With Trump seemingly gaining the kind of momentum he needs for the establishment to decide to embrace him, I thought it made sense to point out what kind of President Trump would be. Unfortunately, I have no idea. It's like the man suffers from multiple-personality syndrome. That is the real problem with Trump. But that won't stop me from enlightening you (or perhaps delightening you). Here are the possibilities as I see them.
(1) Amazing Conservative... Ronald Fricken Reagan II: It is possible that Trump will be the greatest American president since Ronald Reagan. This is premised on the idea that Trump has been playing a role and nothing he's said so far to his supporters is true. Further, it's premised on the idea of who is in his kitchen cabinet. If Trump essentially steps aside, enjoys the pomp and circumstance, and lets Arthur Laugher, William Bennett and Rudy Giuliani make his policy, then he could very well run the most competent, conservative administration since Reagan's second term. This administration, by the way, would be largely fiscally conservative, have a neocon foreign policy and have a reasonable-but-not fringe social policy.
(2) Hard Core Liberal: If you look at the positions Trump has held consistently, his views are that (1) the Government should spend money to help business and stimulate the economy, (2) he's pretty far left on social policy, (3) he favors concentrations of power in government, foreign organizations (like the EU), and business, (4) he knows the value of having illegal aliens to do the work Americans won't, and (5) he likes to be popular, so he's poll driven. That makes him pretty close to Bernie Sanders in outlook except he doesn't like the minimum wage.
(3) Crony Capitalist: Trump's core beliefs are crony capitalist. He believes in Big Government helping Big Business. He's comfortable with Big Unions. He thinks government is about settling scores and he thinks nothing of bending the laws to help those who find ways to use the power of government against their enemies.
So which is he?
Well, he's selling the idea that he's the first. His supporters seem to be relying on this in fact. At the same time, his long-term views are the second. But his personality suggests the third. That leaves me with the suspicion that Trump will be this:
(4) Obama II: Most likely, Trump will be this. He will essentially adopt Obama's policies of indifference while kicking back and enjoying the perks of power. His policies will be a random foreign policy, generally liberal social policies (doing nothing difficult), and neutral economic policy with the real purpose of his policies being to grant favors to donors and friends. He will view the government as a means to a four-year taxpayer paid vacation and as having the cat-bird seat to plunder the Treasury to enrich himself and his friends.
Thoughts?
[+] Read More...
(1) Amazing Conservative... Ronald Fricken Reagan II: It is possible that Trump will be the greatest American president since Ronald Reagan. This is premised on the idea that Trump has been playing a role and nothing he's said so far to his supporters is true. Further, it's premised on the idea of who is in his kitchen cabinet. If Trump essentially steps aside, enjoys the pomp and circumstance, and lets Arthur Laugher, William Bennett and Rudy Giuliani make his policy, then he could very well run the most competent, conservative administration since Reagan's second term. This administration, by the way, would be largely fiscally conservative, have a neocon foreign policy and have a reasonable-but-not fringe social policy.
(2) Hard Core Liberal: If you look at the positions Trump has held consistently, his views are that (1) the Government should spend money to help business and stimulate the economy, (2) he's pretty far left on social policy, (3) he favors concentrations of power in government, foreign organizations (like the EU), and business, (4) he knows the value of having illegal aliens to do the work Americans won't, and (5) he likes to be popular, so he's poll driven. That makes him pretty close to Bernie Sanders in outlook except he doesn't like the minimum wage.
(3) Crony Capitalist: Trump's core beliefs are crony capitalist. He believes in Big Government helping Big Business. He's comfortable with Big Unions. He thinks government is about settling scores and he thinks nothing of bending the laws to help those who find ways to use the power of government against their enemies.
So which is he?
Well, he's selling the idea that he's the first. His supporters seem to be relying on this in fact. At the same time, his long-term views are the second. But his personality suggests the third. That leaves me with the suspicion that Trump will be this:
(4) Obama II: Most likely, Trump will be this. He will essentially adopt Obama's policies of indifference while kicking back and enjoying the perks of power. His policies will be a random foreign policy, generally liberal social policies (doing nothing difficult), and neutral economic policy with the real purpose of his policies being to grant favors to donors and friends. He will view the government as a means to a four-year taxpayer paid vacation and as having the cat-bird seat to plunder the Treasury to enrich himself and his friends.
Thoughts?