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Why are people so hostile towards President Donald Trump? This question was asked on Quora, and here is probably the best response so far (thank you to Chris O'Leary). Please take the time to read the whole thing (a little long I know, but worth it). This is recopied from a Facebook post I saw.

From Chris O'Leary, former 10 years of Active Duty at U.S. Marine Corps (1989-2000).
I’ll take a stab at this, but before you pass my answer off as “Another Liberal Snowflake” consider that 1) I’m a right-leaning centrist who has voted Republican way more often than Democrat, and 2) if you want to call someone who spent the entire decade of his 20’s serving in the Marine Corps a snowflake, you should be ready to answer the question “What did you do with your 20’s?”

Why Liberals (And not-so liberals) are against President Trump.

A) He lies. A LOT. Politifact rates 69% of the words he speaks as “Mostly False or worse” Only 17% of the things he says get a “Mostly True” or better rating. That is an absolutely unbelievable number. How he doesn’t speak more truth by mistake is beyond me. To put it in context, Obama’s rating was 26% mostly false or worse, and I had a problem with that. Many of Trump’s former business associates report that he has always been a compulsive liar, but now he’s the President of the United States, and that’s a problem. And this is a man who expects you to believe him when he points at other people and says “They’re lying”. (Check Politifact for detailed info).

B) He’s an authoritarian populist, not a conservative. He advances regressive social policy while proposing to expand federal spending and federalist authority over states, both of which conservatives are supposed to hate.

C) He pretends at Christianity to court the Religious Right but fails to live anything resembling a Christ-Like Life.

D) His nationalist “America First” message effectively alienates us and removes us from our place as leaders in the international community.

E) His ideas on “Keeping us safe” are all thinly veiled ideas to remove our freedoms, he is, after all, an authoritarian first. They also are simply bad ideas.

F) He couldn’t pass a 3rd-grade civics exam. He doesn't know what he’s doing. He doesn't understand how international relations work, he doesn’t understand how federal state or local governments work, and every time someone tries to “Run it like a business” it’s a spectacular failure. See Colorado Springs’ recent history as an example. And that was a businessman with a MUCH better business track record than Trump. We are talking about a man who lost money owning a freaking gambling casino.

G) He’s unethical and always has been. As a businessman, he constantly left in his wake unpaid contractors and invoices, litigation, broken promises, whatever he could get away with.

H) He is damaging our relationships with our best international friends while kissing up to nations that do not have our best interests in mind. To his question “Wouldn't’ it be great to have better relations with Russia?” The answer is Yes, but RUSSIA has to be the one who earns that, who must stop doing the things that are damaging to that relationship, or we are simply weaker for it.

I) He has never seen a shortcut he didn't like, and you can’t take shortcuts in government. “Nuclear Option, Remove the Filibuster, I’ll change the Constitution by Executive Order…Don…what happens when you remove the filibuster and the other side retakes the majority in the Senate? Suddenly want that filibuster back? What happens if you manage to change the Constitution by Executive Order and an Anti-2A President wins the next election?

J) He is and always has been an unabashed racist. Yes, I’ve seen your favorite meme that claims he was never accused of racism before the Democrats…Absolutely false. See the Central Park 5, the lawsuits and fines resulting from his refusal to lease to black tenants, the 1992 lost appeal trying to overturn penalties for removing black dealers from tables, his remarks to the house native American affairs subcommittee in 1993. The man sees and treats racial groups of people as monoliths.

K) He is systematically steamrolling regulations specifically designed to keep a disaster like the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis from happening again.

L) He speaks and acts like a demagogue. He sees the Legislative and Judicial branches of government as inconveniences, blows up at criticism no matter how deserved and actively tries to countermand constitutional processes, not to mention attempts to blackmail and coerce people who are saying negative things about him

M) His choices for top positions, with the exception of Gen. Mattis, who is a gem, have been horrendous. A Secretary of Education without a resume that would get her hired as a small town grammar school principal; a Secretary of Energy who didn't know the Department of Energy was responsible for nuclear reserves; an EPA head whose biggest accomplishments to date had been suing the EPA on multiple occasions; an FCC head who while working for Verizon actively lobbied to kill net neutrality; and an Attorney General who thinks pot is “nearly as bad as heroin” and asked Congress for permission to go after legal pot businesses in states where it is legal. (There goes that great Republican States rights rally cry again, right? Crickets). Also, an Interim AG after firing his first AG who’s appointment is probably unconstitutional.

N) He denies scientific fact. Ever notice that the only people you hear denying climate change are politicians and lobbyists? 99% of actual scientists studying the issue agree that it’s real, man-made and caused by greenhouse gasses. Ever notice that every big disaster movie starts with a bunch of politicians in a room ignoring a scientist's warning?

O) He does not have the temperament to lead this nation. He is Thin Skinned, childish, and a bully, never mind misogynistic, boorish, rude, and incapable of civil discourse.

P) He still does not understand that the words he speaks, or tweets, are the official position of 1/3 of the US government, and so does not govern his words. He still thinks when he speaks it’s good ol’ Donald Trump. It’s not. It’s the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. You have probably spread a meme or two around talking about how no president’s every word has ever been dissected before…YES, THEY ALWAYS HAVE. It’s just that every other president in our lifetime has understood the importance of his words and took great care to govern his speech. Trump blurts out whatever comes to his mind then complains when people talk about what a dumb thing that was to say.

Q) He’s unqualified. If you owned a business and were looking for someone to manage it, and an unnamed resume came across your desk and you saw 6 bankruptcies, showing a man who had failed to make money running CASINOS, would you hire him? He is a very poor businessman. This is a man it has been estimated would have been worth $10 BILLION more if he’d just taken what his father had given him, invested it in Index Funds and left it alone.

R) He is President, but he refuses to take a leadership position and understand that he is everyone’s President. Conservatives complain about liberals chanting “Not my President” while Trump himself behaves as if no one matters but his supporters.

S) He’s a blatant hypocrite. He spent 8 years bitching about Obama for his family trips, or golfing, or any time he took for himself, and what does he do? He was already on his 20th golf outing in APRIL of his 1st year in office. He constantly rants about respect for the military, yet can’t be bothered to attend the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day because of a little rain. (And that excuse about Marine One not being able to fly in the rain is HILARIOUS). I could go on, but I’m risking Carpal Tunnel, and I’m not sure how much longer I’ll have health insurance.

Edit:
OK, OK. Based on the most common feedback in the comments (Including the offer of a Marriage Proposal - - my wife was not amused), I’ll see what I can do about T-Z

T) He’s a misogynist. It's not really OK in this day and age to be a misogynist, but it’s not a huge deal if you’re a private citizen. It’s a pretty big deal if you hate half the people you’re elected to lead. The disdain for women seeps out of his …whatever…. and he just can’t hide it.

U) Face it. In any other election “Grab Em’ By the Pussy” would have been the end of that candidate’s chances. Back in the 90’s I used to marvel about how Teflon Bill Clinton was. I no longer do. The fact that Trump managed to slip by on that is as much a statement about how much people hate Hillary Clinton as it is about what is wrong with politics in this country right now.

V) He has one response to a differing opinion. Attack. A good leader listens to criticism, to different points of view, is capable of self-reflection, tries to guide people to his point of view, and when necessary stands his ground and defends his convictions. Any of that sound like Trump? His default is not to Lead, it is to attack. Scorched Earth. The Jim Acosta reaction is a good example. There was no defense of his convictions when Acosta was asking him repeated questions about his rhetoric on the caravan. His response was to attack Acosta.

W) He takes credit for everything positive while deflecting blame for everything negative. Look at him with the stock market. He’s been bragging about it since day one, and to give credit where credit is due, speculation on coming deregulation early in his presidency did fuel some rapid growth. But to pretend that it’s all him, that we’re not in the 9th year of the longest bull market in history and THEN, deflect credit when the standard market volatility that deregulation inevitably brings about starts to show up? Yeah. Look at yesterday. Hey! Stock Markets losing because the Democrats won! Do I need to bring out the Stock market chart for the last 10 Years again?

X) He emboldens the worst among us. Counter-protesters are slammed into by a car while countering an actual Nazi rally, and the response is there’s fault on “Both Sides” The media is at fault for a nut job sending them and Donald’s favorite targets pipe bombs. The truth is not all Republicans, not all Trump Supporters are racist, fascist lunatics. Many are just taken in by the bombastic personality and are living in an information bubble made worse by the fact that they unfollow anyone and ignore any source of information that makes them feel uncomfortable. People on the left do that too. The biggest problem the right has right now is that the worst of the Right is the loudest and the most in your face, and the actual right, especially the Freaking PRESIDENT needs to be standing up and saying No. Those are not our values.

Y) He seems to think the Constitution of The United States, the document that IS who we are, the document he took an oath to support and defend is some sort of inconvenience. He demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the Constitution, from believing he can alter the 14th amendment through executive order, to Thinking The practice clause in the first amendment somehow supersedes the establishment clause (not that he really understands either) or that the practice clause only applies to Christians. Or his attacks on freedom of expression and the press. He repeatedly makes it clear that if he’s read them, he does not understand Articles 1–3, and that’s something he really should have before he took the job, because they’re not going away.

Z) I’ll use Z for something I do blame him for, but the rest of us have to carry the blame too. Polarization. This country is more politically polarized than I can remember in my lifetime. Some of you who are a few years older than I may remember how it was in the late 60’s when construction workers in New York were being applauded for beating up hippies. I think it’s pretty close to that right now, but that was before my time. And Trump is the cause of much of the current level polarization, but also the result. It didn't’ start with Trump. We’ve been going down this road I think since the eruption of the Tea Party in the early years of the Obama Administration. I do hope the tide turns before it gets much worse because the thing that scares me more than anything is what if that keeps going the way it has been?

ATDayHiker 7 Feb 11
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33 comments (26 - 33)

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I think that sums up the situation very well. I came from a long line od Republicans that eeent back to at least Teddy Roosevelt. I'm 84 years old and the last 2 1/2 years have been the worst of my lifetime and that's saying a lot. We have never have to tolerate any President who cared or knew less about our country. He is only semi-literate and doesn't care or want to pay attention to anyone who truly knows something about a subject. He'd be pathetic if the results aren't so serious. To compound the situation theee seem to be enough Republican senators who aeee keeping their mouths shut at the least and cheering him on at the worst. Let's hope the majority of Americans will come to their senses and make sure this will only continue for the next year and a half.

0

A fabulous post, and while of some length, it's really only the tip of a proverbial iceberg.

Dew25 Level 7 Apr 1, 2019
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Wow. Just wow...

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Trump is the worst beyond all questions.

0

I have the feeling that no matter how long the alphabet was, you could have finished it and still had more in the tank. Good job.

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Also, They keep asking the question on Quora, so I ended up having to do an encore with an Execl style Alpahbet -- Enjoy:
[qr.ae]

Chris - Many thanks for providing that additional commentary in Quora. All good points and I think the audience here would agree with them. Here is a link to another post that you might enjoy that provides a British view of Trump (if you have not seen it already).

[agnostic.com]

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Thinking people don't need this list.

0

To be fair about point Q, HE did not lose money running a casino. Investors, employees, contractors, suppliers, etc lost money building and running the casino. But he made out like a con man bandit. Probably the same for all of his other businesses.

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