spectator.org
Roll the Dice With Trump or Go Down the Tubes With Harris
We all know that there are a large number of conservatives and Republicans who entertain grave doubts about returning Donald Trump to the White House. Apart from their consternation about his volatile, sometimes nasty, personal decorum and the frequent undignified remarks (whether in person or via X), Trump has caused many of those who should be his supporters to be turned off by many of his policy-related statements.
The millions of Americans whose political values are given voice by the Heritage Foundation must be dismayed at Trump’s repeated disavowals of Project 2025. Trump has been treating that conservative wish list like political kryptonite. (Memo to Heritage: Remember the wisdom of 1994’s Contract with America, which focused on a small number of issues that enjoyed at least 60 percent support among the electorate. By overreaching and asking for what seems like everything, you gave the Left too much ammunition.)
Trump certainly isn’t campaigning in a way that free-market conservatives are comfortable with. While one could make allowances for countering a hostile Chinese leadership with targeted tariffs, a widespread use of tariffs will curb domestic economic growth, save some American jobs at the expense of other American jobs, and result in higher consumer prices.
As for the federal budget, we know from Trump’s first term in office that reining in the deficit and taking a strong stand for fiscal responsibility is a political battle that he has chosen not to fight. Remember, the federal deficit rose during the Trump presidency, even before the arrival of COVID, and when he had a Republican-controlled Congress. He also readily gave Nancy Pelosi a budget-busting deal. Trump’s talk about raising or eliminating the SALT tax deduction (which gives a tax break to wealthy Americans in high-tax states) or abolishing the current tax on Social Security payments is disconcerting. Both proposals would, if enacted, add to federal deficits even as the federal budget careens out of control.
On foreign policy, Trump is causing anxiety among conservatives with his glib comments about ending the Russian–Ukraine war with a snap of his fingers. Unfortunately, he declines to tell us what that means in practice. Does he believe in the moral rightness of America’s use of military force to defend the rights and borders of sovereign nations? That was the motive and goal of our Greatest Generation’s efforts in World War II. It was also the conservatism of Ronald Reagan, who believed that we — the good guys — should win and the bad guys should lose. (For the record, I opposed the neoconservatives in regard to Iraq and Afghanistan, so please don’t pin that label on me.) Yes, our European allies in NATO should contribute more, but we should not appease the murderous Putin by cavalierly carving up Ukraine to placate him.
The problem for conservatives and Republicans who are uncomfortable with Trump’s policies is: Do you really think Kamala Harris is an acceptable alternative? This is a woman who cast the tie-breaking vote that passed some of the worst legislation in American history. She was fully onboard with Joe Biden’s disastrous policies. She says she supports small businesses, but, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, solicited bail money to release the thugs who looted and burned small businesses. This is the desperate demagogue who is resorting to tired and absurd class-warfare rhetoric in the latter days of her presidential campaign.
Let’s compare Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in six crucial areas:
The deep state: In his presidential term, Trump proved to be an enemy of the deep state, repealing reams of regulatory overkill. By contrast, it is impossible to conceive of Harris opposing or limiting anything that the executive bureaucracies would do.
Taxes: Trump showed a mature understanding of economics when he chopped the top corporate tax rate to 21 percent — a policy shift that boosted economic activity and resulted in handsome wage increases for millions of workers. Harris, on the other hand, is completely committed to the economically destructive dogma of raising taxes on corporations.
Commander-in-chief: The world remains a very dangerous place, and with the growing cooperation between the new evil axis (Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea), it is becoming even more dangerous. Trump is tough. The man hates to lose. He also has backbone. How can one not be impressed by his spirited reaction of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” just a moment after he was shot? Despite his disconcerting rhetoric about admiring or respecting Vladimir Putin (rhetoric that I believe is manipulative and not sincere) the “Putins” of the world are not going to be able to intimidate Donald Trump. I can’t say the same thing about Kamala Harris, who seems to be just another version of Obama and Biden, repeatedly wimping out by making unilateral concessions to enemies out of a fear of offending them, weakening and demoralizing our military by prioritizing DEI over effectiveness, and pressuring Ukraine and Israel not to fight for victory. Trump hates to lose. Harris, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have the guts or backbone to stand up to aggressive thugs.
Immigration: Harris was fully onboard with Team Biden’s open border and resettle-masses-of-illegal-immigrants into the U.S. policy. By contract, Trump has shown by actions as well as words that he loves his country enough to defend its borders and to uphold the principle that not every human being on the face of the earth has a right to live in our country. (Interestingly, in his recent Wall Street Journal interview, Trump showed a soft side, saying that his tough talk about not letting families reunite is done not because he really wants to separate families, but because such a message dissuades many people from trying to enter the country illegally.)
Climate change: Trump would spend far more government money than I would, but at least he draws the line at the whole climate change cabal. He refuses to impoverish our country by restricting the necessary production of fossil fuels. He rejects the socialistic redistribution-of-wealth scheme cooked up by the United Nations and supported by socialistic internationalists (such as domestic progressives like Kamala Harris) in the name of a supposed climate emergency that has actually been benign.
The Constitution. Harris is the current figurehead for a party that wants to deep-six the Constitution. She wants to destroy the independence of the Supreme Court, whether by imposing term limits, increasing the number of justices so that she can appoint anti-constitutional liberals, or neutering justices with bogus “ethics” persecutions. Her running mate has targeted the Electoral College that prevents, say, California, from allowing so many illegal votes that they outweigh the entire populations of the smaller states. She shares, with leaders of her party, including Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Tim Walz, a desire to scuttle the First Amendment and suppress what she calls “misinformation” (defined as beliefs that differ from Democratic orthodoxy). Trump, on the other hand, appointed three Supreme Court justices who uphold rather than try to dismantle the Constitution.
This list could be longer, but herein have been mentioned a few major reasons why, despite his shortcomings, it makes more sense for Americans who aren’t progressive zombies to roll the dice and vote for Donald Trump rather than to stay home or even vote for a candidate who would flush America down the tubes.
RELATED:
Kamala Harris Flunked the Job Interviews
The Best Possible Outcome for Democrats: A Trump Win
Harris and the Dems Have No Border Credibility
The post Roll the Dice With Trump or Go Down the Tubes With Harris appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
News Feed (Home)
Popular Posts 
Events 
Blog 
Market 
Forum 
Headline News
VidWatch
Game Zone
Top PodCasts
