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Home > 6 Key Issues Where Trump Neutralizes Hillary or Runs to Her Left
________________________________________
6 Key Issues Where Trump Neutralizes Hillary or Runs to Her Left
By Steven Rosenfeld [1] / AlterNet [2]
March 18, 2016
President Obama repeatedly has said there's no way Americans would elect
Donald Trump as president. But Democrats don't have to think back very far
to dismaying GOP victories where they were left asking, 'What happened?"
There was George W. Bush in Ohio in 2004, in Florida in 2000 and Ronald
Reagan in 1980.
Trump's continuing path toward the 2016 GOP nomination has already
confounded the pundits, political junkies and oft-quoted scholars. Before
this last week where he won big [3] in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina,
The Nation's William Greider wrote [4], "The Democratic Party could find
itself obliterated by this election" and offered "a sequence of events I
find plausible." He started with Trump getting the nomination, Bernie
Sanders retiring "gracefully so he will not be labeled a spoiler," and then
Trump doing something not seen in a long time: taking hard-right and
hard-left positions.
"Then, in the fall campaign, Trump changes his style and launches a
ferocious and substantive assault on [Hillary] Clinton, with devastating
effect. He does this essentially by taking over Sanders economic agenda. He
denounces HRC as a tool of wealthy plutocrats and speaks for working-class
discontents, much as he has done in the primary season," wrote [4] Grieder.
"Imagine a campaign that merges Bernie's straight-talk values with
traditional Republican values."
Trump is already doing this. As he said [5] after winning the Florida
primary, his campaign started with two issues-trade and borders. The first,
bad trade deals, is near and dear to progressives and labor activists-even
if his statements are dated or incorrect [6]; the second plays to the least
tolerant right-wingers, xenophobes and white supremacists. But the larger
point is there are many issues where Trump can posture and run to the left
of Clinton or neutralize her-and Clinton, the likely nominee, is running a
traditional campaign and can be blindsided.
To be sure, it's not clear what Trump would do if elected, because so many
of his "positions" are little more than sound bites. Still, here are six
issues where he is mixing progressive or liberal Republican stances amid his
authoritarian outbursts. That strange brew means that for the first time in
decades Americans could be facing two candidates with progressive planks on
many issues.
1. The Anti-Free Trader. On no other issue is Trump as closely paralleling
Sanders as he is when slamming trade deals, and bragging that he, the great
negotiator, would push American CEOs into keeping jobs here or bring them
back. Last week, he singled out Carrier Air Conditioning [7], Ford [8] and
Eaton Corp [9]. for moving manufacturing abroad. A week before, he boasted
[10], "I'm going to get Apple to start making their computers and their
iPhones on our land, not in China. How does it help us when they make it in
China?" Suffice it to say that Trump is to the left of Clinton on trade
deals, at least when it comes to sound bites.
2. Cutting America's Military Budget. That sounds out of synch coming from
Trump, who repeatedly has said that he wants to rebuild the military and
never misses a chance to threaten ISIS. But according to reporters who have
trailed him since last year, he has repeatedly called for cutting military
spending by closing America's overseas military bases. "Donald Trump could
be the only presidential candidate talking sense about for the American
military's budget. That should scare everyone," wrote Matthew Gault in a
detailed piece [11] for Reuters. "As Trump has pointed out many times,
Washington can build and maintain an amazing military arsenal for a fraction
of what it's paying now. He's also right about one of the causes of the
bloated budget: expensive prestige weapons systems."
It's hard to imagine that Trump will be the "peace candidate" in the
campaign, as a liberal strategist told [4] The Nation's Greider. But closing
overseas bases would be a hard break from both Republican and Democratic
Party orthodoxy, including under Obama, where the Pentagon budget keeps
rising and temporary cuts-like sequestration-are seen as creating
unnecessary crises. Here, too, Trump's positioning could track to the left
of Clinton.
And unlike Sanders, whose state has a F-35 fighter plane base, Trump has
explicitly said that plane was a waste of money. "Like so many Trump plans,
the specifics are hazy. But on this issue, he's got the right idea," wrote
[11] Gault for Reuters.
3. Rejecting Big Money Political Corruption. You can expect Trump will go
after Clinton as a corrupt insider cashing in on her connections-no matter
how many millions he, as the nominee, would end up raising for Republicans
for the fall, or take from party's coffers because presidential campaigns
cost upwards of $1 billion. Trump has the higher moral ground, compared to
Clinton-who hasn't even had the guts to release the texts of speeches to
Wall St. banks or return the speaking fees-because, as Trump touts, he's
been on the check-writing side of America's corrupt but legal system of
financing candidates for decades.
Trump's stance here echoes Sanders. It barely matters that Clinton has said
she would want to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn
decisions like Citizens United, which created giant new legal loopholes for
wealthy interests and individuals. Being the rich outsider forced to play
along, not the political insider taking the checks, is in his favor-pushing
Trump to the left of Clinton.
4. Preserving Social Security and Medicare. As most progressives know,
millions of baby boomers approaching their senior years are going to be
relying on Social Security for most of their income and for Medicare as
their health plan. Progressives also know that Social Security benefits
could be cut by a fifth after 2030 because of that demographic bump, and
have proposed raising payroll taxes to preserve benefits and increase them.
Trump, unlike [12] the other GOP candidates, wants to leave Social Security
alone-saying a booming economy will fix the shortfall. While we have heard
that before-Reagan's fake rising tide lifting all boats-Trump's status quo
stance is completely at odds with the modern GOP, which wants to up the age
when one can start taking Social Security benefits, create new payment
formulas, means-test recipients or flat-out privatize it.
Clinton said [13] she wants to preserve Social Security and raise payments
to people who need it most-such as widowers, who see cuts after a spouse
dies, women and poor people who have historically been underpaid compared to
white men. Sanders, in contrast, said benefits must be raised for everyone.
Trump's stance on this issue is far from ideal, but it's outside the GOP's
mainstream. It's neither constructive nor destructive, but that tends to
neutralize the issue in a fall campaign with Clinton.
5. Lowering Seniors' Prescription Drug Costs. Here's another issue where
Trump is saying he wants to do what Democrats like Obama, Clinton and
Sanders have long called for, but which has been blocked by congressional
Republicans. Trump wants the feds to negotiate buying in bulk from
pharmaceutical companies, which has been explicitly prohibited by the GOP in
past legislation. "We don't do it. Why? Because of the drug companies,"
Trump said [14] in January before the New Hampshire primary. This is another
issue where he is blurring the lines with Clinton and the Democrats.
6. Breaking Health Insurance Monopolies. Trump has also railed against the
health insurance industry for preserving their state-by-state monopolies
under Obamacare, saying neither Democrats nor Republicans made an effort to
repeal a 1945 law that prevents Americans from buying cheaper policies in
another state. "The insurance companies," Trump said [15], "they'd rather
have monopolies in each state than hundreds of companies going all over the
place bidding. It's so hard for me to make deals. I can't get bids."
We know that Trump has pledged to get rid of Obamacare and he hasn't said
much about its replacement other than it would involve consumers crossing
state lines. But this is another area where Trump's sound bites can
superficially push him to the left of Clinton, who has made defending
Obamacare part of her campaign and agenda if elected president.
An Authoritarian Strongman and Liberal Republican?
Democratic presidential candidates haven't faced such a bizarre mix of left,
right and center stances from a demagogue opponent in decades. Of course, it
is impossible to know where Trump will land on many issues, should he be
elected, because his posturing is all over the map. But that doesn't mean
that the angry and frustrated Americans propelling his candidacy-including
many independents and people who haven't voted before-won't look at him,
ignore his excesses and say, "He's different. Why not give him a chance?"
As Grieder writes, "Lies, lies, lies. Yes, Donald Trump tells lot of lies
himself, but they seem modest alongside the monstrous deceptions that
Democrats and Republicans used to mislead the country. Year after year,
political leaders and presidents of both parties essentially lied to the
people about fundamental matters-war and peace, lost prosperity, and the
bruising generation of lost jobs and declining wages."
Many Democrats, and the Clinton campaign in particular, have pounced on
Trump's hateful rhetoric and dismissed 2016's rebellious public-which is
also propelling the Sanders' campaign. But that's perilous, because 2016 is
not a year where calibrated campaigns, like Clinton's effort, are generating
the most excitement and are likely to spark high voter turnout in the fall.
If Trump runs to the left of Clinton on some issues or nullifies her on
others, that's not just unprecedented. It is provocative, dangerous and
could be successful. It is bound to attract some unknown number of people
who will vote for the first time or break with traditional party
lines-swayed by his forceful personality, select liberal leanings and
overlooking his massive contradictions.
One wants to think that Trump's irrepressible dark impulses are too far out
of bounds for most Americans. One would also like to think the Democrats'
probable nominee, Clinton, understands this challenge-including being
outflanked on the left and neutralized in the center-and has a strategy to
counter it. But in 2016, those bets are off.
Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including
America's retirement crisis, democracy and voting rights, and campaigns and
elections. He is the author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to Voting"
(AlterNet Books, 2008).
Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [16]
[17]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/6-key-issues-where-trump-neutralizes-h
illary-or-runs-her-left
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-rosenfeld
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/primary-calendar-and-re
sults.html?_r=0
[4]
http://www.thenation.com/article/how-the-democrats-could-be-obliterated-in-t
he-fall-elections/
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYG88qGAlu8
[6]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/18/trumps-trade-
rhetoric-stuck-in-a-time-warp/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_daily202
[7]
http://www.businessinsider.com/carrier-workers-learn-jobs-are-moving-to-mexi
co-2016-2
[8]
http://www.inquisitr.com/2246256/fords-compact-car-production-leaving-michig
an-and-the-usa-can-you-guess-where-fords-going-instead/
[9]
http://www.wkow.com/story/28910369/2015/04/27/eaton-corp-outsourcing-wi-jobs
-to-mexico-for-second-time-after-getting-370k-from-wedc
[10]
http://time.com/4245134/super-tuesday-donald-trump-victory-speech-transcript
-full-text/
[11]
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/03/02/trump-is-right-about-defens
e-spending-and-that-should-scare-you/
[12] http://fortune.com/2016/03/15/primary-elections-ohio-florida/
[13] https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/social-security-and-medicare/
[14]
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/267005-trump-calls-for-medicare-to-nego
tiate-drug-prices
[15]
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-america-made-donald-trump-unst
oppable-20160224
[16] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on 6 Key Issues Where
Trump Neutralizes Hillary or Runs to Her Left
[17] http://www.alternet.org/
[18] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > 6 Key Issues Where Trump Neutralizes Hillary or Runs to Her Left
6 Key Issues Where Trump Neutralizes Hillary or Runs to Her Left
By Steven Rosenfeld [1] / AlterNet [2]
March 18, 2016
President Obama repeatedly has said there's no way Americans would elect
Donald Trump as president. But Democrats don't have to think back very far
to dismaying GOP victories where they were left asking, 'What happened?"
There was George W. Bush in Ohio in 2004, in Florida in 2000 and Ronald
Reagan in 1980.
Trump's continuing path toward the 2016 GOP nomination has already
confounded the pundits, political junkies and oft-quoted scholars. Before
this last week where he won big [3] in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina,
The Nation's William Greider wrote [4], "The Democratic Party could find
itself obliterated by this election" and offered "a sequence of events I
find plausible." He started with Trump getting the nomination, Bernie
Sanders retiring "gracefully so he will not be labeled a spoiler," and then
Trump doing something not seen in a long time: taking hard-right and
hard-left positions.
"Then, in the fall campaign, Trump changes his style and launches a
ferocious and substantive assault on [Hillary] Clinton, with devastating
effect. He does this essentially by taking over Sanders economic agenda. He
denounces HRC as a tool of wealthy plutocrats and speaks for working-class
discontents, much as he has done in the primary season," wrote [4] Grieder.
"Imagine a campaign that merges Bernie's straight-talk values with
traditional Republican values."
Trump is already doing this. As he said [5] after winning the Florida
primary, his campaign started with two issues-trade and borders. The first,
bad trade deals, is near and dear to progressives and labor activists-even
if his statements are dated or incorrect [6]; the second plays to the least
tolerant right-wingers, xenophobes and white supremacists. But the larger
point is there are many issues where Trump can posture and run to the left
of Clinton or neutralize her-and Clinton, the likely nominee, is running a
traditional campaign and can be blindsided.
To be sure, it's not clear what Trump would do if elected, because so many
of his "positions" are little more than sound bites. Still, here are six
issues where he is mixing progressive or liberal Republican stances amid his
authoritarian outbursts. That strange brew means that for the first time in
decades Americans could be facing two candidates with progressive planks on
many issues.
1. The Anti-Free Trader. On no other issue is Trump as closely paralleling
Sanders as he is when slamming trade deals, and bragging that he, the great
negotiator, would push American CEOs into keeping jobs here or bring them
back. Last week, he singled out Carrier Air Conditioning [7], Ford [8] and
Eaton Corp [9]. for moving manufacturing abroad. A week before, he boasted
[10], "I'm going to get Apple to start making their computers and their
iPhones on our land, not in China. How does it help us when they make it in
China?" Suffice it to say that Trump is to the left of Clinton on trade
deals, at least when it comes to sound bites.
2. Cutting America's Military Budget. That sounds out of synch coming from
Trump, who repeatedly has said that he wants to rebuild the military and
never misses a chance to threaten ISIS. But according to reporters who have
trailed him since last year, he has repeatedly called for cutting military
spending by closing America's overseas military bases. "Donald Trump could
be the only presidential candidate talking sense about for the American
military's budget. That should scare everyone," wrote Matthew Gault in a
detailed piece [11] for Reuters. "As Trump has pointed out many times,
Washington can build and maintain an amazing military arsenal for a fraction
of what it's paying now. He's also right about one of the causes of the
bloated budget: expensive prestige weapons systems."
It's hard to imagine that Trump will be the "peace candidate" in the
campaign, as a liberal strategist told [4] The Nation's Greider. But closing
overseas bases would be a hard break from both Republican and Democratic
Party orthodoxy, including under Obama, where the Pentagon budget keeps
rising and temporary cuts-like sequestration-are seen as creating
unnecessary crises. Here, too, Trump's positioning could track to the left
of Clinton.
And unlike Sanders, whose state has a F-35 fighter plane base, Trump has
explicitly said that plane was a waste of money. "Like so many Trump plans,
the specifics are hazy. But on this issue, he's got the right idea," wrote
[11] Gault for Reuters.
3. Rejecting Big Money Political Corruption. You can expect Trump will go
after Clinton as a corrupt insider cashing in on her connections-no matter
how many millions he, as the nominee, would end up raising for Republicans
for the fall, or take from party's coffers because presidential campaigns
cost upwards of $1 billion. Trump has the higher moral ground, compared to
Clinton-who hasn't even had the guts to release the texts of speeches to
Wall St. banks or return the speaking fees-because, as Trump touts, he's
been on the check-writing side of America's corrupt but legal system of
financing candidates for decades.
Trump's stance here echoes Sanders. It barely matters that Clinton has said
she would want to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn
decisions like Citizens United, which created giant new legal loopholes for
wealthy interests and individuals. Being the rich outsider forced to play
along, not the political insider taking the checks, is in his favor-pushing
Trump to the left of Clinton.
4. Preserving Social Security and Medicare. As most progressives know,
millions of baby boomers approaching their senior years are going to be
relying on Social Security for most of their income and for Medicare as
their health plan. Progressives also know that Social Security benefits
could be cut by a fifth after 2030 because of that demographic bump, and
have proposed raising payroll taxes to preserve benefits and increase them.
Trump, unlike [12] the other GOP candidates, wants to leave Social Security
alone-saying a booming economy will fix the shortfall. While we have heard
that before-Reagan's fake rising tide lifting all boats-Trump's status quo
stance is completely at odds with the modern GOP, which wants to up the age
when one can start taking Social Security benefits, create new payment
formulas, means-test recipients or flat-out privatize it.
Clinton said [13] she wants to preserve Social Security and raise payments
to people who need it most-such as widowers, who see cuts after a spouse
dies, women and poor people who have historically been underpaid compared to
white men. Sanders, in contrast, said benefits must be raised for everyone.
Trump's stance on this issue is far from ideal, but it's outside the GOP's
mainstream. It's neither constructive nor destructive, but that tends to
neutralize the issue in a fall campaign with Clinton.
5. Lowering Seniors' Prescription Drug Costs. Here's another issue where
Trump is saying he wants to do what Democrats like Obama, Clinton and
Sanders have long called for, but which has been blocked by congressional
Republicans. Trump wants the feds to negotiate buying in bulk from
pharmaceutical companies, which has been explicitly prohibited by the GOP in
past legislation. "We don't do it. Why? Because of the drug companies,"
Trump said [14] in January before the New Hampshire primary. This is another
issue where he is blurring the lines with Clinton and the Democrats.
6. Breaking Health Insurance Monopolies. Trump has also railed against the
health insurance industry for preserving their state-by-state monopolies
under Obamacare, saying neither Democrats nor Republicans made an effort to
repeal a 1945 law that prevents Americans from buying cheaper policies in
another state. "The insurance companies," Trump said [15], "they'd rather
have monopolies in each state than hundreds of companies going all over the
place bidding. It's so hard for me to make deals. I can't get bids."
We know that Trump has pledged to get rid of Obamacare and he hasn't said
much about its replacement other than it would involve consumers crossing
state lines. But this is another area where Trump's sound bites can
superficially push him to the left of Clinton, who has made defending
Obamacare part of her campaign and agenda if elected president.
An Authoritarian Strongman and Liberal Republican?
Democratic presidential candidates haven't faced such a bizarre mix of left,
right and center stances from a demagogue opponent in decades. Of course, it
is impossible to know where Trump will land on many issues, should he be
elected, because his posturing is all over the map. But that doesn't mean
that the angry and frustrated Americans propelling his candidacy-including
many independents and people who haven't voted before-won't look at him,
ignore his excesses and say, "He's different. Why not give him a chance?"
As Grieder writes, "Lies, lies, lies. Yes, Donald Trump tells lot of lies
himself, but they seem modest alongside the monstrous deceptions that
Democrats and Republicans used to mislead the country. Year after year,
political leaders and presidents of both parties essentially lied to the
people about fundamental matters-war and peace, lost prosperity, and the
bruising generation of lost jobs and declining wages."
Many Democrats, and the Clinton campaign in particular, have pounced on
Trump's hateful rhetoric and dismissed 2016's rebellious public-which is
also propelling the Sanders' campaign. But that's perilous, because 2016 is
not a year where calibrated campaigns, like Clinton's effort, are generating
the most excitement and are likely to spark high voter turnout in the fall.
If Trump runs to the left of Clinton on some issues or nullifies her on
others, that's not just unprecedented. It is provocative, dangerous and
could be successful. It is bound to attract some unknown number of people
who will vote for the first time or break with traditional party
lines-swayed by his forceful personality, select liberal leanings and
overlooking his massive contradictions.
One wants to think that Trump's irrepressible dark impulses are too far out
of bounds for most Americans. One would also like to think the Democrats'
probable nominee, Clinton, understands this challenge-including being
outflanked on the left and neutralized in the center-and has a strategy to
counter it. But in 2016, those bets are off.
Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including
America's retirement crisis, democracy and voting rights, and campaigns and
elections. He is the author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to Voting"
(AlterNet Books, 2008).
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [16]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[17]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/6-key-issues-where-trump-neutralizes-h
illary-or-runs-her-left
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-rosenfeld
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/primary-calendar-and-re
sults.html?_r=0
[4]
http://www.thenation.com/article/how-the-democrats-could-be-obliterated-in-t
he-fall-elections/
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYG88qGAlu8
[6]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/18/trumps-trade-
rhetoric-stuck-in-a-time-warp/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_daily202
[7]
http://www.businessinsider.com/carrier-workers-learn-jobs-are-moving-to-mexi
co-2016-2
[8]
http://www.inquisitr.com/2246256/fords-compact-car-production-leaving-michig
an-and-the-usa-can-you-guess-where-fords-going-instead/
[9]
http://www.wkow.com/story/28910369/2015/04/27/eaton-corp-outsourcing-wi-jobs
-to-mexico-for-second-time-after-getting-370k-from-wedc
[10]
http://time.com/4245134/super-tuesday-donald-trump-victory-speech-transcript
-full-text/
[11]
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/03/02/trump-is-right-about-defens
e-spending-and-that-should-scare-you/
[12] http://fortune.com/2016/03/15/primary-elections-ohio-florida/
[13] https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/social-security-and-medicare/
[14]
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/267005-trump-calls-for-medicare-to-nego
tiate-drug-prices
[15]
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-america-made-donald-trump-unst
oppable-20160224
[16] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on 6 Key Issues Where
Trump Neutralizes Hillary or Runs to Her Left
[17] http://www.alternet.org/
[18] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
