Donald Trump: Communist, or Paleocon?

[William Tell]

Do you believe Donald Trump and his policies are more Paleoconservative, or Communist?

 

[erowe1]

Communist. Nowhere close to paleocon or any other kind of conservative.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Much closer to a communist than a paleocon

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Honestly I don't think he has a set of core principles or values. I think most of his opinions are formed by what people in his life have told him off the record over a game of golf. Someone he respects tells him socialized medicine is the way to go...so he advocates socialized medicine. Someone else mentions that he's having a hard time getting his product into China...so he advocates tariffs.

I think he's a liquid person who sorts out his policy positions on what he thinks the right move is based on the influence of the people around him. He's the quintessential manager: a people person who sorts out situations by navigating the sea of conflicting opinions to find compromises and make deals. He's guided by common sense and a resilient personality, tempered by a strong faith in the people he trusts.

I think on the one hand it's dangerous to have a president with no guiding principles. But on the other, a good manager is hard to find, and the nation has been staggering under the weight of incompetence for a while now. I'm of two minds on Trump. I'm not convinced he would be entirely disastrous from a Libertarian perspective, but I'm also worried that he might haul off and nuke Iran if one of his golf buddies tells him it's a good idea.

 

[erowe1]

"Communists have never made walls."

I see what you did there.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Honestly I don't think he has a set of core principles or values. I think most of his opinions are formed by what people in his life have told him off the record over a game of golf. Someone he respects tells him socialized medicine is the way to go...so he advocates socialized medicine. Someone else mentions that he's having a hard time getting his product into China...so he advocates tariffs.

I'd say that's about right. I think his leftist economic views are genuine, though not well thought out: probably a result of having spent most of his life in the People's Republic of New York. His newfound rightist cultural views, however, are pure bullshit: intentional deception to attract the vote of Boobus Republicanus.

I think he's a liquid person who sorts out his policy positions on what he thinks the right move is based on the influence of the people around him. He's the quintessential manager: a people person who sorts out situations by navigating the sea of conflicting opinions to find compromises and make deals. He's guided by common sense and a resilient personality, tempered by a strong faith in the people he trusts.

In other words, he's not a systematic thinker; he's an intellectual dilettante who adopts whatever views are fashionable (and/or an opportunist who adopts whatever views are convenient at the moment).

...not sure why you see anything positive in that.

I think on the one hand it's dangerous to have a president with no guiding principles. But on the other, a good manager is hard to find, and the nation has been staggering under the weight of incompetence for a while now. I'm of two minds on Trump. I'm not convinced he would be entirely disastrous from a Libertarian perspective, but I'm also worried that he might haul off and nuke Iran if one of his golf buddies tells him it's a good idea.

Successful politicians (e.g. Mitch McConnel or Barrack Obama) are not incompetent, they're just unprincipled and personally ambitious: i.e. just like Trump. Mitch McConnel is a helluva manager; he's managed his staff, his donors, his constituents, and his colleagues in such a way as to win 6 consecutive US Senate elections, become the emperor of Kentucky State politics, and now get himself voted Majority Leader. Yet, of course, he's been disastrous for the country. In other words, being a successful manager (knowing how to "get things done") is a necessary but woefully insufficient condition for being a good leader (the crucial bit is what things they're trying to "get done").

 

[Origanalist]

I don't think he's either, that would require a ideology.

 

[William Tell]

Much closer to a communist than a paleocon

Yep.

 

[Nirvikalpa]

The Donald is in a category all on his own.

 

[CPUd]

He's been throwing up Nazi party planks lately.

 

[Sola_Fide]

Whatever ism he falls into, he is just an authoritarian.

 

[Dr.3D]

He seems more like a con to me. Just a con.

 

[cajuncocoa]

The Donald is, and will be, whatever it takes to garner attention.

 

[Dr. Dog]

Paleocon, Donald Trump wants a wall. communists have never made walls.

 

[Ronin Truth]

Do you believe Donald Trump and his policies are more Paleoconservative, or Communist?

No.

 

[TheTexan]

He's been throwing up Nazi party planks lately.

The Nazi's had some good planks too ya know they werent all bad

 

[Ronin Truth]

Ask the folks in Berlin about commie walls and iron curtains in Eastern Europe.

 

[dude58677]

Private eminent domain is a textbook communist plank. Controlling all means of production is communism and this is essentially wha communism is because it is declaring what means of production must be used on certain land. If is a restaurant then government is controlling the food service industry. Also taking someone's home shows that there is no right to private property which is also communism. Doing these things is not what someone wants to get done. This is not something that Donald Trump talks with his golf buddies and instead something that is his way of life. Donald Trump is a very dangerous man as he presents his views using right wing rhetoric. He never says that the government should get out of people lives or that he doesn't want to run our lives.

 

[Aspie Minarcho-Capitalist]

Certainly not a paleoconservative, he's one of the few neo-conservative collectivists who wants crack down on mass immigration and secure the US Borders.

 

[jmdrake]

Do you believe Donald Trump and his policies are more Paleoconservative, or Communist?

Isn't it obvious? Donald Trump is a fascist. Communists are extreme socialists and socialists believe in a classless society by government redistribution of wealth to the poor through a centrally planned economy. Fascists, on the other hand, believe in maximizing corporate good by government redistribution of wealth to those deemed best able to use it through a centrally planned economy. Benito Mussolini, the most famous fascist ever, declared fascism to be corporatism. The strongest examples of fascism in this country? The banker bailouts and the Kelo decision. Kelo stood for the idea that the government should be able to take your property through imminent domain and give it to another private owner based on the idea that the other private owner could increase the value of the property and thus the property tax revenue to the government. Trump supports that use (abuse actually) of imminent domain. And on bailouts, not only did (does?) Donald Trump support them, he's been the recipient of a government arranged bailout. He's the definition of "too big to fail."

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/23/business/trump-signs-bailout-pact.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/09/26/donald-trump-on-700-billion-bailout-plan.html

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...ttle-chase-manhattan-bank-castle-hotel-casino

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...10002_1_savings-and-loans-donald-trump-credit

Come to think of it, might the Trump bailouts be his Achilles heel?