WSJ: Trump Changes Position on the ACA

[Devout Centrist]

Good. Now flip flop on abortion and we're getting somewhere.

[7,052,770]

Of course. Obviously he wasn't going to kick 20 million people off their health insurance.

He'll end up changing a few things and marketing it as something totally new, and most of his base will eat it up.

If we had to have a Republican president, I'm so glad it's him and not a True Believer like Cruz.

[Person Man]

My Trump dilemma - his not-terrible stances for a Republican vs all the Russian/racial nonsense and his general buffoonery

Even another example that is like Trump. He says very reasonable things as a Republican and I considered voting for Giuliani back in 2008. After 8 years of theocon nonsense, he seems reasonable. Now, he is just a hateful little man.

[Rand]

It's a relief that Trump turned out to have been playing the GOP base for fools all this time. Given his long history of lying and changing his positions, perhaps this shouldn't have been so surprising.

Greatest con job in history and 60M people fell for it.

[KingSweden]

Spicy - it was suggested by Liam Donovan that Trump is basically just running the Giuliani '93 NYC platform at a national level

[Meclazine for Israel]

The story for the first 6 months of the Trump Presidency is going to be Trump Vs. Ryan. Trump has to try and do some of the things he promised or he'll lose those rust belt voters that won him the election. Ryan finally has the trifecta of a GOP House, Senate, and Presidency and he wants to pass his wishlist for making America into an Ayn Rand "utopia." If Trump backs down now after all he did to get here, he will be the biggest wimp in American history.

That has been a very interesting post-election discussion.

Ryan is talking that he is in favour of Trump and that the relationship is fresh and new and fantastic.

Retribution has not emerged.

[Erich Maria Remarque]

It's a relief that Trump turned out to have been playing the GOP base for fools all this time. Given his long history of lying and changing his positions, perhaps this shouldn't have been so surprising.

Greatest con job in history and 60M people fell for it.

Lol, no. I've always been saying hoping it.

The problem with the left, that they think everyone else is fool.


When Trump said,

You must be logged in to read this quote.

His base understood immediately what he meant... and fell in love. Only "intelligent" left thought, it was racism

But... it was poetic. His first speech was just... so poetic

[ApatheticAustrian]

His base understood immediately what he meant... and fell in love. Only "intelligent" left thought, it was racism

ofc it was racism. (or culturalism or however you describe bias against a single country.)

doesn't mean he is a racist or the people agreeing are racists.

the trick is that this kind of wording makes it possible that those seriously concerned about laws and immigration and those having a heart full of hate and prejudice both thought he was speaking to THEM.

the "i assume" part is pure genius and if trump winged that speech, he is clearly a natural talent.....enraging people who are able to dissect speeches, while sounding innocent to others....quite a masterpiece.

trump is cynical as hell and would use each possible tool to reach his goals, even pandering to racists and sexists.....but he is no racist, it just doesn't really matter.

many thought someone as greedy or corrupt like hillary shouldn't be president, others like me thought, someone as hollow, turncoatish and machiavellistic like trump shouldn't be president.

i am going to praise him if he blocks the small-gov extremism of his new party and really does something for "the little guy" - doesn't mean i don't hate his guts like nearly nothing else on this planet.

[eric82oslo]

His base understood immediately what he meant... and fell in love. Only "intelligent" left thought, it was racism

many thought someone as greedy or corrupt like hillary shouldn't be president, others like me thought, someone as hollow, turncoatish and machiavellistic like trump shouldn't be president.

Another example of cultural or moral equivalence, so famously advanced by the media during the past 18 months, and by very far most ruthlessly executed by CNN. A channel previously thought for a very long time as the only objective news channel in the US, has turned itself into Fox just three times worse during the past 18 months. CNN's extreme Clinton bashing and mind-boggling Trump enabling (where Trump was literally their ONLY news story from June 1st till September 1st, 2015, for instance, or no less than 90 days straight - of which there are countless of evidences of everywhere on the internet, including on YouTube, is truely shameless. The CNN president/CEO himself went out to the broad media a couple of months ago admitting that he felt horrible in the way CNN had helped enable Trump to the presidency by giving him 24/7 coverage, and there is no reason not to trust a CEO when he for once apologizes for something absolutely horrific that he did (which basically never ever happens).

[Erich Maria Remarque]

the "i assume" part is pure genius and if trump winged that speech, he is clearly a natural talent.....enraging people who are able to dissect speeches, while sounding innocent to others....quite a masterpiece.

Hehe, yeah, "I assume" and "some" were genious. It made mainstream media go bananas. I laugh every time I see that part of speech in TV

It's a relief that Trump turned out to have been playing the GOP base for fools all this time. Given his long history of lying and changing his positions, perhaps this shouldn't have been so surprising.

Greatest con job in history and 60M people fell for it.

Lol, no. I've always been saying hoping it.

The problem with the left, that they think everyone else is fool.

And the other 59,999,999?

They are not stupid as well, you racist elitist!

Good. Now flip flop on abortion and we're getting somewhere.

If he does that, he'll be a one-temer for sure.

He'll totally ignore this quesiton

[Beet]

Good. Now flip flop on abortion and we're getting somewhere.

[ApatheticAustrian]

Good. Now flip flop on abortion and we're getting somewhere.

If he does that, he'll be a one-temer for sure.

i understand where you are coming from and it seems likely but....since he broke 9 of 10 republican holy cows i am taunted to say: let's see it.

it's a little bit like union power in wisconsin or the NRA...we always assume it's a gamechanger and no one dares to defy it for some time....but...maybe.....in the end....it's just hollow or gets dwarfed by other things.....quite sure the evangelical voters would leave him but i don't assume a lot of those are in the midwest to begin with.

[eric82oslo]

Good. Now flip flop on abortion and we're getting somewhere.

If he does that, he'll be a one-temer for sure.

i understand where you are coming from and it seems likely but....since he broke 9 of 10 republican holy cows i am taunted to say: let's see it.

it's a little bit like union power in wisconsin or the NRA...we always assume it's a gamechanger and no one dares to defy it for some time....but...maybe.....in the end....it's just hollow or gets dwarfed by other things.....quite sure the evangelical voters would leave him but i don't assume a lot of those are in the midwest to begin with.

The midwest is the evangelical hotspot, where else would it be? If you're thinking the south, the right answer is it's the baptist hotspot.

[Simfan34]

Good. Now flip flop on abortion and we're getting somewhere.

January 17, 2018

PRESIDENT TRUMP: "...and, therefore, I believe abortion should be safe, legal, and rare."

CONGRESS: *stunned silence*

THE NEXT DAY--

PROGRESSIVES: "President Trump's dangerous and misogynistic language stigmatizes and endangers women's health! We want there to be as many abortions as there needs to be!"

[Erich Maria Remarque]

As I said in another post, I'm enlisted military, I call a small rural Oregon town home, I own four guns, I shop at Walmart, I drive a Ford, I'm half White/half Mexican and I'm married to a Vietnamese-American. How that makes me racist or elitist is beyond me. I was also not suggesting the other Trump supporters are stupid. I think you simply misunderstood the question I was asking--whether the other 59,999,999 Trump voters were also hoping Trump would not be as extreme as he pretended to be during the campaign?

Identity politics is strong with you. You think that those things you described determines if racists or not. BTW, there are a lot of Swedes who take wife from Thailand/Philippines etc. Sad enough, they often use them like sort of sex-slaves&housekeeper, because poor women are so depended om them to get citizenship/accommodation etc   Just saying. I think Gustaf is such a freak.

To answer on you question. Yes, I think that most of Trump's supporters understood, that many of his proposals would be "transform to less extreme".

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

LGBTQ - what is up to the states? Marriage is already law, and any "Religious Freedom" law will be struck down

What makes you think an Indiana-style extension of RFRA to explicitly cover private acts would be struck down?  The existing Federal RFRA was only partially struck down as far as it applying to the States.  It still is on the books and governs the application of Federal law as it was upheld with respect to that by a unanimous opinion in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal. Beyond that, the Hobby Lobby case shows that anything that might be accomplished along those lines at the Federal level is unnecessary, except possibly as a political document.

Now if Congress tried to reapply the Federal RFRA to State laws, I agree it would get struck down. unless both Kennedy and Thomas change their minds from what they favored in City of Boerne.

[kyc0705]

Good. Now flip flop on abortion and we're getting somewhere.

In my mind, this slowly keeps progressing until he's transformed into a hardcore liberal by 2020 and has totally hijacked the Republican Party.

[Devout Centrist]

Good. Now flip flop on abortion and we're getting somewhere.

If he does that, he'll be a one-temer for sure.

Titanium D 2020.

But seriously, his facade is starting to crumbling big league.

[rob in cal]

   If he sticks somewhat to his immigration policies, and moves to the center on government spending, role of government, social programs etc he might be moving toward the European Right wing party model.

[FDRfan1985]

How does a European Right Winger differ from an American Right Winger?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I think Mitch McConnell will play a critical role and possibly have us a in a situation with House vs. Senate/President once again. McConnell is far less ah "Randian" and far more keen on that 2018 map that could secure his majority indefinitely. $550 billion in infrastructure to a Senate Majority Leader and long time pork barreler is like frosting on a cake and one that could bode well in those Trumpian Midwest states two years from now.

I don't think Ryan has a strong hand in all this.

As for Trump on the ACA, this is what Trump said in the debates and it is in various GOP alternatives, difficulties with functionality aside. There is a lot of wishful thinking on the right presuming this is their victory for the age old neo-liberal/neo-conservative movement conservative agenda.

If Trump has proved anything, he toys with ideas then reverts to his comfort zone.

I suspect that just like immigration, he will revert to his comfort zone. Even his campaign website when attacking Dodd-Frank includes veiled populist language and in October Trump called for a 21st century Glass-Steagal (also in the GOP platform). Trump also endorsed infrastructure spending (Which he seems to be following through on), and a $10 minimum wage.

I would expect Trump to demand and get all of this not because he is changing, but because his natural tendency is for nationalist-populism on economics.

If Republicans are smart they will not try to co-opt Trump and shove down his throat what Ryan could not shove down the American people and instead, proceed with those issues that both Trump and them agree (Corporate tax reform, Justices etc) and accept Trump's nationalist economic approaches on infrastructure, Glass-Steagal, and hopefully minimum wage.

Republicans win with libertarian-populism. 2010 and 2016 made the clear. If you want to win, if you want to succeed, you have to be anti-gov't and anti-Wall Street.

[The Ex-Factor]

Such economic-nationalist populism would seem like complete anathema to everyone Paul Ryan and the establishment wing of the party stands for. Would they really go for it?

Also, the one consistent thing that Trump has always stood for in his life is that trade deals are bad, which makes me think he will actually go after that during his presidency.  What will be the business wing of the party's response be when he starts trying to re-negotiate NAFTA and impose tariffs on China?

[Meclazine for Israel]

Such economic-nationalist populism would seem like complete anathema to everyone Paul Ryan and the establishment wing of the party stands for. Would they really go for it?

That is what I find interesting about the relationship between the two.

It already looks like Trump is falling into line and reversing on his initial election pledges.

[Tender Branson]

There's a saying here in Austria which is something like this:

"There is nothing eaten as hot as it is cooked."

Trump won't be such a moron as President as he was during the campaign.

It is actually good if Obamacare gets reformed: The premium hikes are insane. People here are already complaining if their rents are increasing 3% a year, so if your healthcare premiums are rising 20-100% in a single year, there is something wrong. Hopefully the Republicans are not dismantling the whole thing though, just make it more effective by cutting the cost while keeping the level of insurance service where it is.

[Erich Maria Remarque]

My Trump dilemma - his not-terrible stances for a Republican vs all the Russian/racial nonsense and his general buffoonery

Swedes are coming home