Monday, May 9, 2016

Trump Wrong on Foreign Policy and Immigration

1) Trump willing to use nuclear weapons in Europe and Middle East:

See the Independent article here. Our European and other allies are very concerned - as are most thinking people in the U.S. My main opposition to Hillary Clinton is her hawkish attitude and her vote for the Iraq War. Trump is far worse. Hillary should revive the devastating daisy-petal-nuke ad from Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to use against Trump.



2) Trump supports torture to out-Cheney Dick Cheney:

With an apparent turn to medieval times, Trump wants legal means to go farther than Cheney and even the "barbarian" enemy to show them who's boss. See CNN.

3) Trump wants to kill the families, including children, of terrorists:

From Politico. I guess the idea is, if you can't beat the barbarians, then join them. So much for American values.

4) Trump is anti-NATO:

While not perfect, NATO is a UN-recognized international cooperative system to help keep the peace and protect Europe. Trump is often critical saying partner countries don't participate enough and the "America First" mantra promotes unilateral action. See Real Clear Politics here.TR

5) Trump admires Putin:

The Conservative National Review calls him out on this one. Former KGB official and Tsar wanna-be is no person to be admiring in the modern world. Because he shows leadership qualities riding a horse bare-back (Putin, not the horse) and hunting? Give me a break! Putin has repressed freedom of the press by offing disagreeable reporters and runs a country on oligarchic, organized-crime-based, despotism.

6) Trump oppose free-trade and promotes American protectionism:

This is an issue where I differ from Bernie Sanders and other protectionists. We live in a modern, international world where trade is essential to growing economies everywhere. The only way to address inequalities in terms and poor working conditions and economic repression elsewhere is to carefully negotiate the terms and promote workers and consumer rights around the world. Let's not make the mistakes of Smoot-Harley in the 1930s. See Time on this one.

7) "America First" is a poor choice for a theme with no regard for history:

The term is most famous for those opposed to war against nazi Germany in the years before the war and the two initial years when the US stayed out of the war in Europe when true international cooperation was the only way and ultimately successful way to defeat fascism and militarism. Even Breitbart calls him out on this.

8) Building an impenetrable wall on the Mexican border, making the Mexicans pay for it, and deporting an estimated 11 million undocumented residents is impractical, wildly expensive, and would cause devastation to the US economy:

If you don't see the insanity of this, I feel sorry for you. I still promote the ideals of the Utah Compact which is very similar to the much-needed common-sense and practical Immigration Reform proposed some years back by then President W. Bush and Senator McCain, among other. The Republican base balked and apparently the result is now Trumpism. The way to grow our economy is to legalize our resident immigrants and even encourage more.

9) Trump used to support, but now disparages the United Nations:

As I've always said, the UN is not perfect but we have not destroyed the world yet with much thanks to international cooperation and at minimum, a sounding board to vent international frustrations rather than just throwing nukes around. According  Buzz Feed (not the highest ranked of news-worthy sources, but it will do here), Trump used to be a fan of the UN. Now all he does is criticize.

10) Trump claims support for Veterans but has made disparaging remarks against Senator McCain for "being captured" and used all kinds of deferments himself to avoid serving:

This is just more of Trump's hypocrisy and bullying rolled into one. See the New York Times.

11) Trump has no more specific plans for International Affairs:

Your guess is as good as mine. If I missed any, let me know.

We will follow with additional lists of Trump positions and qualities to the extent we can figure out what they are. These foreign policy items are of grave concern because much of this is under the Constitutional authority of the Article II Executive. Some of those authorities as "Commander in Chief" are a little vague and a President can get away with exactly as much as the other branches and the public let him or her get away with. I hate to test that with a President Trump (heaven forbid).

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