He's an arrogant boor, probably a cokehead, but how is he going to destroy the US? If he avoids and stupid foreign adventures it will be the best thing that's happened to America in decades.
Where do we start with this one? I try and provide a concise list of bullet points.
Domestic destruction
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Race Relations. Trump is a documented racist. He’s been caught on the record, multiple times saying ignorant, disparaging or discriminating comments about ethnic minorities. Race relations is one of the greatest social problems facing America today, and is closely correlated with law and order issues. Just the election of this man would set back race relations decades, and that’s without mentioning him pursuing divisive and controversial policies like Stop and Frisk, and The Great Wall of Mexico. None of this touches on his comments about the Muslim community, which will just serve as a recruiting tool for domestic and overseas radicals.
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Economic turmoil. Running a business and running government are two completely different things. For a start governments should be run for the people, not for profit. This is even generous to Trump, who has declared bankruptcy six times. Trump’s economic plan has been almost universally panned and ridiculed by independent and partisan economic experts. His simultaneous proposition to drastically cut taxes and increase spending (particularly on the military) simply doesn’t jive with basic economic reality. He talks about the reshoring of outsourced manufacturing jobs, but doesn’t ever present a viable plan for doing that. He actively eschews investment into growth industries such a renewable energy.
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Income disparity. America already has the widest income gap in the developed world. Trump’s America would increase the tax burden on the lower and middle classes, and make the rich even richer. He is running a fiscal policy aimed at benefitting him and his friends. The people who suffer in such a scenario are the bottom 60-70%, meanwhile investment into critical social services would dry up, thus creating further social and economic equality.
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A corporate bonanza. There’s no doubting that America is already a corporate wonderland, but under Trump it would become a fat cat paradise. Not only would one see a huge reduction in corporation tax, presumably a protection or widening of IRS loopholes for those “smart” enough not to pay federal income tax, but we’d also see an even greater push towards private industry running social programs. Thus taking value out of the system (in the form of profit) and skewing critical decision making; such as what we see rife throughout the criminal justice system already.
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Gun Control. Under Trump there’d be no progressive gun control legislation, and logically the type of candidate who would suggest that 2nd amendments supporters assassinate his opponent, is not the type of guy to quell gun related violence in the country – which is already at alarming levels. This is a man endorsed by the NRA.
Foreign Affairs
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International coalitions. Even America will struggle to act unilaterally on a global scale. Yet Trump has come right out of the gate questioning some of the most important strategic relationships in the country’s history. And not only that, he’s done it in an offensive, and frankly ignorant way. This is alarming to world leaders, and will ultimately leave the US isolated on foreign policy issues. This only makes the world a more dangerous place.
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From Russia with Love. One of the best quotes I’ve seen was a commentator asking how Donald was going to finish putting his foot in his mouth, now he is too busy blowing Vladamir Putin. I’m not sure what game he is playing here, but it serves little value towards America’s strategic and security goals.
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War on Terror. Trump has made huge claims about not going into Iraq (even though he supported it), taking the oil (which is just imperialism and only going to inflame tensions further), and saving money by not being involved in overseas conflicts. Yet in the same breath he has he’ll wipe out ISIS (presumably at considerable military expenditure), and talked about starting a war with Iran. The man contradicts himself from one moment to the next, has no cross cultural competencies, and simply does not possess the sensibilities to address the root causes of terrorism or the finer points of international diplomacy.
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International Trade. Overnight, the Donald seems to have become an expert on trade. Slamming NAFTA, and decrying the tariffs placed on US goods entering Mexico. ‘
Why oh why?’ he asks, do Mexican goods enter without tariffs, and US goods don’t have the same system. Well, firstly, I think the economic performance of the United States somewhat dwarfs that of Mexico, both per capita and gross, so the US is hardly suffering under NAFTA; secondly, he is forgetting about the power of market forces. This is usually a staple of republican candidates – allowing the market to determine prices; and in the case of outsourced manufacturing, it is quite simply there because of the demand for cheap consumer products. While this may have a deleterious effect on the manufacturing sector, it has a positive effective on retail and services, general consumption, and cost of living. Basic economics. People cry about losing jobs, but when the products start getting made in the US again, and the price of consumer products doubles, perspective will change. – US companies, at most, are only going to reshore strategically vital assets, such as IP.
This is just shit off the top of my head. I haven’t even gone into myriad other issues that one could raise. Asking the question, “How could Trump destroy America?” and expecting an exacting list of specifics, is a bit like asking ‘Why shouldn’t monkeys perform intra-abdominal surgeries?’. I can give you a list of reasonable arguments based on observed evidence as to why the patient would die; but I couldn’t possibly provide an exhaustive list of all the ways in which they could feck it up. The same goes for Donald Trump. In fact, I’d probably take my chances with the monkey.
