This is getting into an interesting discussion, but I hate to see the terms "stupid" and "hate" enter into it now. Personally I do not support this president, as I can see plenty of facts that he is not to be trusted, he lies constantly and when he is not telling lies, he is exaggerating. What confuses me is how many of his supporters ignore the content of his character and do not realize that they are being taken advantage of with all this disinformation.
Supporting him because he has not taken away any of a person's personal freedom was mentioned. I first voted in 1964 and have always supported who I considered to be the best candidate, regardless of party. While I have not agreed with what all that these candidates did after they were elected, none took away any freedom from me. It seems that loss of freedom has become a talking point in political campaigns over the last few years and scare tactics and exaggerations have been used to gather support, even though these threatened losses never occurred.
When Obama was elected, the GOP was at low tide as far as supporters. In a meeting held in DC on the day that Obama was sworn in, top GOP strategists met to decide a strategy to regain support. It was decided to oppose anything that Obama proposed as far as legislation. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was one of the attendees and he described that strategy as a "full court press". While that may be good for a party, logic tells us that it would never be good for the country. We are still in a state of what is good for the party, rather than what is good for the country.
One scare tactic that was started when Obama got in was that he was going to take our guns away, even though that was never under consideration. It is still used today in an effort to take advantage and manipulate honest gun owners. I grew up using guns for hunting, I earned an expert badge for the M14 rifle in the US ARMY in 1964, so have a long history with guns. I support reasonable regulations to help insure that honest gun owners can continue to own them. As with many issues, if you follow the money you can learn a bit more about a subject. Watching the rise in stock prices of US gun manufacturers throughout the Obama administration and the immediate drop when Trump got in illustrates this. Remington stock went from the $3-4 range when Obama got in to the low $30 range when he left, followed by a drop on the day after the 2016 election. I wonder if those manufacturers actually would have liked to see Obama continue in office, for the sake of their business.
When the market crashed in 2008 and the country was in a recession at the start of 2009, a stimulus package was passed to try to get the economy turned around. As with some other countries, it was realized that if private business wasn't spending money, the government should do so in order to try to turn the economy around. I traveled a lot on my ST1300 back then and saw lots of highway projects in progress, each with signs indicating that these projects were part of the recovery program. In keeping with their strategy, the GOP opposed this program. A talking point at the time was that it was driving up the deficit. That deficit is much higher now, in part because of corporate tax cuts, and the present massive amount of emergency spending to try to help businesses and workers that are affected by the virus. I support those efforts, but find it interesting that we don't hear all the alarm about the increased deficit. Depends on who is increasing it, I suppose.
As far as health care, the ACA was passed without GOP support. It was a long way from what I would consider what this country needs to improve healthcare, but it was passed in an effort to make some improvement. It hasn't affected me at all. Recall the scare tactics and exaggerations at the time about "government takeover of the healthcare system" and "death panels". All BS, but many believed the exaggerations. I have been on government healthcare for 12 years and love it. Medicare pays 80% of my healthcare bills, after a small deductible. I pay for supplemental insurance to cover the other 20%. Neither is free, but very reasonable and I have never been denied coverage by any provider.
Some of the former cabinet members, including former Chief of Staff John Kelly have now come out to say that they do not support Trump because he has done nothing to try to unite the country, rather has done much to divide it by demonizing the opposing party or anyone of his party that dare to disagree with him. I have never seen a president do more to divide a country. I can recall that it wasn't too long ago that I didn't know or care who the people I knew supported politically. Sure, there were issues that we didn't all agree on, but I don't recall people hating each other or calling each other stupid because of political differences. It is truly sad that we see so much of that today.
While I don't agree with the president and his tactic and I think he is a despicable human being, as evidenced by his personal behavior, I do not consider his supporters stupid and do not hate them. I am mostly puzzled about why many intelligent people do not realize that they are being manipulated and taken advantage of. I have gone on too long here, sorry, but I just wanted to say that I hope that we can once again get back to where we each consider what is best for the country, rather what is best for our political party of what is best for ourselves personally because of one issue. I would support any candidate of either party that would at least try to unite the country.
