Posted on 12/14/2015 12:12:20 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Imagine for a moment if Donald Trump made the decision to run for president as a Democrat instead of as a Republican.
As Trump-mania continues to dominate the Republican presidential primary, it's not hard to envision an alternate reality - one where the real estate billionaire is taking the country by storm as a Democrat.
In many ways, it would have been easier for Trump to enter the Democratic primary than the Republican primary. Trump was registered as a Democrat from 2001 to 2009 and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid over the years. (In fairness, he has donated a lot of money to Republican candidates as well.)
As a native of liberal New York City, it's not surprising that Trump has a much longer record of being pro-choice than he does of being pro-life.
"I support a woman's right to choose," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press" in 2000.
Trump was never a staunch opponent of gay marriage either until recently. In fact, Rick Santorum says that Trump chided him in 2011 for being "too hard-core" on gay marriage and abortion.
"I don't know anyone that shares that opinion with you," Santorum said Trump told him.
So it's not too hard to envision Trump running as a socially liberal Democrat. Indeed, it would seemingly be a far easier act for the thrice-married New Yorker to pull off than convincing evangelicals that he is staunchly pro-life and against gay marriage.
On foreign policy, Trump isn't all that different from Barack Obama. To the extent his foreign policy worldview is comprehensible, he comes across as the least hawkish candidate in the GOP field, with the possible exception of Rand Paul, even though rhetoric sometimes masks this. While he says he wants to increase military spending and "bomb the shit" out of ISIS, he regularly makes the case for reducing America's leadership role in world affairs and focusing on nation building at home.
"I'll tell you what, there is going to be nation building. You know what the nation's going to be? The United States, that's what the nation's going to be," Trump told me in September, speaking of his foreign policy outlook.
As Trump also repeatedly highlights, he opposed the Iraq war (though the first evidence of this comes from 2004, over a year after the war began). Such a position is far more endearing to the Democratic base than Hillary Clinton's support for the military action that removed Saddam from power.
Trump wouldn't be out of place on economic issues in a Democratic primary either. At this anti-Wall Street moment, Trump could paint himself as the insider who is ready to turn enemy of his class for the good of the country.
What's more, Trump has a record of favoring proposals that would be far more vexing to the one percent than anything Bernie Sanders has proposed. In 1999, Trump proposed a one-time 14.25 percent tax on wealthy Americans and trusts over $10 million. Even now he doesn't back away from that proposal philosophically, even though he says he doesn't intend to pursue it in the White House.
"At that time we could have paid off the entire national debt and we could have started the game all even," Trump told Sean Hannity in August, noting that the proposal was actually "very conservative."
Trump is also a supporter of universal health care, if not Obamacare.
"I am going to take care of everybody," Trump said on "60 Minutes" in September. "I don't care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody's going to be taken care of much better than they're taken care of now."
Trump even praised the single payer health care programs of Canada and Scotland during the first Republican presidential debate in August.
"As far as single payer, it works in Canada, it works incredibly well in Scotland, it could have worked in a different age, which is the age you are talking about here," Trump said when asked by the moderators about his past support for single payer health care.
Of course Trump would have had to made the strategic decision to position himself to run in 2016 as a Democrat way back in 2010, before he went on his birther kick. You probably can't win a Democratic primary as one of the leading birthers in the country.
His rhetoric on immigration also wouldn't fly in a Democratic primary. But if he made the decision to position himself as a Democrat contender back in 2010, he would never have called for the deportation of all the illegal immigrants in the country. In fact, after Mitt Romney lost in 2012, Trump criticized the Republican contender's rhetoric on immigration as "mean-spirited," which suggests Trump's instincts on illegal immigration may be less harsh than what we are seeing today
"The Democrats didn't have a policy for dealing with illegal immigrants, but what they did have going for them is they weren't mean-spirited about it," Trump told Newsmax. "They didn't know what the policy was, but what they were is they were kind."
But if Trump made the decision to run as a Democrat in 2010, he may be even better positioned to win the Democratic presidential nomination today than he is to win the Republican nomination. The Democratic field is far smaller and with Joe Biden's decision to not enter the race, there is no candidate opposing Hillary Clinton who people can actually imagine winning the nomination, even if Sanders could potentially threaten her in a few states.
Trump may have been that guy. He could have successfully branded Clinton as untrustworthy and even criminal over her email scandal and shady Clinton Foundation dealings, just like he negatively branded so many of his GOP foes. And it very well may have worked, just like it seems to have worked with "low-energy" Jeb Bush.
So it doesn't take too much of an imagination to envision a world where Donald Trump is on the verge of winning the Democratic nomination. In fact, it may even be far easier to get your head around than our current reality.
First, I didn’t say it. Words have meaning. If you want to quote me, quote something I said.
Second, He did use it. He lost in the end in court. It was not that he wanted to use it. He did use it. Ask the person who was dragged into court if he used it or didn’t use it.
You respond to THAT post of mine, with THAT gimmicky crap, and not the much more detailed and explanatory post to you?
You are not here for anything serious. You are here ONLY to take down Trump.
Add to that, that you admitted you do not even have a candidate you favor for the nomination, and you now appear to me to be a sleeper troll. Probably an Establishment hack.
I shall treat you as such from now on.
Your husband must be a saint. No, actually a Saint.
Ok, without checking the links and quotes, it’s not so great for Trump on healthcare. Not the worst — the worst is Obamacare, and he’s definitely opposed to a continuation of that.
I already saw he’s not so great on eminent domain, earlier this year.
That’s two positions of literally hundreds. I can take a few misses, to get a on-the-balance Populist. Like I said, it’s a dice throw, but right now, a dice throw is all we got.
That, or armed revolution. And I like air conditioning and hate bugs.
I am starting to suspect this is merely her job. Because of that, when she is off the Establishment clock, she *might* be more tolerable around the house.
Fair enough, Laz. I don’t agree with you on Trump, but I respect that you are looking at those issues honestly.
Are you sure you are not one of those mouth breathing zombies. I attached your post so you can go back and read it....also read your tagline....geeeeze.....
your commanded so you gotta obey
The world will not end if Hillary is elected. It will be bad, no doubt but human life will not end on the planet because she is elected _resident.
Come on start thinking in the present and start thinking of the future. We need to be real about this whole voting thing, okay.
In this time of universal deceit, the only way we can fight back is be honest. That’s why for the fifteen minute post-San-Bernadino speech, I correctly observed that the first five minutes, OTrauma actually sounded like every other President in history would have. I got surprisingly little negative feedback on that observation.
Of course, the next ten minutes was typical OTrauma. It kinda erased those first five minutes.
We can disagree and stay honest. Peace out, bro.
‘’Will the republicans following him be able to accept the truth?’’
Really. That former-democrat Ronald Reagan guy sure was a disappointment. :)
“And the past use of emminant domain for private property aquisition is, well, despicable.”
The problem with the original statement was the fact Trump never used eminant domain for private property acquisition. The statement is false.
Vera was asking $5 million in 2011. Sounds like she was a greedy person.
I bet he starts hollering and screaming like a 1 year old that wet his diapers and needs them changed
I bet that is exactly the way he sounds in a board meeting when things are not going his way
You think Jim is that shallow? I think he would be disgusted to hear you feel this way
I for one do not think would discourage debate and think he likes debate
He knows that Cruz and Trump are top of the game on FR
Paying off the national debt at that time—followed by not going into debt again—was a “conservative” position.
And, this writer completely distorts Trump’s position on healthcare. He has said he would allow interstate competition and otherwise replace Obamacare with free market solutions—other than keeping Medicare and Medicaid, which yes, mean that “everyone” can be taken care of with a healthcare option that is affordable to them.
But, we know busy little Internet beavers like you just love to post misleading and inaccurate GOPe propaganda over and over and over again.
But I thought you loved Big Government liberals, CW ? You were a big disciple of La Raza Rick for President.
I thought about the fact that there was no way to judge Trump according to what he has done, but there is. Have any competitors or those who he has worked with found that what he does is dishonorable? HAS HE KEPT HIS WORD? Does he weasel out of contracts?
Look at it this way, he is a competitive business tycoon. He wants America to be the best just as he wants a golf course he is renovating to be the best in the world. Trump @ Twitter: “Many think that the Championship Course at Turnberry, home of The Duel In The Sun, will be the worlds best after the renovation.”
If Trump knows how to build a skyscraper or golf course he knows that the FOUNDATION is the most important part or it will crumble. The constitution and Biblically minded people are the foundation of this republic. I hope he reads the works of the founding fathers to understand that foundation.
Those foundations are a dimension that he must repair with honor, justice, TRUTH, and most of all, the right to life itself which is the foundation of existence. Without the right to life, all else is moot.
Do you support the Keystone pipeline?
That is a great post.
Especially this observation; “The political battleground has changed drastically in the last 20-30 years. It is now Elitist vs. Populist. That is why you see so many Republicans acting so inexplicably oddly. It is also why Trump is so popular, with crossover appeal.”
You are exactly right but not many on this thread will understand.
Hardcore Trump supporters really don’t care about facts.
Good summary on Trump, he just left out his 3-year-old persona, how he stomps his feet, whines and belittles which I see as offensive and grating, they think is great.
11% of Iowans said he had the temperament to be president and I give the rest of them an A. Of course when called Iowans stupid probably stuck in a lot of craws.
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