Just watch this clip from his interview with Larry King in 1999:
Yes, you heard right. The man was for universal health care in America in 1999. He began as a moderate or liberal Republican (or what was sometimes called a “Rockefeller Republican”), different from the quasi-libertarian conservative Republicans.
If Trump wants to win over Bernie voters and actually do something no other US president has ever done, he ought to return to that issue, but framed in a way that does not alienate his Republican base.
But of course that would be too much like common sense, wouldn’t it.
Curiously, Trump has been attacked on this issue by US fiscal and anti-government conservatives, as in this dishonest anti-Trump add below:
But this is just dishonest, because Trump has long given up on advocating a universal system.
I also was somewhat impressed with his assessment of Trump here on Counterpunch. As the author says, if Trump were ever to become US president, his time in office could be the “century’s most profound anti-climax … marked by boring stuff like indecision, gridlock, contradictions and frustration. A ‘liberal’ Trump is boxed in by a conservative Congress, and a weird, ‘impulsive’ Trump is de-fanged by the Democrats.”
Watch the full interview to gauge Trump the man circa 1999. E.g., one of his terrible ideas is that you can run government like a business. Very bad idea.
I keep reminding Trump supporters that he made Universal Healthcare noises as recently as this current election cycle. Then I tell them to go to his website and show me evidence of this. When you look up "Health Care" under his platform, it's the same 'ol Republican talking-points that's been the case for decades. Somehow, that doesn't matter because they're happy he pisses off Feminists and SJW's. Shallow.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure what to make of Trump. But as you put it, a Trump presidency would be disappointing for almost everyone. His racist followers would be disappointed when he does not or cannot feasibly kick out all illegal immigrants and Muslims and turn the United States back to the 1950s.
ReplyDeleteDisgruntled workers who might vote for him because they see Trump as a more populist economic alternative to Clinton will be disappointed when he either betrays them by governing as a typical Republican or because conservatives block any populist policies he may want to enact.
This is why it is important for populists to concentrate on state and congressional elections more than the presidency, in my opinion. American presidents seem more powerful than they really are because we have not had a non-neoliberal president for decades, so they have not gotten as much opposition as a populist maverick would.
Even if Trump were the populist maverick he claims he is, it will be tough for him to get anything done in office.