12-22-2016, 08:45 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-22-2016, 01:42 PM by SomeGuy.
Edit Reason: Edited for typos and for clarity.
)
Getting back to the original premise for a minute, here's a wishlist from another actual Trump voter, in order of precedence.
1. Avoid War with Russia - Avoiding WWIII is pretty much at the top of my list. The moral panic and inflammatory rhetoric concerning Putin's Russia was getting to the point where even my friends and family who don't follow current events much were shaking their heads in disbelief. We had the former NATO second in command writing a book on the coming war with Russia, supposed moderates like John Kasich demanding we "punch Russia in the nose", numerous other candidates (including the erstwhile presumptive nominee) talking about setting up potential confrontations with Russia in Syria and arming its foes in the Ukraine, going so far as to compare it to Nazi Germany. The Russians, in turn, were responding with talk of de-escalatory nuclear strikes. It was a recipe for disaster on a scale that would dwarf WWI, previously the gold standard for blundering political posturing leading to mass destruction. Look, Ukraine is not a treaty ally of the West, NATO is obsolete, the Crimea is majority Russian and shows little evidence of the sort of insurgency that has traditionally accompanied territorial occupation (and if you think those evil Russkies have found a way to suppress insurgencies without a huge occupying force, it might be worthwhile to buddy up with them just to learn how they do it, since we clearly haven't figured it out). How are Russia's interventions in Syria, Georgia, or the Ukraine qualitatively different from our invasion of Iraq, bombing of Libya, or worldwide drone program? How much worse are they than our supposed allies the Saudis, who behead people, support terrorism abroad, and invaded Bahrain and are presently attacking Yemen, bombing them from the air and blockading their ports, leading to famine? Don't think that has anything to do with us? It isn't like the Saudis have a domestic arms industry to speak of, nor the logistic capability to sustain an extended bombing campaign without extensive US support. Thus far, with the exception of John Bolton, whose name has not been excluded from a Trump administration yet, he's getting high marks from me so far.
2. Infrastructure - There is a critical need for a massive and sustained infrastructure push in this country. Broadband, highways, water systems, power lines, the list goes on and on. There is an opportunity to yield significant dividends in terms of not just improved capital, but mass employment for at least a generation. While there are questions as to what a Trump infrastructure program would look like, there have been numerous indications (Mnuchin discussing an infrastructure bank, Kushner stating that Trump's desires are closer to Schumer's than McConnell's) that it may in fact be a legitimate Keynesian stimulus package and not just a corporate give-away.
3. Trade - Look, deindustrialization has been a disaster for the working class (black, white, or what-have-you), the costs from Free Trade have been far more widely spread than the benefits, and one overwhelmingly concentrated in the Anglo countries that went full Thatcher/Reagan back around 1980. Want to talk about automation? Here's a list of countries by number of industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers. The United States is number 7 on the list, and the top three countries all have manufacturing work forces that make up over 20% of their labor force, roughly double the United States' 12%. What's more, the United States has a consumer base greater than all three put together, coupled with a vast resource base that obviates the need to trade finished goods in exchange for raw materials the way all three have to. Besides, the removal of tariffs and trade barriers occurred in the fairly recent past, and it isn't like no goods traveled across international borders before then.
4. Immigration - Look, none of the countries that people claimed they were moving to (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, etc.) in response to Trump's election (or whatever the latest cause of aggravation is) are easy places to move to, nor do they tolerate people just showing up and saying they have a right to be there whether the host country likes it or not. There are enormous pressures on low-wage, "unskilled" workers and there is no reason to continue dumping more people in to compete with them. There is a reason people from Samuel Gompers to Bernie Sanders, noted labor advocates all, never supported unlimited, no-questions asked immigration. It's bad for labor, which is to say, bad for normal people. The way people on the left have lauded tech companies for their stance on immigration despite the investigation of those same companies by the federal government for wage fixing is deplorable. Hell, even the Labor Department has been shown to use H1B visa workers in violation of federal guidelines. This, in spite of numerous studies showing that there is no shortage of American tech workers available to take those jobs. A tightening of the cheap labor spigot, from farm workers to programmers is long overdue.
5. Wars of Choice - The years since the end of the Cold War have been chock full of interventions from the Balkans to Africa to the Middle East, for little reason other than that politicians have been able to get away with it. I put this last because, at the end of the day, it's not existential the way, say, not getting into a nuclear exchange over Syria is. I also put it last because it is the one I have the most doubts of seeing happen, particularly given the noted hawkishness towards Iran I'm seeing in a lot of Trump's Cabinet picks (Matthis, Flynn, etc.). I will admit, I cheered when Trump called out Bush and the War in Iraq in SC, then won its primary shortly thereafter, but I also cringed on numerous occasions with his calls for torture, murdering family members of terrorists, and general boorishness. So, I'll put this as a nice-to-have, but I am not holding my breath. In the absence of real peer competitors on the global stage, and a professional military drawn in large part from a small section of the population, there is simply too little pushback to this sort of adventurism abroad.
So there you have it, that's what I voted for. We'll see how it turns out.
1. Avoid War with Russia - Avoiding WWIII is pretty much at the top of my list. The moral panic and inflammatory rhetoric concerning Putin's Russia was getting to the point where even my friends and family who don't follow current events much were shaking their heads in disbelief. We had the former NATO second in command writing a book on the coming war with Russia, supposed moderates like John Kasich demanding we "punch Russia in the nose", numerous other candidates (including the erstwhile presumptive nominee) talking about setting up potential confrontations with Russia in Syria and arming its foes in the Ukraine, going so far as to compare it to Nazi Germany. The Russians, in turn, were responding with talk of de-escalatory nuclear strikes. It was a recipe for disaster on a scale that would dwarf WWI, previously the gold standard for blundering political posturing leading to mass destruction. Look, Ukraine is not a treaty ally of the West, NATO is obsolete, the Crimea is majority Russian and shows little evidence of the sort of insurgency that has traditionally accompanied territorial occupation (and if you think those evil Russkies have found a way to suppress insurgencies without a huge occupying force, it might be worthwhile to buddy up with them just to learn how they do it, since we clearly haven't figured it out). How are Russia's interventions in Syria, Georgia, or the Ukraine qualitatively different from our invasion of Iraq, bombing of Libya, or worldwide drone program? How much worse are they than our supposed allies the Saudis, who behead people, support terrorism abroad, and invaded Bahrain and are presently attacking Yemen, bombing them from the air and blockading their ports, leading to famine? Don't think that has anything to do with us? It isn't like the Saudis have a domestic arms industry to speak of, nor the logistic capability to sustain an extended bombing campaign without extensive US support. Thus far, with the exception of John Bolton, whose name has not been excluded from a Trump administration yet, he's getting high marks from me so far.
2. Infrastructure - There is a critical need for a massive and sustained infrastructure push in this country. Broadband, highways, water systems, power lines, the list goes on and on. There is an opportunity to yield significant dividends in terms of not just improved capital, but mass employment for at least a generation. While there are questions as to what a Trump infrastructure program would look like, there have been numerous indications (Mnuchin discussing an infrastructure bank, Kushner stating that Trump's desires are closer to Schumer's than McConnell's) that it may in fact be a legitimate Keynesian stimulus package and not just a corporate give-away.
3. Trade - Look, deindustrialization has been a disaster for the working class (black, white, or what-have-you), the costs from Free Trade have been far more widely spread than the benefits, and one overwhelmingly concentrated in the Anglo countries that went full Thatcher/Reagan back around 1980. Want to talk about automation? Here's a list of countries by number of industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers. The United States is number 7 on the list, and the top three countries all have manufacturing work forces that make up over 20% of their labor force, roughly double the United States' 12%. What's more, the United States has a consumer base greater than all three put together, coupled with a vast resource base that obviates the need to trade finished goods in exchange for raw materials the way all three have to. Besides, the removal of tariffs and trade barriers occurred in the fairly recent past, and it isn't like no goods traveled across international borders before then.
4. Immigration - Look, none of the countries that people claimed they were moving to (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, etc.) in response to Trump's election (or whatever the latest cause of aggravation is) are easy places to move to, nor do they tolerate people just showing up and saying they have a right to be there whether the host country likes it or not. There are enormous pressures on low-wage, "unskilled" workers and there is no reason to continue dumping more people in to compete with them. There is a reason people from Samuel Gompers to Bernie Sanders, noted labor advocates all, never supported unlimited, no-questions asked immigration. It's bad for labor, which is to say, bad for normal people. The way people on the left have lauded tech companies for their stance on immigration despite the investigation of those same companies by the federal government for wage fixing is deplorable. Hell, even the Labor Department has been shown to use H1B visa workers in violation of federal guidelines. This, in spite of numerous studies showing that there is no shortage of American tech workers available to take those jobs. A tightening of the cheap labor spigot, from farm workers to programmers is long overdue.
5. Wars of Choice - The years since the end of the Cold War have been chock full of interventions from the Balkans to Africa to the Middle East, for little reason other than that politicians have been able to get away with it. I put this last because, at the end of the day, it's not existential the way, say, not getting into a nuclear exchange over Syria is. I also put it last because it is the one I have the most doubts of seeing happen, particularly given the noted hawkishness towards Iran I'm seeing in a lot of Trump's Cabinet picks (Matthis, Flynn, etc.). I will admit, I cheered when Trump called out Bush and the War in Iraq in SC, then won its primary shortly thereafter, but I also cringed on numerous occasions with his calls for torture, murdering family members of terrorists, and general boorishness. So, I'll put this as a nice-to-have, but I am not holding my breath. In the absence of real peer competitors on the global stage, and a professional military drawn in large part from a small section of the population, there is simply too little pushback to this sort of adventurism abroad.
So there you have it, that's what I voted for. We'll see how it turns out.