Just met an Australia Farmer visiting “the big city”.
We got to talking and at one stage he asked me if I was a Trump supporter. I laughed and said Trump was a dangerous psychopath.
He’s said he’s Trump supporter and that he liked his immigration policies.
I calmly explained to him...
“We might disagree about the policies - and that’s a reasonable debate - but there are likely many politicians who could represent your position that I wouldn’t call a dangerous psychopath.
The difference is that Trump himself is dangerous to democracy itself because he’s undermining the institutions that make society work - law enforcement, media, courts etc.”
He readily agreed.
I also told him...
“We might disagree on the right level of immigration, but let’s say, for the sake of argument, that we both want less immigrants and less illegal immigration. Well it turns out that most immigration happens through legal ports of entry with people overstaying their visas. So even if we both wanted fewer immigrants, a border wall isn’t the way to achieve it.”
He said “If that’s true, I agree”.
He’s a mango farmer and has come to Brisbane to join a protest against the government‘s treatment of farmers. He complained that they allow cheap imports which hurts local farms.
I explained how it’s extremely difficult to balance the needs of the few against the needs of the many. That there might be some other trade off they were working towards to assist the overall wellbeing of the economy.
He readily named the trade off they were making (part of some broader trade deal). He acknowledged that it’s a very hard job to do.
A rather surprisingly productive and cordial conversation.