Time to Choose

Voters will soon choose which of two flawed men will lead our nation the next four years. There are very strong feelings on both sides and no matter who wins, half the nation will be angry.

Therein lies the challenge. In making my choice, I find it best to shut off my emotions. It’s true, facts don’t care about feelings. Bad outcomes result when decisions are made based on how we feel because feelings change day to day and facts don’t.

Joe Biden has been a part of the Washington swamp for 47 years. That’s more than 20 percent of the entire time the U.S. Senate has existed, but he did little in that time to push for programs and policies he claims to back now. In looking at his record, his signature achievement was the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. While the bill is credited in helping reduce crime and Biden touted his role in its passage as recently as 2016, he now denounces it because critics claim it resulted in incarcerating a disproportionate number of minority males. That bill also contained the so-called “Assault Weapons Ban”, which prohibited the manufacture, transfer, or possession of arbitrarily selected semiautomatic firearms for 10 years. Biden’s alarming advocacy of a quasi-socialist agenda backed by avowed democratic socialist Bernie Sanders makes many uncomfortable with its laundry list of big promises and few details on how to pay for them. He advocates higher taxes, elimination of fossil fuels, draconian gun control, ending the Senate filibuster, and has not been forthright about packing the Supreme Court with left-leaning justices or the integration of Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. into the union as two virtually guaranteed blue states to give his party dominance in the U.S. Senate. And Biden is obviously, and sadly, in physical and mental decline, which means a vote for him is essentially a vote to have Kamala Harris, a woman overwhelmingly rejected for the presidency by her own party in the primary elections, become president.

Donald Trump is not a conservative. He’s a populist. But he has surprised many by largely governing as a conservative in his first term. Abrasive personality aside, his list of achievements prior to the pandemic is impressive. Near-record economic growth. All-time record low unemployment for Blacks and Hispanics. Incredible job growth, even in the manufacturing sector. Businesses that had relocated overseas returned. The stock market soared to record highs. Median family income rose markedly. Taxes were cut. Burdensome federal regulations and rules were eliminated. When the pandemic hit, his administration oversaw the largest private sector medical mobilization and effort to produce medical equipment and PPE in history without enacting federal takeovers. In fact, for a man vilified as a tyrant, Trump showed remarkable restraint in avoiding use of all the power he could have. Trump is the most pro-life president since Reagan. He supports religious liberties. He has repeatedly condemned white supremacy and racism, though those sound bites don’t seem to get media coverage, and is on track to double his vote percentage among black Americans from the eight percent he got in 2016. Remarkable for a man so often called racist.

Also under reported is Trump’s nomination for three Nobel Peace Prizes this year for ending foreign wars, brokering a peace deal between Serbia and Kosovo, and a historic peace deal between Israel and United Arab Emirates (the first big Middle East peace deal in 25 years). He defied foreign policy “experts” by moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem to keep a promise. He eradicated ISIS, terminated several top terrorist leaders, and erased the deal with Iran that saw the previous administration deliver pallets of appeasement cash to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. He renegotiated international trade deals, and forced NATO nations to pay more for their own defense. Trump supports the Second Amendment. He has appointed and confirmed more than 200 federal judges thought to be originalists. And he did all this under the pressure of impeachment, which we now know was based on inaccurate information.

My vote will be an objection to the behavior of corrupt mainstream and social media censorship. Never in my life have I seen large cable and broadcast news operations actively work so hard to bring down a sitting president. Dangerously irresponsible and immoral actions by social media prevented legitimate content that didn’t follow a prescribed narrative from seeing the light of day. Disgusting. Never have I seen cultural establishments such as Hollywood and major league sports work so hard together to sway an election.

My vote will be as much a rebuke as anything else. I’m voting against sports establishments for wrecking enjoyment of what was once a politically neutral haven with social justice propaganda. I’m voting against false American history curriculum forced into our schools. I’m voting against anti-Trump rioters who hijacked a legitimate call for police reforms and violently destroyed sections of our great cities. I’m voting against those who want to defund the police. I’m voting against Antifa thugs. I’m voting against those who want to force churches and Christian ministries to hire those who don’t live according to Christian doctrine. I’m voting against anti-Semites. I’m voting against those advocating socialism with no concept of its destructive history. I’m voting against those who advocate government confiscation of legally purchased and privately owned firearms. I’m voting against those who demand I follow science, yet declare unborn children to be inconvenient groups of parasitic cells and teach that men can be women, women men, and want to let children as young as 8 decide their gender. I’m voting against those who vilify America on matters related to climate change without recognizing our leadership among nations in reducing carbon emissions without adding more burdensome regulations.

You will make your choice. I’ve outlined the reasoning behind mine and hope, whether you agree or disagree, that you’ll vote on November 3.