“Mixed bag.” A phrase I’ve used more times than I can count in reference to the Trump administration’s policies and actions of these past four years. There are things to like, there are things to dislike, and there are things to hate, and that’s wholly apart from his Twitter antics, his rhetoric, and his personal behavior, which don’t matter nearly as much as acts and actions. There are countless pages, op-eds, and websites devoted to the good things he’s done and to the bad things he’s done. Certainly, many of these are judged through our individual ideologies and political preferences, and the differences we have in those are why we have elections.
Coming up on this Tuesday’s vote, I’ve been pondering what to expect should the Democrats run the table, as the polls tell us they will, and take over both the White House and Congress. We have their stated agenda, we have their speeches, and we have countless pundits’ analyses (and spins) of both.
I dashed off a quick list of public policy areas that are the purview of the Presidency and Congress. In no order other than alphabetical, here it is (it’s obviously incomplete – this is a blog, not a political science degree program):
Crime
Criminal Justice
Defense
Drug Policy
Economy
Education
Energy
Environment
Federalism/States’ Rights
Foreign Policy
Free Press
Free Speech
Gun Rights
Health Care
Immigration
Judiciary
Militarism
Regulation
Religious Liberty
Spending
Trade
Transportation
Welfare
On one side of the scale is Trump, his past four years, and what we expect from the next four years, assuming a Democratic Congress in opposition. On the other side of the scale is Biden, Harris, Schumer, and Pelosi, in full charge of the government, with the Senate’s filibuster promptly eliminated, the GOP utterly powerless, the Justice Democrats, Democratic Socialists, and slavering hordes of Twitter driving the agenda, and an utterly unprincipled mainstream Press offering cover for anything and everything the Dems want to do.
I cannot point at a single policy area that I expect will improve under the Democrats. There are several that’ll be a wash, and there are some that will be different but not better, but most will move in a direction antithetical to liberty, to the principle of limited government, to fiscal responsibility, to propriety, and even to war.
I get that those of a progressive bent have the opposite view, but I agree with Friedrich Hayek’s sentiment that “If socialists understood economics they wouldn’t be socialists.” Progressivism is toxic to liberty, and it has ruined the nations where it’s been implemented as a form of government. Unfortunately, nothing I write here will enlighten them in time for the election.
The target audience for today are those of a conservative or libertarian bent who are planning to vote for Biden, because Trump. Will we see an improvement in any of those policy areas under single-party Democratic rule? How much of the regression can be undone if the NeverTrump dream of a GOP resurgence sweeping the leftists out of office in 2024 or 2028 manages to materialize? Are you willing to see a wholesale movement in the wrong direction on most-to-all of these policy areas in order to sate your hatred of the Orange One? Are you willing to gamble that the Republicans can both manage to achieve enough power to act and have the wherewithal to undo?
As I told some friends the other day, this election isn’t about Trump. The fact that the Left has succeeded in making it about Trump is one of their greatest accomplishments of the past few years (abetted, unfortunately, by Trump’s rhetorical excesses). This is about the direction of the country, about the leftward shift of the Democrats, about the Left’s lies, dirty tricks, and lust for power, about the Press’s utter abdication of its duty as the Fourth Estate, and about the arrogance of the Best-and-Brighest who have decided what we are permitted to see, hear, read, and share.
Personal animus for Trump should not outweigh consideration of the damage the Left will inflict upon the nation, should it be given the chance.
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I see one major item left off your list, Taxation. (maybe covered under spending)
They’ll say they are going after only the rich and corporations, but the rich for the most part are corporations and corporations don’t pay taxes they just collect them from consumers and pass them on to the Government.
but demonizing the rich is seen as a win for Democrats, so when they fail to collect the promised amounts it will because the evil rich aren’t paying their fair share, and are cheating to avoid the high taxes.
Like I noted, it’s not complete.
They’re also hinting at a wealth tax, and I’m sure they’re going to look to expand the estate tax.
The idea that scares me is that if you own your home, you are basically paying yourself rent, and that should be taxed as regular income.
Where would it stop, pay your car off, you’re leasing it from yourself…
now I don’t know if this was ever actually proposed by the Clintons but that is when I first heard of it.
Real or not it is scary, just right for Halloween.
That’s a new one for me, which is saying something. Where’d that come from?
I’m sure it was talk radio, used to listen to it quite a bit, but weaned myself off a while back.
I’ve looked for it several time since I first heard it but never found it. (I’m a rank amuture at google searches)
so it may have been a spoof, though it sounds real enough, though that’s what make a good spoof…
The idea that a massive defeat of Trump will “wake up” the GOP.and.they will do right, and win it all back is ludicrous.