Trump wouldn't be a horrible president. (HEAR ME OUT ON THIS)

I agree with most of what you said. Trump's muslim/mexican positions are offensive because of his careless wording, not the substance of it. For example, if instead of suggesting to ban all muslims he said "no more immigration from iraq, syria, ______ , _______ , ________ and etc" , this would be a COMPLETELY different story. Carter did virtually the same thing with Iranians and he's a Democrat.

It's looking more and more like Trump can actually win, and i dont have a problem with this. It is worth noting that he is the only candidate, until Bloomberg enters, who is totally self-funded and not corrupted. I will look past a large amount of his outrageous statements because of this alone. Trump is genuine and unfiltered, but if he manages to win the nomination you will see a more poised and collected candidate with the GOP establishment grooming him for an election. It is increasingly possible that he wins, though i still doubt it will happen.

 

Popularity in entertainment and popularity in politics are not one and the same. People do not like other people unconditionally; the concept of President Trump is far less appealing to most people than a real estate mogul with funny hair who appears on TV from time to time. The two roles are radically different. Not only do the things he says carry significance as the Republican frontrunner and a potential president, he didn't so often say bizarre, dangerous, false or hateful things beforehand.

And his shrewd business mind is simply mythical. Not only is is record in business less than exemplary, the choices a corporate leader must make are very different from the choices a statesman must make; steering a company is far removed from directing a government's economic policy. He's good at creating a brand image, but his business acumen is hardly well regarded within the financial world. In any case, a man with good economic sense would not propose things as ridiculous and economically unsound as a 40% tariff on Chinese goods entering the US, for example.

And those comments are racist no matter what. Even if he only shallowly believes they would be good ideas (and one would hope he does), the fact that he sees that sort of behaviour as fair game is a clear indication he doesn't consider those groups of people worthy of respect or basic humanity. If he seeks to win votes by racist means, I'm not going to quibble about the extent to which he truly believes what he says. If he cares so little that he will support horridly unjust policies, I don't really think it makes a difference. Whether it is true or contrived on his part, that hatred would be disastrous to its victims. I really don't know if I'm more disgusted by this sort of disingenuous racism than I am by more sincere racism.

Trump is selling a name and emotions. Not coherent ideas or strong policies, but a vague idea, which is only powerful because it can't truly be defined and exists in defiance of that eternally ill-defined elitism, which is really just sound policy which is harder to understand and less emotionally appealing. Reality just isn't as abject as the way he paints it and through discussing reality he can't create the anger his support relies on.

It's vulgar populism with no real moral compass, no honesty and no depth. He inflates a business record which should give no pride and a respect few people award him, especially outside of America.

 

I agree with Aussie. And you say that Trump is genuine and unfiltered, yet his blatantly racist statements are to win votes? He just isn't a good candidate for president.

 

I refuse to vote for a man who hates Muslims, Mexicans, treats women like crap, and is the most arrogant politician I have ever witnessed at the national level. He's like a bad virus with no cure and has diarrhea of the mouth. I am far from liberal. In fact if Rand Paul hadn't been so cozy with Kim Davis, he would have gotten my vote. If John Kasich hadn't supported expansion of the war machine, he would have gotten my vote.

However, the idea of an angry, insane man that has ideology and rhetoric not unlike the Nazis possessing the power to destroy the entire world with launch codes doesn't make me sleep well at night. I have nothing in him where I see true leadership. People watched the Apprentice mainly so they could see him make an ass of himself. It was quality television. Let's not forget that the man has gone bankrupt twice and had 4 wives. I rest my case.....

 

My bad, I was looking at armydude's post.
*slowly backs away from thread*

 

To the question in the OP, this is the most direct answer. Let's say I like watching Charlie Sheen on TV; doesn't mean I'd want him as President either.

Now there may be some truth to the idea that Trump doesn't have to kiss ass to special interest groups, but at the same time, he's bad enough on his own. I'd vote for him before Bush or Cruz, but only just.

 

The fact that a significant portion of the American electorate agree with what Trump is saying only lends credence to the prevailing stereotype that Americans are stupid. All of the Republican candidates are hideously right-wing though.

 

I agree with you. I think most people don't want him to be president because he's arrogant but other than that I think he is one hell of a business man and I do believe he would do this country good. But I know Hilary is going to be the next president.

 

I just want to address this one line, because it's a common refrain amongst those who support Trump.

Just as solemnity is not the same as seriousness, speaking simply is not the same as speaking honestly.

He may say outrageous things few others dare say. That could be construed as a sort of courage, but it is more accurate to call it unabashed lies. But even more concerning than the lies is that a great deal of what he says relies on the unverified and the unverifiable; vague but grandiose statements which deliberately avoid having meaning. "Make America great again", for example, is obviously meaningless. Whatever metric America might be considered weak by, it will be one he contrives and one he will say only he can fix. America can have great relations with nations it once quarrelled with; such will be derided as weakness. American wealth might be as great as ever and relatively well distributed; but Trump will find China's GDP a threat to American prosperity in the face of all good sense because the idea of being rivalled in any way is scary to a devoted nationalist. There is little truth or lie to be found, because he has moved the goalposts to be about emotion rather than fact and buys into an ultrasensitive toughness rather than reasoned debate.

Because Trump can split the world into winners and losers, competitors for glory and snivelling weaklings who falsely believe goodwill exists, he doesn't need to be factual. You simply can't directly counter such primitive emotion in rational terms; it's all a bit like the schoolyard bully who can change the parameters of coolness to suit him and to disadvantage those he takes a disliking to. There's no reason to it, no logic and no coherent morality. He can win, for sure, but not by any measure that matters in a serious world where there are consequences for bad behaviour and where what you say matters.

It's very straightforward and certainly unfiltered, yes, but by God do not conflate that with honesty.

 

He would be a terrible president though. He isn't a good business man. He inherited money from his father to kick start all of his endeavors, and has been bankrupt I believe multiple times after many failed business ventures. Whether he's actually racist or not (I doubt very much that he is), is irrelevant. He's stoking actual racists with his rhetoric and they will feel, and will be if they are not already, emboldened by him. It's dangerous to speak the way he is speaking when he has such a large platform.

I think Trump is very much like Sarah Palin; opportunistic and and unabashedly opinionated and more than willing to cater to the lowest common denominator if that means money and attention for them, which it does. It's really quite satisfying for me to watch Trump lead the polls, in a vengeful way. The Republican party establishment has been baiting his supporters for the last 20 years or more with their dogma and it has finally turned on them, like a rabid dog. And they will tear the republican party apart.

 

That was quite the response for "addressing one line". I'm seeing a lot of big words, and a lot of long sentences, but not a lot of proving me wrong.

First of all, let me clarify i am not a trump supporter. Maybe a trump sympathizer, but i digeres.

The point i made, when i so carefully wrote that post in 30 seconds, was that Trump is genuine - not honest. No one who runs for office is honest. Genuine and honest are two different things.

When i say genuine, i mean that with Trump you see what you get. A genuine novice. A genuine blowhard. A genuine asshole. Transparency is all fine and good in my opinion, even if the candidate is not perfect. Modt of his competitors are severely lacking in this department. Namely, cruz and hillary.

I am not sure what point you were trying to make in that post, or how it exposed in great detail the vast falsehood of my own post. Either way, you clearly have more than a working knowledge of American politics despite living elsewhere, and i give ya credit for that.

 

Trump may not be racist and probably just throws things around because he knows it will excite his base, but that doesn't mean he's gonna be a good president. I don't know about his business carreer but, truthfully, it doesn't matter all that much. He can be a genius in his field but that doesn't mean he will be a good politician. Will he be able to listen to his party and the opposition in Congress?Make political arrangements? Who knows.

It's still too early to know who the GOP nominee will be (and looks like the Dems don't have it figured out either ). Trump might be leading nationally and in the early states, but he's also the most rejected by Republicans in general. Besides, coming first in Iowa doesn't matter all that much. The last two GOP nominees lost there

 

A Donald Trump presidency would be an absolute dream for Democrats. Get out your Green Day CD's because it'd be like 2006 all over again. (United States Elections, 2006) We'd have a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate after the 2018 elections, and in 2020, Donald Trump would lose in a 1964 style landslide.

 

The trump hate didnt come out of nowhere. Even when he wasnt running for president, i didnt like him the least bit. He claimed obama was born in kenya and wasnt american before 2016.

And to say hes a good buisness man is laughable. He used daddys connections and daddys money and what did he do with it, bankrupt 4 times... yes thats relevent when running for president as a man who is going to run the country like a buisnessman. Itd be like if i were to burn down 4 buildings and then say, i want to run for the head of the fire dept. ( yes i understand you dont run for head of the fire dept. Its just an example). If hes not taking isis seriously, then he should stop running. One of the main jobs of the president of the united states is being the commander in chief of the largest and strongest military on the face of this earth.

His economic plan is good? Hahahha. What, give more bush style tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals and claim it will "trickle down"? Any h.s. economics student understands that the beat way to stimulate an economy is from the bottom up. Rich dont invest in the country or put any money into local economies.

Now to say that hes not serious about his immigration plan or his plan to fight isis.... hes running for president, the highest position in the world. Just on not taking something has big as terrorism seriously should automatically disqualify him from the office. If thats not his plan to fight isis then what is? We should probably know what a candidates position is before electing him to the highest office on the planet. What makes you think hes not serious about a wall or kicking out 11 million human beings from the land of the free? Either hes serious and a complete dumb f*** or hes not telling the truth and lying to the american people. Not to mention the great quote on lady liberty, *“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”*Im sorry, you might not believe in our founding fathers but i stand by them and what they wanted for America.

Your arguments for trump are, in the nicest terms, silly. You should study up on the job of the president before you start posting illogical comments on american politics at the very least. Someone delete this thread and spare md the embarrassment of having this float around the Internet with his name behind it. SMH

 

My point was just that bluster and lies will always be just that, even if it's openly admitted. I don't see how you can regard that as being genuine.

I struggle to understand how you can sympathise with a lying buffoon just because you know he's lying and you know he's a buffoon.

 

awesomegaytheist, I know we don't agree on who the democratic nominee should be but I think we can both agree that there is no way that trump can win a general election against Bernie or Hillary. id even bet hed lose to omalley, Lincoln chafee, or jim webb.

not to mention the polling that shows Bernie and Hillary killing trump in general election swing states.