Gary Johnson Would Make a Better POTUS Than Donald Trump

Introduction: Electability & LikabilityA president's temperament is one of their most important attributes. Assessing and responding to conflict is a huge part of the position. A president must stay cool under pressure. They should be mature, considerate and able to conceal their emotions; sometimes that is even necessary for security. But Donald Trump has proven he cannot hide his arrogant and condescending nature. He thrives on emotion, not reason, and his incivility would not translate well to suit the role of president. He cares more about his ego than doing what is right. In fact he is so self-righteous that he describes himself as "his own chief adviser" while ignoring the expertise of more educated and knowledgeable authorities [1]. Donald Trump is a racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, arrogant trust fund kid who quotes from the National Enquirer, peddles conspiracy theories, speaks condescendingly, mocks his critics and celebrates the creation of enemies. He's even suggested that John McCain is a loser for having been a prisoner of war. Donald Trump is so disliked, that his own party promotes a #NeverTrump movement to emphasize their lack of support for his candidacy. If his own party's politicians (and constituents) hate him, we can assume Trump will not be able to "reach across the aisle" and accomplish many of his goals. However since his platform is so terrible, that's probably a good thing. Military & Foreign PolicyWhile Gary Johnson believes it "is important to have a strong defense both at home and abroad," he also acknowledges that being bankrupt is a great threat to our national security. He would include a 43% cut to the military's budget by concentrating on defense rather than offense. Johnson believes in making better use of our military alliances at less cost. He claims the U.S. should resort to military action as the last option, and only as provided in the Constitution which is actually the legal standard [2].At the same time, Johnson is not completely opposed to interventionism. But he acknowledges how imperative it is to our financial and national security interests to vehemently scale back our gargantuan, excessive military budget and overseas involvement in unnecessary and counterproductive conflict. Indeed the Department of Defense has admitted that our aggressive foreign policy has made us less and not more safe [3]. On the other hand, Donald Trump is a war monger. He has made it clear that he does intend to promptly start or extend another war in the Middle East, specifically against ISIS [4]. While he swears he will crush ISIS -- which came to fruition from past U.S. interventions -- he doesn't want to nation build, so another terrorist group can/will likely emerge just as one has (like ISIS) every single time we have tried to intervene the way Trump suggests. Wiping out radical Islam overseas isn't necessarily possible. And Trump's "no Iran nuke under any circumstance" position could easily encourage yet another Middle East war.In short, none of Trump's proposals seem viable at establishing or maintaining peace and diplomatic relations. He has said that his greatest priority as president would be beefing up the military and spending more money [5] despite the fact that the U.S. spends more on defense than the next 10 nations combined, most of whom are allies. Trump has no problem "bombing and taking the oil." But our over-investment in the military has cost us trillions of dollars, and there is no end in sight to conflict in the Middle East which has also cost us thousands of lives while burying us in unsustainable debt. War on Drugs Donald Trump used to be on the right side of this issue, correctly pointing out the WOD has been an indisputable failure. It has not been effective at deterring drug use, and it disproportionately punishes minorities while creating a cycle of poverty. It also encourages police brutality, and punishes users regardless of whether or not they cause any harm. It is single handedly responsible for creating the largest prison population in the world. Most violent crime stems from drug prohibition and not drug use itself. You will never be able to prevent drug use for the same reason you will never be able to get rid of guns. Donald Trump recognizes that prohibition doesn't work, and he won't criminalize guns for this reason... yet he fails to see his own hypocrisy in calling to keep drugs criminalized. Gary Johnson notes the state has no business governing people's bodies. We should only punish aggressive acts; we should not continue wasting billions of dollars to make criminals out of non-violent offenders. Gary Johnson also calls for the legalization of pot which makes perfect sense, considering marijuana is far safer than alcohol. Trump has done a 180 to pander to social conservatives here, and he is now dead wrong on this very important topic which is vehemently immoral and unjustifiably expensive. The EconomyGary Johnson promises a balanced budget. He wants to cut federal expenditures, get rid of pork, end federal subsidies, nix government bail outs, scale down social welfare and eliminate wasteful spending. But can he deliver? His resume as a politician (whereas Trump has none for comparison) proves that he can be an effective leader. Gary Johnson ran for governor as a fiscal conservative in a blue state, won handily, cut taxes, vetoed hundreds of bills, presided over significant job growth, balanced the state budget and created a substantial reserve fund. Compare that to Trump's budget proposals which are completely unrealistic. Trump promises to cut taxes while swearing he won't get rid of huge entitlement programs like Medicare, Social Security and Health Care. And don't forget that Trump wants to spend even more money on the military. There's no way Trump can provide a balanced budget by cutting taxes and continuing to fund massive government expenditures at the same time. Moreover, this does not consider our huge amount of debt which Johnson has made it a priority to address. "Trump could pass his tax cut, monetize the entire trade deficit as additional revenues, somehow eliminate all federal spending except Social Security (which he has said he will protect) and still not pay off $19 trillion of debt in eight years. Nor is it remotely plausible that Trump would reduce the debt through economic growth. As the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget notes, Trump's plan would ultimately require cutting non-entitlement spending by about 90 percent, while growing at more than 20 percent each year. To put this in context: many economists were skeptical when Jeb Bush said that as president the nation would achieve four percent growth" [6]. We cannot afford an economically illiterate president. Trump repeats economic fallacies and doesn't understand important concepts like the trade deficit [7]. He's also against free trade. Free trade embraces freedom and brings prosperity. But Trump's protectionism calls for high tariffs on cheap foreign imports. This makes the products average Americans buy every day more expensive, which specifically hurts the poor and middle class [8]. Immigration Trump wants to inhibit foreign labor, which also keeps cost high for American consumers. He does not have the power to make Mexico build a wall, and Mexico has no incentive or financial ability to comply. So Trump would likely spend even more tax payer money to construct an ineffective all. After all, most illegal immigrants enter this country by plane [9] which means the wall would be a futile expense. It would cost tens of billions of dollars (a conservative estimate) to build this unnecessary blockade [10]. This wall wouldn't even protect all U.S. borders, and it would inhibit economic productivity. Plus a trade war with Mexico will impoverish Mexicans further, and encourage more illegal immigration. But immigrants don't increase native unemployment or drain our public resources. Instead migration allows impoverished people to seek opportunity by accomodating demands for labor and fueling competition. This is good for capitalism, but Trump is not a capitalist -- yet another (big) reason Johnson is superopr on the economy. Despite Trump's claims, immigrants are less likely to commit violent or property crimes than U.S. citizens. This matters since most are arrested for immigration offenses. Some are arrested for drugs... which clearly Trump does NOT want to legalize, contrary to Con's claims. Therefore extend all of my arguments on the WOD and Johnson's superior platform."Refugees in general, and Syrian refugees in particular, already are among the most intensely scrutinized immigrants to enter the U.S. Despite Trump's proclamation that the refugee migration might be 'the greatest Trojan horse of all time,' the fact is that terrorist attacks in the U.S. by and large have been carried out NOT by refugees, but by people here on student visas or naturalized American citizens" meaning a wall would be ineffective at deterring immigration crime or terrorism [11]. In fact tough immigration laws benefit private prisons who rake in over 5.1 billion dollars from locking them up [12]. No wonder Donald Trump is vocal about his support for mass incarceration and private prisons [13].Keep in mind that Trump's stereotyping crosses Constitutional barriers when he suggestes entire relgiions be banned from entering the U.S. - a concept that is arguably Unconstituional and violates international law [14]. I'll expand on Trump's Constitutional violations in the next round. R2 Conclusion Donald Trump is a xenophobic authoritarian who jeopardizes civil liberties. But in this round I focused on how Trump would undoubtedly worsen the American economy. His plan would not address our debt and likely increase our deficit. Moreover, his foreign policy is problematic and arguably makes us less safe. SOURCES: http://www.debate.org...