Quote:
Originally Posted by passingbat
Exactly. Anti Trump posters are missing the point, by focussing on the man and not his policies
Many people who voted for him did not like the man. But they were so fed up with 'the swamp' and the morally liberal policies perused by Obama (which would have gotten* worse under Hilary), jobs being lost to other countries through multinational trade deals, etc. etc., that they looked passed the man and voted for Trump. Unless people understand that, they will never get why Trump won. The Democrats need to focus less on trying to derail his Presidency, and focus on why they lost.
* Specially for Mr K; a word in common use in the US that has an English root.
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The problem is from what I saw, very little of the US election was about policies (in fact, Trump rarely even mentioned them), and more about attacking the opponent.
Talking to friends in the US (including one fairly rabid Trump voter who I actually went to school with who made me look right wing when he lived here), the main concern seems to be loss of jobs from the US to other countries, and a secondary concern is that Obamacare apparently increased health costs for a lot of people, and reduced choice. The thing that caused offence is a raid Hillary was involved with as secretary of state, during which soldiers died.
That's simplifying things a lot. Trump largely just promised to correct those things. Lets hope he follows through on those promises. He may not. After all, he owns a major company that outsources a lot of jobs to other countries, and he may have links to the health insurance industry we are not aware of.
Note: I think Trump will prove to be bad for the US, and if he has links to any foreign power that are beyond normal diplomatic relations, then that needs investigation. My concern is not whether they influenced the election or not (although I don't like the idea they might have, it's done, nothing anyone says or does is going to change that), more that they may have something they can use to compromise him (and therefore America) further down the line.
One thing I don't like about his style of administration. It doesn't feel like much of what the current Administration is being thought through properly. Take the Immigration ban for instance. The fact that was slapped down by so many judges suggests to me that they didn't even bother to check whether the ban conflicted with existing law.
That said, as with most things (Brexit included) I am happy to be proved wrong.