Editor's Note: This piece was coauthored by Jim McCoy.
We all have friends who tell us “I just can’t vote for Trump.” Ours are intelligent, financially secure, long-time Republicans. This seems to be a moral badge of courage that they wear proudly and publicly. The most salient issue of this presidential election is not about which candidate is a nice guy but vastly more about what policies and politicians they will foist on our American citizenry.
We have already written in these pages that President Donald J. Trump can be bellicose, churlish and never backs down from a fight. Did his predecessor ever back down from a fight? Absolutely not! And in some instances, like with Fox News, left some deep state land mines for President Trump requiring an inordinate amount of his time and incalculable effort to defuse.
Many of you may recall that Mr. Obama had an ongoing public battle with Fox News, excluding them from interviewing him and announcing, the evils of this news organization. But Mr. Obama also did more than complain. His administration at times took action against Fox. The Obama Justice Department unethically, if not illegally, surveilled one Fox News reporter. Additionally, a White House spokesperson acknowledged excluding Fox News from interviews.
Trump detractors also point to Trump’s use of Twitter to get his message out to the public. It turns out that President Obama was the first White House resident to use Twitter and was facilitated personally by Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey who allowed Mr. Obama to use much more than the allotted 140 characters. President 44 also had his staff edit and manage his tweets. President Trump also uses Twitter but in a boorish way; frequently getting himself in trouble. But unlike his predecessor who was constantly fawned over by the press, Trump must use Twitter because of how unfairly the MSM characterizes or ignores important things he says. If Jack Dorsey had his way, Trump would be banned from using his company’s communication vehicle. Unquestionably it might be a prudent practice to have staff review his tweet pronouncements on occasion, but what staffer is up at 3 a.m. to perform that task?
The difference you favor between Presidents 44 and 45 is one of style over substance. Their substantive differences rest with their policies. President Obama was quoted as saying, "Joe Biden nailed this decision" in choosing Kamala Harris as his running mate. Really? Recall that Senator Harris is as close as you can get policy-wise to Bernie Sanders. Like Sanders she is fully committed to a wealth tax, Medicare for All (Obamacare on steroids), free college education, reparations for all black citizens, late term abortions, restricting religious freedom (she filed a brief against the Hobby Lobby plaintiffs) and radical environmentalism that will end natural gas and oil production during her first term. The Harris-Biden ticket has also pledged $5.4 trillion in new spending during their first term in office, favoring education. This deficit spending will keep America in the red perpetually, but not Republican red. Such legislative programs, and the political maneuvering behind them, will change the fundamental character of our nation forever. We will become hopelessly socialistic, and subject to all the flaws and dysfunctions of this form of governance and economic practices.
It is revealing to recognize that GovTrack.us rated Harris the most left-leaning U.S. senator in 2019.
Some have argued that the election comparison should be between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. She is the true choice of the Democrat Party, Biden the Trojan Horse. As a heavy-handed vice president, she will exert extraordinary force over Mr. Biden’s policies during his first term, if he can last that long. Yesterday we learned through televised gaffes from both Democrat candidates that it is the “Harris-Biden” ticket. If Biden’s cognitive decline continues, Democrat progressives will be eager to use the 25th Amendment to remove him from office, post haste. Better for us Republicans not to fall for the Democrat bait-n-switch in the first place.
To contextualize the Democrat Party presidential pick, consider the USA Today headline, “Joe Biden's climate change channeling the Green New Deal plan shows he is no moderate candidate for the 2020 presidential election.” Will our government surrender to socialism or support capitalism that has made our nation the envy of the world? Will we have our current health care system or Medicare for All? Will the Biden presidency you say you will hold your nose and vote for actually be in control of our country, or will a shadow government be pulling his strings? Will America fall back to being, in Barack Obama’s terms, “Just one nation among others, mindful of its imperfections”? Please keep in mind the ultimate goal of the left is a desire to remove as many American distinctions as possible in a move towards globalism.
As Bruce Thornton has articulated, President Trump has recalibrated the failed foreign policies of Obama with “Reaganesque principles: We win, they lose; American interests are paramount; and we should always be no better friend, or worse enemy.” While this issue has remained surreptitious since Biden became the gestural Democrat leader, we should expect Harris and her foreign policy to descend into the globalist agenda--excommunicating Israel and embracing Iran with its path to a not too distant nuclear capability, rapprochement with nations like China who are committed to seeing us fail, membership in a rules-based international organization where we relinquish a vital part of our national sovereignty and identity.
Finally, with all the socialism from Democrat supplicants like BLM, Antifa, Children’s Defense Fund, NAACP, Sierra Club, Southern Poverty Law Center, etc., we can expect to move from a nation that advances individual rights and liberty over the primacy of the state. Al Sharpton will once again be welcomed in the Harris-Biden White House and the Silicon Valley high tech sector will be given a hall pass when stifling freedom of conservative speech in America.
Please don't hate Trump more than you love the nation that has given you everything, and still makes anything possible for your children and grandchildren. A Harris-Biden win will slowly eliminate the foundational principles of individual determination in a truly free society.