Why I Disagree With Trump

I have been challenged to take a serious look at Trump’s policies and disconsider my personal issues with his personality. Thus, after doing so, I will now show that I disagree with almost every single one of his clearly stated political stances, and why I do. Please comment below if you would like to politely agree or disagree with my positions in any way, as I realize I am not perfect in any way and I want to know what I may be lacking in information, or what I may have failed to consider.

Immigration:

Trump’s plan for immigration is horrible in so many different ways. It is his stance against the H1B visa that most worries me. Michio Kaku said something very important about this issue in a public forum not too long ago. After correctly stating that our education system is one of the worst in the world, he explains what keeps America at the forefront of scientific advancement. He says, “America has a secret weapon: The H1B. Without the H1B the scientific establishment of the United States would collapse. Forget about Google! Forget about Silicon Valley! There would be no Silicon Valley without the H1B.” Soon thereafter he says “…50% of Ph.D. candidates are foreign born. At my system, one of the biggest in the United States, 100% of the Ph.D. candidates are foreign born.” He later states that though people argue that the H1B doesn’t take American jobs, there simply aren’t Americans to take those jobs. Without the H1B, those jobs will go overseas, taking with them the jobs and entire industries that coincide with them that are filled with thousands if not millions of Americans. There is simply no sense in abolishing the H1B, not until our education system is hugely reformed in order to allow more Americans to receive the training to obtain the jobs, and that will take decades. In addition to that issue, a wall at the border with Mexico is unreasonable. The huge number of issues that would arise would be horrendous, such as obtaining rights to all the land, the workers to build it, and paying for it, as would likely cost tens of billions of dollars, even by conservative estimates. He claims he could force Mexico to pay for it, and even if he could, I do not agree with doing so. The Mexican economy is already struggling, and if they are forced to pay for such a wall, their economy would only worsen, and potentially cause more attempts at illegal immigration. In addition, a large proportion of illegal immigration occurs through legal ports of entry to the United States, so it may not even be an efficient solution to illegal immigration; it would be at most a very imperfect and partial solution.

Abortion:

With regards to this issue, I do not have much to say, as he has not entirely made his position clear. He seems to hold a more moderate stance than most Republican candidates, which is actually one point in his favor, in my opinion.

Gun Control:

Again, Trump proves himself more moderate with regards to gun control, however, some of his positions are flawed in my view. He has stated that guns would have changed Paris and other attacks. This is mistaken in a way, as there is simply not enough training required when obtaining a concealed carry permit to allow gun carriers to react quickly and efficiently to such shocking situations. The lack of significant differences in crime rates when more conservative policies were introduced to certain areas have been shown by significant scientific studies, such as “Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns and Violent Crime: Crime Control through Gun Decontrol” by Kovandzic and Marvell, as well as “Concealed-Gun-Carrying Laws and Violent Crime: Evidence from State Panel Data” by Jens Ludwig, both of which state that the differences are actually statistically completely insignificant and most likely unrelated to the policy implementation.

Foreign Policy:

Overall, Trump has not had much to say on this issue, aside from the economic point of view which I will discuss in the economic portion herein. Overall, in general I do not agree with a massive expansion of the military due to the global polarization effects that it could have, but I do support maintaining the current military as is, as it is the most significant deterrent we currently have for protection. Trump has stated he is for the large-scale expansion.

Taxes:

Honestly, unless Trump has some huge ace up his sleeve, his tax plan, as far as he has revealed it, does not seem viable. He talks about cutting taxes in every form possible, from middle-income to upper-class and even corporate taxes. However, he does not seem to ever reveal any decrease in spending significant enough to both make up the current deficit and the deficit that would be caused by implementing his tax plan. The numbers simply do not add up, and that math can be done in the head. If he can come up with decent spending cuts that will not drastically alter American life, then I would almost be in favor, and it would certainly be able to pass Congress, but as far as one can tell, he does not have that and thus it seems impossible to implement without huge increases in the national deficit.

Health Care:

On one side, I partially agree with Trump, but there is a major issue in his position with regards to Obamacare. I agree that the bill is far from what America needs in regards to health care reform. However, I cannot support repealing it until an actual replacement is proposed, which Trump does not have. We run into what is starting to become a consistent problem with politicians, which, by the way, Trump is becoming: being unspecific. There is nothing he has to say about a replacement for Obamacare and I seriously doubt he will be able to pass another plan through Congress, as the Republicans in Congress are unlikely to support it and Democrats are not in favor of repealing Obamacare. The issues that would have to be overcome are enormous. Regardless of his position, it is unreasonable and I believe he knows it is an empty promise.

Economy and Jobs:

I really do not agree with his ideas in this area. First of all, he is against the H1B, yet completely ignores the extreme economic importance thereof. He yet again proposes to do what is beyond the power of the president, and honestly beyond the power of most at this point in time. Bringing jobs back to the U.S. is not a task that will take just one presidency to resolve. It will take years, and it will require several factors beyond the control of the United States government to resolve. First of all, other countries have to begin to become more developed and wages must go up. Technology in the United States must develop further in order to increase the efficiency of factories in the U.S. and thus lower the costs of manufacturing here. He proposes to implement taxes to force companies to manufacture in the U.S. A country with similar policies is Brazil, where a car that in the U.S. starts at US$22,495, starts at US$32,032 (new Ford Fusion). Considering their poor economy at the moment, that is a veritable fortune, and considering personal income that is a massive difference. Brazil policy dictates that if a car is not manufactured in Brazil, high taxes will be applied, forcing companies to have much higher prices and killing the market in the country, even if they do manufacture in Brazil as the required benefits and wages are still much higher than in places such as China, though not as high as here. Trump wants to implement a similar system, and it will not be beneficial to the economy in any way, even if jobs are brought back to the U.S.

Global Warming:

In a paper titled “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change,” 928 published, scientific papers were evaluated with regards to anthropogenic (human caused) climate change. Of them, 75% took a position either implicitly or explicitly. Of those nearly 700 that took a position, a full 100% agreed that climate change was occurring and at least partially caused by human activity. I can’t vote for people who are able to ignore an issue when nearly 100% of scientists agree on anything, because that is so uncommon and is a clear indicator of the near-absolute certainty of the data obtained. It is undeniable, yet Trump and some others somehow attempt to deny it.

Education:

Overall, I place this issue very high on my list of importance, due to its widespread impacts on cultural and economic levels, yet Trump fails to take a significant stand for what is needed. The education system in the United States is broken, especially on the lower levels. We consistently rank in the lower portion of the industrialized nations, and often rank among developing nations. As similarly stated with regards to the H1B program, the only reason our higher education system works is because of the foreign-born students and teachers that come and strengthen it. It needs serious reform, seeing as the local strategy has clearly not worked. There at least needs to be something established on the federal level in order to improve it, even if it is simply regulatory. There are no significant improvements being done, yet it is the area that is failing our country the most. Trump thinks it needs to improve, but somehow believes that local governments are capable of doing so, even though over the past decades they have proven incapable.

National Security and Terrorism:

Trump could not be more wrong. Torture is wrong, no matter from what point of view you look at it. Religious discrimination is wrong, no matter how it is done or why it is done. A saying the American people need to learn that is simply not very well understood: The ends don’t justify the means; the means justify the ends. If we want to end terrorism, we cannot continue to terrorize. That does not follow good logic. I am not sure how terrorism can be resolved, but I am convinced that torture and discrimination are not the way it should be done, as Trump claims to believe.

Energy:

First, see the Global Warming section. Now, we do not need a coal industry or an oil industry to be energy independent. We need to invest in new, cleaner, less expensive forms of energy that not only promote independence and environmental friendliness, but technological advancement and long-term sustainability. I would love to see the government invest much more money in the development of sustainable nuclear fusion energy, which has always been close, but lack of funding has always held back. Fusion would quite literally solve the vast majority of energy problems in the world in a matter of decades once developed. Yet federal and state governments have failed to support funding for the research, leaving the burden to Europe and Asia, and also allowing them to pull ahead. Trump, instead of proposing to move forward with the rest of the world, has decided that we need to go back to the 19th century for our energy needs.

 

Conclusion

Numerically, this comes down to 10 against Trump and 1 in favor. My opposition to Trump, throughout this exercise, did not change hardly at all. I still do not feel I could ever vote for him in practically any situation. His positions have a frightening tendency to being unreasonable and unrealistic. He has no record of willingness to compromise and attacks anyone who disagrees with him or his position, as opposed to reasonably defending his positions in a polite manner. He is a polarizing candidate at a time when the country needs so much to come together and unite, not divide. He has the capability to destroy the already-tattered reputation of the United States when it comes to international relations should he be elected, and his rashness and aggressiveness make him a dangerous candidate to lead one of the most potent countries in the world.

 

Works Cited.

Kovandzic, T. V., and Marvell, T. B. “Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns and Violent Crime: Crime Control through Gun Decontrol.” Criminology & Public Policy 2.3 (2003): 363-396. Print.

Ludwig, J. “Concealed-Gun-Carrying Laws and Violent Crime: Evidence from State Panel Data.” International Review of Law and Economics 18.3 (1998): 239-254. Print.

Oreskes, N. “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change.” Science 306.5702 (2004): 1686. Print.

The72tube. “Dr. Michio Kaku America Has a Secret Weapon.” Video. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Aug. 2011. Web. 04 May 2016.