Steve Bantly: Trump says he won’t, but provide more of the same
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign says it will make “America Great Again!” but doesn’t offer a viable plan. Instead of solutions, he blames groups for our problems: Mexican immigrants, Muslims, foreign countries and our government; he practices character assassination on other politicians, mainly President Obama and Hillary Clinton. This racist, xenophobic approach is highly popular with blue-collar Republicans who feel they’re being left out of the global economy and middle class – and they are.
One thing Trump gets right is the connection between trade policies and declining manufacturing jobs – something establishment Republicans won’t acknowledge.
Rhetoric aside, what are his policies? They largely mirror Republican “core principals”: repeal Obamacare, but offer no replacement; support for free trade and a global economy; trickle-down economic policies, lowering taxes on the wealthy; less regulation on banks and Wall Street.
A Trump administration would echo other Republican administrations: putting profits before people; free trade that sends many of our manufacturing jobs overseas; tax policies favoring the wealthy, causing massive deficits and income inequality; and the kind of Wall Street deregulation that precipitated the 2007 Great Recession. It’s a Trump con, and too many working-class voters are falling for it.
Steve Bantly, Merced
This story was originally published August 16, 2016 at 12:33 PM with the headline "Steve Bantly: Trump says he won’t, but provide more of the same."