Sorry, but this is just sad to see this discussion here. So Trump won't be all that bad of a president? In fact, until he actually nukes or invades someone, we have already excused him for just not knowing a thing about Syria, Crimea, Palestine, etc. I have no faith in his diplomacy, so eventually some crisis will result in more than 6 Americans dying for no reason. Sorry, but this is tantamount to excusing Trump for invading a soverign country called Iraq on false premises, but have fun with your little history squabble. Even his cabinet selection speaks volumes about how he intends to sell out responsible stewardship of our resources.
Maybe I'm just bitter that I've achieved FI only to give my children a world that is worse off than when we practiced cold war nuclear drills and agreed MAD was indeed a bad policy, this isn't how I wanted their future to be. I thought this was all behind us. I have lost so much faith in this great country and Trump hasn't even begun.
I find it quite hard to believe the world of today is worse than that. Trump hasn't even taken office yet - the world of tomorrow may be different than today, but it's hard to argue that overall life in developed countries have been getting better and safer long-term for the last 30 years. I will completely alter my view if Trump's policies lead to school children being taught to hide under their desks.
I think its fair to withhold judgment from the President Elect until he truly screws stuff up - remember Bush was applauded and supported by congress in his decision to invade the middle east - so popular support of policies is not always a reflection on the correctness of a plan of action. While Trump may be a pretty awful person, and hold views counter to common decency, I don't know that this will automatically make him a poor president. Probably doesn't set him up for greatness, but if he fixes some things and makes some things worse, that's about par for the course from president's in my lifetime.
Maybe I've got my optimism gun set too high...
Define "truly screws stuff up" -- if he exacerbates climate change through policies (highly likely, given his contempt for the EPA and, more generally, science) but we don't see the true impact of those effects for decades, does that count? Or is only what happens immediately during his presidency which counts as him screwing stuff up?
Just because our problems today aren't as clearly viewed as kids hiding under desks (which does happen these days, they're just drills for mass shooters rather than nukes, btw) doesn't mean they're any less important.
To all: please, please stop using the "your candidate was bad too therefore we should avoid truly discussing mine" deflection tactic. No matter what you think Hillary was, this discussion is supposed to be about impacts that Trump is or will have. Ignoring people pointing out what his failings clearly already are is not a debate tactic, it's a way to hide your head in the sand.
I also don't care, in this discussion, what Obama's failings as a president have been. Yes, he's had policies I don't like, including many of those pointed out. I still fail to see how that's supposed to make me more complacent about Trump. Yay, Obama has policies which can be viewed as war crimes, so it's not as bad that we've elected an idiot narcissist? Is that really what your point is? You can't come up with anything better in support of your candidate? I mean,
really. That's the best stuff you're coming up with in defense of Trump. Oh, that and "he doesn't really mean what he says".
When did that become a good thing in a presidential candidate??Seriously, you're bringing Andrew Jackson up? How is that at all relevant? Are Jackson's duels somehow going to exonerate Trump's history of blatant fraud? We've had a lot of presidents who were slave owners. Are you going to start using them as examples for why Trump could totally bring back slavery and it would be okay because there's historical precedent for it? Your arguments are illogical, and just straight up silly. Stop it. Learn to debate, and stick to the damn point. If you need to bring up other people's failings to avoid talking about your own candidate, then maybe you're trying to avoid thinking about the fact that you helped elect a shitty, shitty candidate.