So supposing Trump is kicked to the curb....

[early morning]

I can remember when the Left accused the Right of paranoia. Now they’re seeing Nazis behind every tree and think Stalin is hiding under their beds.

Well, I can't speak for Stalin; from the little Russian history I have read, his rise to power does not mirror that of Trump. But Germany is another story, and I believe we are right to be apprehensive, at the very least, of the potential for a governmental take over. I worked with a woman, gone now, who fled Germany as a child, with her parents. They were not Jewish, or Roma, or any of the groups targeted. She told me many times how her father, a doctor, was very concerned about Hitler's rise, the brown-shirts, the crackdowns on Jews and minorities, and how he would speak to his patients, and find so many of them wanted Hitler to "make Germany great again". They were willing to overlook the subjugation of the government, the political bent of the courts- almost anything to get the "typical" (ie; white, Germanic) Germans back on top. It terrified her father that so many people, his friends, whom he thought of as good people, were willing to overlook the ever-rising specter of dictatorship - welcome it even. They dismissed his concerns, his paranoia - Oh, that won't happen, he was elected, you know!! And you know what? He was right. You aren't paranoid if it's true.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Even Nixon is considered by some an environmentalist with his creation of the EPA. Bush gave climate change a little lip service, although Reagan, the father of modern deregulation might vie for second place worse.

Reagan was not good in general there at all, but even he supported California in setting it's own air standards. You see what we mean about Trump being unprecedented. And yes horror of horror some of us will rail against bad policies no matter who does them (whether it's Trump or W or Obama), but it doesn't mean Trump isn't a new low. Because he is.

Of course now we have cheap gas and people love that.

about $4.05-$4.50 a gallon here, it's cost more in non-inflation adjusted dollars, cheaper than it should be.

Even if I thought he was a dignified, thoughtful, intelligent, strong leader with the best interest of the country driving his policies, if they acted like Trump has toward the environment, I would not back them. Like IL's single issue being small federal government and reduced debt, this is my single issue.

yes. I don't even think Trump is wrong on everything in theory, like globalization has indeed been a disaster, for the environment (globalization also makes it hard to regulate pollution, it just gets pushed elsewhere) as well as for jobs in the U.S.. He's just wrong on many things in both theory and practice, and pretty close to wrong on everything in practice. It's all done badly, when it's done at all (whatever happened to infrastructure spending anyway). People would say it's because Trump doesn't give a @#$# one way or other, that might be, I'm not sure, he's pretty narcissistic, but he might also be monomaniacal on a few, very few, issues, those issues fall far short of full reality (I mean when you are writing off clear air and water, in addition to many of the citizenry ..). And even those issues are done badly by the Trump administration.

[JaneV2.0]

Along with globalization, presented to us as inevitable--which perhaps it is, given the ruling class--is the privatization (and monetization) of nearly everything, which degrades all it touches.

[Teacher Terry]

I totally agree Jane.

[Rogar]

I agree. Forget about all the partisan mud-slinging both parties can engage in in every election cycle, there's the hard facts of the Trump administration's complete disregard for the environment, which impacts every one of us when the air and water become nothing more than something available for industry to pollute. Even if I thought he was a dignified, thoughtful, intelligent, strong leader with the best interest of the country driving his policies, if they acted like Trump has toward the environment, I would not back them. Like IL's single issue being small federal government and reduced debt, this is my single issue.

The environment is my overriding issue as well. It's not just clean air and water for us, but connected issues around how we stand as custodians of the planet and the other issues around our forests, grasslands, and their wildlife. There was the recent report that on mainstream news that talked about the decline of bird populations and the loss of maybe a third of North American bird numbers over the last several years. Some, like myself and a lot of scientists think we are on the verge, if not the middle of a sixth extinction event.

Part of the issue is how to manage exponential population growth and how third world countries want all that we have here in America. Some of this is out of the control of politics, but we have been been global leaders in technology and somehow the stability of world concerns. We can be leaders on environmental issues, too. There is a legacy us boomers will leave for the next generations that exceeds some of the day-to-day politics. Probably the national debt falls into that category as well.