LeeToRainesToRoach said:
You could've stopped there.
Come on, he cut taxes for low-income earners by 25%. 'Drain the swamp' referred to lobbyists; he's passed some legislation in that area and there's more on the way. Above all he stands his ground amid howls of protest and overt media bias and spits back in his detractors' faces. He has balls.
He's made Twitter (largely) work for him; you might not like Donald Trump, but you know him. You know what he's thinking. You know he's in there batting for the majority of Americans.
We'll definitely agree on that count, Trump has reinvented the news cycle, in fact he dictates the content with his various tweets, that is clearly a game changer. His base are rock solid in their devotion, nothing will change their views, not even criminality which is unprecedented for a POTUS. He also narrow casts his views depending on the audience, where there are contradictions he uses terms like 'fake news' or 'witch-hunt' or 'enemy of the state' to set the scene for the conspiracy nuts. We could call that genius or we could call it opportunism, however you look at it the approach has been successful. The big problem for Trump is the legal ramifications, particularly with the FBI breathing down his neck, one advisor even suggested he choose between Twitter or an orange jumpsuit, those are the stakes.
Don't think you are correct about the tax cuts benefiting the poor, Forbes did a thorough analysis & it favoured the filthy rich, that appears to be payback for campaign donations. The issue of lobbyists interfering in elections will never go away unless donations are banned altogether, can't ever see that happening. Trump is an NRA man through & through, he's effectively the new spokesperson for gun manufacturers. It's so easy for politicians to use phrases like 'our thoughts & prayers are with the victims' but that is a cheap way of dodging any responsibility. As insidious as it sounds, the gun lobby are totally fine with massacres because there is always a spike in sales immediately following the carnage, this in part because gun owners are scared new laws will come into place. I was never a John Howard supporter but his stance on guns was perhaps his crowning achievement, and you won't ever get a more conservative politician. The Americans still see this as a left versus right issue, background checks should be common sense but we are not dealing with rational thinkers.
You are probably correct that many Americans feel Trump has their back but I think this is more a byproduct of tribalism, the reality is public education is being gutted, healthcare is in constant damage control, the EPA is seen as little more than an impediment for big business, even nuclear proliferation is starting to make a comeback. All this doesn't equate to benefiting the majority. If it was such a lay down misere then we wouldn't be seeing gerrymandering & electoral purging, those in the Trump camp are already showing signs of desperation. By my reckoning the senate will be lost and that spells trouble for Republicans.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2017/09/29/trump-plan-delivers-massive-tax-cuts-to-the-1-and-sharp-kick-to-upper-middle-class/#18ada1d71099
