10 Comments

Yeah your arguments are all very solid. Trump is incompetent and on an existential level dangerous for America. I just lament as a non-American that for the third time in a row the Left Wing party pivots to the right and lets Trumpian policy bleed over to try to coalition with the right. I don’t like the idea of going to war because America wants to have big dick energy and the UK is essentially the 53 rd state now (Behind Canada and Israel) so if it does happen we’ll get roped in. Oh well

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Good stuff!

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Well said

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While I do think this is well said (hence my earlier argument): I think that the most effective arguments against Trump are simple: his policies will make us worse off.

In 2016 the biggest issue in the economy was jobs and growth. In that environment tax cuts helped and make sense. In 2024 the biggest problem is debt and inflation. In this environment tax cuts and tariffs will hurt.

In 2016 Trump ran on a "tough on the border" guy when immigration was less of an issue, but now it is a bigger issue. But will Trump actually work to fix the border? No. When we had a chance to at least address it: Trump stopped his own party from fixing it so he can run on it. Trump can't be trusted to do the right things, he'd rather run on a problem than solve it.

Many thought Trump could not do his worst ideas in 2016, but he did succeed at least partially. He passed a version of his Muslim travel ban, he built parts of his wall, and he overturned Roe v. Wade. He has allied himself with some of the most bigoted people in the US in terms of sex, sexual orientation and religion. Why should we have faith he'll not succeed again?

I am not the right one to make this argument. I find Trump so repugnant that I cannot fathom how people can look at him, let alone vote for him. But others may be successful.

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Behold! We also believe the chances of a coup are small, perhaps 5%. But that's 4.9975% too high.

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I was present on social media when Jan 6th was going down, & my impressions of Trump’s actions on that day match with what you’ve spoken about here. I am skeptical about the effectiveness of certain policy proposal Harris has (e.g. cracking down on price gouging), and she would not have been my first choice, but all of that pales in comparison to what Trump has done and attempted to do from 2020 til now. Even if I give Trump the greatest possible benefit of the doubt, and reserve some hope that he will actually pursue a more moderate stance on things like abortion or reject Project 2025, his policy proposals outside of that, such as they are, are almost uniformly terrible in my opinion & will only make problems worse. As more and more information has been revealed about what happened on Jan 6th, I think it’s become quite clear that Trump is temperamentally incapable of the kind of levelheaded thoughtfulness we need so much in dealing with these kinds of issues. He is a liar, a narcissistic, childish shell of a man who has no clearly animating set of principles driving his policies besides what makes him look good, & the policy people around him have clearly picked up on that, which is why the existence of something even approaching Project 2025 should have motivated conservatives to shut him out. He has roundly rejected all of the benefit I’ve given him, & at this point, there is nothing that could he could do to get me to consider voting for him.

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Yes, Hillary conceded and Obama cooperated with the transition. To which I would add that the joint session of Congress which certified Trump's election was presided over by Biden.

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I am voting for Trump for the first time. I, as a woman, am voting for him because he is the only one willing to stand up to medicalizing kids and making them life long profit centers for big pharma in the name of the trans ideology. He is the only one standing up for women and keeping men out of their lcoker rooms, sports and other private spaces. Crazy enough, Republicans are now the party for women.

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Thanks for this excellent brief - it's what newspaper endorsements should be.

Regarding Trump declaring himself something like King Donald I, first of his name, I agree he's too lazy and uninterested in doing that personally (being a dictator is actually hard work!). HOWEVER - I think there's a good argument that's he's, apologies, cut a deal, with people who'd really like a dictator (e.g. Musk), and are willing to put in the serious work of running a dictatorship, with him as the "public face". Maybe you'd know this historical model better than I would.

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Glad you enjoyed!

I think he'll stumble along doing nothing spectacularly different, but still make choices that will degrade norms (selling favors for personal benefit etc).

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