Former President Donald J. Trump, Friday, October 6, 2017. (Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)
Yesterday I was asked by a friend to give him my thoughts on the upcoming election. Let me say at the beginning, forgive the length of this. I don’t like to post political views here, but I have to admit that I do have some strong feelings about this election, so I will tell you here what I said to him.
My issue is with the policies of the left, not my opinions about Trump, Harris or Biden. I believe that the Biden-Harris plans (for which we really have little detail) are destructive and would result in a major change in our country. It certainly would not be the same as we enjoyed back during our childhood.
I am greatly concerned that too many people are voting with their emotions and not their common sense. Trump has reportedly done questionable things – I get it. But it appears that Biden may have as well. I really don’t care and wish folks would focus on the issues that mean the most to them. This should be a choice between issues, not personalities.
Look at California, a state I used to love. It is run by a Democratic regime similar to that which Harris promotes. Homelessness is rampant. Prices are out of control. And crime has forced many people to abandon the state to find less expensive places to live with less crime and lower taxes. Where will we live if something like that happens to the entire US?
I have 3 issues that concern me, and they have nothing to do with the personalities of any of the candidates:
Vice President Kamala Harris takes her official portrait Thursday, March 4, 2021, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
1. Over 10 million immigrants have poured into the country, flaunting the legal system and slapping the faces of my many friends who moved here from overseas, doing everything by the book. No one gave them free housing or free phones, and certainly no one attempted to register them to vote. That would be unconstitutional. Yet I am hearing reports that these people who came over illegally are being urged to register. This is a two faced system of justice. It is just not right and should never have been allowed to happen. Who benefits? The cartels who are trafficking people and drugs, the criminal gangs and, sadly, the Democrats who have been willing to allow this in hopes that these new people will become Democratic voters. I feel for the families and children – I really do. But they should not have come over this way, and I do not feel for the large numbers of single military-age men coming here to do who knows what?
2. I am concerned about the freedoms we take for granted which seem to be slowly eroding to be replaced with a government defined narrative with which we are all expected to agree. And it is pushed by almost every mainstream news outlet. Just step back for a moment and look at what is happening from the 50,000 ft. level. If you were looking at a country with two candidates running for the leading office, and one was able to use 90% of the nation’s national press to push his narrative while the other was being charged with multiple crimes (some not so much really crimes), being called Hitler and being shot at twice, what would you think about that country? Isn’t it just a little too much? It doesn’t make sense.
And then there is the lying. Every Democratic leader assured us that Biden was perfectly healthy – until he wasn’t. It was their responsibility to the American people to be truthful, but they were not. And really, who is running the country now? How can people who have lied in this way be trusted? They basically removed a sitting President from office and replaced him with a candidate who was not even close in the debates and polls. There is no precedent for such an action.
3. And finally, I am extremely concerned about the lack of understanding of economics and foreign policy that has been demonstrated already and is being advocated by Harris. Her tax plan, what little we know of it, includes a tax on unrealized gains. You are smart enough to know in your heart of hearts how destructive this would be to our entire financial system. Imagine having to pay tax based on the change in value of your investments every year when you are not able to turn that change into cash. But that is the problem with phantom gains. If you don’t have the cash in hand, what do you do? You sell your stock to pay the tax. Then so does everyone else. Pretty soon, the markets will crash, and your portfolio will crumble, but did you hear anything about giving a tax credit for losses? I didn’t.
So I will ignore my reluctance and and vote for Trump, because we had a great economy under him, prematurely shaken by Covid but even afterward building back up. His tax plan was well thought out and fair, contrary to what is being said, and was good for the middle class. I have many friends who can attest to that. And there were no wars under him. He understood the effect of rising oil prices on the countries that wished to do bad things and kept the prices down so they could not. I’ve seen no such understanding from the current administration.
Trump did not do well in the debate, but it seemed to me that he was debating the moderators in addition to Vice President Harris. And fact checkers have noted that while the moderators called him out on his two erroneous statements, they allowed Harris to make 21 false statements that went unchecked.
She was prepared and knew how to rattle him. He fell for it instead of asking the two simple questions of Kamala when she proposed her agenda of change: 1) You are already there, so why don’t you do it now? and 2) How are you going to pay for it? The Dems say they want a change, but what kind of change? They have been in power for 12 of the last 16 years. If they really wanted change, why do they have to wait for an election?
People love giveaways but most don’t think about the impact on the financial status of the country. And the platitudes of let’s go after the wealthy have been used throughout history because, after all, why shouldn’t we have it instead of them? You know the answer.