Donald Trump on the Issues
by Stephen Lendman
He’s the Republican frontrunner so far - with miles to go before next year’s nominating conventions and November election so nothing this early is settled. Far from it.
Bombast, bravado and arrogance aside, he’s like all other candidates from both parties - pro-war, pro-business, anti-populist, mindless of what matters most to ordinary Americans. Intending dirty business as usual if elected.
The most important issue all aspirants oppose is government of, by and for everyone equitably and fairly - with special concern for society’s most disadvantaged, a vital safety net for people needing it most.
OnTheIssues.org gives Trump’s views on nearly two dozen issues. He claims he’ll be “the greatest jobs president that God ever created.” He’s pro-life except for rape, incest or health - against same-sex marriage.
He favors eliminating corporate taxes altogether - absurdly claiming it’ll create millions of jobs. Companies hire based on business prospects and needs, not how much or little they’re taxed. He also wants inheritance taxes abolished for obvious reasons.
He’s a tough on crime proponent - apparently wanting the world’s biggest gulag enlarged, mostly with people of color unable to afford expensive attorneys to get them off the hook for virtually anything.
He favors legalizing illicit drugs - a sensible policy. People have a right to treat their bodies anyway they wish no matter how potentially harmful.
He supports corporate run schools replacing public ones. Democracy and an educated citizenry go hand in hand. Public education is the great equalizer. America’s founders believed it was insurance against losing liberty.
Father of American education Horace Mann called “(t)he common school…the greatest discovery ever made by man.” Trump wants it made another profit center.
He calls climate change a hoax. Oil is the country’s lifeblood, he claims. He favors unlimited drilling and production.
His foreign policy is unabashedly hardline - pro-war. He calls himself “the most militaristic person in this race.”
He’s against the Iran nuclear deal, urges tougher sanctions, supports Israel’s worst crimes, calls China America’s enemy, surprisingly isn’t anti-Russian.
He’d “get along very well with Vladimir Putin,” he said. “Hillary Clinton…was the worst Secretary of State in the history of the country,” he claims. “The world blew apart during her reign. Now she wants to be president” to finish destroying what’s left.
He wants a 20% tax on all imported goods, a 35% tax on Mexican products - a surefire prescription for trade war, followed by global depression.
He advocates near unrestricted gun ownership rights. He calls Obamacare a catastrophe vital to repeal. He’s for greater military spending, tougher homeland security policies, likely more freedom abolishing police state laws.
He wants public assistance for America’s most needy restricted - limited in amount and duration. He says undocumented immigrants (meaning Latinos) “have to go.”
He released a position paper titled “Immigration Reform that Will Make America Great Again” - listing “three core principles:”
(1) A wall on America’s border with Mexico - making its government cover construction costs, ignoring destructive NAFTA policies forcing unemployed Mexicans to come north for work, claiming Mexican authorities “export the crime and poverty in their own country.”
(2) Tougher immigration laws to keep unwanted Latinos and other people of color out, more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operatives for escalated police state terror on immigrant communities and workplaces, as well as greater numbers of deportations.
3. Serve Americans first. “A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation,” he says - without explaining which ones he means.
In his book titled “A Nation of Immigrants,” Jack Kennedy explained all Americans are immigrants or descendants of immigrant families. He called national origin quotas based on racial preferences indefensible.
Emma Lazarus’ famous words on Lady Liberty’s pedestal once had meaning. No longer for Trump and likeminded ideologues hostile to the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breath free. They urge extinguishing the lamp beside America’s golden door - except for the privileged few they favor.
They want national policies benefitting its monied interests alone - at the expense of all others.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.