America will get over the COVID -19 pandemic no matter who wins the presidency – and all those other down-ballot races. So, the real issue is which party is better able to lead on all the other – the more traditional — issues.
Which party will produce a better economy for the long-term future? That is critically important to the core health of America – every worker, employer, shopper, taxpayer and investor (including those employee pension plans).
Which party will better provide for the domestic tranquility? Which party will more effectively address the growing violence in the streets? Riots, looting, arson and vandalism that parades as peaceful protest – undermining legitimate and constitutional peaceful protest?
Which party can bring meaningful reform to systemic and institutional racism by effectively attacking the root causes?
Which party can exert America’s influence in foreign affairs for the benefit of America?
Which party can protect America’s uniquely successful federal system in which the people exert the greatest influence on government policy – not an elitist bureaucratic establishment in Washington?
As the Covid-19 becomes a footnote in history, those are the great issues that will have greater importance for the future of America – the nation we leave our children.
If you are wondering which party I think will do best for America, you must be a new reader. I believe it is the Republican Party. I do not say that as a blind partisan loyalist. I am not a cheerleader for the Party – far from it. I get a lot of grief from the cheerleaders for my objective criticism of the Party and its leaders on various issues. It is just that the GOP represents the best vehicle to advance my more important conservative principles. If I tried to work within the Democratic Party, I would be the victim of their nasty Cancel Culture.
As I often say, elections are what the voters decide to decide upon. Democrats and their media buddies are pushing hard to have us decide on Trump’s handling of the Corvid-19 virus – where he has his greatest vulnerability. They want to distract us from all the other critical issues that involve the presidency, Congress and the cities and states – especially the issues to which I referred above.
Conversely, I prefer to focus on the big picture – not just one issue. Overall, I find the Republican policies, proposals and positions to be more in line with my long-held conservative views – which are in line with our Founders’ concept of a federalized, limited-government republic and adherence to the inalienable rights articulated in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I see the Democrats embrace of big regulatory socialism as an existential threat to the Republic – as the slippery slope to authoritarianism.
Economic Prosperity
In terms of the issues I noted above, I do believe that Trump’s and the Republicans’ belief in free-market capitalism is the best means of providing the most economic benefits to the greatest number of people – and an economy in which we consumers collectively chart the course of business and prosperity. The success of free-market capitalism has been proven in the past – in nation after nation – while socialism has a dark history of economic suffering and political oppression of the masses, including starvation and mass executions.
I fear today’s Democrats are edging closer and closer to a system in which the elite bureaucrats and a permanently empowered single political party will rule over we the people. Rather than being the driver of public policy, we the people will be in the back seat as those at the helm make all the decisions.
Domestic Tranquility
I believe that Republican governance is the best hope for domestic tranquility. Democrats have increasingly assumed the authoritarian socialist model — that if you do not get power through the ballot, you get it through mob action. It is undeniable that the left has a penchant for violence.
To see the difference between a constitutional protest in the spirit of the American Constitution and mob action, one just needs to compare the large protests by the Tea Party movement and the characteristics of the left-wing movements. When the political right protested, there was no arson, no looting, no vandalism, no injuries or deaths. That is what a constitutional protest looks like.
Conversely, left-wing protests – even if legitimately motivated – quickly descend into violence and destruction. The apologists on the left can call these outbreaks of mob violence peaceful demonstrations, but the truth is seen over and over.
A party that is predicated on the concepts of Identity politics and political correctness will NEVER … repeat NEVER … bring about domestic tranquility because their entire modus operandi is to divide America into political tribes and then pit one group against another in a you-win-I-lose political conflict.
The Democrats’ propensity for lawless governance is seen in the refusal to secure the border, the creation of extra-legal Sanctuaries where Illegal aliens can remain safe from the long arm of the law, the calls to disband the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, siding with rioters over law enforcement, defunding critical police services, refusal to obey federal laws, aiding and abetting those who leak classified information and on and on.
Ending Institutional Racism
This one will get a lot of pushback from the left, but I do believe that the Democratic Party has been – and continues to be – the primary purveyor of INSTITUTIONAL racism in America. There should be no argument over the Democratic Party’s roll in fighting (literally) for slavery against Republican abolitionism. There can be no refutation of the claim that the Democratic Party was responsible for the 100-plus years of Black oppression following the Civil War – in both the old south, where the very levers of government were the weapons of oppression along with auxiliary terrorist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan.
The record is clear that the Democratic Party was the backbone of opposition to the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964 and 1965.
The residual of that history of Black oppression is still found in the segregated major cities that have been under the rule of Democrats for generations. This systemic de facto racism is seen in the plight of impoverished Blacks — and to a lesser degree Hispanics – in our metropolitan centers today. It is the reason why virtually all civil unrest based on racial oppression and inequality rises out of the Democrat machine-run cities.
To their own discredit and disservice, I must admit that the Republican Party has failed to more aggressively push its long-standing civil rights agenda. But the failure of the GOP to make its case does not abrogate the Democratic Party’s responsibility and culpability in destroying opportunities and even the lives of millions of Black people over many generations.
The Federal Republic
I see this election as more than a current issue but has a potential tipping-point for our federal Republic. I fear that many voters will not take into consideration the most fundamental concept that has made America one of the most successful nations in history in delivering the highest quality of life over the longest period of time – and has led to a very important thing known as American Exceptionalism.
As crafted by our Founders. America is a FEDERAL Republic – meaning that we are a confederation of powerful, quasi-independent “states.” We do not call our subdivisions “provinces” but “states” – a name normally associated with independent nations – for a very good reason. It is intended to reflect that most of the powers of governance rests with the states – not the central government in Washington.
This means that the power of our voices, our vote and our protests are greatest at the local and state levels. We are least influencing in the corridors of the Washington establishment. The more power we give up to Washington to regulate our daily lives, the less power we have over the decisions. Our central government becomes less representative of our diverse opinions and will — and more submissive to the predilections of those innumerable nameless, faceless, unelected, unreachable bureaucrats who fill the offices of all those government edifices found inside and outside the District of Columbia.
And so …
I prefer the Republican party as the only hope of pulling back from our slide down the slippery slope of central government authoritarianism. To me, that is the BIG issue. That – more than anything – scares the Hell out of me in terms of Democrat governance. And that is why I pursue my principles within the Republican Party. And that is why – despite all his manifest personality flaws – I will again vote for Trump.
So, there ‘tis.