This will be an unpopular opinion, I know, but I will state it anyway and just hope it gets at least considered.
Too many people assume everybody who voted for DJT - in 2016, in 2020, and 2024 are 100% on board with everything he says and does.
This is simply not the case. I know this because *I* am one of them. I am a firm believer in free trade and capitalism and I an old school Reaganaut on foreign policy and the US’s place as the leader of western democracy.
I grit my teeth and accept the stuff I don’t like because the alternative offers me *nothing* and at least I know I will get *some* things I do like (fewer regulations, smaller government, lower taxes).
So - I vote how I vote, which is ironically how I’ve always voted because I mostly do not NEED nor EXPECT the government to “save me” or “do” anything for me. Mostly, I want it to leave me the hell alone. Needing mommy - or daddy - government to “fix things”? That was always a leftist idea - and it’s always been the biggest reason I can’t ever see voting the other way.
Don’t worry about my vote - bash me all to heck if you like, my future votes are pretty much locked in because the R is always gonna be the ‘least bad option’, at worst. But I just want to warn: I know colleagues, I know neighbors, I know friends - people I’ve lobbied, cajoled, and convinced to pull the R lever who don’t feel the same way.
I think - purely from an elections standpoint - President Trump has really done an amazing job bringing in voters to the R fold that I’d have scoffed at 10-20+ years ago.
However, I have to say - I can make my peace with a big tent, but the more MAGA denounces the so-called RINOs (like me, to some extent I guess) who are pure capitalists (which requires free trade) and even yes, believe the proper US place in the world is as the leader of global democracies... the tougher elections like this one are gonna get.
Just my 2 cents. Which won’t even get you a cup of coffee.
Trump is a pragmatist, rather than an ideologue. He mentioned some stuff about tariffs during his first term. Tore up NAFTA and replaced it with USMCA.
Hopefully, Trump is trying to secure better trade deals with nations and we are not going into a new age of protectionism.
What do you think of President Trump's use of tariff threats to bring manufacturing back to the United States? He's already gotten nearly $1 trillion in commitments from foreign businesses to build manufacturing plants in the United States.
I have a feeling that much of the talk of tariffs will not materialize, at least not to the crippling extent that the LAAP-dog media is portraying to aid the Democrat comeback.
I think that President Trump is hoping to rebuild our manufacturing base to: 1) close the national security threat of the United States not being able to produce its own war materiel should we need it, 2) not be beholden to our adversaries for critical needs like medicines, steel, lumber, and other raw materials, and 3) bring the jobs back home to rebuild the middle class.
How does all of that score on your capitalist radar? Does that preserve our position as the world's leader and deterrent against non-democratic encroachments by our adversaries?
-PJ