Blue is Me

Tag: liberal

  • Why do millennials consider it unpopular to be conservative?

    I was born in 1988 thus making me a millenial. However I would actually identify myself as more conservative than a lot of my peers.

    I like lower taxes (for the middle class), I don’t like illegal immigrants and think they should be deported, I’m in favor of reducing the deficit as much as possible, I really dislike SJWs and all that nonsense 20+ gender stuff, I don’t like political correctness, I think private businesses and the free market are better than the government at doing *most* things, and I’m fairly apathetic to gay marriage rights and stuff like that. I actually agree with Trump about “America first” (but not his actions so far).

    But I also grew up with Asian parents and in Canada, which kind of gives me a mixed view that puts me at odds with most Republicans.

    You see, I graduated from the top university in Canada and actually majored in economics, as well as traveled a lot including most of East Asia and Europe, so I kind of know what policies will work or not.

    Most Republicans and Trump supporters are not conservative, have no idea what they are talking about. They resort to name-calling (libtards, brainwashed by the liberal media etc) when they disagree with you, they don’t back up their statements with anything factual and/or cherry pick extreme examples (Chicago for the failure of gun control, or Venezuela for the failure of socialism) or are just plain misguided (wait lines in Canada for healthcare kill millions etc). They are massive hypocrites (they criticized Obama when playing golf, now Trump plays the most golf out of any President, silence. During Obama’s term they said he was destroying the economy, now Trump took over and all of a sudden he’s created the biggest economic miracle of all time, I mean WTF). Oh yeah and also the abortion thing, I find it massively hypocritical that the Republicans care so much about a fetus but once they are an actual human, they don’t give 2 cents about them.

    As a well educated person, I just cannot take Republicans seriously. Here’s a number of things that they are just misguided or wrong about:

    Myth #1: Trickle down economics work.

    No it does not. Cutting taxes for the rich will only make the rich richer. There has been ZERO evidence that trickle down works. Paul Krugman + other Nobel winning economists have all said that (Paul actually said it on Quora a few months ago), and I majored in economics and I know that the reason why the 1980s recession ended was because of Paul Volcker’s Fed Reserve increasing interest rates to combat stagflation (high unemployment + inflation), and since the 1980s we have seen the debt quadruple or double during every administration since (except for Bill Clinton’s), while the income inequality gap is many magnitudes higher than before, that is clearly the result of supply side economic policy. And as a counterexample: in the 1950s, the US had a high marginal tax rate of 90%; I don’t remember the 1950s being a bad decade for the USA do you?

    Myth #2: The President affects the economy.

    No he doesn’t. Monetary policy is enacted by the Federal Reserve and Fiscal policy is passed by Congress. The President merely signs the bills (i.e tax cuts, or higher spending all have to go through Congress before the President signs them). Alan Greenspan and the 1990s Congress was the architect of the Great Recession. And the economic recovery we are in now is the result of the 2010 economic stimulus that was passed through Congress along with Ben Bernanke’s near-zero interest rates back then along with tighter controls on lending and derivatives trading. I don’t give Obama any more credit than I give Trump, I give credit to Ben Bernanke + the 2010 Congress.

    Myth #3: Universal healthcare is too expensive or doesn’t work.

    I lived in Canada. It works. In Europe, it works. I lived in Korea before. It works. Why wouldn’t it work in the US? Americans already pay the most for their healthcare out of anyone, how could it be more expensive? Oh is it because they are spending $650b on their military budget (which is more than the next 27 countries combined)?

    –But you will have massive waiting lines and people will die while waiting

    People see the doctor based on priority, not first come first serve.

    –But if Canadian healthcare is so good why do they come to the US for medical care”?

    Because Canada is a small country and not every medical procedure can be done in Canada – Canadians that go to the US go there out of necessity not because they want to. 
    I walked into a clinic in Toronto, saw the doctor, got an X-ray appointment and did it all in the same day within 2 hours, didn’t pay a dime. When I was living in California, this would have taken at least several days + $200 in fees (with insurance!). How can Americans possibly think their system is better is beyond me.

    Myth #4: Gun control doesn’t work.

    Except it does. It works in Canada. It works in Asia. It works in Europe. How come the USA is the only country where it doesn’t work? I wonder if it has something to do with their 300 million+ guns? And here go the arguments.

    -Criminals will always find a way to kill they don’t care about laws

    The thing is, very few of the mass shootings that we have seen were done by career criminals. They were done by ordinary law abiding citizens – until they snapped. So it’s a mental health issue problem. But wait – how the heck do you screen 325 million people for mental health issues? You can’t! That’s why a total gun ban is necessary – because no one would have access to guns. Plus – just because criminals don’t obey the laws doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have laws. This isn’t the Wild West and there’s a consequence for breaking the law – it’s called going to jail.

    –But criminals will always find a way to get guns

    I’m not convinced that the 20 year old or 24 year old mass shooters have access to an illegal black market or want to kill that badly that they would go to such lengths. Maybe some will, but it will definitely require more effort than just purchasing something from your local Wal-mart or at a gun show or taking it from their parent’s bedroom (who presumably bought it legally).

    –They will find other ways to kill. They will use knives or home made bombs.

    Sure. Knives will definitely kill at a slower rate than guns will. You have time to actually create distance between you and the killer. Home made bombs are possible but again they need to put a bit of effort into assembling them.

    –If we ban guns, why don’t we ban cars and alcohol too? Those kill a lot more people a year!

    Guns primary purpose is to kill. Cars are for driving. Alcohol is for social interaction. This is false equivalence.

    –But gun laws don’t work! Just look at Chicago or California! They have high gun murder rates! Gun free zones don’t work!

    Of course it doesn’t work in the US. Because all states have to have the same laws. If some states have more flexible laws than others, then banning them in one city or state does absolutely nothing. You have to ban them totally in every state in order to work. A person could otherwise just exploit a loophole where they can go to neighboring Indiana to buy a gun to shoot up a school in Illinois.

    –But guns actually prevent more deaths than kill! Self defense laws and discouragement

    Maybe. But you could also use knives and tasers for self defense and it would work just as well, with much less chance of accidental discharge and accidental deaths.

    –But we need guns for hunting animals, too

    Do you? I think we invented supermarkets like 60 years ago didn’t we?

    -But 99% of citizens are law abiding. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

    Sure, but everyone is law abiding until the time they are not. Then they become criminals. Tanks don’t kill people. Nukes don’t kill people. Rocket launchers don’t kill people. And 99% of people use them responsibly. Why aren’t those legal? Oh right, because the 1% that does misuse them means very very bad news for the 99%.

    –But the 2nd amendment is an American right! Liberals just want to take our rights and freedoms away!

    The 2nd amendment also called for a well-regulated militia. Well regulated being the key word here, and this being a 1700s era rule well at the time it meant the average person, but in the 21st century more than likely it means the military. I’m all for the military and police force having weapons. Ordinary citizens? Not so much. Also – you know amendments can be repealed right? The 2nd amendment was an amendment – it was part of the Bill of Rights and not the original Constitution.

    –Why not? Ordinary citizens can help prevent crime too!

    Because I don’t trust Joe the Plumber not to kill me when we have a shooting like the Aurora Colorado movie theater shooting or Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting. Or even the Las Vegas shooting. Very very bad conditions, many people around you, low light environment, even a trained professional would have a hard time distinguishing who the shooter is amongst the chaos, let alone average Joe who I don’t even trust to drive his car safely.

    –But guns protect us from possibly tyranny from the government? Didn’t you know what happened with Nazi Germany or Russia or China?

    Yeah, the majority of people actually supported Hitler, Stalin and Mao. That’s the thing. It wouldn’t matter if they had guns or not because they were brainwashed by the propaganda. Also – highly unlikely if you had a pistol or semi-auto you would be able to beat the government’s tanks or copters or bazookas – and this is the US Military we are talking about. Stealth fighters, Nukes, Airplane carriers. And all of them are trained. Joe the Plumber + his buddies don’t really stand a chance

    Myth #5: Socialism/Communism is evil and Democrats are America-hating socialists.

    Well this is another reason I would identify as a Democrat (despite disagreeing with some of their policies) over being a Republican. I really hate this “we are more patriotic than you” nonsense. Democrats are every bit as patriotic as Republicans are. Quiz time! Who was President when WWII happened and the Greatest Generation stood up to the Germans and Japanese? Oh that’s right FDR! a Democrat. Who was the guy who made the decision to drop the atom bombs to end WWII and ensure America’s emerging victorious? Harry Truman.. a Democrat. So how are Democrats less patriotic again?

    And the fact that people confuse socialism with communism is a sign of ignorance. When Bernie Sanders and AOC and co. talk about socialism in 2018 they are talking about democratic European style socialism. Why is that evil? Because you have to pay more taxes? Well first of all, none of the European countries or Canada or Australia have anything higher than a 50% effective tax rate (and thats only for the very rich). For the majority of the middle class, I don’t think it would be any different than California’s effective tax rate. In Canada the highest marginal tax bracket is 47%, a far cry from the 70% that some people throw out there (need I remind that again, the USA had a 90% marginal tax rate in the 1950s!). 

    Oh yeah, and btw the US is a democratic socialist country already, since Income Tax Act was passed in 1913, then Social Security and unemployment insurance in 1935 then Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, so Republicans who like to believe that the US is a pure capitalist country, umm too bad because we know pure capitalism sucks; I wouldn’t want to go back to Victorian England or Gilded Age USA would you? 40% of the population had ZERO income or social safety net. That’s pure capitalism. yeah no thanks.

    “But California tax rates suck that’s why people are leaving there by the millions to red states, its a liberal hellhole” you say. Well the thing is immigrants (both legal and illegal) overwhelmingly move to California – which drives up the prices of the land and everything else. It’s not that its a ‘liberal hellhole’ as much as people like to move there because of the weather and less discrimination than other states.

    Now the reason why Canadians are so much more comfortable paying a higher tax rate than Americans is because we actually get something from it. We get that universal healthcare, we get subsidized education. I paid about $40k CAD for my 4 years of schooling at my university (which is #1 ranked in Canada). That’s how much it would cost to go to a top university in the USA right now *per year*.

    In California, you don’t get very much for paying high taxes right now because your higher tax rates are paying for the Trump voters in the red states who have lower tax rates. The federal government uses your tax dollars to help fund Medicare, Medicaid, education etc and Californians effectively are subsidizing the people in the poorer red states, yup the same guys who want California to leave the US and call them a liberal hellhole are ironically the ones who are receiving the most benefit from Californians!

    Now if I said, hey everybody pay the same effective tax rate as California, and in exchange everyone gets free healthcare, cheaper education, and reduce the national debt, I think a lot of people would go for that wouldn’t you? The problem is right now the government wastes tax dollars, which I think is an inherent problem with how the US government is set up right now. Every senator or Rep is influenced by pork barrel spending and corporate (NRA, Wall Street) or military interests are way too powerful, and as a result most Americans really do not get a lot for their tax money. Which is a shame, because democratic Socialism really isn’t that bad guys, as long as the government is effective.

    Well I think I ranted long enough here, but these 5 myths are widely believed amongst today’s Republicans and thus I cannot say as a well educated millenial that I would align with them in any way.

  • Why are people still supporting the Democratic party?

    I’m an independent, I’m liberal on some issues, conservative on others. The Republican party USED to be a good party that actually aligned with conservative values, but sometime after Ronald Reagan it started drifting from those conservative values (like being fiscally conservative and small government) and started drifting towards the extreme right, and becoming completely crazy.

    The Democratic party has some huge problems as well, for one thing I am solidly against SJWs, political correctness and extreme feminism that is going on today. I am also against illegal immigration.

    But if only going with those two choices, I’m going to choose the lesser of two evils. Right now unfortunately the Republican party has been taken over by hateful ignorant bigots who think they are more patriotic than everyone else and resorts to name calling like ‘libtards’ if you don’t agree with them, while the Democratic party has more open minded people that are actually willing to engage in a decent conversation so despite not being a liberal, I know which one I am leaning towards.

  • What are the craziest things you’ve heard conservatives say?

    Disclaimer: I consider myself a conservative, but NOT the American type of conservative i.e Republicans who are conservative in name only. I am a Canadian conservative. I find Republicans absolutely repulsive though since they pretend to be conservative when in reality they are just batshit crazy and lack common sense. They also think that you are a RINO (Republican in name only) if you don’t support Trump (who isn’t a conservative and flip flops on his issues minute by minute and wasn’t Repub until 2015) and/or assume you a liberal if you don’t like Trump (hint: MANY people don’t like Trump not just liberals).

    Here’s some of the stupid things they say:

    “why don’t we ban alcohol/smoking/cars too because they kill more people a year than guns”

    “Gun control doesn’t work. Chicago has the highest murder rates and its LIBERAL. so it doesn’t work”

    “Poor people don’t deserve to live and are feeding off the system”

    “illegal immigrants are voting by the millions. Dead people are voting by the millions!”

    “Obama created ISIS, Obama is a muslim threatening to destroy our country”

    “Trump has the guts to nuke North Korea. Obama was a whiny apologist Kenyan muslim who made America look weak. MAGA!”

    “after all the TERRIBLE Obama years, finally Trump is making America great again and our jobs are coming back!”

    “Hillary killed four Americans in Benghazi she is a blood thirsty murderer”

    “Now we have a President (Trump) that respects our troops! and a true Christian!”

    “(in response to seeing Trump’s polls): Fake polls, you guys said Hillary would win too how’d that work out for ya?”

    “You fake news outlets and whiny libtards are just butthurt about Hillary losing the election! go cry in your corner snowflakes!”

    “Trump is going to make sure our country is on the right track again and stop bowing down to the global elite (George Soros, Rothchilds etc)”

    “The Democrats are taking advantage of black people and illegal immigrants! they are destroying our country! that’s why Trump is great!”

    “If you dont like Trump then get the hell out of our country!”

    [insert crazy conspiracy theory about Hillary/Obama here]

    To be sure, I hear these kind of comments fairly often. These are not conservative comments. They are comments made by IDIOTS acting like 5 year olds who are not educated or ignorant to some degree. They are comments made by paranoid conspiracy theorists. These are the modern Republicans today. Very sad.

  • JFK was not a conservative

    Nope, he would be considered a centrist today in the mold of Bill Clinton.

    Let’s debunk a lot of reasons why JFK is ironically loved by conservatives these days. Now some things were true. He was against affirmative action and signed an executive order not to discriminate. Let’s get that out of the way. Now here’s some other talking points I would love to refute.

    -JFK was against abortion

    Not true… but I can’t say he was for it either. He didn’t have an official statement on this subject.

    -JFK loved to lower taxes

    Taxes on the highest earners were 91% throughout the 1950s. Take any modern day Democrat today, heck even Bernie Sanders might be on board with lowering those taxes. That was a ridiculously high rate. These days we cannot say that JFK would approve of lowering the already low 35% on the highest earners, even more.

    -JFK supported gun rights

    The NRA wasn’t a political lobby until the mid 1970s, and the whole reason they became a political lobby was because they were against the Gun Control Act of 1968 – Wikipedia which was ironically passed so that Americans wouldn’t be able to assassinated a president like JFK so easily. Furthermore, the first modern mass shooting happened at the University of Texas 3 years after JFK died. If JFK was in today’s age with all the mass shootings happening all the time, there’s no doubt that he would have been a gun control supporter.

    -JFK was tough on communism

    Most people were. Who supported the Soviets back then? Certainly not the Democrats back then nor the Republicans back then. Who authorized the Korean War and sent troops to Korea to push back the communists back to China? That’s right, a Democrat!! (Harry Truman).

    Today, the Democrats are against Russia and continue to be against communism. I’m not sure where the stance of ‘Democrats are communists or sympathize with communists’ angle comes from, but I’m pretty sure Obama and Clinton and every Democrat today decries Mao and Stalin just like every Republican. This is a made up angle made to create a false partisan division and turn Republicans and Democrats against each other. The Democrats promote *democratic socialism* which is entirely different from communism.

    Also, JFK was more likely to withdraw troops from Vietnam than increase them. He told NBC in Sept 1963 “it’s their war, it’s their responsibility to win it or lose it” doesn’t sound like a guy who was the ‘military hawk’ conservatives think he is.

    -JFK was against relying on public welfare

    This is just totally false. Do people not know that JFK was pushing for universal healthcare before his death?? LBJ passed the Medicare and Medicaid act after JFK’s death as a way of fulfilling (well not fully) JFK’s vision.

    “We are behind every country, pretty nearly, in the matter of medical care for our citizens”

    JFK was motivated to make the ‘healthcare’ speech at Madison Square Garden in 1962 after his father had a stroke was paralyzed; JFK was obviously able to pay for his medical bills but he was appalled that the average American would have gone bankrupt. We have the same problem to this day.

    So no, JFK was not a conservative though a lot of Republicans today would like to think so.

  • Response to recent Google employee’s memo..

    As many people on the internet know, a few days ago a Google employee’s internal memo was leaked out.. and there has been a big fuss about it.
    Not only was there so much hate on that guy, claiming that he was ‘misogynist’ and ‘male chauvinist’ but his name and picture were actually leaked by the press as well! If this wasn’t character assassination and defamation I don’t know what is.

    So, I’ve actually read the memo, and while I disagree with portions of it, for the most part I agree with him. My opinion is not a popular one in the liberal majority Silicon Valley. But I can assure you there is nothing that sexist / misogynist about what he wrote. First off, people should stop using that term so frequently because it literally means someone who hates women. This memo does not come off to me as someone who hates women. The main point he was getting across is that 1. conservatives are discriminated against in the tech industry and 2. Women’s biological differences with men are the reason why there aren’t as many women in the tech industry

    His first point is actually true, since Google promptly fired him after that memo leaked. As a private company they have all the right to do that, but it goes to show what happens when you have an unpopular conservative opinion in a sea of liberal opinions. Yes he had freedom of speech, but in the end if he violated Google’s code of conduct they had every right to fire him. I just don’t think it was fair since his opinion was actually quite valid.

    Secondly, as an Engineer I am usually very skeptical of claims unless they are backed by science. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories like area 51 / aliens or chemtrails or 9/11 theories or moon landing hoax theories or stuff like that. I don’t believe in superstitions like Feng Shui or chinese medicine (pseudoscience) or go to tarot readers or astrologists since I don’t believe in the supernatural. I don’t believe in ghosts or monsters. I DO believe in global warming, because that’s backed up by science.
    Now, while this is very hard to prove by science, it is actually common sense to everyone that men and women are not the same. Our bodies are built very differently. Our brains are wired very differently. There is a gender difference in humans just like there is in every other animal. That is quite easy to accept. So I don’t understand what is so misogynist or hard to understand that differences in the way each gender thinks is the reason why certain genders perform certain roles?? Being different is good. There’s nothing wrong with being different. If people really want a society where men and women are treated exactly the same, I would recommend those people to move to a communist society. Perfect gender equality there.

    Men usually perform roles with physical labor like construction or mining, or roles that involve analytical thinking like mathematics, science or engineering. That is not to say women can’t do those roles, but definitely men have a dominant advantage in those roles. Women on the other hand, are much better at serving and caring for people. That’s why women tend to be clerks, cashiers, customer service reps, broadcasters, receptionists, nurses, etc. They are better suited for those positions than men. There is nothing misogynist or women-hating about this train of thought, this is the way that I feel after looking at other animal species and interacting with humans. Male lions don’t ask female lions to do the same task, they each have their own responsibilities. So why is it so unacceptable for humans to be the same? Even in engineer crazy India and China, there are more males than females in engineering. They have no reason to discriminate against women there (Asians are notorious for pushing that field onto all their children), yet there are still more males. Why? because men and women’s brains are different, that’s why. Its not hard to understand why. Anyone who’s been in a relationship before can tell you that women’s minds are way more emotionally complex than a man’s mind.

    Because people like to be social justice warriors. They like to think that taking the stance that women are the victims of social constructs, that women can do anything men can do, and somehow that will make others think of them as better people and supporting gender equality more. Its total nonsense, just like third-wave feminism. I support equal pay for equal work and gender equality, but I do so while acknowledging that men and women have different roles in society. People are just fooling themselves, they are denying science and biology because ironically, they are the victims of the liberal social construct, the very social constructs that they fight against. Do they also believe that social constructs are the reason why men can run faster and jump higher than women can? The liberal echo chamber of the Bay Area puts pressure on people to care or think about minorities, disabled, women, etc to help anyone who’s “oppressed” historically, even if it goes against science or what they actually believe. This is unfortunate, and the firing of this man for his memo (which is personal btw it wasn’t meant to be leaked), just goes to show that if you do not reflect this liberal echo chamber, then you will be punished for it in America. Those are just my 2 cents on this issue.

    tldr; I’m not a misogynist, I’m for gender equality, but I also believe men and women are biologically different and that makes them better at certain positions for each gender. This is backed by science and I support it.

  • Thoughts on Trump’s election and supporters, Electoral College, the future

    (this is for a vlog I’m doing)

    I haven’t talked extensively about politics on my vlog videos, but I finally want to speak up about my thoughts on Donald Trump, the 2016 election, the electoral college, his supporters, and the future.

    First off, I was just as surprised as anyone when Trump won the election. I just couldn’t believe how wrong everyone was, even the statistical based fivethirtyeight.com had Trump’s chances at only 30% and other sites had his chances at only 10%. It was just unbelievable, that not only did he win, but he won with states that haven’t voted Republican in 3 decades, like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

    I thought, just like most political pundits, that the demographic shift that had gained the US more blacks, latinos, asians etc would permanently alter the future, and that Republicans didn’t have a chance to win the presidency again. Furthermore, Trump was just scandal after scandal. Not releasing his tax returns, bragging about sexual assault, I guess none of that mattered in the end because what happened was that Obama’s coalition just didn’t come out for Hillary. Hillary just didn’t have the charisma or energy that Obama had. And white working voters hated Hillary enough that it didn’t matter. People wanted change and they wanted it badly, and they voted in the first president in US History that has never had any political or military experience before.

    Hillary won the popular vote by almost 3 million. This highlights a problem with the electoral college – it gives small states way too much power. This has happened now 5 times in American history. In 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 and now 2016. Each time, the Democrat won the popular vote but the Republican won the election. The thing is Republicans are the party of rural voters – which means they benefit the most from the electoral college, which gives small states disproportionate power. Wyoming for example, has 3 electoral votes. California, which has 76x the population of Wyoming, only has 55 electoral votes. Yeah 55 seems like a lot, but its only 18x more votes than Wyoming. It should be 76x more votes than Wyoming. California SHOULD have 228 votes, not 55. Now people in favor of the electoral college say that this prevents the big cities from ruling the small towns, and candidates will only campaign in New York and California, but tell me, do candidates campaign very fairly right now? Right now, only a handful of battleground states, like Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Colorado etc matter right now. Those states always swing the election, so candidates forget about the other states, both solid red and solid blue states get ignored. Furthermore I just don’t think voters in Ohio or Florida should matter that much more than voters in California or Texas. Its not equal, and its different than democratic elections in every other country, which is always based on popular vote, not some weird outdated system like the electoral college. So thats my thoughts regarding that.

    I want to make clear that I’m not a liberal, and I lean conservative. I’ve been a registered Canadian conservative since 2010. But in the US, because its so far right of other developed countries, I wouldn’t consider myself a Republican, I am an independent or even Libertarian if anything. I’m not a Trump or Hillary supporter. Part of the reason I like South Korea so much is because it is one of the most socially conservative countries in Asia. I am pretty sick of people blaming Obama for everything. People forget that its Congress that makes and passes bills and Obama merely signs them. So its not all the Democrats and Obama’s fault for everything, since Congress was split between both parties for most of Obama’s term.

    Now, as a conservative I believe in the core principles of lower spending, and traditional values. I hate SJWs and the progressive movement. I do not care for same sex marriage or abortion or gender equality or illegal immigration or wasteful spending. I’m not in support of any of those things. But some of the current Republican party’s stances are against my logic (this is probably what makes me lean Libertarian). I am against heavy defense spending. I have no idea why we need to spend so much money on defense, more than the next 27 countries combined. I am against tax cuts for the rich. Now I know this is a core “conservative” political stance, but after studying US history and majoring in Economics (I am a double major), I know for sure that tax cuts for the rich are a bad idea. It only serves to increase the deficit and increase the gap between the rich and the poor. And has no effects on creating jobs at all.

    The evidence is clear; in the 1950s and 1960s the US GDP was growing more than 5% annually a sustained rate we have not really achieved since. In those decades the top bracket of marginal tax on earners was 90%. I’m not kidding. It was really 90%. JFK lowered it to around 70%. But basically until Reagan cut the taxes heavily for the upper class, the top bracket for earners was very very high. But the US economy was good back then. We all want to return to the economy of the 1950s and 1960s because it really was that good. Now, I know the 1970s was a period of ‘stagflation’ and you might think Reagan’s tax cuts had a lot to do with getting the economy back on track in the 1980s, but it was actually the work of Paul Volcker, probably the most brilliant Fed Reserve chairman in recent memory. His actions ended the stagflation (high unemployment + inflation) of the 1970s by raising interest rates, which long term helped the economy to improve.

    Reagan undid all that work by appointing Alan Greenspan, a very controversial Fed Chairman because he deregulated the markets, including the market for subprime mortgages and derivatives, factors that would lead to the Great Recession 2 decades later. During all this time, the Reagan and Bush tax cuts would only increase the deficit and cause larger gaps between the rich and poor. The middle class as a result, is shrinking. Part of the reason why we have such a large national debt is because of tax cuts – it quadrupled under Reagan and doubled again under Bush.

    Which brings us to Trump supporters, who I don’t really understand, but maybe thats because a large majority of them are uneducated (70% of Americans never graduated college or went to college). See the average American, and I assume a lot of whom voted for Trump, are selfish and only really care about themselves and their family. They only care about what affects them. During the last decade, we have seen technological change everything shifting to a service based economy, and less and less blue collar jobs. Soon almost all blue collar jobs will be automated or replaced by robots some people say. This causes a lot of anger in the midwest especially since they are manufacturing reliant. They lose their coal jobs, and they blame the sitting president, Obama, since he’s the most visible figure in the government, even if he has nothing to do with them losing their jobs.

    Furthermore, they see foreigners and illegal immigrants as a source of the problem as well, potential threats to them and the American economy. These people are who Trump especially resonated with. Now these people also see government in general as a bad thing, because the government seems to be apathetic to their struggles, so they elect Trump because they want an outsider. They see Washington run by corrupt elites who want to serve themselves. They don’t believe the mainstream media because they think they are all left wing biased and run by liberals. A lot of them believe in conspiracy theories, like illegal immigrants voting in the millions for example, they believe all this crap, even if there’s no evidence or proof of all these things. They blame Obama and Democrats and liberals for everything, some of them may even think Obama is a muslim and out to destroy America. They thought Hillary Clinton was Satan reincarnated basically. And even today, with proof and testimony from leading Democrats AND Republicans, the CIA and FBI (both politically neutral entities), that Russia and Putin hacked the US election system, they don’t trust or believe it. They think its all fake liberal news. The US economy steadily gaining back jobs (175k this month), and the unemployment rate staying around 4.9% (down from a high of 10% in Oct 2009), the stock market at all time highs, all that and they think its some fake liberal data created to help Obama’s legacy.

    I mean, I think these people are insane, I don’t have any other way to say it. Maybe not all Trump supporters but a substantial amount of them. I read through their Facebook comments a lot and it just doesn’t make any sense. Basically to them they think that ALL news thats bad to Trump or positive to Obama must be “spun” by the media, and anything that contradicts their bubble must be wrong. They are living in their own crazy conspiracy fueled world, and thats kind of concerning. Trump has so far, appointed lots of millionaires and billionaires to his cabinet, most of whom don’t know anything about the department they are running, has praised Putin many times (remember when the Soviet Union was the bad guy?), refused to attend security briefings (yet has time to tweet about SNL and the Apprentice), threatened to leave mutually beneficial alliances like NATO and trade deals like NAFTA, casually talked about raising the number of nukes (are we still in the Cold War?) and has had his daughter sit in on meetings with foreign leaders (potential conflicts of interest), and given no press conferences on top of that.

    This makes the future extremely uncertain, especially since he has flip flopped on his issues numerous times. And his supporters don’t seem to care, or they are caught up with being happy that Obama is leaving. Ok – well don’t you care about what Trump will do the next 4 years? Aren’t you guys even a little bit curious what Trump will do? Its not like he elaborated on any of his policies during his campaign so… yeah, I am a little concerned, and more concerned that Trump supporters seem to be NOT concerned at all. Even if you like Donald Trump, and I think he does personally care about America, I even read his book “How to Fix Crippled America” and I do believe he cares a lot about America. The problem is – you should be worried about what his plans are, or at least the fact he doesn’t seem to have any plans or given any specifics. This lack of transparency should concern even the most ardent Trump supporter.

    Also want to mention something I didn’t mention in the video: I am not a supporter of gun rights (I made another vlog about this before) for several reasons but it comes down to it causes more problems than it solves, and I trust trained cops to use guns more than I trust the average citizen. But I AM a supporter of capital punishment. I don’t understand why we dont just kill those f*ckers like Charles Manson or that Dylan Roof guy or that guy who did the Aurora shooting. They’re so obviously guilty, just shoot them and get it over with, whats up with the year-long trials and stuff and then putting them into prison wasting taxpayer money on that garbage?

    Also, I do believe Donald Trump cares about America, and the media twists his words around a lot, but I don’t think he has concrete plans for fixing America. I looked at his tax plans – for most people it doesn’t change from the current tax plan – only if you are making over $400k-$500k a year then you get a tax break – and I’ve already explained why tax cuts for the rich don’t work. He wants to bring jobs back to America by taxing companies who outsource jobs overseas – but bringing jobs back would increase the price of goods (at least double them) due to higher labor costs in USA. This would make Chinese companies even more competitive due to their lower labor costs and lower price points. I think people would want to buy cheaper products more than they pay double and buy American products

    That’s all I have to say about this topic for now, but let me know your comments and feedback.