My Trump Card
First, in order to answer a recent request to respond to Donald Trump’s positions I need to lay out my perspective as a framework for my answers. I’m going to start macro — because it’s important — and then move to micro in order to show where my thinking is heading.
So, first things first: we need to find another planet. I agree with Stephen Hawking that our chances aren’t so good for continuing much longer as a species. We are depleting our planet’s resources at a rapid rate. This, combined with compounding population growth and an increasing number and degree of conflict, means that we will either a) run out of resources to sustain human life at the level of comfort and security we now enjoy, or b) destroy ourselves through violence before we can achieve any viable means for our continuation. Besides that, we’ve only got a hundred million years or so before our sun expands enough to burn up our atmosphere and the surface.
There are a lot of theories about the existence of life outside of our little blue globe. Some of them go like this:
- There used to be advanced beings on other planets, but they destroyed their resources and died out before they could explore further into the universe.
- There used to be advanced being on other planets, but they destroyed themselves through conflict before they could explore further into the universe.
- There are other beings on other planets that are less developed than we are, so we haven’t detected them yet.
- There have never been any other beings on any other planets in the history of the universe.
The last bullet is patently ridiculous based on probability alone. And my favorite news article in recent history was an announcement of the discovery of three planets not too far away that are similar enough to earth that they might sustain life. Whether intelligent life exists there or not is irrelevant to me. My worldview (my universal view) is that we need to be focused on space colonization as a species.
I add emphasis there because I do not subscribe to the socially constructed idea of “different races.” We are all one race (homo sapiens sapiens) with varying expressions of human DNA. Eye and hair color, skin pigmentation, physical structure, etc. are all just different inherited gene expressions. So, because we are all the same, my personally held belief is that we need to focus externally so that we can either a) eliminate our differences (my preference), or at least b) render our differences irrelevant to the pursuit of our best interests as a species.
This means a lot of things to me. Primarily it means a breaking down of and ultimately the elimination of the walls we’ve build between ourselves around the world. John Lennon best summarized my ideas in his song, “Imagine.” No ownership. No religion. No borders. The problem with his idea is that our distinctions as defined by the labels we place on them are very old and strongly ingrained in who we are based on our physical and genetic geography. Our perceived race, the religion we either grew up with or “discovered” on our own, our language, nationality, ethics, perceptions — these are all completely manufactured by us and our ancestors, primarily in an effort to cohere us into workable social groups so that we could overcome challenges and make advances. I get that; and I think it’s been good for us to glom together as groups so that we can work on challenges collectively. But I think we’re sufficiently advanced now that we no longer need these distinctions; in fact, I think these distinctions are detrimental to our future success as a species. They are a hindrance to our survivability.
So, perhaps now you can understand where I am coming from. And with that I will start my response to the positions held by Donald Trump according to his campaign website.
One final caveat: I neither like nor trust anyone who decides to run for public office. It is always done for personal gain and out of ego. That said, here goes.
Pay For the Wall
I would laugh if I weren’t so disheartened. Build a wall? Really, Mr. Khrushchev? A wall? How about some concentration camps and gas chambers for those damned Muslims too? And why not divert all the “No Child Left Behind” and minority scholarship and other funds that attempt to equalize an unbalanced social landscape to purchase plane tickets and send all non-white Americans back to wherever they’re ancestors came from?
Health Care Reform
Bill Gates donated $10 billion to charity. The wealthiest Americans certainly don’t use all of the money they’ve earned. Why not reinvest in America through higher taxes? Then we could provide health care and education benefits to everyone. There’s a lot of money in this country and most of it’s not going to towards anything helpful.
US-China Trade Reform
Many a politician has made the promise to reform trade practices with China. Once elected, they’ve all reversed their stances. China owns more US dollars than any country. They keep buying our debt — they practically bought us out of our 2008 financial collapse. They also own more American real estate than any other country. The Chinese built our power plants and water control systems. When they did that, they embedded software that can literally destroy our systems in the event of war. China owns America. Nothing is going to change on this front. Trump is lying through his capped teeth.
Veterans Administration Reform
This is only an issue because it was in the news. Oh, the poor veterans. Trust me, they’re all doing fine. And with the new retirement plan (no more 50% at 20 years — it’s now just another 401k program), and if we can make our health care system free it won’t matter anyway.
Tax Reform
I’m pretty sure Trump’s ideas about taxes heavily favor rich businessmen. Not sure this in any way aligns with my ideas or is in the best interest of most Americans.
Second Amendment Rights
Man…this is a tough one. I’m of the mind that our Constitution should be amended on this one. It’s an old document born at a time when we were threatened by Britain for our very existence as a fledgling nation. Today? There’s no threat to our existence from a foreign power seeking to annex us. There’s really no need for the average citizen to own firearms, other than for hunting. Certainly we don’t need military style assault weapons. We should amend this amendment — or simply repeal it. It’s like religious texts: there are some outdated things in there that most modern folks just ignore (like abhoring homosexuality, stoning people, slave ownership, etc.). Let’s just delete or amend this nonsense. Also, if we legalized drugs, we could divert some of the resources from our “War on Drugs” to siezing firearms from criminals.
Economy
Economics are largely determined by market forces, driven by banking power brokers and large corporations combined with the proclivities of the consumers. The US economy thrives when its citizenry can be convinced (manipulated) to buy goods and services. A president is in office for such a short period of time, that his influence (if there is any) is fleeting at best. Under Bill Clinton’s government the economy operated with a surplus. Under George Bush the economy operated at a deficit and contributed to one of the greatest declines in history (coinciding with the Great Recession — which was decades in the making anyway and independent of presidential leadership). Currently, the US economy is thriving, but it will or won’t continue depending not on the next president — and the results won’t be clear until the end of his or her first term and could see a reversal in any potential second term — but depending on market factors (consumers and producers). It’s just not something that a president is directly responsible for.
Immigration
I would like to say, “We are a nation of immigrants. Period.” But I don’t suppose that will be enough to answer this one. First, we need immigrant labor just as much as we need to outsource labor to other countries (e.g., China, India, Bangladesh, etc.). America has a huge and thriving middle class who live like kings compared to the rest of the world — and none of them wants to perform manual labor. We’re a white collar nation with blue collar needs that can only be met by an immigrant or foreign workforce. Also, it turns out that more than 50% of PhD candidates in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) programs are studying on the H1B visa — damned foreigners! And many of them stay once they’ve completed their degrees because there are jobs for them here (because Americans obviously aren’t up to par).
Besides, as I’ve already said, I’m pretty confident (and hopeful) that this whole idea of borders and nations will one day be an interesting part of high school history classes.
Terrorism
Between 2001 and 2013, terrorists killed 3,030 Americans inside the US (most of them on 9/11). Terrorists have killed an additional 350 Americans outside the US (not including troops deployed to conflict zones). That’s a total of 3,380. Domestic gun violence (non-terrorist related) during the same period caused 406,496 American deaths. The number of road accidents that result in death kill 390 times the number of terror-related deaths each year (that’s like having a 9/11 attack every 26 days). Terrorism is a political issue because it’s made out to be scary by the media. This is mostly because terror tactics are spectacular. Lots of explosions or beheadings or airplanes flying into buildings. But terrorism kills very few people. It’s not something I’m afraid of or worried about when I leave my house in the morning. And based on my own professional experience, the number of terrorists infiltrating countries under the guise of immigration is minimal. The terrorists (and potential terrorists) are already in the US. I’m more afraid of gun-toting rednecks and criminals in this country and abroad than I am of terrorists.
Defense
We spend too much money on defense. Seriously. More than $500,000,000,000 on defense?! That’s 11 zeros! Half a trillion dollars! How about free education? My rule as leader? Everybody gets a masters. For free. Period. How about space exploration? How about developing more efficient solar, wind, and oceanoelectric power? How about ending deforestation? Man, that money could go to better things! Why do we need a Joint Strike Fighter? It’s 15 years behind schedule and $6,000,000,000 (six billion dollars!) over budget. And the Russian and Chinese planes are already more advanced. And we keep throwing money at it? Why? How many troops do we need? Nobody wants to invade us. Trust me. We’ve got to reduce our defense budget. It’s killing us.
Abortion
Is this really a political issue? Seriously? This is a matter of personal choice and should be left up to the pregnant woman and/or biological father.
Conclusion
I’m disheartened by the vehemence and anger coming from certain segments of the American citizenry. Trump is selling one of the two best products ever conceived of in history: fear (the other one is sex, but he’s certainly not selling that — unless he thinks his wife is checking that box). He’s somehow gotten white people (white men in particular) to believe that their “way of life” is at risk. That somehow “others” are coming from “over there” to take it away. Trump is a racist, a bigot, a megalomaniac, and an elitist (or at least enables those who are) who has no idea how to formulate policy or run a country. And all of the old biases that he represents are really a hindrance to our progress (remember, I mean human progress). Make America great again? I think America is pretty great. Why not try something different? My slogan would be: make the world an awesome, inclusive, progressive place.
