RE: I am a huge Obama supporter. I voted for Hillary. Now I support Trump.
I appreciate your willingness to put yourself out there and in a way that is civil. I focus on platforms, policies, votes, and the people that a President brings to their administration. I agree that no administration is perfect or perfectly aligned with my views. I don't expect that. With Trump, we don't have votes to use - yet. So we depend on the other three.
We experienced his racism, mysogyny, and xenophobia on the campaign trail. Bringing Steven Bannon, the white nationalist Breitbart News leader that foments hate, onto his White House team as senior advisor, just continues the divisiveness and belies his acceptance speech. That is not a good sign.
As for policies, there are some basic standards that have to be met. One is putting his assets in a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest. He hasn't laid out any plans for a real blind trust, which would require divesting assets. Instead, he has said his children will be running his businesses. And now he is asking that his children get the highest level security clearances and be his unpaid advisors. They can't do both and have a fair-dealing administration.
I'm holding off to see whether he will release his tax returns as promised - again, to meet the standard for making decisions in our interests, not his own. And I'm waiting to see what access the press has, especially for institutions that have been critical.
You raise a lot of valid points and concerns. In my mind though, most of what you are bringing up falls in the "election politics" category. Can we trust him? Is he going to do the right thing? Is he going to do "xyz". Those are obviously important questions to be asking - especially for the person running for president. I tend not to focus on them very much though, because there will always be plenty of hate and doubt. If you are looking for it, you will continue to find reasons to 'dislike' him all the way until the next president is elected. I prefer to focus more on policy and agenda. Are the specific things he is trying to accomplish moving the country forward? Even if it is not the direction I would want it to go, is there at least validity in the reasoning that the people want to go in that direction?
To me, once we move from speculation during an election to an actual administration (and I consider the transition to be administrative), then it's not election politics any more. And it's not about hating or disliking him - I'm not about the individual. Like you, I focus on policy and agenda (including platforms) -- I have read a lot of policy papers for this election, lol. But I add process in there with policy and agenda. The transition team, the people around him, how he fills out the thousands of appointed positions in his administration, and handling of the press, are all process-related. In the extreme case, a benevolent dictator may have great policies and agendas, but that process isn't acceptable. So, in our real-world case, I do look at process - and for the items I laid out, the transition process is coming up short. Time will certainly tell more about the rest.
I agree with your points. It is going to be interesting to see how it all plays out.
I appreciate a civil discussion, so thanks for that! I do hope folks stay engaged and have some objective benchmarks thought out in advance.
I appreciate it as well :) I am hopeful that it will play out well in the end.
So do I. Thankfully the steem blockchain allows these types of civil discussions to happen without someone getting beaten on the street.