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Comment by plandis | Hacker News Reader

In my opinion, some of the policies of the Republican Party seem downright evil to me. Restrict the civil rights of gays and Muslims (Trump himself stated that he was going to start a Muslim ban, he asked people to make it legal but the intent was very clear and stated by Trump several times: Muslim ban). They also want to restrict information on the internet which seems pretty evil to me (modern day book banning). They want to deport kids who have lived in the US their whole lives through no fault of their own.

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I don't agree with those policies, but can you imagine any non-evil reason a rational person would hold those beliefs?

Define "rational". If you mean "Can someone justify those beliefs to themselves through a logical chain, while allowing for personal belief systems", then yes, of course, there are plenty of non-evil reasons a rational person could hold those.

However, you can still have irreconcilable differences in belief systems at an existential level.

No, I can't. And it really isn't up to my imagination either. If this 'rational' person has a 'rational' argument for wanting to ban Muslims or gays then let's hear it because I can't imagine it. Yes, you will get pushback on that.

It wasn't a Muslim ban. The ban didn't include Malaysia, Indonesia, or Algeria for instance and many other Muslim countries. There were 6 countries on the travel ban list. There are 50 Muslim-majority countries in the world.

Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on

That's a quote.

That is not a quote, that is a paraphrasing of whatever the original statement was.

That's a quote:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer...

You may not like that fact but it remains a fact. Extra points for referring to himself in the third person because, you know, Obama was so arrogant.

POTUS himself called it a Muslim ban several times, especially when asking Giuliani how to accomplish a Muslim ban legally.

Fear. Fear of the other. Fear of a widening disparity between the haves and have-nots - and they're increasingly in the have-not category. Fear that their children won't be able to do as well or better than they did. Fear. And Donald Trump expertly capitalized on that fear while Hillary chose to ignore it. Trump won. I'm not convinced we progressives/liberals fully understand this because we're still ignoring this fear.

Just Fear, or fear of risks materializing?

The risk materialized for victims of terrorism.

The risk materialized for victims of drug gangs.

The risk materialized for victims of illegal aliens committing crimes including identity theft.

The risk materialized for victims of outsourcing. The risk materialized of well paying manufacturing jobs disappearing.

It's wasn't fear, it was the materialized risk. Many voted for Obama overcoming fear, choosing hope. But they realized you can't just choose hope, you have to go and bend reality to be what you want it to be. And they put a bend in flow of reality, choosing Trump.

The elite fail to sympathize with their own countrymen in peril, because having compassion for your fellow countryman means you were being a 'xenophobe'. That label is not very vogue in elite circles.

I, for one, am glad that the risk of Trump being elected materialized.

Logical reason for wanting to restrict the rights of gay people and ban all Muslims? I'm all ears, I literally cannot think of a rational reason for supporting such policies.

The guy is a pathological liar, there is not one proposal I've seen that would, "restrict the rights of gay people" or "ban all Muslims."

Honestly, none of those things matter to me. I vote on the second amendment and fiscal policy. As a libertarian, I am an advocate for civil rights, clean energy, equality, and so forth. I care about those issues, but you can't be a moderate without making idealogical compromises.

Net neutrality was a disappointment, but myself and others in the tech community will learn to deal with the inconvenience.

The plight of illegal immigrants and the "religion of peace" has zero relevance to me, I simply don't care enough one way or the other to vote in favor of them.

Let's rewind a bit of history and look back to what the Democratic Party did to civil rights and a race for the next 100+ years after a bold Republican emancipated the slaves. People everywhere can do horrible, horrible things. Read your history books, and try hard to prevent history from repeating itself.

Let's not pretend as if political parties are immutable over periods of time such as 150 years.

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