Posted on 02/09/2016 3:09:51 PM PST by conservativejoy
Jeb Bush nailed Donald Trump on eminent domain on Saturday night, albeit in his usual inarticulate way. In response, Trump shushed him, perhaps because Jeb was getting a little too close to exposing the establishment crony capitalist that Trump is being revealed as.
After recalling that Trump had,in a previous interview, said that he loved eminent domain, one of the moderators at the debate asked Trump if that policy would be appropriate to use for a hydroelectric power line called the Northern Pass.
Initially, Trump didn't answer the question, but rather claimed that eminent domain was an "absolute necessity" for a country, because without it we wouldn't have any infrastructure. He then disparaged conservatives for being for the Keystone Pipeline but against eminent domain, and argued that the pipeline wouldn't "go 10 feet" without the policy. Trump followed up and said that people are given a fortune for their property when bought out through the condemnation procedures of eminent domain.
Right after that, Jeb Bush jumped in and said that the Donald didn’t understand the difference between eminent domain for public use and eminent domain for private business. He recalled the fact that Donald Trump attempted take an elderly lady’s home so that he could expand his own private business. Of course, that's when Trump attacked Jeb personally, smacking him for trying to be a "tough guy" and shushing him. But Trump stayed with the Keystone Pipeline case, asserting that it was a private job—just like his limousine parking lot, so it's basically the same thing. After a back and forth between what these two men think is the right designation for the Keystone Pipeline, Trump said the following:
TRUMP: You wouldn't have massive - excuse me, Josh - you wouldn't have massive factories without eminent domain.
Which brings us to Michigan, where the primaries will land on March 8th. In 1981, General Motors used eminent domain to build a Cadillac plant near Hamtramck in a section called "Poletown." GM would close two other facilities in the greater Detroit area. They made a deal with the city government to purchase around 500 acres for the new plant. The move would displace 4,200 residents, some six churches and a whopping 140 businesses in a sweeping case of forced property relinquishment. The now sarcastically labeled "Government Motors" has of course not been able to produce the promises made then of 6,000 high-paying jobs and perhaps 24,000 more in economic offshoots; there is also the little matter of them being bailed out by the United States government after failing and going broke. In the Donald Trump/GM world, the displaced residents got "a fortune" for relinquishing their homes, so what's the big deal?
If Trump/GM can use government to transfer your property to their own holdings, there is essentially no protection for private property rights.
In 1981, the Poletown case went before the Michigan Supreme Court, who in a 5-2 decision, said that eminent domain allows the government to force private landowners to sell their property to benefit another private entity, and equated public use with public purpose. Public use, as in roads and bridges, and public purpose, as in tax income, jobs and the socialized system for the poor.
But that Michigan Supreme Court case, made in haste to move the project forward, was unanimously overturned in 2004, in Wayne v. Hathcock. At the time, Justice Robert P. Young Jr. wrote, "[W]e must overrule Poletown in order to vindicate our Constitution [and] protect the people's property rights..." In Michigan, the Trump/GM way of doing business is unlawful.
The big deal here is sovereignty. If Trump/GM can use government to transfer your property to their own holdings, there is essentially no protection for private property rights. In that scenario, you are no longer sovereign with things that you own, but a serf who can be ejected at will from wherever you put down roots. In the view of Donald Trump, "the greater good" overrules individual freedom. His eminent domain stance is far outside the realm of the republican form of government, the guiding philosophy of the United States of America, which emphasizes limited government, private property rights and self-governance. But in order to muddy the waters about what Trump actually believes, he threw up the Keystone Pipeline as if it is the same thing. In his muddled, inarticulate way, Jeb Bush was right.
But researchers and policy analysts also point out that when the government partners with business, it is often to cover up damage made from their own failed policies in the face of economic downturns and poorly managed public funds. The Poletown takings caused more economic destruction than the plant created, and Detroit is as close to what can be described as a failed government mecca as any you can think of. In that kind of world, all the politicians and their business cronies have to do is condemn a few hundred acres, shut off city services, and let the garbage pile up on the streets and viola!... people tend to want to take the money.
So, I no longer want to hear some passenger on the Trump Train tell me that Trump's not a skilled politician and that he's beholden to no one. He has deflected from his role in trying to force a lady to sell her home so that he could personally benefit. He used political maneuvering to make it so, a well-hewn political straw man argument to sell it, leaving us to recall all of his donations to certain Democratic politicians who were "there for him" when he needed them.
He did?
Seems Trump has been talking a lot about his eminent domain views, how are they hidden?
Seems Trump has been talking a lot about his eminent domain views, how are they hidden?
In the world of imminent domain, isn’t Walmart the most pervasive?
Conservative Joyless posting yet another hit piece on Trump, from surprise surprise, the Conservative Review! A wholly functioning arm of the Cruz campaign...
True. But they’re coming out anyway.
A pipeline isn’t the same thing as a casino, a golf course, or other BS government subsidized project that Trump has tried to impose on several occasions.
Must not have hidden it too well since you guys have found 729 different articles on it.
Eminent Domain has always been a fact of life in the United States...Check out Thomas Jefferson......
I would rather have the keystone pipeline stopped dead than to have private property taken against the owners will. Property rights are just that, rights. It should never be taken, regardless of the amount of compensation offered.
It’s bad enough we have to fight penumbral liberals, now we have to fight Trump Republicans on property rights.
Amen brother.
Bush's family Involvement G. W. Bush Texas Rangers used it to build a Stadium
Jeb used it in Naples Florida
GH Bus appointed David Souter to the Supreme Court who made it the Law of the Land.
More people have had to leave their house because they lost their job due to NAFTA, their town got taken over by illegal aliens,etc. than because of Eminent domain.
Taking private property for personal profit was never the intended use. There is not any excuse for his repeatedly using government cronies he has bribed to seize private property.
I suppose you know about Eminent domain used by the Bush family to acquire the Texas Ranger’s Stadium.
#14-Good job Scooby.
Not too surpised, Cruz's press spokesman runs their site. I watched the debate. Trump laid out his feelings on ED rather clearly.
They are wrong as well..
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