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that, frankly, if they were there and if we could have spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges, and all of the other problems — our airports and all the other problems we have — we would have been a lot better off, I can tell you that right now.

We have done a tremendous disservice not only to the Middle East — we've done a tremendous disservice to humanity. The people that have been killed, the people that have been wiped away — and for what? It's not like we had victory. It's a mess. The Middle East is totally destabilized, a total and complete mess. I wish we had the 4 trillion dollars or 5 trillion dollars. I wish it were spent right here in the United States on schools, hospitals, roads, airports, and everything else that are all falling apart!"

For a Republican candidate to make such an anti-war statement during a Republican primary debate is no less than astounding but what is even more astounding is that his remark didn't hurt him in the least and he continued to rise in the polls despite the consternation of the neocons. I remember when Ron Paul got dissed in a South Carolina debate for suggesting that America follow the Golden Rule on foreign policy. He got booed. But the times they are a changing! Even Republican voters seem to have finally lost their appetite for never ending wars. Trump doesn't suffer in the polls when he attacks US foreign policy and on GOP sacred turf no less.

Supreme Court Few folks pay attention to this critically important issue. Even if Republicans, conservatives, Libertarians etc. seem blind to this issue, the left certainly isn't.  In fact, the left is freaking out over it because it believes that the next president could appoint 4 Supreme Court Justices.

How could the next president reshape the Supreme Court?

In the next few years, the Supreme Court may face as many as four vacancies as some of the justices age or enter retirement. That means the outcome of November's elections could be critical in determining the court's future composition.

Nearly half of the court -- four of the nine justices -- has served on it for 20 to 30 years and are either over the age of 80 or approaching it.

While stumping for Hillary Clinton on the New Hampshire campaign trail on Monday, former President Bill Clinton mentioned the next president could nominate between one and three justices. His wife's campaign posted a blog post last month titled, "A Republican president could nominate as many as 4 Supreme Court justices. That should terrify you."

Who in their right mind wants Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders nominating up to 4 Supreme Court Justices?  Considering the extreme longevity of their lifetime tenure, a progressive takeover of SCOTUS would have profound effects on America, Americans and the constitution that would require decades and generations to undo and unravel.

While I haven't the slightest clue who Trump would appoint, whoever he appoints to SCOTUS won't be as bad as a Sanders or Clinton appointee.

What few liberty oriented and/or sane rulings that are decreed by SCOTUS presently come with 5-4 decisions. A few days ago, SCOTUS shot down an Obama's climate change order that was supposed to be implemented by the EPA in a 5-4 decision.

Supreme Court deals blow to Obama by putting his climate change rules on hold

It's becoming increasingly apparent that Trump is succeeding in winning over Republican primary voters. Moreover, he's probably the best candidate to defeat Clinton or Sanders in a general election. Even if I hated Trump on every issued, which I don't, I'd take the chance and vote for him based on Supreme Court Justice nominees alone.

Trade Agreements America's nasty, job-destroying trade agreements that began with NAFTA and are now ballooning have decimated US manufacturing and those good paying middle class jobs. Trump is on record vociferously opposing these trade deals. Trump said "I am all for free trade, but it's got to be fair" and the "TPP is a horrible deal; no one has read its 5,600 pages".

On NAFTA, Trump says "I think NAFTA has been a disaster. I think our current deals are a disaster. I'm a free trader. The problem with free trade is, you need smart people representing you."

Trump has blasted the loss of US manufacturing jobs.  He's also blasted immigration.

Immigration: Trump has raised the issue of immigration. America keeps getting flooded with low wage immigrants and many of them are taking jobs from Americans who are actually getting fired and replaced with cheap labor. Moreover, many of those comprising the 'cheap labor' workers are in fact so impoverished by low wages that they are entitlement dependent. I blogged about the immigration issue in depth - Let's Talk IMMIGRATION.

With 92 million Americans out of the workforce, here, I absolutely believe that we should make it a top priority to get Americans back to work.  Besides, many of those Americans are weighing down the welfare system.  Americans need jobs and if that translates to a temporary halt on immigration, then so be it - it makes sense.

There are many situations like the now well publicized Disney case where Disney fired American workers and forced them to train their foreign replacements.  Even the open border immigrant loving NYT penned a piece on this absurdity.

Pink Slips at Disney. But First, Training Foreign Replacements

It's as if war has been declared on American workers who are being cast aside as irrelevant and expendable scum.  This is simply wrong.

While researching info. on Trump, I learned that his Atlantic City casino labor unions and workers spoke highly of him.  Trump might be a ruthless businessman but when it came to his workers, he earned their praise.

By the end of 1991, Trump’s three casinos employed more than 12,700 people, nearly one-third of the entire Atlantic City casino workforce.

And Trump, gushed Theresa Volpe, 57, who served drinks at Trump Plaza for 26 years — including to the man himself — “was a very good boss.”

“Employee picnics, employee parties. I mean, he took care of us.”

“He was very receptive to our union and our benefits and pension plan,” said Volpe, who’s been cobbling together a living as a bartender and supermarket cashier since Trump Plaza closed in September.

Bob McDevitt, longtime president of Local 54 of Unite Here, which represents casino workers, declined to comment for this story. But in the past, the labor leader, who spent years as a Taj bartender, characterized Trump as a union-friendly, reliably cooperative partner in negotiations over labor contracts.

In 2004, when 10,000 casino workers went on strike at seven Atlantic City casinos for more than a month, the Trump casinos weren’t among them.

“He didn’t nickel or dime us,” Volpe said. Read the rest here.

Vaccines I personally oppose forced vaccinations and do share Trump's concerns over their safety. Trump has stated that vaccines cause Autism, here, and there is ample evidence to support his assertion. Trump obviously isn't owned by Big Pharm who peddles poison.

GMO It's not clear where Trump stands on the issue of Monsanto, GMO and food labeling but he tweeted back in October a statement that fired up the food labeling, anti-GMO and anti-Monsanto folks with "#BenCarson is now leading in #polls in #Iowa. Too much #Monsanto in the #corn creates issues in the brain?". The tweet was perceived as so outrageous and insulting to Iowans that Trump withdrew it and blamed it on an intern. Since that tweet, Trump has opted to avoid the issue, something he does on issues that can backfire and hurt him.  In any event, Trump's sarcastic remark about GMO food indicates that he's aware of the issue and may not be a fan of GMO.

Common Core Trump has consistently blasted Common Core.

Marijuana Legalization Trump 100% supports medical marijuana and believes that the states should have the right to make the decisions on recreational marijuana.  That's a position that will make a ton of voters happy!

Trump Slams US Public Schools, Pledges To Kill Common Core 

BOTTOM LINE: Voting for Trump carries risk. However, voting for the 'same old, same old' creeps who are proven to be wholly owned subsidiaries of corporatists, fascists, defense contractors, banksters, corporate welfare queens etc. is an even bigger risk because America's ship is sinking FAST, America's middle class is vanishing and the poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer. Obama was supposed to be the Man of Change in 2008 but he turned out to be a big fail.

It's not likely that Trump will perform miracles but it's entirely possible that Trump would work to defend the 2nd amendment, end the wars, reign in the neocons, change foreign policy, nullify job destroying trade agreements, restore US manufacturing and improve the economy for the working class. That's a risk many believe is worth taking at the ballot box because if voters fail to act to change course, America's deterioration will only accelerate.

A McClatchy article summarized the mood of the American people in a piece titled America 2016: We’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore 

MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA Craig Ziemke has voted for Democrats all his life, including twice for President Barack Obama. Not this year.

“The whole country is going to hell,” the 66-year-old retired factory worker said, standing against the bleachers at a high school gymnasium while waiting for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to arrive. Ziemke’s fury is deep: Roads and bridges in the U.S. are falling apart, jobs are scarce and the U.S. border is wide open, he says.

“We’re letting all these people into the country. No one even knows who the hell they are,” he said. “We don’t need any more Arabs. The United States, anymore, is just a dumping ground for everyone.”

Ziemke plans to caucus for a Republican on Monday – and likely for Trump, “the only one with brains,” he said..... In interviews with dozens of voters in both parties, the driving motivation across the state is anger and uprising. They’re fed up with lawmakers in Washington, who seem to work two or three days a week and get little done aside from raising money to stay in office. They’re mad about stagnant wages, companies sending jobs overseas and terrorists sneaking in across the border.

And there you have it - the voice of the people and how they intend to use the power of their vote to effect change. It's 2008 all over again except that the new man of HOPE and CHANGE is now Donald Trump. Call it a wing and a prayer vote that Trump won't turn out to be another Obama or Bush. I understand the desperation of the poor and middle class - they've been royally shafted by a system criminally stacked against them so firing somebody is all that they've got left.

Folks are taking their cues from Trump himself when it comes to the Republican and Democrat party elites.

A vote for Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and other insufferable traitors is definitely a vote for more wars, more job destroying trade agreements and more of the same.  Clinton and Sanders will definitely make it a top priority to disarm Americans; both endorse the wars. Sanders voted to fund every neocon request for more war money.

When put into the proper perspective, Trump looks awfully good to me based on the issues that are dear to me and I think that Trump is worth considering.