Triangulating Trump and Clinton, Now an Examination of Trump
This blog post is a continuation of the last, Triangulating Trump and Clinton, Lets Start with Clinton, where I am examine compare Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Examining Trump’s political history is a bit more difficult given the lack of experience he has in the field. He started in the year 2000, where he ran for the Reform Party, a centrist populist group. Once Patrick Buchanan decided to affiliate himself with the Reform Party, Trump backed out.
Trumps views on health care at the time were quite similar to Bernie Sanders’, where Trump believed that there should be a universal health care single payer system. Trump also supported the Affordable Care Act for a while.
Trump has changed his viewpoint once he changed his political affiliation and decided to instead campaign with the Republican Party. He now, as seemingly mandated by the party he now holds captive, denounces Obamacare. As a result of the opinion change Trump seems to be without any reasonable plan to tackle health care.
For his sake, we’ll move onto another topic. Observing his stance on gay marriage we can see that Trump is, and always was, an adversary. It is interesting to note that he has no quarrels with gay people though, except notably Rosie O’Donnell, and many would say he is comfortable with the thought of gay relationships. He has even hosted gay marriages at his hotels.
When we move to guns however, he once again changed his tune to match the party’s. When he ran for the reform party, he wrote in his book that he was for banning assault rifles and requiring background checks on gun purchases. Since then he has become almost an NRA poster child, dismissing any laws that could infringe on America’s penchant for guns.
He has recently had mixed signals on his tax plans. In 2000 he proposed a 14.5% one time flat tax on only the wealthy to take care of America’s debt, but his viewpoints devolved into opacity. In an interview recently he talked about how taxes for business and wealthy would increase if they weren’t using his proposal. He often states that he will use less taxes, but tax the rich more. Most political examination websites find this to be false, where he will simply tax everyone much less in general.
If we look at his stance on abortion we can see scruples. He, self-admittedly, stated that he has trouble with the issue. In 2000 he was pro-choice, now he is pro-life. He once stated that the woman should be punished for the offense, but amid backlash took that back and suggested that the doctor should instead be held responsible for performing the abortion.
I’m honestly not sure what he supports anymore, or if any of these ideas are going to stick with him through November.
References:
Haberman, M. (2016, April 22) Donald Trump’s More Accepting Views on Gay Issues Set Him Apart in G.O.P.. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/us/politics/donald-trump-gay-rights.html
Hollender, A. (2016, April 4). Why Everyone Hates What Donald Trump Said About Abortion. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kicker/why-everyone-hates-what-d_b_9585158.html
Janofsky, M (2000, May 26). THE 2000 CAMPAIGN: THE REFORM PARTY; Reform Party Is Embroiled Over Buchanan Domination and Its Impact on Platform. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/26/us/2000-campaign-reform-party-reform-party-embroiled-over-buchanan-domination-its.html?pagewanted=all
Kim, W. (2000, January 17). In Trump We Trust. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/books/reviews/1795/
Levitz, E. (2016, May 9). Donald Trump Does Not Want to Raise Taxes on the Wealthy. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/05/trump-doesnt-want-to-raise-taxes-on-the-wealthy.html
Pear, R., Haberman, M. (2016, April 8). Donald Trump’s Health Care Ideas Bewilder Republican Experts. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/09/us/politics/donald-trump-health-care.html?_r=0
Trump, D., & Shiflett, D. (2000). The America we deserve. Los Angeles: Renaissance Books.