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.
Trump changed huge, he was a dem, now he is repub. That is massive. But, not enough to garner my support.
Cruz is the best qualified at this time.
You do realize that it is possible to be the best qualified and the least effective at the same time. Right?
I’ve been a Conservative Republican all my voting life; and that’s a long time. Given the absolutely dire circumstances in which this nation now finds itself and my absolute disgust with both the mainstream Republicans and Democrats; I just might vote for Trump even if he were a Democrat if he was saying the exact same things and laying out the hard line policies that he is now. That’s saying a lot for me personally and I never thought I’d see the day that I would say that. I have exercised my voting rights since I became of voting age. Until Trump emerged on the scene; I was pretty much resigned to giving it up. After the last election and the Republican’s outright lies to get elected, I just didn’t see the point anymore. If Trump turns out to be a tempest in a teapot; how much worse is that than the Republican’s promise to fix everything if we’d just give them a majority? They could have been well on the way to doing that but they didn’t, they haven’t and it’s clear that they’re not going to. That’s because there’s not a true Conservative among them. They just want you to think they are. Republicans keep running out that tired old phrase “but he isn’t a Conservative!” Trump supporters know that. But Trump will never be a Liberal either because he’s made his fortune and conducted his businesses in a free nation with all its benefits. He’s for Americans doing the same thing and he’s not going to “go global” and make us a third world hellhole like Hillary or Sanders want to do. Republicans are signing our party’s own death warrant anyhow and, for the life of me, I haven’t been able to figure out why.
And then there’s this. Trump could have just as easily and probably more so, run as a Democrat and had a better than fair chance of winning. He didn’t because he knows that what Democrats want means the death of America as we know it. They wouldn’t have allowed him to run on the policies that he’s putting out there now. It sure makes me wonder why the Republicans won’t let him run on those policies either.
Donald Trump is a Big Government liberal.
But ALL of this is “old news” to many of his supporters who don't care and fervently cheer him on.
So I must conclude that they're Big Government advocates too.”
Yeah but big government ideas will work when Trump implements them
“The big problem is that we have no record on which to judge Trump on what he says Now...... He has never held political office, has never been a major contributor to pro-rights efforts, and has never used his power and influence to advance the debate on rights issues..........we have nothing but his statements .... which have changed over the years. That’s not all that reassuring.”
Most of your “nevers” are great big pluses for some of us.
And the past use of emminant domain for private property aquisition is, well, despicable.
Like it or not the country could not function without imminent domain and you know it. Can it be misused? Absolutely but so can any other government agency like the IRS for instance.
...[Ted Cruz] has also been ignored in the press.
Can you think of a reason why?
You must believe the CNN polls...
Oy. Vey. I saw this headline and I sure don’t know all the freepers here, but I knew this was you. And of course I was right. Get another hobby.
Not gonna argue wit you either. Support who you want, I’ll do the same. I do not support progressives, liberals, communists, etc.
Oh. And besides rolling my eyes at your futile attempt to convert freepers who prefer trump, I can also answer the point of your article.
I DONT CARE what letter is beside his name. D, R, doesn’t matter. You are missing the truth of DC if you think the establishment Rs are any different from the Ds except in a few words they say as cover. They are the same thing. It’s an oligarchy against the People.
I just want to fight a tyrannical government. It’s not 1984 and we aren’t trying to win the pennant for our team. We aren’t trying to pick a candidate who matches specs. WE ARE FIGHTING FOR THE CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC WE HAVE LOST. Is that so hard to understand? Only someone very rich, very courageous (ego needs to be Uuuuuuuge), and crazy about America COULD TRY. There is no one else like Trump. He is our only hope.
You're on the wrong website, attacking the wrong person about the wrong subject. Crawl back to your cankled master and tell her you failed, worm.
Good job in 210 Carry. Nice work.
I did not say that, I do not think that is a true statement. I do not have a problem with imminent domain, I have a problem with people abusing imminent domain. I believe Trump has done that.
FR as a "Trump Country" and formally endorses the Constitutionally ignorant autocrat.
The speaker of the House thinks it would be unconstitutional to exclude Muslims from the immigration process and you act as though Trump is the dunce?
No, I think you’ ve missed it. Trump is still for Trump. He should’ve stayed a democrat.
Thanks a LOT; you just made me choke on drool!
“you just made me choke on drool!”
Glad to help. I take it you have seen the pix of my modded version of “She who carries the burdens” then ;)
What could I do to prove to you that I’m a small-government conservative who still supports Trump in this election, honestly and intelligently? Or am I irrevocably a liar or a moron?
On top of that, is there anything that Trump could say or do that would assuage your hatred of him?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.