24 Nov 10 Good Policies, At Least
Even his supporters know that Donald Trump is amazingly creative at coming up with new ways to be a jerk. In fact, it is what many admire most about him, as they say his nastiness demonstrates his strength, candor, genuineness, transparency, passion, and effectiveness. He undisputedly is the master of malice, the “best ever” at bragging, the virtuoso of vengeance, the lion of lies, an authority on authoritarianism, and the king of corruption.
“But his policies are exactly what America needs!” they hasten to add. Trump fans tell me that everyone should ignore his “personality” and focus on his “policies.” They analogize him to sports stars like Pete Rose, who opponents considered to be a bad and wicked person, but his own teams ignored that and embraced him because he was good at baseball and won games. (Trump is good at political baseball, these people would say, in a way that helps America win.)
They have a point, up to a point.
Trump’s “Policies”
First of all, despite the subheading immediately above, I do not think the policies I am about to list necessarily need to be thought of as things President Trump invented or even was the first to adopt. Each simply is a commonsense proposition on which most American voters and Mr. Trump generally agree, in my opinion. What distinguishes our president and has gotten him elected twice is that he is extraordinarily good at expounding on and exploiting these truths.
What are these policies of common sense? Credit to Principle Based Politics reader Rod Kern, who makes the point that America is a divided country (and Minnesota a divided state), yet commonsense policies can be the great uniter. Here is a list of commonsense policy statements:
- The U.S. must control its borders, with immigration and deportation based on merit under objective standards.
- Affordable energy needs require all available resources to be used.
- There is too much crime in America, and law enforcement personnel must be empowered to fight it forcefully.
- Government programs (including healthcare) must be efficient and effective.
- Americans should love America, but have free speech to suggest changes.
- Reduced regulation allows business growth, improves affordability, and advances capitalism, all of which help our citizens.
- Taxpayers deserve reasonable taxation.
- America benefits from fair trade and fair tariffs.
- The U.S. should build and use its military power to support allies and lead efforts for world peace.
- It is not the government’s proper role to provide advantages to races, religions, sexes, or chosen genders.
If you leave aside the jerkiness, the inflammatory rhetoric, the boasting, the lust for power, and the narcissism (I could list many more), what reason is there to oppose any of the above-listed policies? If we disassociate them completely from Donald Trump, are these not matters of consensus among American citizens? If we ignore all of the distractions and chaos, the self-serving application, the drama, and the noise, do we not have to admit that we agree with all or almost all of these basic substantive points?
To answer my questions: not many dispute them, there is a consensus, and the majority of us do agree. Accordingly, no wise politician should oppose any of these policies simply because Donald Trump (or another Republican) espouses them.
Donald Trump’s super power is his knack for making voters believe that his opponents stand for the opposite of these policies due to the way they react to what he spouts off. The opponents’ automatic hostility and unwise overreactions soon come back to haunt them in elections.
In the coming months, I will be writing and podcasting about my general agreement with each of these enumerated policies. I will think of them as “my policies” rather than those of our president.
About that “Personality,” Though
Whenever I clarify that it is not President Trump’s “personality” that bothers me, but his amorality (which I view as different from and far more important than personality), his supporters say that Mr. Trump is no more immoral than any other politician. “All politicians lie,” they say, for example. Or, “Kennedy, Obama, the Clintons, and Biden all were just as corrupt, if not more so.”
Well, Trump himself is now saying that morals matter – if not in political leadership, at least morals matter for foreigners. Recently, the Trump administration said it will increase its focus on “good moral character” in U.S. citizenship reviews.
I ask you, friendly readers, do morals matter for a would-be ordinary citizen, but not for our national leader?
If only someone with decent morals could pursue (and bring to fruition) the policies listed one through ten above.
Written by Quentin R. Wittrock, founder of Principle Based Politics.
Look for his periodic posts, as this blog and the Extremely Non-Extreme podcast explore and promote the ideas of principles and non-extremism in politics.
Principle Based Politics does not endorse or support any particular political candidate or party.
Jonah Heuer
Posted at 13:32h, 25 November1: If Trump is the master of malice” and “virtuoso of vengeance,” why hasn’t he taken vengeance on the people who tried to have him thrown in jail for the crime of running against Joe Biden?
2: If those 10 policies are as universally preferred as you claim, why haven’t any of them been accomplished well before Trump entered politics, and why does he get hamstrung every time he takes a step forward on any of them?
3: I don’t think Trump has to manufacture an illusion of his opponents holding the opposite of his “common sense” positions when there are rallies across the nation calling him a king and a fascist for trying to deport illegal aliens.
Face it, Quentin. American politics doesn’t work the way you want it to, and Trump isn’t some mean villain mucking up our beautiful system. Our system has been eroded and violated for decades, and someone has to fix it, and thos solutions are going to look “authoritilarian” to anybody yearning for the politics of the 1990s. That’s the world liberalism – on the Left and the Right – has made for us to live in.
Quentin
Posted at 23:55h, 25 NovemberYou are saying Trump HASN’T SHOWN VENGEANCE? You can’t be seriously claiming that.
Regarding the 10 policies, thanks for looking at them. I’d be curious to know if you, as a conservative, agree with all 10. I have not seen any comments from liberals or Democrats disagreeing.
Gary Hammer
Posted at 13:57h, 25 NovemberQuentin, I like your policies. I would add to the immigration policy that Congress needs to come up with a fair path to citizenship for those who came here illegally—totally our fault as a country—and now have families, have jobs and have not committed serious crimes. They are helping American society, not hurting it.
Quentin
Posted at 23:52h, 25 NovemberHelpful addition, Gary. I agree and should have included legal immigration and pathways to it. Thank you.
James Loerts
Posted at 14:39h, 25 NovemberYour post reminds of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry is at a rental car place and he tells the woman behind the counter, “it’s easy to make a reservation, the hard part is keeping the reservation.” You laid out the arguments perfectly–and then forgot to offer a conclusion. I agree completely with the ten points you outlined. And I offer zero defense for Trump’s morals or character. The problem is Progressive democrats in general and Kamala in particular do not support those ten points. As a voter what am I supposed to do? I don’t “like” Trump, but to me he is better for our nation than the alternative. If you can find better choices I would happily support them. So to answer your question, yes morals matter to me. However, if a “moral” candidate supports the wrong policies, then at the risk of being seen as a terrible person I will then vote for the immoral candidate who at least supports better policies.
Quentin
Posted at 00:08h, 26 NovemberIf any liberal or Democrat readers disagree with any of the 10 policies, they haven’t commented here about it.
Regarding your sentence: “If you can find better choices I would happily support them,” thank you — I will be calling you about MAJOR campaign financial support if I ever seek office again!
Gary Russell
Posted at 15:15h, 25 NovemberI reflected a little on this post and Jonah’s response. Two different things sat with me: (1) “Politics doesn’t work the way you want it to”. I think that’s the whole point of Quentin’s organization…to call that out and try to improve it. We don’t have to tolerate “mean and nasty” to do the good/right things. And then also (2) “…those solutions are going to look ‘authoritarian’….” That makes sense. MAGA has been about “significant disruption” and it’s going to hurt a little. The optimist in me says we can still find such leadership and they might very well garner 60% of the vote. Dreaming? Perhaps.
Quentin
Posted at 00:03h, 26 NovemberWe can always count on you to be the wisest one in the room (at least on politics), Gary. Thank you.
Russell M Weaver
Posted at 16:46h, 25 NovemberJonah,
I couldn’t get past your first point before I knew your arguements were specious and based on lies: “why hasn’t he taken vengeance on the people who tried to have him thrown in jail for the crime of running against Joe Biden?”
First, he was NOT charged with the crime of “running against Biden”
Second, He declared before his innaguration, ” I will seek “Retribution and Vengeance” Ask Comey, James, Schiff, Kelly, Green, Powell, etc about this.
Third, he was convicted of 34 felonies, none of which was the crime of “running against Biden”.
Our nation was founded on the concept of morality, freedom and justice, not corruption and greed. If Trump and his “vision” creates a new nation based on lies, juvenile name calling, corruption and greed, we are doomed.
Since when did people holding rallies have to follow some idea, that their views were to be censored. The truth is these rallies had every right to call him a king (dictator) and a fascist” Look up the definition of fascist and dictator and you will find this is exactly what Trump wants to be.
Does the first amendent ring a bell? Perhaps we need “masked ICE thugs’ to be replaced by “brown shirts”.
DKnight
Posted at 23:18h, 25 NovemberMr. Jonah Heuer is right on the money. Politics is a strange and nasty sport. We need to stop worrying about is who “nice” or “moral”–and focus on who is effective and promotes intelligent policy directions. We aren’t electing people to 7th grade student council–or a committee at church–go a little deeper and get past personalities and feelings, etc. Our country has had a whole bunch of past presidents that could be described as “immoral”–or a lot worse. Some of these bad guys were still effective–and good presidents. We are not seeking–nor will we find–a saint. A quick story to illustrate: we had a medical/doctor situation in the family a few years ago. The doctors messed up. We had various doctors talk to the family during a 24-hour period, with shift changes, etc. Two of the doctors were smiling/friendly (they charmed my sister–who bless her heart–is a lefty/liberal) –but they would not provide straight answers and were full of mularkey. The head cardiologist was a grump–not friendly–my sister didn’t like him because he wasn’t “nice”. Yet, this grumpy doctor told us the truth and charted the right course to follow–and it worked out. I have encountered this lesson many times in life. The “moral” and “nice” folks–are not always effective–or even “nice”.
Quentin
Posted at 23:23h, 25 NovemberI’m curious to know your thoughts on the list of 10 policies (main point of article) and your comeback to the concluding section. Also, I didn’t say anything about “nice.”
Cindy
Posted at 00:16h, 26 NovemberIt’s very disappointing that our two major political parties don’t choose to nominate a candidate who is squeaky clean morally and who promotes effective, appropriate, intelligent policies. Surely such people exist in a country this size.
DKnight
Posted at 03:11h, 26 NovemberYour 10 points are well stated–and should lead to solid policy directions. Orange Man would agree with the 10 points. I went down the road about who is “moral” or “nice”–because that is the giant false narrative that we all have been fed for far too long. Liberals are not nicer, more virtuous or more anything that is better than anybody else. The media and the Dems have lived off this false story since forever. So–as to Trump–the man can be rough and tough and mean–and can have a shifting moral compass. Lots of effective people have moral and ethical failings. Is that ideal–nope–but it is reality. Beware of anyone who claims moral superiority. We are all flawed. Let’s choose competency, effectiveness, common sense and wisdom–over everything else–and–within reason–accept the flaws.
Quentin
Posted at 03:34h, 26 NovemberMuch appreciated, Darren.
Raymond J Lynch
Posted at 22:37h, 26 NovemberI agree with your 10 policy points and I think most reasonable people do. As far as your point about Donald Trump he does have the largest bully pulpit in the world and in my opinion does not use it in a moral way with that being said it works both ways for example the way Chuck Schumer went after supreme Court nominees was also not well intended or the way at times other members of the far left have used their vices to inflame there followers. This needs to stop now for the betterment of the entire country
V. Putin
Posted at 02:08h, 27 NovemberThe progressive movement disagrees with 9 of your 10 (and doesn’t care about the last one). They control a wide swath of today’s Democratic Party.
While the non-partisan world agrees with varying forms of your ten, the question is how effective the far left will be at hitting emotional points to get the middle to vote for them despite their divergent policy views and the mounting evidence that their approach is failing to deliver their aspirational goals.
Quentin
Posted at 02:23h, 27 NovemberI certainly agree with the last half of your message, Vlady, and will give more thought to your first point after my turkey settles.
Do you know a guy named Darrin R? He has a military background, too.