Philosophical Vegan Forum

I like to consider myself a fair person; I always look for good things people do, rather than just the bad things, even if I don't like them overall. Every President has done good and bad things (except like William H. Harrison), so for Presidents I like, I try to find bad things they did and vice versa.

When Trump was elected, I was expecting him to do overall more bad than good, but I also expected that he'd at least do a decent amount of good things to offset a lot of the bad. Ho-ly shit I was wrong, since for every good thing Trump did he did at least like 30 bad things. To anyone reading this, I just want to clarify: Trump's Presidency was one of the worst in US history. This isn't even just my opinion, this is a pretty strong agreement amongst historians and scholars (even Republican ones):
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201 ... dents.html
https://scri.siena.edu/wp-content/uploa ... tegory.pdf

(Admittedly, these rankings are kind of arbitrary, but it does give us a good idea of which Presidents were better than others.)

I highly doubt Trump will be vindicated by history, especially given his last year in office.

Republicans have shown me that they don't really care about Democracy if it means the Democrats will be in power. And after Biden officially won, Trump and other Republicans have shown that they're more than willing to undermine it.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... horitarian
I won't go as far as saying that voting for a Republican is always a vote against Democracy, but a vote for Trump definitely is, and is also easily a vote that says the law doesn't really matter. This country (and by extension the whole damn Earth) cannot risk another presidency like that; The US's democracy is only so stable.

But this thread is going to go through some of the GOOD (and maybe good, some of these might be up in the air) things Trump did. It's too easy to list the bad things (TCJA, tariffs and trade wars, handling of COVID, travel bans, slashing of regulations), so in an attempt to be fair, I will be looking at some of the major positive accomplishments of his presidency. I won't be looking at minor shit like 'Take no salary' or 'Take no vacations,' I am only going to look at important ones, and maybe add in a quick comment or two. I will also only be looking at things he DID, not things he wanted/tried to do but failed. This will only be in the order of how they're presented on Politifact too:
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-mete ... omise-kept
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-mete ... compromise

Positive #1: Increase veterans' health care

Donald Trump wrote:We are going to make sure every veteran in America has the choice to seek care at the Veterans Administration or to seek private medical care paid for by our government.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-mete ... alth-care/
*AFAIK it still doesn't apply to Transgender veterans so they can get reassignment surgery but at least it's something.

Positive #2: Ensure funding for historic black colleges

Donald Trump wrote:My plan will also ensure funding for historic black colleges and universities, more affordable two- and four-year college and support for trade and vocational education.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-mete ... -colleges/
*I'm not sure how significant this is, but increasing access to education is usually a good thing. I'll hand this to Trump.

Positive #3: Require price transparency from health care providers

Donald Trump wrote:Require price transparency from all health care providers, especially doctors and health care organizations like clinics and hospitals.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-mete ... providers/
*I think this one is particularly good, since the US has insane healthcare prices due to the low supply of doctors.

Positive #4: Allow free access to the drug market

Donald Trump wrote:Remove barriers to entry into free markets for drug providers that offer safe, reliable and cheaper products.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-mete ... ug-market/

"While the process is not simple, it is an improvement over the status quo," said Vanderbilt University health policy professor Stacie Dusetzina.

*I'm not sure how significant this is either, but if this professor chick says it's an improvement I'll go with it.

Positive #5: Expand mental health programs

Donald Trump wrote:We need to reform our mental health programs and institutions in this country.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-mete ... -programs/
This one's a mixed bag.

The Trump administration did not pursue legislation specifically targeted at mental health, but it has pursued some actions, and avoided others, that had an impact on mental health services...

While not specific to mental health care, the limits on who can receive Medicaid coverage leave some former beneficiaries in the lurch when seeking mental health coverage.

Meanwhile, the administration kept newly uninsured Americans from securing health coverage, including mental health coverage, when it decided earlier this year not to reopen enrollment for the Affordable Care Act after the coronavirus pandemic began.

In addition, the administration continues to back a lawsuit to eliminate the Affordable Care Act entirely. The lawsuit is being considered by the Supreme Court.

On the other hand, the administration did respond to the coronavirus pandemic by relaxing requirements for covering visits and allowing prescriptions by telehealth, a change that likely benefited patients with mental health concerns, said Paul Gionfriddo, the president and CEO of the advocacy group Mental Health America.

Finally, the administration, acting with bipartisan support in Congress, has substantially increased spending on a major mental health concern: opioid addiction.

Funding for treatment and recovery rose from $559 million to $2.12 billion between fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2018, according to calculations by the Bipartisan Policy Center.

And of course, one that isn't listed on Politifact but still the most important:
https://www.energy.gov/ne/photos/11-acc ... ear-energy

And yeah that's basically it. Pretty much all the other ones are easily terrible.

But of course, NONE of this makes up for all the bad things he's done, and Biden is going to do all this and much more (as well as reverse a lot of his bad policies), and I'm willing to bet Hillary would have done much of the same, so honestly it's pretty moot overall. Lemme know what I listed something that's actually not good, or I missed one or two.

Biden's promises seem a lot more, well, promising:
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-mete ... e-tracker/

If he accomplishes half of this stuff I'm a happy guy. Unfortunately, Biden seems intent on keeping Trump's tariffs with China and buys into the myth that they're the reason why Americans are losing jobs, but we'll see what happens. Maybe I can do a thread of Biden's bad policies?

It´s probably fair to say he did some good and some bad and the bad far outweighed the good.

This is not exactly the most interesting response, I thought you´d rather have a boring reply that none at all, but I can´t think of anything really interesting to say!

Jamie in Chile wrote: ↑Mon Jan 25, 2021 6:41 pm It´s probably fair to say he did some good and some bad and the bad far outweighed the good.

Very very few good things. As I said, for every good thing he did, he did like thirty bad things. A lot of us here had some hope that he'd do some good things, but that didn't happen.

I think it's important for people to recognize when a politician does a good thing. The AMERICAN thing to do is always hope that the incoming leaders will do good, even if you don't agree with them. WANT them to do good, don't be ready to criticize just because you don't agree with what they say. I'll also add that we should look at what they DID that was of consequence, not just what they promised (these politicians will always try their hardest to achieve something, and will either give up or make necessary compromises).

I might do that post on Biden's bad policy ideas, might make an interesting thread.