Let's first discuss my "appalling whataboutisms" before addressing your fact claims. It's rude to walk into my comment, dictate the rules of engagement, and mock me. It's also ignorant to think a person's feelings don't affect political decisions with voters. This unawareness is the Achilles heel of ideologues and intellectuals and why so-called smart Democrats are freaking out that Trump might win despite all his BS. I commend you on the certitude of your position, but there are a lot of smart people who disagree with your conclusions. Never assume you are the smartest person in the room.
My area of interest is political science and psychological/societal behavior. I don't write about current politics on Medium because today's federal-level politics disgust me, and the minutia of day-to-day political events aren't my drug. However, I am wildly fascinated by what drives people (including you) to make decisions in search of their truth. John Egelkrout's article caught my attention.
Read my comments carefully. I never said I support Trump. I also didn't say the left are Marxists and the right are Fascists. The media machine spins and propagates these narratives. I've listened to Kamala on Howard Stern on the far left, AJ's comments on the extreme right, and every commentary in between on late-night talk shows, YouTube, and Podcasts representing both sides of the political spectrum. Both sides use fear to drive votes. This is a fact.
On the surface, I agree with your first paragraph regarding Trump’s corporate tax cuts. The middle class has been gutted by the fascist-like corporate lobbies and free trade policies, which I supported then and now regret. As Ross Perot prophesied, the giant sucking sound was a real thing.
The only area in which I agree with Trump is using tariffs as bargaining chips to balance trade and to incentivize corporations to move their factories back to the US to build up the middle class to what it used to be. He laid this out clearly during his PBD interview last week.
That said, Trump is not the author of my views on tariffs. My oversimplified views on tariffs are free trade for goods we don't make and fair trade for everything else. If Japan sells cars to us tariff-free and doesn't allow us to sell cars to them, that's unfair trade. Negotiating these deals is always on a case-by-case basis. Our middle class will never recover if we don't level the playing field and bring manufacturing back to the US.
Trump's rhetorical threats about arresting his political opposition, mass deportation, etc, are off the scale. I hoped he would tone that down this presidential run, but he's again playing to the right's "emotional" rage to meet his narcissistic agenda. He's like a drug addict in a codependent relationship with his drug dealer. Both have something to gain, so Trump's supporters ignore all the red flags. I think Trump supporters use Trump as a convenient vehicle of change because no one else on the right has the political capital to step up. Never underestimate emotions in politics. It's the single most potent factor in driving votes, far more influential than facts or truth.
My foundational years were in the 1970s. Most kids had two parents in the home, divorce was rare, a husband could provide enough income for his family, and it was expected that a young couple could buy a modest house and a car or two. Weekends were about mowing the lawn, church on Sunday, and fishing or camping trips thrown in to fill the gaps. Shockingly, kids were allowed to roam free as long as we headed home when the street lights came on. That was America back then. That's not America now.
A good majority of Trump supporters remember what America was. They know what we have lost, and they are mad as hell about it. As an immigrant, it will be nearly impossible for you to understand the mood of what it meant to be American back then. The United States wasn't viewed as a pariah. We were proud of the country we built and the goals we accomplished as a nation. We were proud in the way a parent is proud of their child for doing well at school or in sports. We were proud of the opportunities this great country offered. And Nationalism wasn't a derogatory term.
Quickly to your other questions: You asked me if I was okay with "negotiating with the Taliban." [Yes, but the situation is complex] Disparaging a war hero [JM was a Rino, but name-calling and smearing someone's reputation is wrong and lacks class]. Marxism in Washington: [The left is not pushing for Marxism. They are pushing toward Democratic Socialism, like Norway or Sweden. I have spent much time on business in those places, and I love it there. But our country is too big and diverse for that model to work. Those countries have a high standard of living but also an extremely high cost of living. Because of the high import taxes, my clients would ask me to bring them MacBooks and other things on each visit, and they couldn't afford to eat at restaurants very often.]
Deportation costs: [Yes, I know of the published costs of mass deportation. They weren't derived from Trump's campaign, however. The fear-mongering left-wing media originally stated, using third-party sources, that it cost over a trillion dollars. That has now been scrubbed from Google, and real figures are much lower. But here's the thing. Politically, it will never happen, so it's pointless to argue about it.]
Fascism: [I've said since 2011 that the US functions as a pseudo-fascist political system. The difference between us and other hard-core Fascist regimes is we legalize our Fascism and call it democracy. I have not read Umberto Eco's Ur-Fascism, but I will.]
The real power: [BOTH parties are subservient to the people with the real power in this country. "Follow the money" is good advice.]
I'll end with this. You are right, I don't know you. But I see how you present yourself to be. You are intelligent and opinionated. But name-calling [orange man, dear leader] and your mocking tone only discredit you. Your points are strong enough to stand on their own. Like Trump, you lack class.
