You might remember that I endorsed Hillary Clinton and warned
about the dangers of electing Donald Trump.
I suggested he’d endanger
people with pre-existing conditions, that there was no there there—his
ideas were basically empty
slogans, and that he had authoritarian
tendencies.
Six months later, I think we can assess my worries about
Trump.
At this point I think I can safely say I was not wrong.
Pre-existing
conditions
The
Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land, though there are plenty
of ways Trump is undermining it, including pulling ads and use of executive
orders. That said, he’d initially said Trumpcare would protect people with
pre-existing conditions, until he got down to the final hour before the bill
was going to go for a vote, and gladly cut up that part of the bill before the
whole thing failed. There is now a new
effort to repeal the ACA and cut people with pre-existing conditions off at
the knees. So, yeah, I was not wrong.
Empty
Slogans
When
Trump was trying to tackle healthcare he admitted, “Nobody
knew healthcare could be so complicated.” This after claiming he’d create a
perfect plan that kept all the things people liked about the ACA, but it would
be tons cheaper. “A terrific plan that would cover everyone.” Yes, he’s
governing by slogan not idea.
As
further evidence, he’d promised, as you might remember, to get China to invade
North Korea for us, now he’s planning on “solving”
North Korea without China.
He had
a secret plan to defeat ISIS, it looks more like he’s just letting the Obama plan
chug along, maybe with more
civilian casualties and botched
raids.
He was
going to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. They won’t.
He
promised to ban Muslims, which has proved to be unconstitutional and judges
have blocked said executive order twice.
You get
the picture, he says things, but they don’t seem to work as actual policy, so
he backtracks. I was not wrong.
Authoritarianism
I
was a NATO kid and was on a NATO base when the Tiananmen Square Massacre
took place. I was told in no uncertain terms that was what we were fighting
against—America while deeply imperfect, stands for human rights, and when we
fail that we are held to account for it, because that is who we are. Yeah,
naïve right, but still, damn it, if I have a choice between someone who stands
up to China and says, “Women’s
rights are human rights!” or someone who thinks what happened at Tiananmen
Square shows strength, I’m going with Human Rights every time.
Off my
soap box.
So far,
Trump
and his people have proved to be very cozy with Vladimir Putin. In fact, he’s
defended Putin killing journalists and employed a moral equivalency between
America and Russia to defending
Putin being a killer.
Additionally,
he’s given Egyptian
Strongman Al-Sisi legitimacy and a boatload of cash, green
lighting his human rights abuses. In general, Middle Eastern dictators are loving
this.
So far
he’s ruling
via executive orders, with 23 so far (vs
18 for Obama at this time). And when these orders don’t go as planned we’re
told to not
question his authority. Those who do their job and interpret the
constitutionality of the orders are dismissed as “so
called judges.” He is threatening
fellow Republicans like he’s “The Godfather.” Also, he capriciously knocked
a billion dollars off an American company’s stock via Twitter.
As for the
hate crimes, it’s so bad the Lutherans
are doing active bystander training. And before you think we’re
over-reacting, the night before the first training a young woman was spat upon
for wearing a hijab and the day after I visited a local
Islamic Center, it was targeted. On a more terrifying scale an
Indian man was killed in Kansas because he looked Muslim. Then there is
White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s obsession with “The Camp of the
Saints” in which immigrants from the 2/3rds world and hippie leftists are
eventually slaughtered to save the West.
So, it
seems Trump is emboldening human rights violators abroad and racists at home
and governing in a heavy-handed manner. I was not wrong.
