Perhaps the US deserves Donald Trump

Tim, I see what you mean but I still think the asymmetrical treatment is obvious. More interesting is the question whether Trump actually has a coherent political philosophy or not. I think he does, and here it is, in one paragraph.

He's focused on the good of the American people, rather than the worldwide triumph of some abstract ideology. Accordingly he wants effective borders to prevent further illegal immigration, prudent policies of legal immigration to avoid nurturing internal cultural conflict, trade barriers where domestic industries require protection, and is less favorable to military interventionism than his predecessors. On other issues, he favors pragmatic solutions (in the spirit of his business orientation) over ideological ones, which is why he says he's very open on many subjects and can change his mind.

That's a reasonable political philosophy, that will also return the US to a certain anthropological normality by which they will (hopefully) stop trying to re-engineer the whole Earth to their standards, creating large problems for everyone in the process.

Of Trump and Clinton, Clinton is the hawk and the neoconservative. She's the one possessed by the messianic progressive ideology. So she's the dangerous one, the one who, while talking about democracy and progress, will make a mess of other countries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/magazine/how-hillary-clinton-became-a-hawk.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/opinion/sunday/donald-the-dove-hillary-the-hawk.html

And that's from a liberal, Clinton-supporting newspaper!

@jaquesD #51 paragraph 2, without sources that is an opinion of yours. Wikipedia wont accept opinions. I do accept it, but i disagree to it. See #43 for my own opinion.

(and see #26 for data, not opinions)

I don't like Clinton in the least but there is no way I'd ever support Trump. Unfortunately we are once again faced with the lesser of two evils and it's dark on both sides.

I'm honestly hoping Clinton, if elected, stays with the Obama political agenda over all as I don't want her touching anything and breaking it further. Hopefully the Republican Party can actually get their act together in four years and nominate a good candidate- even a decent one is all I ask- and get off these gun tootin war rhetoric and social issues that have marred their campaigns for decades now and get back to classical republican ideals- fiscal responsibility both public and private sectors, pro jobs, low interventionist foreign policy, ect.

Trump is going to be a disaster. I can't stand how he's doped so many US citizens just because politicians have been such a failure as of late. Clinton is not who we need, for sure, but Trump is not the answer at all. He'll cripple the US at best, and ruin it at worse. I'm still in shock that this wasn't a PR stunt of his- or maybe it was originally planned that way and then when he gained such unexpected support he ran with it. Even if elected, God forbid, I will refuse to call him Mr. President, for He espouses nothing resembling the United States principles, ideals, or cultural values.

I'm not interested to debate the Wikipedia point further with you. I concluded about that in the first sentence of my last comment, and then went on to the more interesting question of whether Trump has a consistent political philosophy, as I made clear.

I have taken note that you think "He will just use the system to make things simpler for his corporations: build streets with them, lower taxes for them and remove environmental regulations for them." Thanks for your input.

Connect the following 7 dots. Do you see a pattern?

1. Trump's debt load has grown dramatically over the last year, from $350 million to $630 million. At the same time, he’s been blackballed by all major US banks.

2. Post-bankruptcy, Trump has become highly reliant on money from Russia -- most of which has over the years become increasingly concentrated among oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin.

3. Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager and top advisor, spent most of the last decade as top campaign and communications advisor to Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian Ukrainian Prime Minister and then President whose ouster in 2014 led to the on-going crisis and proxy war in Ukraine. Yanukovych was and remains a close ally of Putin.

4. Trump's foreign policy advisor on Russia and Europe is Carter Page, a man whose entire professional career has revolved around investments in Russia and who has deep and continuing financial and employment ties to Gazprom, which, in turn, is part of Putin’s financial empire.

5. Over the course of the last year, Putin has aligned all Russian state controlled media behind Trump.

6. The Trump Camp was totally indifferent to the Republican Party platform, with one exception: They changed the party platform to eliminate assistance to Ukraine against Russian military operations in eastern Ukraine. Not incidentally, this is the single most important issue to Putin.

7. Trump is also suggesting the US and thus NATO might not come to the defense of NATO member states in the Baltics in the case of a Russian invasion -- another important issue to Putin.

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but these are the facts. (See sources in Josh Marshall's article below.)

What do you think?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-putin-yes-it-s-really-a-thing

Trump is the right man at the right time. The country is in serious trouble and Clinton will only continue the failed policies of obama.

Hahahhaha, Trump should go back to the place he should have never left, TV...

There are other choices, albeit not any that have a chance of winning. I have read that the Libertarian Party and the Green Party are doing quite well this cycle (for obvious reasons). By "well" I mean in comparison to their usual numbers. They are still protest votes, but protest votes are worthwhile in my opinion.

Yes, it's great to vote for someone who has no chance -- it makes you look more intelligent than ordinary people, and if things go wrong with the elected president you can say you didn't vote them so it's not your fault and you knew better. What matters most in democracy is to always make sure that you have not participated in the decision in any way so that you can claim it's not your fault later on.