Back in February 2016, when the presidential primaries were in full swing, I watched with dismay as a septuagenarian socialist with a record of mediocrity and a deeply corrupt, dishonest (and evil) swamp creature battled it out for the Democratic nomination, while we had a fairly diverse field vying for the Republican nomination. I wrote about why electing Bernie Sanders would be a disaster and I wrote about why electing Hillary Clinton would be a disaster. Like most observers, I did not expect the election of Donald Trump.
As the primary season progressed, I originally supported Texas Senator Ted Cruz for the nomination. I liked his conservative credentials and felt he had the best chance of winning against Hillary Clinton. I, along with many others, underestimated the populist groundswell that Donald Trump was able to exploit, and I overestimated the enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton.
I had never been a fan of Donald Trump the TV star and felt that his personal failings would be enough of a turn-off for many people to not vote for him. I was a vocal critic of his presence in the primary, but once he secured the Republican nomination, my opposition turned to silent neutrality. As a lifelong Republican, I was not going to trash the nominee of my party. I spent the election season working to defeat Hillary and other Democratic candidates.
When I sat down to fill out my ballot, I did what I’ve done in every presidential election since 1980. I filled in my ballot for the Republican candidate. I voted for Donald J. Trump.
I watched in complete surprise as he won the election, then as the progressive Left tried every underhanded trick they could think of to prevent him from taking office. Most presidents get a “honeymoon” for the first few months of their administrations. Not so President Trump. The leftist hatred we’ve seen for the president was immediately unleashed, and it has never abated.
In the first year, President Trump took the brakes off of the economy which had languished during the Obama years by immediately reducing the federal regulatory burden. He got the U.S. out of the silly Paris Climate Accords. He cracked down on illegal immigration. He started appointing constitution-respecting judges to the federal judiciary. He nominated Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. And he has taken the battle for the culture directly to the progressive Left, in media and in government.
Along the way he has had some victories, some losses, some missteps and made mistakes. But his overall record of success is impressive, especially in light of the fierce opposition he elicits, and he is treated so unfairly by the mainstream media that nobody knows about his successes.
Successes of the Trump Administration
The Economy
While economic growth has remained steady under President Trump, unemployment has plummeted, with record employment numbers across demographics including African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities. The stock market has continued to rise, despite volatility introduced by Trump’s tariffs and trade policies.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) was the crowning achievement of the 115th Congress. For once, the Republicans held together and got the tax cut passed through Congress. Suddenly, most Americans’ tax burdens were reduced and corporate tax rates became competitive with the rest of the world. In 2018, after the tax cuts were passed, tax revenues have increased by 6%, there have been fewer “inversions” (where companies relocate overseas to reduce their income tax burden), and billions of dollars that were trapped overseas has been brought back to create more investment and jobs in the United States. While it’s really too early to see the full effects, early indications of the impacts of the tax bill are favorable.
One of the key aspects of the TCJA was repealing the individual mandate under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”), which removes an onerous tax burden from people who are least likely to be able to pay it.
The Judiciary
The high-profile nominations of supremely qualified jurists Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh are well known to everyone. I have been largely pleased with both Associate Justices so far, though I am reminded that the Founders of this country did not intend for five judges in black robes to be the final arbiters of our constitution and our laws. What many people don’t know is that under the Trump administration, a further 187 conservative, qualified judges have been appointed to various federal courts.
Jobs and Employment
I remember researching a blog post back when Barack Obama was president about how the labor force participation rate was at a historic low, and unemployment was high. Three years later, thanks to Trump’s rollback of regulations and the tax code changes, America is now experiencing record low unemployment and higher labor force participation.
What’s more, personal income has increased, especially among women and minorities, along with record low unemployment among these groups.
The downside to all this, and one reason why entry level jobs may be hard to find is the fact that progressives keep demanding minimum wage increases. When government makes it illegal to hire young and minority workers, fewer of them will be employed.
Wages have grown during President Trump’s first term as labor markets have tightened. This means that real median household income has risen as well.
Healthcare
As talk swirls around completing the destruction of the American healthcare system through competing “public option”, “single payer” and “Medicare for All” schemes, it’s worth noting that the record of the Trump administration is mixed, with some successes and one glaring failure: the inability to get the disastrous Affordable Care Act repealed.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed in March 2010 without a single Republican vote is, by any objective measure, a complete, utter and abysmal failure. Based on lies, it has not been able to deliver any of the promised benefits. “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”. Yeah, not so much. “The PPACA will save a family of four up to $2,500 a year in premiums”. No, actually premiums have increased exponentially since the PPACA was passed. The number of uninsured, while it has fallen, is still not zero, with many people choosing to be uninsured or who can’t afford the premiums they would have to pay in the “Obamacare Exchanges”. The individual mandate imposed a tax burden on people who couldn’t afford insurance anyway, adding insult to injury.
Significant numbers of people have been harmed by this law, half the country hates it and wants it repealed, and by their own admissions the Democrats agree it’s a failure. (If it weren’t, why are Democratic presidential candidates touting their new ideas for health care, including Medicare for All, public option, and others?)
The Republicans had, in the years after the 2016 election, a golden opportunity to repeal this crazy law once and for all. The political price would have been high, but the benefits to the country would have been immense. The only way to fix the problems in the healthcare system is to get government out of healthcare markets.
Unfortunately, some Republicans lacked the political will, and one man, the late Senator John McCain, out of personal spite against the president blocked the repeal of the ACA. In my view, his life of service and his legacy are forever tarnished by this terrible choice.
Foreign Policy
America’s relations with the world have always been challenging. From being an upstart nation battling European great powers and Barbary pirates though saving Western Civilization in World War Two, our country has had many foreign policy successes along with some failures. The successes came when we were united by a goal – defeating Britain in the Revolutionary War or the Nazis in World War Two (or communism in the Cold War) – and our failures have come when we’ve been divided at home and unclear in our goals abroad.
The American Left, despising America’s exceptional qualities, want us to be more like the European countries with their excessive government control, taxation, stagnation and decline. Like children seeking adult approval, they want foreign elites, particularly in Western Europe, to ‘like us”. Despite the fact that we helped defeat Nazi Germany and have provided their defense against the Soviet Union and later Russia for the past several decades at minimal cost to them, what Europe’s leaders think of the American president is deeply important to the Left.
On all fronts, I’d judge Trump’s foreign policy record as a B+. We have not suffered any major terrorist attacks by foreign actors. Russian expansionism has been contained for now. Trump’s dialogue with North Korea, while problematic in some respects, has not been any worse than previous administrations’ treatment of the North Korean communist regime. We’re not flying pallets of cash under cover of darkness to the Islamic theocracy in Iran, ISIS has been defeated and the world is largely at peace. Trump recognizes the threat posed by China and is pushing back.
As far as Ukraine goes, the Democrats’ weak case for impeachment ignores the fact that there is documented, incontrovertible evidence that there was collusion with Russia and Ukraine – by DEMOCRATS. Hillary Clinton raked in millions of dollars to her fraudulent foundation from Russia, in return for the “quid pro quo” of giving them control of 20% of our uranium supplies. Democratic presidential candidate joe Biden’s son Hunter benefitted from his $50,000 per month board sinecure on a Ukrainian natural gas company’s board despite having zero experience in the energy industry. Children of other prominent Democrats benefitted from their association with Ukrainian oil and gas companies as well. In fact, I would say that Democrats are guilty of everything they’ve accused Donald Trump of.
What’s even worse is that when Democrats under President Obama controlled the Executive branch, they weaponized the FBI and the intelligence agencies against the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. This is unprecedented in American history, and is worthy of universal condemnation, prosecution under the law, and voting Democrats out of office. In fact, as Attorney General William Barr said on MSNBC, “I think probably from a civil liberties standpoint, the greatest danger to our free system is that the incumbent government used the apparatus of the State, principally the law enforcement agencies and the intelligence agencies, both to spy on political opponents but also to use them in a way that could affect the outcome of the election. As far as I’m aware this is the first time in history that this has been done to a presidential campaign.”
Here’s the video of his remarks.
The Culture
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Donald Trump is fighting back against the politically correct, “woke” Left. The divide in America is no less than a cold civil war over the direction of the country, the role of government, and whether we live in a free society where people exchange value for value and leave others alone or if we live in a collectivist dystopia where we cannibalize each other through the force of government.
When you are in a civil war, you fight to win by any and all means. The Left uses any means necessary to win and so should we. This means that if someone is fighting for you, you want them to win. I’m reminded of the scene in Game of Thrones where Tyrion Lannister chose the mercenary Bronn to fight for him in a trial by combat. Bronn was no chivalrous knight. He was a foul-mouthed, gritty fighter who knew how to win. If I’m in a fight for freedom, I want a Bronn on my side, not some polite milquetoast.
When Donald Trump trolls his opponents on Twitter, Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) lose their minds. No longer is there even the illusion of objectivity. He is masterful at getting the mainstream media to show themselves to be what they truly are: the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party.
He’s Not Perfect
With Trump’s successful record as President, his approval rating should be 55% or higher. It is not, because of things he says and his behavior on Twitter. His personal morals may leave something to be desired (the same is true of many other presidents and candidates past and present), but that is “baked in the cake”, as pundit Ben Shapiro would say.
I don’t agree with all of his policy positions, especially paid family leave, but an 80% aligned president is better than a 20% aligned president. It’s that simple.
We could all wish that Donald Trump were a better person – a kinder, gentler man. But he’s not. In any event, this is not what matters at this stage of our country’s history. What matters Is winning against the Left.
Because every single candidate running for the Democratic nomination is an extreme radical, proposing agendas, ideas and plans that are deeply un-American, unsustainable, unrealistic, incredibly expensive and just plain crazy. As of this writing, there are 15 candidates in the race. While some may be pretending to be moderates, they have all signed on to the more extreme policy positions demanded by the radical progressive base at one time or another.
I’ve written about Bernie Sanders before. He’s an old, hypocritical mediocrity. Elizabeth Warren is a patently dishonest politician whose “plans” display a deep contempt for wealth and success (despite being a multimillionaire herself). Any of her plans would be disastrous for the economy if implemented and taken as a whole would spell the end of the prosperous country we once knew. Joe Biden is a complete creature of the Swamp, a dishonest, plagiarizing corrupt has-been who should be gliding into his sunset years with whatever dignity he can muster. Steyer and Bloomberg are billionaires who hate the fossil fuels that make modern life possible and the right to keep and bear arms which keeps us from tyranny.
The rest of the Democratic field is just as bad. Not one of them belongs anywhere near the levers of power. I truly believe that all the dire predictions of a Trump presidency that the Left has been howling about for three years – fascism, tyranny, racism, etc. – would come to pass if we give progressives full power over our nation. The divide won’t go away, and our cold civil war could heat up fast if Democrats try to tax us to oblivion, take our guns and force us to sacrifice our fossil fuel use on the altar of their climate change religion.
Delaying the Decline
Re-electing Donald Trump will delay our American decline and postpone what I fear is inevitable: the dissolution of our Union. Assuming Trump is re-elected, with the cyclical nature of politics Democrats will be set to take total control over the government in 2024. The destruction of America will resume with vengeance.
Unless and until we can change two things – education and our culture – both of which the Left owns, we are in trouble. With generations of young people growing up who are ignorant of American history and the nature of our country, the American experiment is in grave risk. That is why we must recapture school boards and somehow wrest the culture away from the Left.
Re-electing Donald Trump will give us four more years for the fight. Voting for anyone but him will be effectively a vote for the Democratic candidate. Don’t cling to the fantasy of a viable Republican alternative. There isn’t one. I say: Walk Away. Don’t Vote Democrat. Vote to re-elect the President.
By Richard D. Turnquist
January 2, 2020
