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Thomas L. Friedman (New York Times) - 'Trump's going to get re-elected, isn't he?'

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Court Jester
Oct 17, 2011
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This is a fascinating column on how the radical agenda being pushed by 'the Squad' and many others in the Democratic party is killing the Democrats' hopes of winning the presidency. If you ask me, I think it may be too late to pull back the nuttiness.

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‘Trump’s Going to Get Re-elected, Isn’t He?’

Voters have reason to worry.

By Thomas L. Friedman
Opinion Columnist

July 16, 2019

I’m struck at how many people have come up to me recently and said, “Trump’s going to get re-elected, isn’t he?” And in each case, when I drilled down to ask why, I bumped into the Democratic presidential debates in June. I think a lot of Americans were shocked by some of the things they heard there. I was.

I was shocked that so many candidates in the party whose nominee I was planning to support want to get rid of the private health insurance covering some 250 million Americans and have “Medicare for all” instead. I think we should strengthen Obamacare and eventually add a public option.

I was shocked that so many were ready to decriminalize illegal entry into our country. I think people should have to ring the doorbell before they enter my house or my country.

I was shocked at all those hands raised in support of providing comprehensive health coverage to undocumented immigrants. I think promises we’ve made to our fellow Americans should take priority, like to veterans in need of better health care.
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And I was shocked by how feeble was front-runner Joe Biden’s response to the attack from Kamala Harris — and to the more extreme ideas promoted by those to his left.

So, I wasn’t surprised to hear so many people expressing fear that the racist, divisive, climate-change-denying, woman-abusing jerk who is our president was going to get re-elected, and was even seeing his poll numbers rise.

Dear Democrats: This is not complicated! Just nominate a decent, sane person, one committed to reunifying the country and creating more good jobs, a person who can gain the support of the independents, moderate Republicans and suburban women who abandoned Donald Trump in the midterms and thus swung the House of Representatives to the Democrats and could do the same for the presidency. And that candidate can win!

But please, spare me the revolution! It can wait. Win the presidency, hold the House and narrow the spread in the Senate, and a lot of good things still can be accomplished. “No,” you say, “the left wants a revolution now!” O.K., I’ll give the left a revolution now: four more years of Donald Trump.

That will be a revolution.

Four years of Trump feeling validated in all the crazy stuff he’s done and said. Four years of Trump unburdened by the need to run for re-election and able to amplify his racism, make Ivanka secretary of state, appoint even more crackpots to his cabinet and likely get to name two right-wing Supreme Court justices under the age of 40.

Yes sir, that will be a revolution!

It will be an overthrow of all the norms, values, rules and institutions that we cherish, that made us who we are and that have united us in this common project called the United States of America.

If the fear of that doesn’t motivate the Democratic Party’s base, then shame on those people. Not all elections are equal. Some elections are a vote for great changes — like the Great Society. Others are a vote to save the country. This election is the latter.

That doesn’t mean a Democratic candidate should stand for nothing, just keep it simple: Focus on building national unity and good jobs.

I say national unity because many Americans are terrified and troubled by how bitterly divided, and therefore paralyzed, the country has become. There is an opening for a unifier.

And I say good jobs because when the wealth of the top 1 percent equals that of the bottom 90 percent, we do have to redivide the pie. I favor raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to subsidize universal pre-K education and to reduce the burden of student loans. Let’s give kids a head start and college grads a fresh start.

But I’m disturbed that so few of the Democratic candidates don’t also talk about growing the pie, let alone celebrating American entrepreneurs and risk-takers. Where do they think jobs come from?

The winning message is to double down on redividing the pie in ways that give everyone an opportunity for a slice while also growing the pie sustainably.

Trump is growing the pie by cannibalizing the future. He is creating a growth spurt by building up enormous financial and carbon debts that our kids will pay for.

Democrats should focus on how we create sustainable wealth and good jobs, which is the American public-private partnership model: Government enriches the soil and entrepreneurs grow the companies.

It has always been what’s made us rich, and we’ve drifted away from it: investing in quality education and basic scientific research; promulgating the right laws and regulations to incentivize risk-taking and prevent recklessness and monopolies that can cripple free markets; encouraging legal immigration of both high-energy and high-I.Q. foreigners; and building the world’s best enabling infrastructure — ports, roads, bandwidth and basic social safety nets.

Ask Gina Raimondo, Rhode Island’s governor, and my kind of Democrat. She was just elected in 2018 for a second term. In both her elections she had to win a primary against a more-left Democrat. When Raimondo took office in 2015, Rhode Island had unemployment near 7 percent, and over 20 percent in some of the building trades.

“When I ran in 2014, there was a temptation to appeal to particular constituencies — gun safety, choice, all things that I believe in,” Raimondo recalled. “I resisted that temptation because I felt the single greatest issue was economic insecurity and people who were afraid they were never going to get a job. So I said there are not three or four issues, there’s one issue: jobs.” Unemployment in Rhode Island today is about 3.6 percent.

Raimondo has faced a constant refrain from critics on her left that she is too close to business. “I created an incentive program for companies to get a tax subsidy if they created jobs that pay above our state’s median income or jobs in advanced industries,” she noted. “I have cut small-business taxes two years in a row since 2015. I am not ashamed of any of that.”

Because, she continued, “I listen to people every day, and you hear what they are worried about. People say to me, ‘Governor, I just got a real job.’ And I’d ask them, ‘What is a real job?’ And they’d say, ‘It’s a job where I can support my family with real benefits.’ So I named our state job-training program ‘Real Jobs Rhode Island.’” It will be impossible to “sustain a vibrant democracy with this level of inequality.”

The right answer is to reinvigorate the key elements of a healthy public-private partnership, said Raimondo: higher taxes on wealthier people, more investments in affordable housing, infrastructure and universal pre-K, and empowering the private sector to create more real jobs — “so that no one who is working full time at any job should have to collect Medicaid and need food stamps to make ends meet.”

Concluded Raimondo: “I am no apologist for a brand of capitalism that leads to unsustainable inequality. But I do believe a more responsible capitalism is necessary for growth. We need to redivide the pie and grow the pie. I am a ‘pro-growth Democrat.’ I am for growing the pie as long as everyone has a shot at getting their slice.”

That’s a simple message that can connect with enough Democrats — as well as independents, moderate Republicans and suburban women — to win the White House.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/opinion/trump-2020.html
 

Butler1000

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All I see is someone who is out of touch with what the American people want.

What they don't want is to return to the conditions that allowed for the rise of Trump.
 

onthebottom

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All I see is someone who is out of touch with what the American people want.

What they don't want is to return to the conditions that allowed for the rise of Trump.
I don’t see any evidence that the Dems will follow this advice.

I think Trump has a very good chance at re-election. While many don’t like him personally, or agree with some of his policies, are they willing to bet their jobs on a free-shit socialist. I’m not so sure.
 

onthebottom

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Butler1000

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I don’t see any evidence that the Dems will follow this advice.

I think Trump has a very good chance at re-election. While many don’t like him personally, or agree with some of his policies, are they willing to bet their jobs on a free-shit socialist. I’m not so sure.
Polls show 70% of Americans want Medicare for all. And that includes 52% of Republicans. Betting lots want to stop the regime change wars as well.

And this year I believe voting age under 35 outnumber over 65.

It will be close. But Sanders is consistantly shown as the most trusted amongst the choices. And as the others drop out he is the #2 choice of most if the candidates.
 

oldjones

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This is 2019, the election is more than a year away. Cast your minds back to the summer of 2015, when there were dozens of Republican hopefuls, Donny had given the only very first of his dreadful debating performances, and the GOP Establishment was saying, "Whatever we do, we must nominate anyone but him! It'll be a disaster." But they did. And it has been.

The only shred of consolation is that the people who turned out to vote were wiser than those elite establishment types who ran the Primaries, filled the Convention, and in the end forced their insiders' choice on the nation that rejected him. They still do, in much the same percentages, but the GOP's clearly drunk the KoolAde. No one's speaking against the Preacher Man.

Now it's the other Party's turn to try to make the whole whack-a-doodle system work, beginning like a marathon, with a standing start.

Anything can happen.
 

onthebottom

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onthebottom

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Polls show 70% of Americans want Medicare for all. And that includes 52% of Republicans. Betting lots want to stop the regime change wars as well.

And this year I believe voting age under 35 outnumber over 65.

It will be close. But Sanders is consistantly shown as the most trusted amongst the choices. And as the others drop out he is the #2 choice of most if the candidates.
I don’t see him making it to the starting line.

How will he pay for the $4T bill to deliver that benefit?

Ironically, if you look at todays Medicare/Medicaid spending on a per capital US population basis we spend the same per person in the US and Canada does, yet we only cover 37% of the people (aprox $4,500 per person). Our system is too expensive, the 56% of people with private insurance are not the issue.

To get our costs down we would need to ban private medicine, like Canada, that would never work in the US.
 

mellowjello

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Jan 11, 2017
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I don’t see him making it to the starting line.

How will he pay for the $4T bill to deliver that benefit?

Ironically, if you look at todays Medicare/Medicaid spending on a per capital US population basis we spend the same per person in the US and Canada does, yet we only cover 37% of the people (aprox $4,500 per person). Our system is too expensive, the 56% of people with private insurance are not the issue.

To get our costs down we would need to ban private medicine, like Canada, that would never work in the US.
I don't know about that.
The level of awareness and desire is way beyond what it was compared to even a few years back.
Acceptance for an alternative way of achieving these goals is steadily rising.
Bernie Sanders has maneuvered his way into mainstream thinking in a very short time, he was considered an extreme radical
not too long ago.
Right vs Left, Dem vs Con paradigm will give way to necessity.
 

Butler1000

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Oct 31, 2011
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I don’t see him making it to the starting line.

How will he pay for the $4T bill to deliver that benefit?

Ironically, if you look at todays Medicare/Medicaid spending on a per capital US population basis we spend the same per person in the US and Canada does, yet we only cover 37% of the people (aprox $4,500 per person). Our system is too expensive, the 56% of people with private insurance are not the issue.

To get our costs down we would need to ban private medicine, like Canada, that would never work in the US.
Take all the money that is spent on private healthcare, both by business and by individuals. Now reduce the following expenses down or to zero.

No more advertising dollars.
Reduced Malpractice premiums, virtually no court costs, costs for lawyers.
Reduce costs by doctors to get paid by various insurance companies and individuals, and no more denials or deadbeats.

Add in a standard schedule of payment amounts. Good enough to maintain and run the office, pay staff, and pay the doctor still in the hundreds of thousands.

Oh and cut out all the money that goes to profit, to shareholders, to CEO bonuses, and billions in political contributions.

That's how it's not only paid for, but it costs less as well.

How did they pay for 7 trillion for wars overseas? 1.5 trillion in tax cut?

How about a company like Amazon actually paying some federal tax?

Oh and to answer that final question about people leaving to greener pastures I answer.....where they gonna go?
 

Butler1000

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Oct 31, 2011
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I don’t see him making it to the starting line.

How will he pay for the $4T bill to deliver that benefit?

Ironically, if you look at todays Medicare/Medicaid spending on a per capital US population basis we spend the same per person in the US and Canada does, yet we only cover 37% of the people (aprox $4,500 per person). Our system is too expensive, the 56% of people with private insurance are not the issue.

To get our costs down we would need to ban private medicine, like Canada, that would never work in the US.
You don't "ban" private medicine outright. All doctors are independent contractors who set up offices and clinics. Hire and pay staff. Hold places in hospitals.

They can locate and work where they want, take on patients as they want, decorate their clinics, set the hours, all the same.

It's just they all get a standard fee for seeing a patient. In Ontario there are certain things like doctors notes and other paperwork they can charge for.

Oh and because we have a govt subsidy for tuition they don't carry the burden of debt. Pay lots less in malpractice insurance( if everyone has care there is less need to sue. And less incentive to cut corners which results in the malpractice in the first place).

All in all it works out fine. We had an initial adjustment period too.

And I still have Private Insurance via both mine and SO's work place for incidentals. My deductibles and copays are a lot less than in the USA. In many cases zero.

And if I decide to leave my job I sure don't have to worry about healthcare. I still have it.
 

Insidious Von

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Trump stands an 80% chance of getting re-elected, if he achieves his ultimate goal that number goes up to 95%.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-24370967

The Democrats are too stupid to figure out how to defeat him. Being shocked and indignant by his comments plays into his strength.

Not that I think America will be better off, but all he does is win.
 

onthebottom

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Trump stands an 80% chance of getting re-elected, if he achieves his ultimate goal that number goes up to 95%.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-24370967

The Democrats are too stupid to figure out how to defeat him. Being shocked and indignant by his comments plays into his strength.

Not that I think America will be better off, but all he does is win.
I don’t think his odds are that good.
 

bver_hunter

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Nov 5, 2005
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Which ever Democratic Candidate wins the nomination, for sure they have to energize the American people and not make the very same mistakes that Clinton did.
She hardly ever campaigned and the sad part was the Russian / Wikileaks interference in this election, coupled with the re-opening of the Comey investigation just days before the elections.
None of these Democratic Candidates will be carrying the same baggage around their necks. But we still have the various investigations on Trump's crooked dealings coupled with some sexual allegations as well, in the offing. The tables will be turned if Trump lasts the course.
 

Frankfooter

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Apr 10, 2015
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Which ever Democratic Candidate wins the nomination, for sure they have to energize the American people and not make the very same mistakes that Clinton did.
She hardly ever campaigned and the sad part was the Russian / Wikileaks interference in this election, coupled with the re-opening of the Comey investigation just days before the elections.
None of these Democratic Candidates will be carrying the same baggage around their necks. But we still have the various investigations on Trump's crooked dealings coupled with some sexual allegations as well, in the offing. The tables will be turned if Trump lasts the course.
I'd put the blame on Pelosi, not Clinton.
She's the one ruling the dems, and the one that put Clinton in as the candidate.
 

onthebottom

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I don't know about that.
The level of awareness and desire is way beyond what it was compared to even a few years back.
Acceptance for an alternative way of achieving these goals is steadily rising.
Bernie Sanders has maneuvered his way into mainstream thinking in a very short time, he was considered an extreme radical
not too long ago.
Right vs Left, Dem vs Con paradigm will give way to necessity.
Do you really see a Nancy Pelosi leaving her winery or SF mansion to visit a SF clinic. I think you are naive. Americans are spoiled by luxury healthcare delivered immediately, no way the political, media, business, Hollywood elites give that up, no way.

That’s why we pay 2x per capita more than Canada. Fortunately we make more per capita.
 

Butler1000

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Oct 31, 2011
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Do you really see a Nancy Pelosi leaving her winery or SF mansion to visit a SF clinic. I think you are naive. Americans are spoiled by luxury healthcare delivered immediately, no way the political, media, business, Hollywood elites give that up, no way.

That’s why we pay 2x per capita more than Canada. Fortunately we make more per capita.
The rich are spoiled.

70% want it. 52% of Republicans. I said two years ago healthcare would be the #1 issue. And that's what it's shaping up to be.
 

Frankfooter

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Apr 10, 2015
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Do you really see a Nancy Pelosi leaving her winery or SF mansion to visit a SF clinic. I think you are naive. Americans are spoiled by luxury healthcare delivered immediately, no way the political, media, business, Hollywood elites give that up, no way.

That’s why we pay 2x per capita more than Canada. Fortunately we make more per capita.
That's only 1% of the vote.
 

Moviefan-2

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Oct 17, 2011
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Polls show 70% of Americans want Medicare for all.
But most of them don't want to lose private insurance or their family doctors. Indeed, your guy seems to be waffling on the issue of whether Americans will be able to keep their doctors.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news...-can-keep-your-doctor-under-medicare-for-all/

And much of what the Democrats are promoting is far more unpopular than Medicare for all U.S. citizens. For example, an overwhelming majority oppose free health care for illegal immigrants.
 
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