A politician who mastered a system that has basically corrupted the majority of politicians in the last 20 years. Pay to play, narcissism, greed, flip flopping and bought policies. Doesn't mean most of her policies were decent relative to the current political climate, if not good or great, and that she was clearly extremely intelligent and capable.
Trump on the other hand... narcissism, greed, buys politicians, flip flopping, incompetent, awful policies................
One of the few things particularly bad about Hillary was the very very clear corruption and how nasty all of that was - almost everything is bad about Trump, including the fact that he's likely to be just as establishment as Hillary is. Seriously, who's supposed to believe that a billionaire who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth is anti-establishment?
As a people, we really should have been less lazy in making efforts to improve the system before we chose to toss a molotov cocktail at Washington, because now we'll all be the worse off for it. Maine passed ranked choice voting - why didn't we lobby our states to have that on the ballot everywhere? Because we're lazy and would rather delegate responsibility to daddy Trump to #draintheswamp even though he'll be too busy getting in twitter wars with some random celebrity at 4am to do anything useful. We'll deserve what we get.
Trump on the other hand... narcissism, greed, buys politicians, flip flopping, incompetent, awful policies................
One of the few things particularly bad about Hillary was the very very clear corruption and how nasty all of that was - almost everything is bad about Trump, including the fact that he's likely to be just as establishment as Hillary is. Seriously, who's supposed to believe that a billionaire who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth is anti-establishment?
As a people, we really should have been less lazy in making efforts to improve the system before we chose to toss a molotov cocktail at Washington, because now we'll all be the worse off for it. Maine passed ranked choice voting - why didn't we lobby our states to have that on the ballot everywhere? Because we're lazy and would rather delegate responsibility to daddy Trump to #draintheswamp even though he'll be too busy getting in twitter wars with some random celebrity at 4am to do anything useful. We'll deserve what we get.
- Climate change is a hoax "created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."
- Obsession with coal as an energy source, promises to heavily deregulate coal and natural gas mining and use.
- He will "cancel" the Paris Climate Agreement
- "The Department of Environmental Protection (Environmental Protection Agency). We are going to get rid of it in almost every form."
- "70% of [federal] regulations can go."
for a few examples. i have to leave soon so that's just some of the stuff i had off the top of my head. he proposes insane things. 70% of regulations? really? I mean I'd almost be on board if we were talking 30%, I'd say 20% is fair, but 70%? nuts. In one of the primary debates he said he'd basically cripple the EPA (although he called it the Department of Environmental lol). Guess clean water isn't as high a priority as making sure corporations can do whatever they want. He doesn't have any plans for climate change, since he literally thinks that it's a Chinese hoax. just ridiculous.
you must be kind of disconnected to think that only the wall is controversial...
although he does have some good things, "everything" was a bit hyperbolic. off the top of my head, his plan to make all child care expenses tax deductible is a good thing. it's early and i'm having trouble thinking of the other things i liked, but I have the impression there were a few more things.
Originally Posted by Pouffy
Seriously, who's supposed to believe that a billionaire who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth is anti-establishment?
I think you underestimate someone as successful as Trump in a leadership position. Most people do politics as a career, they have to suck up to 'x' and 'y' to get ahead, which means obligations later on. Eventually, when you get to the top, you have tons of people with dirt on you that you have to appease.
Sponsors also become a major issue, since you have to do as they say in order to stay funded.
Then you have Trump. Doesn't owe anybody anything, doesn't give a flying fuck about his political career because he's already massively successful. He can do what he wants, how he wants it (within the confines of the system of course) without an image to uphold, or a career to take into consideration while doing it.
I'm a huge fan of making politics a non-paying job*, so only those without self-interest can take part. Corruption would still be somewhat of an issue, but you'd get a lot of people that want that power to do something meaningful, rather than be an empty suit collecting a paycheck.
*(In Hungary, being a member of the Assembly is a job, with pay. Not sure about other places, such as the US. )
Originally Posted by ynvaser
I think you underestimate someone as successful as Trump in a leadership position. Most people do politics as a career, they have to suck up to 'x' and 'y' to get ahead, which means obligations later on. Eventually, when you get to the top, you have tons of people with dirt on you that you have to appease.
Sponsors also become a major issue, since you have to do as they say in order to stay funded.
Then you have Trump. Doesn't owe anybody anything, doesn't give a flying fuck about his political career because he's already massively successful. He can do what he wants, how he wants it (within the confines of the system of course) without an image to uphold, or a career to take into consideration while doing it.
I'm a huge fan of making politics a non-paying job*, so only those without self-interest can take part. Corruption would still be somewhat of an issue, but you'd get a lot of people that want that power to do something meaningful, rather than be an empty suit collecting a paycheck.
*(In Hungary, being a member of the Assembly is a job, with pay. Not sure about other places, such as the US. )
I think that's a fair point, but you also have to consider who is buying off politicians and why. People like Trump. This could easily be him cutting out the middleman. So, although he doesn't have the same tangled connections lifelong politicians might, he's still part of the establishment and part of the problem.
As for making sure people don't become entangled in corrupt practices in office, that seems to me more like a problem of moneyed interests than compensation. I'd almost agree if we were saying that compensation for legislators should be more based on economic performance and social polling so they have a vested interest in bettering the country, but giving them no incentive at all might create more problems than it fixes. A good place to start would be to publicly fund elections and ban all campaign donations, lobbying, and potentially even the appearance of corruption with threat of removing the eligibility to hold or run for office and maybe jailtime depending on severity.
