President Trump: A MennoNet Poll

Events occurring and how they relate/affect Anabaptist faith and culture.
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POLL: What do you think about the Trump presidency so far?

 
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Josh
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Re: President Trump: A MennoNet Poll

Post by Josh »

Bootstrap wrote:I do want to say that I appreciate Donald Trump's choice of Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, and I especially appreciate his recent work to protect Christians from being required to participate in abortions or same-sex weddings. I also appreciate bringing down the corporate income tax.
An Anabaptist principle is to judge what someone believes by what they do, not by what they say.
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Robert
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Re: President Trump: A MennoNet Poll

Post by Robert »

KingdomBuilder wrote:
Robert wrote:Yes, how unpolitician of him to be up front and frank with his constituents.
And that's why you like him, right? He's not a "career politician".
As I have said several times, I do not like his personality. So I do not "like" him. I do like many of he policies his administration is developing. I am unaware of any of this administration's education policy. I have not looked at that. Please share which policy and what they are doing that you do not like. I may not like it either.
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Bootstrap
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Re: President Trump: A MennoNet Poll

Post by Bootstrap »

Josh wrote:
Bootstrap wrote:I do want to say that I appreciate Donald Trump's choice of Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, and I especially appreciate his recent work to protect Christians from being required to participate in abortions or same-sex weddings. I also appreciate bringing down the corporate income tax.
An Anabaptist principle is to judge what someone believes by what they do, not by what they say.
That usually means that you don't believe the claims someone makes just because they talk a good game, you wait for them to show their accomplishments. I believe that. These are a few important things I think he got right. And you can't judge any presidency based on the first year alone.

But it doesn't mean that lying and spreading hostility isn't an issue. Most Anabaptists take those things seriously. The daily dose of hostility from Donald Trump has had a pretty big effect on the way people talk with each other about politics and the way people treat each other when they have political disagreements.
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Dan Z
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Re: President Trump: A MennoNet Poll

Post by Dan Z »

Oh - in fairness, I need to mention one more positive for the Trump presidency:

The business community seems to be responding well to his pro-business policies (perhaps first and foremost the corporate tax cut). The markets are rising at record rates, unemployment is minimal, wages are (finally) beginning to move, and consumer confidence is quite high - the first year of the Trump presidency has, my most measures, been good for the economy.
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Bootstrap
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Re: President Trump: A MennoNet Poll

Post by Bootstrap »

One last thing on vulgarity (and my last post for the day).

It doesn't matter whether Donald Trump said "s-house" (or "s-hole, depending who you believe). What matters is that he was grossly disrespectful toward Africa, Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Middle East, countries with whom we have diplomatic relations.

Try saying the same thing without being vulgar. "I don't think these countries have any value, and I don't want people from these countries coming to the United States." It's still offensive. Adding that he wishes we had more people from countries like Norway doesn't help. America's strength comes largely from the close relationships we have with so many countries and the respect they have for us. We're losing that. The vulgarity and hostility with which he said it doesn't help, of course, but the uproar is not because he used a bad word.

Other countries are beginning to talk about America the same way they used to talk about Putin's Russia. That's not a good thing. This affects our standing in the world. It's not "winning".

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Robert
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Re: President Trump: A MennoNet Poll

Post by Robert »

Bootstrap wrote: I'm sure someone will say that all politicians lie. But in the United States, no president in my lifetime has lied so blatantly and so routinely, shouting people down when confronted instead of addressing the facts. And no president has worked so hard to stoke hostility toward the media, calling them “dishonest,” “scum” and the “enemy of the American people.”
See, taking what he says literally.

He is correct with much of the media coverage as I look at the averages. He creates some of that himself, but much of the mainstream media is blatantly negative. There have been several studies that validate this, one from Harvard.

The media did the same to Bush, but not as extreme. I think there is plenty to report fairly that would be negative, yet much of the media tries to manufacture even more. I watched the press brief about his physical. The media was totally rejecting what the doctor was saying. The same doctor that oversaw President Bush and Obama. They just could not accept facts that did not fit their opinions. You could see it in the questions.

Again, I dislike the personality of President Trump. I am just trying to be fair in my dislike. I suspect if I met him in person, we would get along well. Sanguine people are like that. I am quite surprised he has worked hard to follow through with many of his campaign promises. This tells me he really believes what he was saying, unlike most politicians who only say what they think will get them elected.

One can rack up all the "lies" he says if you take him literally. I do not pay much attention to all that. I listened to his speech in PA yesterday. He made some really good points about the impact in the past year of his administraion's policies. I keep going back to his administration, because there are a lot of people who are doing these things. He has set the direction, but they are doing much of the leg work. He has put some doers in place. They are getting a lot of things done, for good or ill we will have to wait to see.

Lowest minority unemployment ever.
Wages going up for the first time in 8-10 years.
$300 Billion being reinvested just by Apple.
Millions of people being given bonuses because of the tax plan.
Regulation way down.
He is giving back to Congress the things Congress is supposed to be doing. I would think Liberals would love that.
Judges placed, Supreme and federal, with conservative ideology (Interpret the law not make the law).

Look past the emperor with no clothes and see what is really going on. I often think President Trump uses all the noise as smoke screen so some will not see what they are really doing behind all that. They are dismantling a massive, bloated government and giving the power back to the people.
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Robert
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Re: President Trump: A MennoNet Poll

Post by Robert »

Bootstrap wrote:Other countries are beginning to talk about America the same way they used to talk about Putin's Russia. That's not a good thing. This affects our standing in the world. It's not "winning".
There is a difference between liking and respecting. They liked President Obama but I saw little respect for the US during his years of service.

They may not like President Trump, but the world is listening and respecting to what his administration is demanding. Look at what Ambassador Haley has done in the UN. When have you ever seen the Security council respond to the US demands like they are now? North Korea has been an issue for 3 administrations. This is the first one to actually make other countries actually do something besides a bunch of lip service. While I am not sure I would agree with all they are doing, I do notice the results they are getting.

Most other countries see the US negatively overall. They resent our foreign policies, as many did with Rome. Yet, they want our power and money, as they did Rome. This president will come and go, like all others. Only God remains through them all, president and nations.
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Try hard not to offend. Try harder not to be offended.
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Robert
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Re: President Trump: A MennoNet Poll

Post by Robert »

Dan Z wrote:Oh - in fairness, I need to mention one more positive for the Trump presidency:

The business community seems to be responding well to his pro-business policies (perhaps first and foremost the corporate tax cut). The markets are rising at record rates, unemployment is minimal, wages are (finally) beginning to move, and consumer confidence is quite high - the first year of the Trump presidency has, my most measures, been good for the economy.
I would be interested in hearing your view of the Obama Administration similar to what you did with the Trump Administration.
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Try hard not to offend. Try harder not to be offended.
Just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean they are not after you.
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KingdomBuilder
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Re: President Trump: A MennoNet Poll

Post by KingdomBuilder »

Robert wrote:I am unaware of any of this administration's education policy. I have not looked at that. Please share which policy and what they are doing that you do not like. I may not like it either.
Short on time, but allow me to respond before I forget..
It's not only policy, but a general lack of reform.
To explain the entire disconnect between Federal action and the reality in public schools would take a while, but it's been a growing reality since the 1960's. The only federally scaled "Ray of Hope" recently was Bush Sr and his collaboration with Clinton, but since then any progress and continually been undone (including by Obama, by the way). It was short lived.
The Federal government continues to use assessments and test scores in an invalid manner in order to push bully tactics on some of the last advocates left for low SES children and to create even more damage to school districts, all while shouting "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND!!" from Washington. It sounds noble, powerful, and valid, but it's a masquerade of senselessness and disconnect.
As for Trump's, they're known to be (disturbingly) pro-charter school. It's a pathetic effort to privatize one of the last un-privatized institutions, to give public schools a bad face, and to strip them of even more resources.
So not only are they not helping public schools, they're for a market that is there to hurt them.
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temporal1
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Re: President Trump: A MennoNet Poll

Post by temporal1 »

KingdomBuilder wrote:
Robert wrote:I am unaware of any of this administration's education policy. I have not looked at that. Please share which policy and what they are doing that you do not like. I may not like it either.
Short on time, but allow me to respond before I forget..
It's not only policy, but a general lack of reform.
To explain the entire disconnect between Federal action and the reality in public schools would take a while, but it's been a growing reality since the 1960's. The only federally scaled "Ray of Hope" recently was Bush Sr and his collaboration with Clinton, but since then any progress and continually been undone (including by Obama, by the way). It was short lived.
The Federal government continues to use assessments and test scores in an invalid manner in order to push bully tactics on some of the last advocates left for low SES children and to create even more damage to school districts, all while shouting "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND!!" from Washington. It sounds noble, powerful, and valid, but it's a masquerade of senselessness and disconnect.
As for Trump's, they're known to be (disturbingly) pro-charter school. It's a pathetic effort to privatize one of the last un-privatized institutions, to give public schools a bad face, and to strip them of even more resources.
So not only are they not helping public schools, they're for a market that is there to hurt them.
i would appreciate a thread dedicated to this, esp under another category. i don’t like to think of everyone’s children’s education as political; altho, far too much of it has been POLITICIZED, not to the benefit of children and their families!

from the bits i read about, i’m not pleased with DeVos and Jackson in leadership of the DOE.
Trump has made lots of worthwhile appointments. not sure how these 2 got in where they did.
i’m bothered by government getting involved with funding private schools and home schools .. from what i’ve read about what’s happening in Canada, i would not jump on that wagon. tempting as it is.

and other things. :)
another thread would be helpful.
if only hopenafuture would weigh in. i learned from her. and, some other homeschooling mothers/fathers on this forum.

my grandaughter is in 4th grade now, public school. a lib center here in the PNW.
i remain very very thankful for her Catholic school years, K-3rd grade.

one thing i see is an all-out attempt to teach children Christian values, removing Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, with surgical precision. imho, this happens across the board these days in secular government. it strikes me as remarkably bizarre.

possibly like attempting to teach horseback riding, while denying there is a horse?!
anything-but a horse is jolly good fun! :D
uhhh.no. :-|

however.
no one could tackle the myriad of problems in the DOE in a matter of months.
it took decades to dig this pit. it will require sustained effort to dig out. if that’s even possible.
i’m not seeing DeVos and Jackson as up to the task. i hope i’m mistaken.
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Most or all of this drama, humiliation, wasted taxpayer money could be spared -
with even modest attempt at presenting balanced facts from the start.


”We’re all just walking each other home.”
UNKNOWN
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