Making a List, Checking It Twice

The election nears. Although I’m not wild about the choices, to me the choice is completely clear. I’ve been very critical of Trump on economics, but since Harris is likely worse, this is no reason to vote for the latter and not the former, although it could be a push. However, when it comes to virtually every other issue that matters to me, it is not a push. Trump>Harris. And it’s not even close.

I decided to put it in list form. Here are the issues where I think Trump is better for America–a lot better:

1A. The Democrats are virulently anti-free speech, and not shy about saying so. This could be the most important issue of our time. Free speech is under attack, and a Harris victory would go a long way towards making that attack successful. Trump lets it rip, and if he’s president he’s likely to let us let it rip. This is the first freedom. If it goes, the rest of them follow. 2A. The Democrats are virulently anti-right to bear arms. The Constitution generally. There is a major undercurrent of hostility (and sometimes not so under) among Democrats to the Constitution, including most especially the Supreme Court (now that it does not do their bidding), the Electoral College, the Senate, and the separation of powers. All of these are fundamental pillars of our system, and pulling them down would have extremely baleful effects, potentially including disunion and civil war.Freedom generally. Kamala babbles about freedom (including using some insipid Beyonce song with that title as her theme song), but her idea of freedom is NOT freedom from the dictates and whims of the state. With the possible exception of the freedom to terminate a pregnancy. Instead it is the Orwellian progressive idea of positive “freedoms” where the state gives you stuff–but there are always strings attached. You become not a free person, but a dependent one. Judges. The Supreme Court gets all the attention, but the real work gets done in the District and Appeals courts. Compare, for example, Judge Chutkan with Judge Cannon. Immigration. No comment necessary.The deep/administrative state. Now I seriously doubt that if elected Trump will be able to make inroads into the deep/administrative state. Indeed, he will be lucky to keep it from destroying him–as it has been attempting to do since he declared his candidacy in 2015. But a stalemate would be better than the alternative under Harris: I guarantee that the administrative/deep state will run rampant in a Harris administration. Indeed, it will be the Harris administration. As it is currently the Biden administration: you don’t think Biden is president, do you? And you don’t think Harris will be, do you? Regulation. This is a corollary of 7. Trump’s main virtue in his first term was cutting back on some regulation. I anticipate that he would continue these efforts if elected. I guarantee that the regulatory agencies, notably EPA, SEC, and FCC, not to mention many others you’ve probably never heard of, would run rampant under Harris. The elimination of Chevron deference would help some in controlling the flood, but not very much–especially if the courts are stocked with progressive judges (see 5 above): progressive judges will continue to defer, even if they don’t have to.DEI. Especially in the military. Here is someplace I think Trump can really make inroads, although again he will face organized resistance from within the Pentagon and within the cadres of flag officers promoted under a pro-DEI regime. A good place to start would be the service academies. They need to be torn down to the studs and rebuilt to something like they were decades ago: doing so would be highly visible and send a strong signal while being more manageable than trying to take on the entire Pentagon. Moreover, DEI has penetrated the federal government so deeply (look at recent stories regarding its impact on the Department of the Treasury and the National Science Foundation) that it is a target rich environment. Trump will be able to beat it back, perhaps considerably. Under Harris, it would only metastasize. Climate and energy. Trump would pull back hard on climate insanity, and relatedly get out of the way of development and employment of fossil fuels. Both of these would be conducive to growth and prosperity, whereas the Democratic/progressive alternatives of renewables and myriad restrictions on fossil fuels are a recipe for penury. Just look at German or the UK–or California. A more restrained, less interventionist foreign policy. Yes, Trump is a loose cannon on these matters, but in some respects that is conducive to peace: unpredictability, impulsiveness, and yes even craziness, have strong deterrent effects. For evidence of what a traditional, supposedly non-crazy foreign policy has wrought, just look around. The world is on fire, whereas it was not 3.5 years ago. If that’s the product of sanity, I’ll take crazy any day. Trump’s overall instinct is to look out for America’s interests, not to save the world, even if he hurts feelings (especially Euroweenie feelings) when doing so. Trying to save the world, or remake it in America’s image, has brought nothing but grief to us, and a lot of misery to the rest of the world.

I could probably add a few more things, but these are at the top of my priorities.

This really is a pivotal election. Not so much for what Trump could accomplish if he is elected, but for what Harris (or more accurately her regime/ruling class masters) would do if she is. I really do believe that this is a real fork in the road, and if the nation takes the left one there will be no turning back–and there will be a cliff at the end of it. Trump may not lead us to the promised land, but he can keep us from falling into the the abyss, at least for a while.