Why is Trump president? Because the millennials couldn't get over Bernie not being the candidate, and couldn't recognize the threat to their futures the Trump presidency will inflict.
Because of 30 years of redistricting and jerrymandering of election districts and systemic voter suppression legislated at the state levels.
Because the US education produces a mass populace that can only understand what's on a hat or bumper sticker, and only read Hunter, Fisherman or Tractor Digest. Or care more about the Kardashians or the Brown spotted Owl than where this country is headed.
I was raised a Republican, the party of Eisenhower, Lincoln and Nixon. I'm a social Liberal, so I believe the Government should stay the fuck out of peoples lives. That no Man should be able to dictate morality to anyone else. I'm pro choice. I'm also a staunch fiscal conservative. I think too much is spent on all programs, especially bloated military programs, being the policeman for the whole world. How much of our federal budget can be classified as corporate welfare? Can you name any large company that doesn't derive a good percentage of its business from the federal government? Think about it.
I've studied Economics a bit also, and as the architect of Trickledown economics David Stockman has said for years, it doesn't work. Been proven over and over, but they keep trotting it out every decade and the sheep buy it. Remember the "Death tax?" The inheritance tax that only the top 2 percent ever paid, but conned the rubes into believing the government was gonna take their doublewide away.
The systematic transfer of wealth from the public sphere to the private sphere that started during Reagan, who my dumbass voted for twice, by the way, is undeniable. The "Tax modernization act" which allowed savings and loans to make commercial loans, instead of only residential and farm loans before, which led to the S&L crisis of the late 80's. It also allowed and encouraged corporations to outsource overseas. I'm old enough to remember doctors making housecalls. All hospital's were non-profit public entities. It allowed individuals to buy hospitals and along came HMO's and the rocketship rise to the cost of healthcare in this country.
Then came the dissolution of Glass-Stegal, separating commercial and investment banks. Which begat the Great recession on 2008. There was also another round of tax cuts for the rich, 2 actually, plus an unpaid war or 2.
I'm not just blaming the R's for all this mess. The D's are just as culpable. They were in charge of congress during Reagan, but actually worked with him to unleash these effects on the middle class. Clinton signed the Glass-Stegall dissolution bill.
Now were in for a 3rd wave of tax cuts for the rich. As a middle class, blue collar worker in these United States, I don't see how a Billionaire, who had surrounded himself with mostly former Goldman-Sachs millionaires and Billionaires really has my, or the middle classes, best interests at heart. Just sayin.
Originally Posted by Nightman
In case you haven't noticed the public schools preach everything Trump is opposed to. And gerrymandering didn't have anything to with this election.
Trump won for exactly the reasons laid out by Michael Moore when he stated that Trump would win Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnessota, Ohio,Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Trump won because middle America lives in a different economy than the coasts. They've been abandoned, and unless you've visited there it's hard to understand the decimation of those places, which used to be the prosperous heartland of America.
You were a Republican and I am a Democrat yet I support Trump and you don't. That says a lot. But Trump has nothing to do with "trickle down economics." Trump is about increasing wages and employment by reversing trade deficits.
Trade deficits are the heart of the matter and the root cause of the economic problem which is been so bad since 2009 that the government has had to rack up a 19 Trillion dollar debt, most of it since 2009, to seek to stimulate us out of this hole.
Yet family income is still over $6,000 less on average than it was in 2008, and that's the heart of the matter.
Trump is making real changes. Many people won't like it. Many people don't like his style or what he says or the way he says it.
But to make real change you have to settle for people who are outside of the normal range of behavior. You have to accept the good changes, like correcting trade policy, with the negatives, like the stupid way he exaggerates everything and says "terrific" and "incredible" all the time.
Revolutions are not made by philosopher kings. He's an ordinary guy and a vulgarian. But he sees the central problem and will make changes because unlike all the others he's not obligated to donors.
The only way we can make any changes is to have billionaire politicians right now because the money factor in politics precludes all others from getting elected.
Obama sold his soul to bankers in 2008 to get elected and look what happened.
Note the lack of bankers on Trump's team. He only has one.