It astonishes me how people blame the president for Covid-19, like the president is just a human like the rest of us, not a deity like being. You can't expect a president to keep unhealthy and elderly Americans from dying from a deadly virus that started in another country. As a leader right now you have to balance keeping vulnerable people safe and hospitals from being overwhelmed while also ensuring the economy doesn't suffer too much and kids that are from abusive environments are safe, and honestly taking all things into consideration a lot of politicians have done a pretty good job (both Democrats and Republicans). This virus and the troubles it presents are far more complex than simply looking at the deaths.StevensTechU wrote:1) Increased US debt by more in <4 years than any administration in history, during a period of general prosperity from 2017-2019, which will lead to an increased tax burden for those of us who aren't close to dying.Duck07 wrote:I had a discussion with someone a few weeks ago after the Harris VP announcement and I asked "once you get rid of how vulgar he is, what specifically has Trump done that is so heinous and drastically different?" A lot of comments about things that previous administrations have all done like locking migrant children in chain-link, illegal bombing campaigns etc and the only thing they could mention was him wanting to sell Federal Land that was actually a significant divergence from previous administrations. He's hyperbolic and vulgar, who didn't already know that 10 years ago about him?lukeyrid13 wrote: Truthfully though, how is life under any president that much different than the previous? If you took away the protests/counter protests in regards to Trump, and looked at things honestly, each of our individual lives is not much different with: Trump, Obama, Bush or Clinton in office. Whichever side lost the previous election just complains the whole time the sitting President is in office and twists things to only point out the bad. Then we flip to the other parties candidate the next time around and the other 50% just complain the whole time.
One of my friends who wrote his Doctorate Thesis on Conservative Legal Strategy likes to argue that the Democrats don't want to lead - they just want to complain about Trump and if they get into office, they will spend the next 4 years giving themselves a Hi-5 and talking about how they're going to investigate and not do anything. This also explains after why we've been through 4 years of being told he's an actual Nazi that we end up with Biden/Harris as the counter-option.
Republicans have to destroy the myth of Reagan and Democrats have to destroy the myth of Obama. Of course, it should also be mentioned that Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself either.
2) Mis-management of coronavirus response has led to...
a. 189,000 deaths. For comparison's sake, if the US's effort to control the virus was as effective as Canada, the country we share the most in common with, we would only have 81k deaths, so one could argue that the administration is responsible for as many as 108,000 dead Americans.
b. Millions of out of work Americans and thousands of family-owned businesses closed.
c. School-age children missing significant classroom time, which predictive modeling suggests this will have long-run economic impacts.
3) Significant cultural shifts in society.
a. Most terse race relations since the 60s.
b. Lowest faith in democracy, resulting from collusion with Russia and misinformation campaign on 'fraudulent' voting, in the country's history.
c. Lowest belief in objective truth in anyone's lifetimes.
4) Strained relationships with allies we've held for decades and reduction in the 'soft influence' of US abroad. The true cost of this won't be known for years, more-than-likely after the safety of Americans has already been effected.
5) More tense relationship with Iran, creation/exacerbation of a cold war with China, no improvement with North Korea, and welcomed political involvement by Russia.
6) $141,000,000 spent on golf trips for the president. https://trumpgolfcount.com
7) Sale and rollbacks of protections of millions of acres of land and sea for purposes of development.
What I chose to leave off of this are the issues that simply weren't fixed. Generally, presidents have some failures but also have some accomplishments, with some things getting 'fixed' (wars ending, economic situation improving, injustices alleviated, etc.). All the issues that existed in 2016 still exist (unaffordable healthcare, unaffordable housing, high inequality, global warming, falling educational quality,), but we just now have additional or more accentuated problems to add to the list. These are also just the items I thought of while eating my oatmeal, so it's far from any kind of complete list.
And regarding the debt, the Democrats want to increase it even more. A lot of the debt is due to stimulus packages and coronavirus spending, again, not his fault. Neither side give a f*ck about the debt which is a problem though, I'll agree with that, but I'm not going to add more blame on Trump than Obama and Bush.
Regarding foreign relations, hasn't he strained relationships with the very allies that were taking advantage of America? Seems like trade is better now than it has been in a while. A lot of people wanted a president to be tough when it comes to foreign relations and Trump has done that. I guess this might be more or a preference thing.
And Turmp's main focus has been the economy, boosting the stock market and increasing jobs. His administration has done some great things for this economy, and the numbers certainly reflect that. The qualified opportunity zones was a brilliant idea that has boosted low income areas and have resulted in a big decline in unemployment, especially for African Americans and Latino Americans.
As for golfing, I got nothing to say in reply.
All this to say, that it is nauseating how we desperately find reasons to blame the president we don't like and praise the president we do like. This culture has resulted in the citizens of American giving up their power to the government (especially the president) and expecting them to magically take care of us and do whatever we want. A unified people are far stronger than any government position but people seem to have forgotten that. In America, the people like to make stupid mistakes, and ask the government to bail us out, then ask the government to fix the problem caused by being bailed out, like with health care for example. Just tired of seeing people refuse to give both credit and blame to Republican and Democrat presidents.