NoTime wrote:I honestly think Trump has some high level policy positions, but simply hasn't thought them completely through - or even thought about how to articulate them effectively. On some issues, I think he is completely fickle and willing to take any side. On others, I think he has some ideas and/or convictions.
Are those desirable qualities in a head of state?
NoTime wrote:I do think he truly wants to "make America great again" but has no real idea how to do it.
Why do we have to start from the position that it is not great?
NoTime wrote:So, as a result, I think he looks at the 1980's and thinks that's what he should strive for.
So back to the time when the working class really started to lose their jobs in droves?
NoTime wrote:Regarding immigration, I think he has a very "common man" and "blue collar" viewpoint - that our nation was founded on accepting immigrants and that's good, but that a large number of immigrants are now simply coming here to live off of the government teat, and with no plan to truly integrate.
That is a trope that I am confident is the exception rather than the rule.
NoTime wrote:So, how do you reconcile the two...? He hasn't really thought out a way to "correctly" articulate how he thinks it should be done... the GOP should've been working on that, but remember that they didn't really want him to be President, either.
Man the bar for the President of the United States is so low these days. Poor guy, he's just misunderstood/he kind of knows what he's doing/hasn't had a chance to really think about how to voice how he feels without offending others.
NoTime wrote:Many (probably most) people (including those on this forum) have been somewhere and thought "wow, this place is a sh-thole"... Trump's the same. And, so, when trying to say that we shouldn't be accepting so many people from run-down, poverty-stricken (often lawless) places, he reverts to using that term.
I think the problem I have with such an argument is that, at the end of the day, it is a trope. Since this President deals in cartoonish views of the world around him, we're sucked into his world. So we not only start from the standpoint that immigration is a "problem" and needs reform, we start from the standpoint of "there's a flood of poor immigrants pouring into this country from sh*thole countries wanting to suck off of the government's teat and not assimilate" and have to dig ourselves out of that hole.
NoTime wrote:Believe me, for all of the problems I had with Obama, I thought he was a great communicator, and I wish Trump had an ounce of that skill. But, he doesn't. So, we're left with daily (sometimes hourly) outrages as our President stumbles through his thoughts and a hostile media pounces.
Obama was certainly articulate but it seems to be the case that he wasn't a great communicator as is evidenced by his policy successes. That said, it was pretty much a losing battle from day 1. You can probably say the same about the futility of a Trump presidency, but the guy doesn't do a damned thing to help himself so he won't get any sympathy out of me.