Rather than expanding the social safety net, as we saw with the ACA under President Obama, look for the Trump Administration to work hard to tear down the FDR "New Deal" and the LBJ "Great Society" programs. Look for Medicare to be privatized. Look for Medicaid to be turned into a block grant. Look for Social Security to be changed into a much smaller-scale program. Look for public education to be increasingly privatized. Paul Ryan has already begun writing the plans. Newt Gingrich has openly said it. His cabinet appointees, with their open antipathy for their departments, make it clear.
Look for environmental regulation to be curtailed immensely. Regulations to combat greenhouse gases and global climate change will be lifted. Investments in green and renewable energy to be rolled back, in favor of investments in fossil fuels. Protection of wild and natural lands to be stopped, and more to be leased to oil and gas drillers. Look for much less global dialogue with foreign leaders on ways to work together to save our environment. Look at both his stated opinions, the words of his incoming Chief-of-Staff, and his appointments at the EPA, the Interior, and the Energy Departments.
Look for social positions that go against everything the Obama Administration fought for. Look for an open antagonism against refugees, immigrants in general, and future immigration from foreign nations. Look for regressive policies on women's health issues. Look for the Federal Government to crack down on states who legalized marijuana. Look for judges, based on Trump's own list of potential SCOTUS appointments, who will roll back LGBTQ rights. Look for a Muslim Registry, because he has never wavered on doing so. Look for a border wall with Mexico, because it is still his stated policy. Look for a closed door and cold shoulder for Black Lives Matter advocates. If you doubt me here, just look at his appointment of Jeff Sessions to be our next Attorney General, a man who was deemed too racist for the federal bench in the 1980's. Look at his bringing Steve Bannon, a white nationalist, into his White House as his Counselor.
Look for a foreign policy that overturns much of the order by which the world has worked since World War II. He has been loud and clear about his intentions to be more friendly with Russia, a petro-military power who's economic interests are selling oil and weapons. He'll let them prop up Assad in Syria. He'll let them have Crimea. He'll certainly let them work with Exxon to make money. It's good for business. So is letting Israel build settlements in the West Bank. So is handing over a political dissident to Turkey. Frankly, so is agitating China over Taiwan. If you doubt that his foreign policy will be very business-driven, just look at him appointing the head of Exxon as his Secretary of State.
Do not be fooled. Not by Kanye, nor by his bizarre Twitter rants, or even by his ridiculous charges that millions of "illegals" voted in the election. Look at Donald Trump's direct actions. He's going to cut taxes for high earners and corporations. He's going to tear down "safety net" programs for the poor and middle classes. He's going to pursue a more "business friendly" world for American corporations. He's going to let the banks and the oil companies out from under regulations, and probably the health insurers too. He'll let the social conservatives have their playground at the Department of Justice. He's surrounding himself with billionaires and generals in his cabinet who come in with agendas and outsider credentials, and many of them have an antipathy towards their departments we haven't seen often in our history. Don't act shocked by Ben Carson going to HUD, where the objective is to de-regulate and let the real estate market heat up as much as it wants. In fact, don't be shocked by much of anything. In every appointment, Donald Trump is clearly signaling where things are going next year.
Be clear eyed. Don't get distracted. Don't be fooled again.
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