I recall coming to this blog about 4 years ago to express my apprehensions about what was coming next. At the time, it mostly manifest as concern that Hillary Clinton would become the next President. And, that, even though I had no intention of voting for Donald Trump.
This time around, the same angst exists about a probable Biden victory, with the key difference being that I voted to re-elect the President.
I live in New York. It is as blue as blue can get. And amongst a largely educated set that I can interact with, the best explanation I get for supporting the Biden/Harris ticket is that it is not Trump. To me, it is a position that is foolish and shows an inability to distinguish what matters from what doesn't.
What matters is policy that helps the economy to grow, particularly as so many remain unemployed. We should be heralding 33.3% GDP growth in the third quarter (the largest such increase in our nation's history -- and a number that puts to shame any tepid recovery under Obama/Biden during the Great Recession). But, we do not. What do we think happens if you introduce higher taxes, greater regulation and put everyone back into lockdown in this environment?
What doesn't matter is Trump's trolling and wannabe stand-up comedian schtick. I don't think he's racist (at least, no worse than any of his predecessors), and I do think that he has done a lot more in the form of criminal justice reform and empowerment of black communities than any President in recent memory. Meanwhile, the party which likes to feign tolerance, and espouses that race and gender don't matter, selected a Vice President nominee entirely because of her race and gender (note that she did not hit 1% during the Democratic primaries for a reason, and bowed out before her party even voted in her home state of California -- although she did stick around long enough to call Joe Biden a racist). It is the same party where its Presidential candidate and celebrity enablers tell black people who they can vote for and still be considered black. That, by the way, is what racism looks like and is the underlying mentality -- that people of color have no agency and should just listen to us -- which leads to a failed welfare state.
As for COVID, I come from this as someone with two parents who fall within the demographic that is most vulnerable. There is nothing that I wouldn't do to keep them safe. But, when the mentality of the Democrats is that we should just listen to Dr. Fauci and that's it, it represents the worst form of single variable analysis you can fathom. He is an infectious disease expert, but he also focuses on one thing to the exclusion of anything else and is not elected to run he country. And in a country of 300+ million, you need to recognize the multiple moving parts and not act like everything stops in its tracks with a disease that becomes less and less fatal with every positive case.
But, moving beyond any single issue, my real fear is that the election of the Democrats represents the true empowerment of intolerance. Whatever aspersions may be cast, it is the party of Biden which cancels those who disagree with them, calls everyone a racist or deplorable, riots in the streets, looks for injustices where they may not exist, and takes every opportunity to politicize. They literally change the meaning of words.
When Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, the idea that Trump would nominate a new justice was decried as unconstitutional. Quite literally, Joe Biden uttered those words. A representative from his campaign said exactly the same thing while being interviewed on CNN by Jake Tapper. For the record, it is not. If there is a vacancy, the President can nominate a replacement. And, if you have the votes in the Senate (the big difference from when Obama nominated Merrick Garland), you can get that person confirmed and scream from the hilltops that you just did something extremely constitutional. By contrast, the Democrats deemed it court packing because Trump filled vacancies pursuant to the rules in place. Come again? Kamala Harris called it court packing during the VP debate because Donald Trump has not put enough people of color on the bench. First off, whether true, that's still not court packing. Second, what she is really doing is race hustling. Do the Democrats like justices simply because of their race, as if that should be the sole qualification? Why don't we ask Kamala how she feels about Clarence Thomas? Meanwhile, it seems entirely likely that a President Biden would look to pack the court by expanding its numbers -- in effect, turning the judiciary, which is only supposed to interpret the laws, into another legislature. So much for respect of the institutions.
People are prone to hyperbole at times like these, but I don't think my fears are unwarranted. The Democrats are becoming the party of AOC, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. Their ideas run counter to the essence of our country -- we are about equality of opportunity, they are about equality of outcome. The latter is what failed states throughout history are made of,
So, there you have it. I guess I don't think it matters whether I like President Trump on a personal level -- in fact, as someone who comes from the real estate world, I used to root against him in that arena. But, as President, as far as policy, he has largely gotten it right. And that's why I voted for him. And that's why I think the very crude logic of Biden supporters is going to lead us down a dark path.
