California stands a very good chance of going Republican for the first time since Reagan. LINK
Posted on 12/28/2015 10:26:34 AM PST by DaveyB
Of all the mystical qualities that Trump supporters attribute to their candidate, the one I find most curious is that Trump is the "anti-corporatist" candidate.
Trump? "Anti-corporatist"? Really?
If there were a corporatist hall of fame, Trump's name should be emblazoned across the front in huge red letters, the way it is on his casinos. We are, after all, talking about a candidate who has just finished attacking his leading rival, Ted Cruz, for insufficient devotion to ethanol subsidies. This is not an aberration. Trump has rarely met a proposal for corporate welfare that he didn't love.
Republicans have been highly critical of the Obama administration's propensity to throw money at so-called "green energy" companies. But Trump is just as big a supporter of taxpayer subsidies for alternative energy sources. Defending his support of subsidies for wind turbines, for instance, Trump explained that "you need subsidies" because it can be hard for wind to be competitive in energy production, particularly when prices for fossil fuels are so low.
Is he the fierce anti-corporatist many of his supporters see him as? Trump's support for corporate welfare can't be explained away as pandering to key voter groups, either. It's heartfelt and longstanding. As far back as 1986, Trump opposed Ronald Reagan's tax reform because it eliminated corporate loopholes, including special tax breaks for real-estate developers; he warned that it would be "a disaster for the country."
He was wrong, of course, about Reagan's tax plan, but his tune hadn't changed by 2009, when he backed TARP and the bailout of the big banks. In fact, Trump was willing to go even further, actually nationalizing the banks. As he told Larry King, "Whether they fund them or nationalize them, it doesn't matter, but you have to keep the banks going."
And it wasn't just the banks. Trump also supported the Obama administration's bailout of the auto industry and its unions. "I think the government should stand behind them 100 percent," Trump told Fox News. "You cannot lose the auto companies. They're great. They make wonderful products."
Trump may have flip-flopped on all sorts of issues, but when it comes to corporations feeding at the public trough, he's been steady as a rock.
Then there is Trump's long love affair with eminent domain. Trump has, of course, famously attempted repeatedly to use eminent domain to benefit his own business dealings, most notoriously when he encouraged the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, a government agency, to seize the home of Vera Coking, a 70-year-old widow, and turn the property over to him for development. In another instance, Trump asked the Connecticut government to condemn five Bridgeport businesses so that he could use the land for a business development.
Trump lost in both those cases, but he still resolutely defended the government's power to seize an individual's property for the benefit of private corporate interests. He enthusiastically backed the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision, telling Fox's Neil Cavuto, "I happen to agree with it 100 percent. If you have a person living in an area that's not even necessarily a good area, and … government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and ... create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good."
Even Trump's protectionist trade policy is essentially a corporatist subsidy for favored industries and unions at the expense of consumers and non-favored industries. There are a great many corporations - automakers, steel mills, textile companies - that would agree with him. Those of us who will have to pay more for everything we buy, not so much.
When it comes right down to it, Trump's entire anti-corporatist image rests on his opposition to immigration. And certainly, the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups support increased immigration. That's a fair debate. (In the interest of full disclosure, I admit that I believe that the free movement of people is a basic tenet of the free market.) But no matter what your position on immigration, wanting to build a wall hardly qualifies Donald Trump as the scourge of corporate special interests.
From congressional support for the Export-Import Bank to Marco Rubio's shilling for the sugar industry, too many Republicans believe that handouts to business are somehow less egregious than other forms of welfare. Trump's supporters should understand that their candidate is one of those Republicans.
“This is not an aberration. Trump has rarely met a proposal for corporate welfare that he didn’t love.”
Oh but that was when HE was trying to get the corporate welfare. If it’s just going to be other people getting it, he’ll surely be against it.
Apparently nobody but Trump cares about the invasion going on and creating havoc across the fruited plain.
That is why I call him the white Obama. Exactly the same dynamics.
“It frightens me that so many people here can’t see right through him.”
No big surprise though. Lots of FReepers loved Rubio when he first came on the scene. Paul Ryan too. It seems, even around here, critical, skeptical thinkers are in the minority.
I didn’t realize Obama was a real estate mogul worth 10bil in 2007.
I do believe he was a community agitator from Chicago that supports black theologian supremacy.
I don’t think he is from this Nation either.
Other than that they are like twins. idiot
I hate this infighting and I readily fed into this, again.
On your point put to me regarding Sovereign states -
I don’t trust Trump to ensure our sovereignty, even less so than Cruz, as it applies to TPP.
Trump’s whole being is about serving his sense of greatness via extravagant buildings in his name, expediently created with other’s money and influence.
The man has less than ideal of understanding the Constitution and abiding governance operations.
He is a superficial candidate who has been a fond Manhattan Cocktail party bedfellow of many abortionist, anti-gun, poverty pimp, New York liberals.
Our founding fathers unquestionably took stock of the following adage: a man is known by the company he keeps.
Is that not true today?
Trump
Is
Untrustworthy
.
Wow , are you really so obtuse as to miss my point by that much? I’m beginning to think that we need to institute a minimum mandatory IQ test of at least 70 points before you are allowed to vote.
You Trump people are getting a bit frightening. How do you function in society?
He is a national politician now.
For the record, I want Cruz on his ticket.
He makes the field and the media look silly.
I support that. This nation would not be anywhere near
this amount of damage we have sustained if a common sense hard ass was in charge.
I demand it, under Constitutional Law.
Very well, Thanks for asking.
You’re welcome, good luck.
CATO is pro open borders claiming they are corporatist is just plain wrong. I have never read ANYTHING where they favor corporate subsidies ie taxpayer money.
If you have position papers please link Currently you are spewing crap.
While Trump’s current position is anti amnesty we know that he was pro amnesty as recently as 2012.
The criticism in the article is valid as is Cruz modifying his position on H1B visas.
Trump is my second choice behind Cruz, but at least try to be objective instead of being a blind sycophant.
Too bad the politicians not only gather those pearls, but root around for those rotten truffles :(
Trump has exposed this, as well, and wants to end it! He says this as ‘one who has donated to many politicians’. He wants it to stop.
So do We the People :)
Lol!
This needs to be projected on buildings.
Ooo, great idea. Wow...
Can’t help but see it like the Batman logo beamed up to the clouds, as a call for help.
Just had twenty minute conversation with Trump organization and gave them a few ideas. One was to project the Benghazi four on a building near where she is speaking outdoors with the words HILLARY LIED, THEY DIED.
http://www.thecoolist.com/when-buildings-come-alive-10-unreal-urban-projection-videos/
Ouch. Excellent!
I’d love to see an all out guerrilla warfare against her.
This sign in the Inland Empire was a real eye opener for me.
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