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Why did Americans vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election?
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Donald Trump championed individual liberty

Trump's agenda supported key issues in "rights debates", such as the right of the individual to hold firearms.

Context

The United States Constitution, especially its Bill of Rights, protects individual liberties. Human rights within the United States are often called civil rights, which are those rights, privileges and communities held by all people, in distinction to political rights, which are the rights that inhere to those who are entitled to participate in elections, as candidates or voters.

The Argument

Donald Trump is a strong champion and defender of Americans’ First and Second Amendment rights, and made it clear that he will always stand up for Americans’ Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. He repeatedly accused his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton of stripping away gun rights during the 2016 campaign.[1]

Counter arguments

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), iff Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 it would represent a threat to press freedom.[2] Since then, Donald Trump has distorted the principles of the First Amendment (including freedom of speech), undermining the freedoms he claims to advocate for.[3] Since being elected in 2016, Trump has attempted to interfere with the content and even the very existence (in the case of TikTok) of social media platforms via government regulation. In doing so, he is endangering free speech, rather than protecting it.

Proponents

Premises

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-where-donald-trump-stands-on-gun-control-2016-10?r=US&IR=T
  2. https://cpj.org/2016/10/cpj-chairman-says-trump-is-threat-to-press-freedom/
  3. https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-attacks-on-social-media-threaten-the-free-speech-rights-of-all-americans-139588
This page was last edited on Saturday, 3 Oct 2020 at 10:40 UTC

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