2016 America’s race for President: Republican Candidates
American elections will be held on 8 November 2016, the number of candidates has sky rocketed which means the race has begun, and with it Primary Elections… I will divide this topic in two posts, one analyzing two Republican candidates and on the second I will analyse two Democratic candidates. Starting with the Republicans, they have a lot of candidates including Rand Paul, a strong libertarian candidate and Marco Rubio, however I will focus on Jeb Bush and Donald Trump.
Yes he’s a “Bush”, Jeb Bush, aged 62, former Governor of Florida (1999–2007) he is the son of George H.W. Bush (41st American President) and brother of George W. Bush (43rd American President).
On the other side we have Donald Trump, a well know real estate investor with an estimated net worth of 9 billion Dollars, a true Capitalist indeed.
Both Republicans, but both have different points of view in certain matters such as foreign policy; let’s see where they agree and where they have different views:
On Foreign Policy Bush supports the 2003 Iraq Invasion, he said and I quote: “I would have [authorized the invasion], and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody. And so would almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got.” On the other hand Donald Trump has been always against it not always because “Saddam Hussein never had weapons of mass destruction, but because It cost trillions of dollars and a huge amount of lives”.
On Environment they are both skeptical concerning Climate Changes, Bush is more moderate stating that we should consider it a possibility but ask for more proof’s while Trump is a Global Warming denier calling it many times a Hoax, he got famous for acting against wind millers construction near one of his golf course’s in Scotland.
Just like in Environment, Bush is more moderate on Immigration than Trump, while Bush is in favor of allowing illegal immigrants to have a legal status, “You pay your fines, you get provisional work permits, where you come out of the shadows, you pay taxes, you pay fines, you don’t receive government assistance, you learn English, you don’t commit crimes “, Trump wants even tougher Immigration Laws and a “Wall” to avoid Mexicans, or as he states “rapists and criminals”, to come to USA “steal” their jobs and commit crimes.
In terms of Economy, they tend to agree, both want more economic growth, Bush even said that his goal is to achieve 4% GDP growth per year and the rise of the average wage, however his proposals seem quite empty since he does not say how he would achieve it.
(Left Bar — GDP Annual Growth Rate, Right Bar — Unemployment Rate)
Trump is considerably better prepared in this matter he accused Obama of leading USA to where it is now, a country with no Jobs and a few economic growth according to him. The advantage he has on Jeb Bush is that he knows what he wants, a World Leader Economy that “protects” American industry and companies against Chinese competition, like a “25% tax on China” in order to avoid them from profiting too much on America with their low prices products and “stealing” their jobs, along with his objection against TTP Trade Deal.
What about Inequality? A huge issue that’s affecting the whole world specially the USA, well both candidates introduced it on their Election campaign however Jeb Bush “proposals” are affected by the typical Conservative Cliché “Cut the taxes and rolling back regulations on Industry” like he did on Florida. Trump on the other hand talked specifically about the Inequality of Afro-American People, how can we stimulate people to work and create incentives like Free Tax Zones to promote job creation.
These are the 2 Republican candidates I wanted to present and their thoughts on certain issues a candidate ,that comes from a war and oil loving Family close to Royal Saudi Arabia Family (Jeb Bush), with no concrete solution to solve Inequality to Donald Trump who expressed discrimination towards Mexican immigrants even though he choose “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World” (without permission) as his campaign song.
The question remains: Would they make good American Presidents? No, they wouldn’t!
Luís Carvalho
Graduate of Democracy 2015
