Was I Stupid Was I Blind
When a popular leader continually employs division and misinformation to promote his goals, loyalists can drift from democratic standards and from fact-based reality.
Chatman, the Berkeley Haas leadership expert, trained as a social psychologist. Research, she said, has shown that people can be persuaded by the stories that leaders tell. If a leader makes an appealing promise, people will remain loyal, even if the leader doesnt deliver.
Trump, Chatman explained, has framed a narrative that says, Im the turnaround guy. Im going to drain the swamp. Im going to blow Washington up. And so anyone who was disaffected about government, which turns out to have been a lot of people, likes that narrative.
How far does that influence extend?
Exhibit A: QAnon is a bizarre conspiracy cult united in the belief that Trump is defending the world against a vast network of Satanic pedophiles including Democrats, Hollywood stars and others in the deep state who are attempting to traffic in children and generally to threaten freedom. Trump has welcomed QAnon support and sometimes retweets their communications.
One recent poll found that 56% of Republicans now believe that the improbable QAnon conspiracies are somewhat or entirely true. Only 4% of Democrats agree.
Its much easier and more cognitively consistent to stay in and say, Oh, the media, the Democrats, theyre not giving him a fair shot. . Thats why we dont see any movement in the Trump base.
An Official Website Of Trump Launched To Stay Connected With Supporters
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– Republican former President Donald Trump has launched an official website www.45office.com, a platform for his supporters to stay in touch and to showcase his time in office.
The 45office.com websites home page displays multiple pictures of Trump with various figures including his wife Melania, members of the military and world leaders, which were taken at multiple events during his time as president.
The Office of Donald J. Trump is committed to preserving the magnificent legacy of the Trump Administration, while at the same time advancing the America First agenda, the message on websites home page read.
The About section contains a glowing 850-word synopsis of his time in office, highlighting what Trump has often cited as his greatest achievements, including energy and border security, strengthening NATO and other international alliances, and his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
It made no mention of the scandals, corruption investigations, two impeachments or the attacks on democratic institutions that framed his presidency.
It was not immediately clear when the website went live.
Trump retains significant influence over the Republican Party despite his loss in the 2020 election and has hinted at a possible presidential run in 2024.
In an interview with Fox News earlier this month, Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trumps 2020 campaign, said Trump will launch his own social media platform in two to three months.
Wildlife Conservation And Animal Welfare
In October 2016, the Humane Society denounced Trump’s campaign, saying that a “Trump presidency would be a threat to animals everywhere” and that he has “a team of advisors and financial supporters tied in with trophy hunting, puppy mills, factory farming, horse slaughter, and other abusive industries.”
In February 2017, under the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture unexpectedly removed from its public website “all enforcement records related to horse soring and to animal welfare at dog breeding operations and other facilities.” The decision prompted criticism from animal welfare advocates , investigative journalists, and some of the regulated industries .
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Climate Change And Pollution
Trump rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, repeatedly contending that global warming is a “hoax.” He has said that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” a statement which Trump later said was a joke. However, it was also pointed out that he often conflates weather with climate change.
Trump criticized President Obama’s description of climate change as “the greatest threat to future generations” for being “naive” and “one of the dumbest statements I’ve ever heard.” A 2016 report by the Sierra Club contended that, were he to be elected president, Trump would be the only head of state in the world to contend that climate change is a hoax. In December 2009, Trump and his three adult children had signed a full-page advertisement from “business leaders” in The New York Times stating “If we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet” and encouraging “investment in the clean energy economy” to “create new energy jobs and increase our energy security”.
Trump wrote in his 2011 book that he opposed a cap-and-trade system to control carbon emissions.
Opposition to international cooperation on climate change
Trump Has The Tiger By The Tail
Ok, first off, I am just a little cog in the big wheel of life! Why am I voting for Trump you ask? Very simple! The Reds and the Blues of this country have had plenty of time to get the situation under control and they have proven that they are incapable of getting the job done! Nero Plays as Rome Burns! And the Senators are hiding and licking their wounds like scared sheep! Enter The Donald!
Like him or hate him, he is a businessman and he has the Tiger by the Tail! The Tiger is the common working man in this country that is tired of Politics and Washington continuing to screw us over in the process of ruining the country we all love! We want to give a businessman the chance to prove that this country can be great again! All the Dems can come up with is a Socialist, a confirmed habitual liar and the village idiot! The Repubs have all their faith in a Shrub that cant even speak to a group and make sense. The rest are milling around trying to fake that they can keep up! Politics is in the dumper and just maybe the best hope for America is The Donald!
Trump 16
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Social Security And Medicare
Social Security Medicare Medicaid
During his campaign Trump repeatedly promised “Iâm not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and Iâm not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.” For the first three years of his presidency he said nothing about cutting Social Security or Medicare. In a January 2020 interview he said he planned to “take a look” at entitlement programs like Medicare, but he then said via Twitter “We will not be touching your Social Security or Medicare in Fiscal 2021 Budget.” His proposed 2021 budget, unveiled in February 2020, included a $45 billion cut to the program within Social Security that supports disabled people, as well as cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. In August 2020, as part of a package of executive orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic, he signed an order to postpone the collection of the payroll taxes that support Social Security and Medicare, paid by employees and employers, for the rest of 2020. He also said that if he wins re-election, he will forgive the postponed payroll taxes and make permanent cuts to the payroll tax, saying he would “terminate the tax,” although only Congress can change tax law. Analysts said such an action would threaten Social Security and Medicare by eliminating the dedicated funding which pays for the programs.
Trump Promised To Open Up Libel Laws
Trump promised to punish individuals who burned the American flag and to open uplibel laws .
After excerpts from Michael Wolffs highly critical book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, was released in January 2018, Trumps attorneys sent an 11-page letter to Wolff and to his publisher, Henry Holt & Co., asking them to cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the book, the article, or any excerpts or summaries of either of them, to any person or entity, and that you issue a full and complete retraction and apology to my client as to all statements made about him in the book and article that lack competent evidentiary support .
Wolff and his publisher, undoubtedly thankful for the additional publicity, instead expedited publication of the book, which became a bestseller. The issued a statement saying that t is one thing for a private citizen to use libel laws to quash speech. It is unheard of for a sitting President to do so.”
The U.S. Supreme Court held in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan that state libel laws must comport with First Amendment standards and ruled in Texas v. Johnson that some flag-burning is a form of protected political speech.
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How Rational Ignorance Shapes Our Politics
To understand why so many voted to re-elect Trump after four years of historic political turmoil featuring a failed pandemic response, a devastating economic shock and a crisis in racial justice its necessary to understand the forces that propelled him to victory in 2016.
In recent publications, Berkeley scholars have suggested that Trump won with an unconventional coalition of white working class and middle-class Americans who were motivated by resentment: The culture and economy gave them no recognition and no respect for their work. Their industries were changing, their jobs were shifting overseas or lost to automation. They perceive that Black, Latinx and Asian people, and immigrants, are advancing at their expense.
Trump supporters massed for a rally in Washington, D.C., days after Democrat Joe Biden emerged as the winner of the U.S. presidential race.
But some Berkeley scholars suggested that for many voters, support for Trump or any leader is a more passive choice that takes shape in a subrational sphere.
Gabriel Lenz, an expert in political psychology, is the author of Follow the Leader? How Voters Respond to Politicians Performance and Policies . He sees political opinion shaped by a force that is almost prosaic: an apathetic lack of awareness.
Gabriel Lenz, UC Berkeley political scientist
Lenz and other political scientists call it rational ignorance.
Trump Won Evangelical Support By Promising More Freedom
Early in his campaign, Trump was endorsed by Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University. Trump convinced many evangelicals that he would secure their First Amendment free exercise rights and exempt them from government regulations, such as the requirement that health plans provide access to birth-control pills that they consider to be abortifacients. As president, Trump signed an executive order seeking protections for religious freedom .
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One Answer To The Question ‘why Do Evangelicals Support Trump’ Is That They Don’t Or At Least Not All Of Them
As a student of American evangelicalism, I am frequently asked how Christians can support Donald Trump. I stop myself from going into lecture mode. Most people want a sound bite, not a disquisition.
So heres the short answer: Ever since 1980, when Ronald Reagan told a Dallas gathering of 15,000 evangelicals, you cant endorse me but I want you to know that I endorse you, white evangelicals have voted for Republicans, who mostly promise to enact their agenda.
Mostly theyve been disappointed. In November 2016, when Trump won election to the White House, abortion was still legal, gay couples had the right to marry, government regulations inhibited the free market and the U.S. embassy to Israel remained in Tel Aviv.
Trump promised to change all that.
Despite his personal shortcomings, evangelicals believed him. He selected a solid Christian as his running mate, and his track record as a businessman proved he got things done.
God uses imperfect messengers, evangelicals reasoned, and if King David an adulterer who arranged to have his partners husband killed could still accomplish great good, why not the 45th president?
So it was a realpolitik calculation that drove so many white evangelicals to the Trump-Pence ticket. It was also stoked by economic uncertainty, cultural anxiety and a sense of social marginalization that festered through the Obama years. They wanted an affirmation of their status, and Trump offered one.
We used three sorting criteria.
Trumps Foreign Policy Moments
Donald J. Trumps presidency marked a profound departure from U.S. leadership in areas such as trade and diplomacy, as well as an across-the-board toughening of immigration policies.
In his inaugural address, President Donald J. Trump announces an America First approach to foreign policy and trade, which centers on reducing U.S. trade deficits and rebalancing burden sharing within alliances. Trump promises to unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism and emphasizes that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.
Trump directs the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a twelve-country, Asia-focused trade agreement the United States had championed under the Barack Obama administration.
The president signs an executive order banning nationals of six Muslim-majority countries from traveling to the United States for ninety days. The order, later amended to include an additional two countries, also indefinitely freezes refugee intake from Syria. Days later, a federal judge in Washington State blocks part of the order, beginning a series of judicial challenges. That same week, Trump signs two other executive orders concerning immigration. One directs federal funds to the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the other bars so-called sanctuary cities from receiving federal grants.
Washington Post
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A Bernie Sanders Supporter Whod Vote Trump Over Clinton
It is not that Trump supporters necessarily trust Trump to be their champion or that he can be relied upon to deliver better than other politicians. It is the confidence that he cant do worse . In the meantime, his supporters relish the contempt he shows toward the mainstream media and politicians . I am a Bernie Sanders supporter. But if I had to vote for any Republican, it would certainly be Trump. In a face off between Hillary Clinton and Trump, I again would vote Trump. While he might not deliver on his promises, he would certainly be a bull in the China shop of contemporary American politics, which has long needed destroying and rebuilding.
The Latest List Of Pacs And Individuals Who Have Donated To Them
Donald Trump announced his reelection bid as soon as he took office four years ago and raised more than $1 billion in the 2020 cycle, according to OpenSecrets. This amount includes donations to his official campaign committee and outside groups such as single-candidate super PACs and hybrid PACs or Carey committees.
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