President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Speaking of so much winning . . . Happy Victory Day!

 

“Are you, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?”

There’s something weird about the public assumption that candidates tell us about their taxes.

 

Derp.

 

Ultimately it's an anti-corruption norm, right? If you know where the presidents financial interests lie, you can make sure he's governing in the interest of the country and not his or her own pocketbook.

I agree with your assertion that it doesn't matter to most Americans. Not sure if it ever would have or not. In this day of extreme political polarization, it clearly doesn't though. Not sure what norms, if any, do, frankly. Which, as an aside, probably bad for us as a whole.

 

Trump and some other of our national "leaders" would have us believe that transparency is the crime.

 

I think it’s a norm, period, that means quite little. Nixon released taxes as a sitting president. For candidates to do it? I actually think it’s a bad idea for precisely what has happened: It creates an unnecessary expectation.

 

Many Americans will celebrate this.

White House Rescinds Some Press Passes As Journalists Slam New Attack On Media | HuffPost

 

Why does it mean quite little? Why is the expectation bad? Corruption is a problem that's plagued governments for ages. It's not a perfect countermeasure, but it's a low-cost guardrail.
Just because we didn't hit on it as a norm until after Nixon doesn't make it a bad one.

(And just to be clear, no single norm is the end-all-be-all. So yes, point to any one and you can argue that without it the world goes on quite fine, because it's true. But a small segment of people stress about it because in their totality, norms are quite powerful. And slow erosion eventually leaves a noticeable mark.)

 

Running for president is a job application. As a citizen, I am the employer. I want all job applicants to submit every tax return they have ever filed in their lives. Don't like it, don't run for president.

 

Yeah, when I look at polls about the issue, op-eds, the suggestion that our national security is at insanely huge risk, Twitter traffic and the like - even this board - I get the impression that the garbage disposal is a bigger deal.

I know these posts are an attempt at satire of GOP derps, or me as a derp, or something. What it functions as, though, is a chiller on any discussion you deem inappropriate.

 

Read The Federalist Papers and you'll understand why we need to see this shitball's taxes, what little he actually has paid.

 

We "citizens" can get turned down for a job if our credit history looks shaky.

We can expect no less from our president. In fact, we can expect more. Tax returns can, and do, expose shady behaviors.