. . . and you should too.
IT IS MY CUSTOM, and the custom of many like me, to begin a defense of President Donald John Trump with an inventory of his flaws. Let me get that done. I won't be doing it again.
President Trump is narcissistic. He is belligerent, at times a bully. I believe he was often less than honorable in his business dealings. He has treated women . . .
. . . badly. He says many things that are not true. His language is crude.
When he's on television, I usually change channels; I doubt he would be a reliable friend; as a person, I don't like him.
Still, I admire him and plan to vote for him for president, as I did last time. I will do this enthusiastically and without reservation. I am also writing regular checks to his campaign and plan to continue.
I am supporting Mr. Trump for four reasons.
1.
First, he's been a good president, far better than the last three, often by the measures of his critics.
He's done more for federal prison reform, for example, than his sainted predecessor.
His administration's pre-Covid black unemployment numbers were the best in the history of that metric.
The United States suffered 210 military fatalities in Afghanistan during President Obama's last term. During President Trump's first term, so far, the number is down to 63. It's possible he will withdraw completely from Afghanistan, which is okay with me. The consequences for Afghanistan, itself, will be dreadful, and he will pay a heavy political price. After all these years, however, it's time.
The last four presidents sucked up to China; Mr. Trump is giving China what for. (For the record, I agreed with U.S. outreach to China by both Bushes, President Clinton, and President Obama. Unfortunately, however, the policy has now failed, not because of Mr. Trump but because of China. He's dealing with the consequences of that failure.)
He's been a good president. And but for the attempted coup by Democrats and fellow travelers in Congress, the FBI, the Justice Department, the federal bureaucracy, the mainstream media, universities, and others, he might have been great.
Let's give him that opportunity with a second term.
2.
Second, as a practical matter presidential elections in the United States are binary choices. It's Candidate A versus Candidate B. The question is not which candidate is perfect; the question is which candidate, all things considered, would make a better president. One might even say, which candidate is less imperfect?
Donald J. Trump versus Hillary Clinton?
In my book, Trump was clearly the better candidate. America, speaking through its constitutional processes, agreed. He was the less imperfect candidate.
I can preach long sermons on Mrs. Clinton's unfitness for office, beginning her magic $100,000 profit on cattle futures, her hiding (then magically finding) billing records from The Rose Law Firm, her throwing the White House travel business to pals in Arkansas, her shielding a philandering husband from the natural consequences of his having been caught again and yet again in one of his sexual adventures, her and her husband's theft of White House furniture at the end of the Clinton presidency, her mostly nonexistent accomplishments in the U.S. Senate and the State Department, her audacious lies about reasons for the death of a U.S. ambassador in Libya, her Mafia-worthy use of a speech-giving husband and the Clinton Foundation as bagmen for her pay-to-play operation of the State Department, her illegal use of a private email server and erasure of thousands of relevant emails during the ensuring investigation, and her utter political incompetence in losing a can't-lose presidential contest to Donald John Trump.
He was simply the better candidate, both on political skill, on issues and policies, and, yes, on character.
Donald J. Trump versus Joseph Biden? Still not close. As the election approaches, I will try to explain why.
As an appetizer, there's this: Mr. Biden is clearly suffering cognitive decline. He's too old to do the job properly. He won't get any better. A vote for him is a vote for his caretakers, whomever they may be.
The same arguments (except the caretakers bit) might be lodged against Mr. Trump, but remember, it's a binary contest. At his worst, Mr. Trump has better command of his faculties than Mr. Biden, at his best. This matters. It's relevant.
Also relevant: One candidate has experience as president; the other does not.
We should also look at character. If you don't know what I think of Mr. Trump as a person, reread the opening paragraphs of this essay. I can still argue with a clear conscience that Mr. Trump's character is better than Mr. Biden's.
On policies, of course, we all have our preferences. From my perspective, Mr. Trump is far from perfect. He loves to spend federal dollars almost as much as Democrats do. On judges, tax policy, regulations, and much else, however, he's right and, equally as important, effective at turning policy into law.
It's an either-or choice. On balance, America under President Trump will be a far better place than America under President Biden. Safer. More peaceful. More prosperous. Better placed in the world.
Details to follow.
3.
The third reason? It's the attempted coup mentioned above. What if it's true that elements of our nation's government, acting in concert with others inside and outside government, acting unlawfully, tried to remove a duly elected president from office or, at a minimum, destroy his presidency?
Well, it is true.
If you think this did not happen, if you think the FBI and others acted in good faith, if you don't don't see violations of law, political norms, and common decency, you're just wrong. Something unprecedented and intolerable happened in the open, before our eyes. The facts are available. Look at them.
Meanwhile, the same people who abused the law, norms, and decency to harm the president are trying to install mail-in-voting systems that are, by design, easy to hack. Fool me once . . . .
The question for this election: How should American citizens respond?
This citizen says voting for President Trump's reelection is a powerful way of saying no, no, no, a thousand times no to these outrages by Democrats and others against our nation, our Constitution, and irredeemable deplorables, like me, who dared prefer Mr. Trump over Mrs. Clinton.
4.
The fourth reason?
I'm a declinist: I believe the war for the future of America has already been lost, and with it the war for the future of civilization itself. The decline will be slow. The United States and Western Civilization are mighty ships that will coast some considerable distance before docking permanently in Caracas, figuratively speaking, or some other utopian workers' paradise found nowhere on earth but in the imagination of the left.
Watch the violence on television. Listen to the hatred and disdain for America. Look at ballooning local, state, and federal debts, never to be repaid, certain to degrade the lives of our children and grandchildren. Pay attention to what's taught in our schools and universities. Listen to the nonsense in public discourse that passes for reason. Try to enjoy a professional sports contest without being insulted or preached to by woke millionaires on the field. Show me honest news reporting and honest opinion-writing in big-city newspapers and national media. Point to a university or newspaper that honestly believes in free speech and viewpoint diversity. Explain the culture-wide debasement of logic and language. My words are violence? Your violence is speech? The ideal of a colorblind society is racist? Hear the glee in the voices of those who burn buildings and try to kill or injure police officers. Explain why we are called to celebrate identity and victimhood and demean hard work, personal responsibility, and achievement. Help me understand why murder rates are spiraling in most big cities run by Democrats, with most victims being minorities whose lives clearly do not matter. And why would a former president, speaking at a funeral, throw gasoline on smoldering racial conflicts?
I could go on, and will. For now, however, which candidate is more likely to slow the decline of America and which candidate is more likely to accelerate it?
Which candidate opposes what's happening on our streets and which candidate excuses it?
Whose supporters are appalled by America's decline and whose supporters applaud America's decline and declare it to be progress?
How much influence will apologists and instigators of s decline have in each administration?
* * *
I'm voting for Trump and all Republicans, without exception. So should you. America needs President Trump, and President needs allies.
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