Markk wrote:canpakes wrote:If Trump “is not really a politician”, then all that you have left is that “he is a dirty ruthless businessman with a ego that is unmatched by few”.
And, after just complaining about the Clintons, tell my why, again, you decided to vote for “a dirty ruthless businessman with a ego that is unmatched by few”, and one that seems to surround himself with corrupted people who like to align themselves with Russians and their interests?
What were you hoping to achieve with your vote?
If you go back two years and read, I stated why I would/did vote for Trump. I also stated it was pretty sad that it came down to the choices we had...Trump was not even close to my first choice. I was clear I voted for Trump mainly in that he would elect conservative SCJ...which he did, so in that sense it was a good choice for me.
I actually prefer a slightly conservative court, but electing Trump to achieve it likely would not have been necessary. The Senate was - at the time - Republican-controlled, and destined to remain that way; a Clinton victory would not have enabled 'liberal' SC candidates to have succeeded. Indeed, we know this as even Merrick Garland was determined to be too liberal for the Senate to even be acknowledged when Obama selected him. Nothing in Garland's record indicated that he would not have been an entirely satisfactory judge. He just simply wasn't fringy enough for Republicans.
There's the underlying issue. If folks like Garland were not good enough for you, then what were you trying to achieve in hoping for more conservative candidates than him? It seems that most of the folks that want to go that route do so out of a belief that they need to preserve their particular religious beliefs over and above anyone else's beliefs or apparent rights while harboring an incorrect assumption that not being able to legally elevate and enforce their beliefs constitutes a 'persecution'. Thus, they seek a turn to markedly conservative SC judges to enforce those beliefs. I don't see this misuse of the SC as appropriate in general or serving the country in a beneficial way, especially given the punitive motivations guiding many fringe conservative voices. I'm not saying that this is where you stand, but maybe you could delve into your SC needs a bit more.
In any event, it hardly seemed necessary to elect Trump to preserve a center-right SC trend that would have continued regardless of a Clinton victory. And we would have maintained a government steered mainly by the interests of the center-Right while being staffed by reasonably competent folks.
Markk wrote:If you were honest, you would acknowledge Trump has done some positive things...the economy is in a good cycle, the middle has settled down, terrorism is in a lull, people are getting back to work, and North Korea may be heading in the right direction....hopefully it will keep positive despite the turmoil.
I have absolutely no problem agreeing with the idea that Trump has presided over some positive developments or legislation. But with his first two years seeing absolute control by Republicans in Congress, it would be the expectation that something productive could result. Unfortunately, virtually nothing in your short list above is really attributable to Trump's suggested policies, alternately, you've misstated the trend and assigned praise for things that he absolutely hasn't achieved.
Markk wrote:(Trump) ... is a business man who happens to be in the business of politics at this time in his life. He was/is also in the business of construction, development, TV, and other ventures.
He is not like a Biden, Feinstein, or Rubio and countless others in Washington who are sucking us dry in Club DC...(the swamp). If you guys do not understand this my guess is you have a goverment job.
I've never had a government job, but your statement would make more sense if you could demonstrate how the other guys were sucking you dry, but Trump has somehow changed that.
Last I checked, the man has been busily increasing our national debt in dramatic fashion and injecting volatility into investments via sloppily-imposed tariffs. The tax cuts that Republicans bragged about have made little impact on my own bottom line, and health care costs haven't been improved by whatever has happened since he took office. And anyone following the markets has probably seen their 401Ks being throttled as stocks become rattled from his childish tantrums and behavior.
And since you mentioned about those folks who 'don't understand' your point of view - I'll remind you that I work in a field closely related to yours. A few of our projects have seen an increase in the cost of some materials by as much as 600% (that's not a typo) due to Trump's haphazard application of tariffs. One project needed to be abandoned due to tariff-related cost increases. So the idea that Red Meat America is seeing only a universal benefit from Trumpian policy isn't entirely accurate.
Markk wrote:Your question begs...what were you hoping to achieve with your vote...whether Hillary or other? Given our choices I would really like to here you opinion on that. Do you want Trump to succeed? In your mind what has he done that is good?
I didn't vote for Trump, and you can read my reasons why in posts back before the 2016 election. I didn't trust a 'businessman' who couldn't make a casino work even after getting a 400 million dollar head start, who had a well-known reputation for bilking partners out of their earnings, who ran sham 'universities' and sold substandard products under his 'brand' and who had taxpayers cover over 900 million dollars of his own shenanigans through his bankruptcy filings. Nothing he said or did inspired confidence that he could make this country better, inspire its citizens or generate international cooperation, given the tone and tenor of his campaign. And he had no real network or team suitable for national governance, which seemingly suggested that he would be forced to put into place folks who were more entrenched within the elitist and upper-tier wealth swamp that he faux-railed against. And that's exactly what he ended up doing, even though I honestly hoped that he had the will and the smarts to rise above that, seize his unique opportunity and make the sort of difference that he could have pushed had he honestly wanted to do right by the American People.
But his candidacy was never about that. It was only about him, and he has proven his inability to serve this Nation nearly every day that he has been in office. You should be thanking your lucky stars that anything at all that you favor has been achieved over the last two years, with that short list mainly brought about by Republicans ditching their spines, their balls and their integrity en masse in order to hang in long enough to get those precious conservative judges on the court.