Vote Trump for a Moral, Just Society

By next Saturday, the election will be "over" (for certain values of "over"; I wholly expect insane legal wrangling to continue for weeks/months once the preliminary results are in). Thus, this post is officially my last pitch for President Donald J. Trump, blowhard and Cheeto extraordinaire.

To all America-loving voters: Everyone knows that Trump's personal moral character is questionable at best -- that he's no saint. But if Trump's history (or his Twitter feed) is what's stopping you from voting for the guy, I strongly, strongly urge you to reconsider your priorities. You had an excuse to hesitate in 2016 back when Trump's political commitments were in doubt; you don't have an excuse now.

Our choices here, as I see it, are pretty damned clear:

1. We can have an awkward, cringey commander-in-chief who obviously adores our country and, regardless of his flaws, will genuinely try to serve our interests and defend our foundational principles.
2. We can have a weak, ineffectual commander-in-chief who will absolutely be railroaded by elements in his own party who hate America - hate you - and wish to destroy her.

I'm sorry, but Biden does not have the wherewithal to beat back the successor ideology that's now threatening our constitutional order. The Democratic Party as a whole does not have that wherewithal because it's been captured by said ideology's adherents. And we need to beat back these adherents and their poisonous notions if we wish America to remain the imperfect but basically moral and just society we all know it is. This is priority number one. It should overshadow all other considerations.

What radical leftists want for us Americans has nothing to do with justice, either social or otherwise -- and if they take power via Joe Biden (because again, Biden will not be able to stop them), they absolutely will destroy everything that makes America good. This should not be in doubt if you're even remotely conversant with the nightly news. 

I have become increasingly convinced, for example, that social justice warriors will not be satisfied until a black guy can gut a cop in broad daylight in front of cameras and a dozen witnesses and yet still get off scot free. Why? At bottom, these activists see black people as purse puppies who should be permitted to run wild doing whatever they please with zero consequences because the "legacy of slavery" has rendered the poor dears sub-human and they consequently just can't help themselves. How else do you explain their absolute refusal to acknowledge that, oh, running at the cops with a knife will get you justifiably shot? How do you explain their absolute refusal to hold black people responsible for their own choices in general? Remember: according to the SJW left, expecting "people of color" to do something simple like showing up to work on time is in fact a manifestation of "white supremacy" that should be discouraged. Does that make sense to you? If not, you need to vote for Trump. Biden and the Democrats will let this critical race theory crap fester in our bureaucracies and our board rooms because so many of them actually buy what it's selling; Trump, on the other hand, has already acted to oppose it.

I have also become convinced that these same people seek to control everything I think, everything I say, and everything I do -- and that if they can't succeed in rendering me silent and compliant, they will do everything they can to make sure I starve instead. Do you like cancel culture? Are you comfortable with the power SJW's already have to completely destroy people's lives for the crime of - well - not being SJW's? Were you okay, for instance, with what happened to the Covington kids? To Justice Kavanaugh? And does it sit right with you that Silicon Valley execs are unilaterally deciding for all of us what constitutes "truth" when it comes to thorny political matters -- or the COVID-19 pandemic, for that matter? If not, you need to vote for Trump. We can't trust Biden to stop this cultural totalitarianism -- not because he supports it personally necessarily but because its his base that's driving it.

In my view - and I think in your view too if you're an average, decent American - a truly moral, just society fulfills the following two criteria at minimum:

1. It protects the natural rights (of life, liberty, and property) of each and every human being regardless of class, race, etc.
2. It ensures that the rules that govern it are predictable and evenly applied to all citizens.

Has America achieved these? Not completely; I think all good faith actors agree that there's definite room for improvement. But I believe - I think with good reason - that we've come closer to the ideal than any other polity. And I think we can make further strides towards greater justice and equality if we continue to abide by the classically liberal values that got us here. Freedom, readers! Freedom is the key. The ability to talk things out in a free marketplace of ideas has given us everything from modern science to the original civil rights movement. And the ability to exchange goods and services in a free economy, meanwhile, has given even poor slobs like me a standard of living that would be the envy of the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt or the kings of early-modern Europe. Freedom's record, in short, is sterling. 

But the fifth columnists lurking behind Biden don't want freedom. Indeed, they don't even want our society to fulfill the aforementioned nonnegotiables. For sure, they definitely don't want us all to abide by the same comprehensible laws and mores; on the contrary, they simply want to change who gets the "privilege" and who gets shafted. That's why they argue that race should be considered when it comes to, say, admitting students to prestigious schools: they want to ease the standards for their favorites and screw the rest (especially those damned Jews and Asians who have the temerity to succeed despite their difficult histories). So here's the essential question: do you think this path - a path that centers what divides us and uses it to pass out bennies to just a few - will actually result in a society that's more fair? If not, you need to vote for Trump.

Leftists have also openly declared that people don't have a natural right to keep the things they've acquired through their labor, stumping on public radio for the revolutionary virtues of looting. And while Biden himself likely doesn't embrace this fringe view, he and the other members of his party don't seem all that motivated to stamp it out with force. Indeed, they all seemed more offended by Trump's expressed desire to use federal troops to stop the rioting than by the actual rioting. Do you really want people like this in charge of our country? Do you really want to be led by politicians who just can't bring themselves to aggressively punish violent commies trying their best to burn our cities to the ground? If not, you need to vote for Trump.

Of course, some people will read this and tell me that I am scared over nothing. But no: I'd say I have a lot more evidence to point to regarding the left's dangerous intentions for me and mine than any Biden voter has for the supposed threats of a continued Trump presidency. Aside from one creepy rally in Charlottesville a few years ago, I haven't seen much action from this "radical right" that's supposedly riding on Trump's coattails and menacing us all. What I've seen is incident upon incident of leftists outright terrorizing their neighbors -- and a Democratic Party that's not getting in their way. If you've seen this too, you need to vote for Trump -- even if it makes you unpopular at suburban cocktail parties.

Substance Over Surface

Of all the things that drive my upcoming vote for Trump (which will be my first, recall; I voted 3rd party in 2016), perhaps the most important has been the left's complete loss of contact with anything resembling reality -- or even one God-damned moral principle. And you know what I think partially drives this evolution? The left's obsession with appearances.

With the left, it's all about the external. Take the exam school controversy I discussed last week, for example. Blacks, Hispanics, and Indigenous Americans are under-represented in top secondary schools, and that is a problem that needs to be addressed. But what does the left propose we do? Make the outcomes look equal by openly considering race in admissions and lowering the standards for these disadvantaged groups. These "anti-racist" activists offer nothing that will actually fix the root causes that drive the disparity, which include everything from widespread family breakdown, chronic (Democratic) mismanagement of urban school districts, incompetent teaching (including the promotion of curricula that abandon essential skills like, say, memorizing your multiplication tables), cultural pressures to avoid "acting white", and - yes, perhaps - lingering economic inequality that can be traced to past racist policies. (I'm willing to consider anything as long as you have the evidence.)

Or consider the San Diego Unified School District's decision to adopt an easier grading policy because Black, Hispanic and Indigenous students are over-represented among students who fail. According to this new policy, students will no longer be penalized for late assignments, poor attendance, or poor behavior; instead, they will be given essentially infinite chances to get their A's. Now: when it comes to learning outcomes, I happen to believe that mastery learning is the best approach -- that no student should be ushered on to the next level without demonstrating full proficiency on the previous step. Thus, I do think struggling students should get ample opportunity to review, revise, and remediate. At the same time, though, it is also important to teach teenaged students in particular proper work habits. In the adult world, everyone must properly manage his time, meet deadlines, and prioritize between competing responsibilities; if we don't prepare our students for this road, we are setting them up to fail later on. But does the left care about that? No. Once again, "anti-racists" are fixated on superficially burnishing the outcomes so everything appears equal; they have zero interest in doing anything hard (but genuinely helpful) like, oh, mentoring students in particularly difficult circumstances so they can meet ordinary expectations like turning their homework in on time.

Back in June, I wrote a little didactic tale in which the main character does something difficult and tangible to help a neighboring community in distress -- but because she fails to wear the correct symbol of concern (in this case, a blue scarf), she is attacked. My purpose there was quite overt: to point out the left's current defective modus operandi. According to the left, if you don't post that black square on Instagram, you're not fighting for "black lives." According to the left, if you're not perfectly proper in the language you use, you're a damned dirty racist who should be run out on a rail.

But when it comes to real-world successes -when it comes to truly changing things for the better - what people say matters very, very little; what matters much more is what people do. Think about it, and think hard. Who, in the end, is actually advancing the cause of racial equality: the gruff, unattractive, ethnic-joke-loving plumber and volunteer tutor who drills black kids in inner-city Detroit on their arithmetic -- or the impeccably-dressed suburban freelance journalist who writes long think-pieces on the inherent "violence" of "digital blackface" while sipping lattes in an upscale coffee shop? Anyone with two brain cells in his head realizes that the right answer is clearly the former.

So: 'Trump. Trump is the plumber. He's said a lot of cringe-worthy things (though the media, of course, have exponentially exaggerated these offenses against etiquette through open, brazen lying). But what has he done - what has he actually done - that merits the hysterical "racist/Nazi/fascist" labels that are heaped upon his head? I want receipts. I want evidence. And I don't want to hear about what he tweeted; I want to hear about policy and documented impacts. 

In the meantime, here's what I see: I see that before COVID, economic prospects were looking up for struggling minority communities thanks to Trump's economic policies. I see the Trump administration talking to people concerned about criminal justice reform. I see the Trump administration actually avoiding needless foreign wars while still offering a muscular defense of our interests. I see, in short, Trump working towards many of the stated goals of the left. Yet the left refuses to give Trump credit for any of his efforts in this vein -- because the guy is just so gauche. He's just so ugly and common and gross. He doesn't wear the blue scarf.

And here's what I also see: I see leftists bleating all the right phrases and sporting all the right totems -- while simultaneously promoting - or at least enabling - activity that has worsened prospects for our most vulnerable. I've said it before and I'll say it again: How does trashing an urban neighborhood help any of the people who live there? How does creating new food and pharmacy deserts benefit minority communities? Leftists can't offer real answers to these questions because for them, it's all about the performance of compassion -- not about making observable progress.

BLATE: My vote for Trump is a vote for substance over surface.

TRUMP Derangement Syndrome - Still Obscuring the Truth

BLUF - We need 4 more years of a TRUMP Presidency to completely reverse the long, slow slide towards a Social Democracy; and restore a Constitutionally organized Democratic Republic of the several states.

The latest Victor Davis Hanson column on the Liberal/Socialist/Communist American Elite, and their media toadies, complete derangement as TRUMP reverses the slide towards a European Socialist state.

The media piles on lie after lie aiding the silent coup attempt to bring down the sitting president. And the real good news is never mentioned - growing economy, lowest unemployment, more money in the average citizen's pocket, ending China's mercantilism excesses at our expense, oil and gas production way up, reversing many of Obama's "I have a pen" fiat changes to bypass our constitution - I could go on. They lie by spreading lies, and by omission - NOT telling the whole story.

Previous Republican administrations tried to slow the "long march" toward a Democratic Socialist Peoples America; and was often a failure. TRUMP is trying, and succeeding, at reversing the slide. Give him more time to reverse the course of the country.

Here is the URL for the column:  http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0919/hanson091919.php3

BLUF - I AM COMPLETELY HAPPY WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP'S PERFORMANCE DURING HIS FIRST TWO YEARS. I'd give him a second term in a heartbeat.
In the November 2016 election there were only 2 real candidates -- Trump and Clinton. A long time ago Heinlein said "Hold your nose and vote for the least bad candidate."
Clinton was personally and politically corrupt, unlikeable on a personal level as told by subordinates who worked for her, and was running on "4 more years of failed Socialism, but with a woman this time." Few specific new ideas.
Trump ran on the idea of reducing the Federal bureaucracy, both in people and regulations, making our partners in diplomacy pay a share of the costs of promoting Capitalism, staunch support for Democratic allies in the mid-east (now ONLY Israel), economic hard ball with China, military straight shooting with North Korea.
Compare the two. Clinton was thin gruel; Trump was a complete Federal Republic and Capitalist feast. The choice was easy.
After thr first 2 years, despite a continuous quiet coup attempt by the deep state holdovers from the previous administration and the Democratic (Communist) party; and the quiet obstruction FROM "HIS OWN" PARTY, has accomplished much.
Leadership in Capitalist economic policy - removing some of the burdens of the administrative state, reducing taxes to RAISE TAX RECEIPTS to the government (a growing economy will do that) (and more $$$$ in my pocket); a firm line with China that has modified their behavior toward us; a strong hand towards North Korea that has caused the first signs of movement in 60 years; and many in the EEC recognizing change was coming and starting to move their ponderous state in the right direction.
If Trump wasn't reflexively opposed by the Democratic Communist party (still smarting over their humiliating loss from running an unlikeable harridan against an unapologetic Capitalist); a substantial minority of the Republican Stupid party (still smarting over their primary losses to a complete, non-political newcomer - who was a Capitalist Businessman); and the hold-over deep state actively working against him he could have accomplished much more. I don't care that he is rude, vulgar, cis-normal male and rich enough to buy lots of stuff - including cheap women willing to sell sexual favors for cash.
I voted for him to return my country back to a Limited Government, Federal Republic based on the ideals expressed in our Declaration of Independence, and organized to limit the power of the Federal Government by our Constitution. He should be, and is, providing leadership in the areas of Economic Policy, Foreign Relations with our allies AND enemies, and "Supporting and Defending the Constitution of the United States, and the Country Whose Course It Directs.*"
Trump is doing a good job were it counts.
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*From my Naval Officer's Oath on promotion