For this article, there will be no pictures. No distractions, nothing to take your mind 0ff the topic. Because this one is important.

Where does America stand? Two months ago, we elected someone without a mandate, in one of the smallest voter turnouts in the last few decades.

It makes sense. People were put off by the political establishments. Obama, despite being one of the most economically successful presidents perhaps ever, was seen as a failure to those who lost their jobs overseas. He didn’t close Guantanamo, he didn’t outright end the wars.

But Obama was a success for those who paid attention, those who watched, those who didn’t want to hate him. He has more people in favor of him than against him, and I venture to say that if he was able to run for a third term he would have won. Obama also ventured to say that.

Because he would have. Not in Trump’s term will he be above 50% favorability. He lost the popular vote, and for good reason. His election was yet another exposure that the Electoral College is broken, and must be repaired (no winner-take-all) or removed.

But Trump’s election also served another purpose: it exposed in America a lack of bipartisanship those who were aware of their surroundings knew about going back to the battles between Congress and Obama. Neither side negotiated because that’s the country we’ve become.

The election showed that people will vote the party line, regardless of whether their candidate is an openly xenophobic, racist, homophobic, sexist, narcissistic, egomaniacal, dangerous, lunatic. Trump is all of these things, but this is known.

What isn’t known is where he actually stands on issues. See, the debates became about issues of character, and not discussions of policy.

I refer to the great show The West Wing here, because the summarized it perfectly: in political races, there are three categories: economic, domestic, and the third mystery category. If the election falls in the first category, Republicans are more likely to win it. Everyone likes their taxes lessened.

If it falls in the second, Democrats get it, because let’s face it, Liberals are better at running this country. Lincoln was a liberal because back then the Republicans were liberals

Third is where we fell this election cycle. With everything Trump said, and all his scandals. With the emails that brought down Hillary by reminding the American public that she was a seasoned veteran in politics. Which shouldn’t be a bad thing.

Trump having no experience should be the bad thing. But yeah, sure, he’ll “drain the Swamp”. Oh, what’s that? He did the exact opposite with his cabinet appointments? Oh well.

Let’s examine where Trump actually stands on the important issues, because we need to actually know what our President believes, and not just what he repeats on end, words like “crooked”.

Immigration

It is widely known that Trump has promised to deport the “illegals” and to stop all Muslims from entering the country, because terrorism. There’s two problems with these two promises.

One. This country cannot run without illegal immigration, which, by the way, is at its lowest point in decades. Cause Mexico has their shit together more than we do now. Illegal immigrants do the jobs that Americans no longer want to do, like picking and growing food, like manual labor. Because Americans don’t want to break their backs over work anymore, and there’s need for people who will. Trust me, if the people coming into our country could do it legally, they absolutely would. That’s why we need easier, better immigration paths.

Two. Terrorism in the United States since 2001 has been homegrown. Before 2001 it was homegrown as well. The attack in Oklahoma City was white boys. The attack on a Colorado movie theatre was a white boy. The attack on a Charleston, South Carolina church was a white boy. I could continue, but the more realistic threat in this country is white men.

Yet, we’re not complaining about deporting white men, though we absolutely should be. White men are called “mentally handicapped” for shooting up public places and schools, while men of other races are called “terrorists”. No, let’s apply the same label. It’s all terrorism. White men are capable of acts of terrorism, cause what else do you call the Holocaust. It’s an enormous act of terrorism enacted by a white man who bears striking resemblance personality-wise to our incoming president.

Trade

Trump has promised to keep jobs in America, yet he lost more jobs in that Carrier agreement than he saved. 1400 to 800. Let’s throw that up on the scoreboard, and that’s before he’s even gained office.

The next step in American prosperity is through growth, making new jobs, not saving old ones. Ways we can do this all involve the government – the greatest job growth in American history has come at the greatest moments of governmental expansion (or war, but Trump has promised to avoid war). The policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt prove that.

I agree with Trump, even as a relatively far-left liberal, that the TPP was not a good idea. I don’t think it was a good idea for multiple countries in the deal, including Canada. But the idea that NAFTA, signed by President Clinton and which has brought economic prosperity not only to the United States, but to the surrounding countries, that that deal needs to be repealed? Insanity.

Another way to continue trade is by levying taxes on corporations who move jobs out of the United States. Not just small fines, but heavy, major fees, which they can’t come back from. The world needs more small restaurants because they employ local Americans. We need a lot less McDonalds.

But Trump is not going to levy taxes, he will lower them. That means that corporations will continue to be able to move their jobs away from the United States and to less-regulated countries.

I agree that America needs to export more than we import, but too many of those jobs have left, perhaps permanently. So we need to look to people like Elon Musk, who understand where future jobs are going to come from and start there.

Jobs

The best jobs act would be to re-build America, not build a wall. The majority of illegal immigrants, determined to get into America, are going to get over it anyway, because airplanes. Idiot.

We need major infrastructural reform. Bridges across the country are crumbling. Roads have potholes, highways need reconstruction. Start there, and America will slowly get back on its feet.

But Trump and Republicans don’t want to start there. They want less government, not more, and infrastructure building is the job of the government.

Trump wants to clutch eagerly to these jobs that are slipping away, that will continue to slip away, instead of focusing on the truth: to make new jobs we need to actually make jobs. We need to have businesses that want to work in America, and reward those businesses. The American consumer needs to buy American instead of buying Wal-Mart.

Taxes 

Trump and Republicans have always been in favor of trickle down economics, where the rich doesn’t have to pay any taxes whatsoever. Trump’s already been subscribing to that policy. But that has been shown time and time again since Reagan’s administration that trickle down does not work.

It leads to recessions. It leads to the rich spending money on things that collapse like the housing market. It leads to the people at the bottom paying more than their share, and being hurt by the government again. And considering those are the people that voted for Trump this time around, I hope they’re ready for karmic retribution.

But we can’t let those people hurt, because we’re Democrats and that’s not what we do. When we win elections, we win those people. So an economic collapse is a very bad thing, but it’ll lead quickly to Democrats gaining office once again.

But taxes themselves won’t lead to a collapse of the economy. That’ll come from some of Trump’s other dangerous economic policies. Taxes themselves will be lowered, and let’s just hope it’s across the board lowering and not just on the elite.

But taxes being cut means that spending will be cut. We’ve already seen Planned Parenthood being attacked, put on the chopping block. Obamacare is next, and then, if the Republicans are really bold, welfare itself. These spending cuts will cost Republicans every office in the country, or at least they should, but nothing is predictable anymore.

Domestic Policy

Here is where Trump is the weakest. The most exploitable by Democrats, because the vast majority of the country stands behind the Democrats on these policies.

The Republicans want to take away gay rights, although Trump has never been for those policies. They want to take away the right to choose, though 80% of the country is for it. They want to take away affirmative action, and many other policies aimed towards helping minorities.

And this is where Democrats must make their fights known, fight loudly, don’t let the Republicans run wild. Democratic Congressmen and women must be able to filibuster, to rally strength, to stop the death of this country’s progress made over the last 20 years.

Obamacare will fall, but a Democratic president with a strong Congress can make a better alternative. Planned Parenthood will be defunded, at least in degrees, but it must be kept standing. Women must be left with the rights they’ve had for decades. Same with blacks, Latinxs and other PoC. Gays must be left the rights they’ve won over the last eight years.

This is going to be a time of strife, of vast conflict between Republicans and Democrats. And it has to be. We must fight to heal, to become one country again. But it’s important that Republicans see the Democrats viewpoint, and the same goes to Democrats.