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I honestly don't believe he has many intentions and is not motivated by a vision for the country or the world. He's a super-aggressive competitor and I think th

I honestly don't believe he has many intentions and is not motivated by a vision for the country or the world. He's a super-aggressive competitor and I think that's his sole motivation. President Obama ridiculed him to his face at the Correspondent's Dinner a few years back. The campaign is a Fuck You to Obama and the rest of the establishment that laughed at him as a lightweight. He worked very hard and won and now he'll be improvising. He'll have to pay back some people that supported his campaign, many of whom have specific political goals. He'll allow them to work towards those. But apart from a big tax cut for the very rich (strangely) I'm almost certain see that he doesn't care much at all about the rest of his platform. Certainly not the Christian-right stuff. Maybe he has a real conviction about trade deals. It'll be interesting to see if he moves the needle on any meaningful trade metrics. That's just my personal impression from listening to him talk.

jrockway 10y ago
Indeed. We rail on Facebook for making a pro-Trump echo chamber, but the powerful elite and well-educated also live in an echo chamber. In our echo chamber, everyone is equal, and we want to work together, and we incorrectly assumed that that's what voters think. Nope. That KKK endorsement probably helped more than it hurt. It was a wake up call from believing that humanity is mostly decent. It's not.
- linkregister 10y ago
  Over the past few days I've been hearing much about the liberal elite, but I think most are disregarding that at least half of the wealthiest Americans are conservative. Many of these conservatives don't believe in what you stated. That said, Trump's candidacy was not enthusiastically received by most of the wealthy conservatives. Carl Icahn and Peter Thiel are the only billionaires that I can think of that supported Trump. Charles & David Koch didn't endorse or fund his campaign or use their political entities to support him. So your point remains and is good. I wanted to remind the HN audience that the elite is comprised of conservatives too, and they disagree with the liberal elite about much.
  - jrockway 10y ago
    Yes, we've really corrupted the terminology in order to fit a multitude of positions into two political parties. I'm guessing that most of the wealth in the Republican party comes from people that are Republicans because they want a lower corporate tax, rather than people that want bans on who can use which bathroom. But somehow they ended up in the same political party.
    - linkregister 10y ago
      Absolutely it's a mixed bag. Mike Pence is a proponent of both of the examples you gave, having especially harsh attitudes about the LGBT community. It appears that Icahn and the Koch family are against governments regulating who is or isn't permitted to enter a bathroom; rather, they believe that limited regulation and low taxes are key to economic growth.
  - freddyc 10y ago
    > Charles & David Koch didn't endorse or fund his campaign or use their political entities to support him. Maybe not directly, but Pence has pretty strong ties to the Kochs and his nomination as VP was widely seen as a nod to them.
AznHisoka 10y ago
given the effort and energy needed go run a multi year campaign, i highly doubt it. look at his videos of him talking about the possibility of running decades ago. he has always had the passion hidden for many years.

jrockway 10y ago

Indeed. We rail on Facebook for making a pro-Trump echo chamber, but the powerful elite and well-educated also live in an echo chamber. In our echo chamber, everyone is equal, and we want to work together, and we incorrectly assumed that that's what voters think. Nope. That KKK endorsement probably helped more than it hurt. It was a wake up call from believing that humanity is mostly decent. It's not.

linkregister 10y ago
Over the past few days I've been hearing much about the liberal elite, but I think most are disregarding that at least half of the wealthiest Americans are conservative. Many of these conservatives don't believe in what you stated. That said, Trump's candidacy was not enthusiastically received by most of the wealthy conservatives. Carl Icahn and Peter Thiel are the only billionaires that I can think of that supported Trump. Charles & David Koch didn't endorse or fund his campaign or use their political entities to support him. So your point remains and is good. I wanted to remind the HN audience that the elite is comprised of conservatives too, and they disagree with the liberal elite about much.
- jrockway 10y ago
  Yes, we've really corrupted the terminology in order to fit a multitude of positions into two political parties. I'm guessing that most of the wealth in the Republican party comes from people that are Republicans because they want a lower corporate tax, rather than people that want bans on who can use which bathroom. But somehow they ended up in the same political party.
  - linkregister 10y ago
    Absolutely it's a mixed bag. Mike Pence is a proponent of both of the examples you gave, having especially harsh attitudes about the LGBT community. It appears that Icahn and the Koch family are against governments regulating who is or isn't permitted to enter a bathroom; rather, they believe that limited regulation and low taxes are key to economic growth.
- freddyc 10y ago
  > Charles & David Koch didn't endorse or fund his campaign or use their political entities to support him. Maybe not directly, but Pence has pretty strong ties to the Kochs and his nomination as VP was widely seen as a nod to them.

AznHisoka 10y ago

given the effort and energy needed go run a multi year campaign, i highly doubt it. look at his videos of him talking about the possibility of running decades ago. he has always had the passion hidden for many years.