OMG, Trump is a clueless idiot. How the hell does he have even 30% support? This country....

[Logical]

is a mess. Uninformed voters IMO. Reality TV mindsets.

Like George Carlin said:

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

More true than ever.

[uponit7771]

1. I republican friend of mine thinks he's slightly dumber than Pallin, she at least didn't praise Puti

... Putin during the campaign

[book_worm]

2. He rarely gets above 42% in recent polls

I think he will wind up with 46-47 percent. There are a lot of stupid people out there and (unfortunately) they vote.

[unblock]

3. i pleased but honestly amazed he doesn't have more support.

i mean, this country has been thoroughly brainwashed against hillary for a quarter-century.
and trump is doing little fundamentally different from other republicans going back to reagan or maybe even nixon.

he brags,
he boasts,
he deflects,
he lies,
he attacks,
he never apologizes,
he spreads fear,
he spreads hate,
he ludicrously overpromises,
he tells everyone we're all gonna be rich.

how is any of this different from any other republican?

in all seriousness, pretty much the only real difference is he's marginally more obvious than the average republican leader. he doesn't play the careful dog whistle game. that's about the only real difference.

[Politicalboi]

4. More uninformed voters than you can even count

In this country.

[krawhitham]

5. Because people a tired of the status quo

It does not matter he knows nothing, or is crazy as a loon

They are supporting him because it will change the status quo

[Jitter65]

6. Because roughly 30% of the electorate are also clueless. nt

[dirtydickcheney]

7. He does have a position on Trade that I support

And I'd think that most Democrats would mutually support the idea that our trade policies haven't done the working class of the USA many favors.

I support his position on trade 100%.

American manufacturing should be done in the USA, not Mexico, China or any other country.

Too bad that we don't have many on the Democratic side saying that as loud as Bernie.

[Doodley]

8. You support Trump on Trade policies - it would cause a recession

So American manufacturing should be done in USA?
Should, therefore, all foreign owned brands not manufacture in USA?
Do you think Japanese car manufacturers shouldn't build cars in USA?
Do you think Chrysler should be made in Europe?
USA companies manufacture products in plants around the globe. Should that stop?

You say you support Trump 100% on trade. Therefore, you want to pay 45 percent on all imports from China. Do you have any idea what that would do to the US economy. US auto manufacturers would have to pay 45% on steel imports and electrical components from China. We depend on China. It would cause 15% inflation to add 45% to Chinese imports. It would mean US interest rates would have to be rapidly raised to try to control inflation. Millions of Americans would lose their jobs.

Trump hasn't got a clue. He doesn't know the difference between VAT and tariffs. There isn't any leading economists who don't have a political agenda, who agree with him.

[dirtydickcheney]

13. 200+ economists supported Bernie's economic plan, part of which was his Trade Policy.

If there were a 45% import tariff what would be the results?

The assumption up till the neoliberal takeover of economics was "if something costs $1.00 to make in the USA and $0.45 to make in China, then you slap a 55 cent import tariff on it".

As a result you protect American jobs and the people with almost $0 in disposable income start to have disposable income.

You're really arguing that trade policies like NAFTA were such great ideas? And maybe they work extremely wel... but that's just for the Rich. The working class, not so much. It's not a particularly radical proposition.

Quite frankly, there probably wouldn't be a Trump around if the Democrats hadn't adopted these Third-Way economic plans.

[Onlooker]

9. That position has problems

The free trade agreements are basically this equation: Poor nations say to the US: You give us a larger role in manufacturing and we'll give you access to our markets for all your high tech and other goods and services. If you don't give us manufacturing, then we will look to Russia, China, and others for those goods and services.

This not only helps us, it creates economic opportunity in many underdeveloped countries and increases our access and leverage to create social reform.

If you we got rid of TPP, we would basically be losing access to markets, hurting poor people overseas, and getting back a relatively small number of manufacturing jobs.

So, it's easy to see why a xenophobe like Trump could oppose those agreements, but more difficult to see why a progressive would oppose them. The agreements perhaps can be improved upon, but it's difficult negotiating with countries that sometimes have corrupt or inefficient government.

[joshcryer]

12. This is exactly why TPP is geopolitical and not economic.

We are already in a situation where states like China are completely in charge of our baseline product source. I defy any user here to reach to any product in their immediate vicinity and find something not "Made in China." It is utterly not possible. It simple isn't. The mere fact that you are using a monitor or phone or tablet to read this post, the mere fact, means you're using something in China. And believe me, I looked for Made in US electronics. They don't exist anymore. I even looked for Made in Germany or Made in not-China. It's not possible. There are components in every device capable of reading this that come from China. Period.

TPP is probably going to hurt the American worker, of course, but it won't be over the typical shit we get from China. We'll start seeing more furniture from Vietnam, for a start. It used to be Mexico. It probably hurts the Mexican worker more than the American one.

[joshcryer]

11. There are two ways to bring manufacturing back to the US.

Put hard tariffs on cheap trade partners (ie, China), or remove tax loopholes that allow companies like Apple to not pay taxes in their overseas havens (ie, in Ireland).

There is only one of them that doesn't hurt consumers and instead goes after the elites in America itself.

I'll let you know which method that Trump supports, given that he is an American elite.

[dirtydickcheney]

16. They aren't mutually exclusive

Not disagreeing about many of Trumps negatives btw. Just that this trade positions should be front-and-center of the Democrats and they've decided to follow Third-Way positions instead.

Thus the rise of the Trumps in politics. The Democrats should have never chosen that path.

[joshcryer]

20. They are as it relates to consumers.

Trump wants to hurt consumers.

[joshcryer]

10. Name recognition.

Wait for the debates. The vast majority of his supporters aren't reading or listening to his actual policy proposals.

When tariffs come up in the debates, and Clinton notes, quite uncontroversially, that they will completely fuck up our trade and raise prices, Trump will stutter like a madman.

When deporting tens of thousands of immigrants come up and Clinton points out that this is literally what Hitler and Stalin did, Trump won't even know how to respond.

[morningfog]

17. We've never seen him in a one on one debate. He'll look like such a buffoon.

[MiniMe]

14. I really want to know why they hate Hillary so much

I'm not crazy about her, but it is over some of her views. I don't understand their hatred, that would make them vote for the buffoon instead of Hillary.

[JRLeft]

15. Trump is a liar, but if you look beyond the racism, misogyny, bigotry,

xenophobia, you will see on a lot of occasions out flanking Hillary on progressive issues. To anyone with a brain, they know he's full of shit, but some people see him as anti establishment, anti globalization, and others view him as the kerosene to burn this shit down. (Crazy talk IMO)

[Native]

18. The I.Q. of 75% of our population is @ or below 110.

Add to that the lack of civics classes in our high schools, the corporate take-over of the media coupled with Reagan eliminating the Fairness Doctrine, the fact that it takes two parents working full-time now to make ends meet, and the 24-hour news cycle and Internet telling us every horrible thing that has happened around the world in almost real-time and then repeated incessantly, but only until the next horrible thing supplants it, and then, of course, there is never any follow-up on previously reported horrible things.

I can't tell you how many people have told me they don't bother with the news because 1) they don't trust what's being reported and 2) the negative reporting affects their dispositions to the point that it causes anxiety and adds to their already high levels of stress. The upshot being that a good percentage of the uninformed are that way by choice.

[BlueCollar]

19. If Dubya could get 30%

There's no reason Dumpster can't. ..