Tuesday’s the day. For the second time in two presidential elections Americans find themselves with a stark choice with real, and possibly permanent, repercussions for the future of our country.
On one side we have Donald Trump, an amateur politician who has spent most of his life signing the front, not the back, of paychecks. For a newcomer to politics, he hasn’t done badly behind the Resolute desk. He engineered policies which brought unemployment to record low levels for all Americans. He jettisoned agreements that promised to harm our country, its interests and citizens, made by those who fancied themselves America’s ruling class. He negotiated trade accords, some of which were praised even by his current opponent. He decreased the number of Americans exposed to death in combat, something every president since Roosevelt promised but few managed to accomplish. He vanquished ISIS, a dangerous enemy which threatened our country and its allies; an enemy his predecessor allowed to grow unchecked.
President Trump generally kept many promises he made as a candidate, or at least labored mightily to achieve them. And he did this while facing rabid opposition not only from Democrat politicians, but also most of the national media, the academy, some members of his own party, significant elements of the permanent Federal bureaucracy, cultural mavens and stratospherically-wealthy tycoons. He was ridiculed, pilloried, investigated, spied on. It was a heavy lift, but a good bit of what he promised to do, he did. And with any luck he’ll do it again.
On the other side are the aforementioned opposition. They have chosen as their puppet former Vice-President Joe Biden. Joe is the quintessential professional politician, a man who when asked “What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream,” wants to see focus group results first and then gives an answer so vague one has trouble separating “chocolate” from “vanilla.” And who will change that answer when speaking to strawberry lovers, insisting that it was always his preference most of the time.
There are important differences between the two men. Donald Trump will not raise taxes on most Americans; he’s done the opposite and promises more. Joe Biden will. He’s said he won’t, but those promises are, to use one of his favorite descriptors, “malarkey.” He’ll have to raise the Medicare portion of the payroll tax if he intends to make Medicaid enrollment automatic for those who can’t meet state requirements – as he’s promised. And if he rolls back Trump’s tax cuts as he has said he would, real money will disappear from real American families’ wallets.
Joe Biden jabbers about the middle class a lot, but he is focused on causing problems for one of its foundations – small business. Not only does he promise to tax it in the aftermath of COVID, he’ll raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, across the country. The results are easy to predict: some hourly workers will enjoy slightly higher income; many will find themselves out of work, replaced by technology. But the residual workforce that is unionized will reap large benefits, since wages in union contracts are usually negotiated as a multiple of the federal minimum. Expect unions to be grateful financially.
Candidate Biden has also promised to raise the cost of just about everything. In his oft-stated promise to “transition” away from fossil fuel alone is the reality that transportation will be costlier; that food grown with, packaged in, transported by, refrigerated and in the end, cooked by, fossil fuels will be much dearer; that bills for heating and cooling, now largely powered by fossil fuels, will rise. He and his crowd have publicly committed to making us colder; our homes darker and our cupboards barer. Then the nastiness will really begin.
Barack Obama advisor Robert Reich has called for a “Truth and Reconciliation Committee” to root out residual Trump supporters. It’s not clear whether he’s calling for re-education camps or the guillotine, but neither is beyond comprehension for the hatemongers of the Left. They’re prepared to teach our children that the country was founded to protect slavery; ready to pillage in the name of reparations; ready to discard more constitutional protections for minority rights; pack the Supreme Court, discard Senate traditions and essentially shed the remaining wisdom gained from 250 years of American governance. They, their Silicon Valley overlords and their useful idiots in the media and the academy are prepared to do all this to see Donald Trump destroyed.
Voters should tell them today that hate is not a useful plan.
Or perhaps that it’s just not useful, period.
