Tag: Republicans

Charlie Kirk and Our Turning Point

Charlie Kirk was a great man.  I had the pleasure of seeing him speak with Pastor Jack Hibbs at church back in 2020.  I also worked for Turning Point Action during the 2024 election.  He loved our country, he loved Jesus, and he loved his wife and two young children. 

Today, he was taken by an act of pure evil.  The organization that Charlie Kirk started was called Turning Point USA, and today needs to be a turning point for our country.  My first reaction when I heard that he had died was anger.  I was angry at Democrats for the murder of a brilliant young husband and father.  How could they want this?  What kind of terrible people could do this? 

Then I took a breath and prayed.  I am still angry, but I realized that my anger needs to be logical and focused.  Not all Democrats wanted this.  In fact, I am sure that many Democrats are disgusted by Charlie Kirk’s murder.  My anger should not be towards them.  Our turning point actually needs to start with them.  If you are shocked and disgusted by this evil act, you still have hope.

My anger is not towards most average Democrats.  My anger is towards the leftist ideology and worldview.  My anger is towards secularism.  My anger is towards the media who pushed this secular-leftist worldview.  The only way we can turn this country around is to turn to Jesus. 

If you are one of those who held those views but are outraged and appalled at this murder, we need you.  We need to end secular leftist ideology.  We need to bring back sanity.  That requires Jesus.  Charlie Kirk would be the first to agree with that sentiment.  Jesus is the only one who can fix this.  We are at this point because our nation has gotten further from God.  We need a religious revival. 

If you are a Democrat, and this terrible evil has woken you up to the damage that turning from God has done, I am pleading with you to give Jesus a chance.  Go to church and talk to a pastor about Jesus.  You still have hope.  You can even send me a message if you have questions.  If you are genuine, I will respond.

Charlie Kirk has spoken openly about how Jesus saved his life.  I know with certainly that I will see Charlie Kirk again in Heaven. Until then, thank you Charlie.

Win With Class

“Turn it to MSNBC,” I said.  President Trump had pulled out to an insurmountable lead, and what better way to celebrate than to watch Rachel Maddow and her ilk come even more unhinged than they already were?  After seeing them saying awful things about good people for years, it is natural to want to see them lose it, and they did not disappoint, nor did Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, or the ladies of The View.  They turned on each other, blaming people like Joe Biden and Barack Obama for Kamala Harris’s loss.  They made full frontal, nasty, slanderous attacks on the American people.  We were called bigots and misogynists and accused of wanting an authoritarian dictator in charge.  There were tears.  Lots of tears.  It was a complete meltdown.  Online, there was more insanity.  It was hilarious and enjoyable.

On the other side, the people who had supported President Trump were elated.  There was well-earned jubilation and happiness.  There was also a lot of gloating.  It made me think.  In my email, there was a reminder from a family member about what is truly important in this moment.  Part of it read, “It is imperative that followers of Christ be ever-mindful that we are to be salt and light in this troubled time in our nation.  We have a connection to our Heavenly Father that the world needs.”  While the temptation to gloat is understandable, we as conservatives need to restrain ourselves.  Our ultimate goal is to point people towards Jesus.  If we rub in our victory too much, it will turn off some people who might be open to Christianity and drive them away.  We need to be good winners.  To use a sports analogy, it is like watching the opposing team win the World Series and celebrate on your home field.  It is a terrible feeling, and only makes you want to beat them more the next year.  When it comes to God (or politics), we do not want them to hold a grudge like that.   We want them to join us.

This is also important for other practical reasons.  Our nation is still very divided.  We need to win people over permanently, or we will lose elections in the future.  The best way to change our government is to persuade people.  If people whose candidate lost see us rubbing salt in their wounds, they are unlikely to even entertain our ideas.

This does not mean we should not be joyful and excited.  We definitely should be.  This is a great triumph for our country.  It does not even mean that you cannot gloat to anybody, but you need to know which of your friends have a sense of humor and can take some playful ribbing.  It just means that we should try our best not to permanently close off others to our ideas, and especially to God.

While President Trump’s victory is a win for all law-abiding citizens in this country, almost half of the electorate does not see it that way.  They have bought into the media attacks on President Trump and half of America.  They are scared.  They have been told the lie that President Trump will be a fascist strongman who will rule with an iron fist.  Is this true?  Of course not.  We know it, but many of the people who were getting their news from ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, or any other far-left propaganda outlet believe it.  If you believed our country was being taken over by an authoritarian dictator, you would be pretty upset about it, too.

Fortunately, these negative expectations should actually make it easier for us to win people over.  Our side is so far from authoritarianism that it should quickly become obvious.  President Trump would be the first authoritarian dictator ever whose policies were designed to force you to have more freedom, keep us out of wars, and take less of our money.  In just about every area of life, President Trump’s policies are less intrusive than those of Democrats.  The Democrats claim that President Trump would be the dictator, while they are the party that mandates a million things that we cannot afford and do not need or want.  They forced people to close their businesses.  They mandated that we lock ourselves in our homes.  They closed down our churches.  They mandated we cover our faces and get experimental shots.  They are mandating electric cars that most people cannot afford.  They threaten you with fines if your health insurance is not acceptable to them.  They push mandatory gun buyback programs.  They force your daughters to play sports against biological boys.  They want to confiscate more of your hard-earned money.  The side claiming that President Trump will be an authoritarian is the same side that wants to control just about every aspect of your life.

There are, of course, people who have dug in so deep that nothing will convince them.  For those who are less radical and still have common sense, encourage them to turn off the network news and keep an open mind to some of what President Trump is likely to accomplish.  Do not let the mainstream media spin good news into bad.  If they are expecting authoritarianism, their fears will quickly be assuaged.

If we show people positive results without being obnoxious, they will start to see the light.  If they see that those positive results and our kindness are driven by our faith in God, then we can be salt and light to those who are angry, frightened, overwhelmed or disheartened, no matter their views or what side they are on. This should be our ultimate goal.

She’s All That?

While pondering this year’s election, something seemed strangely familiar.  It was hard to put a finger on exactly what was causing this feeling of déjà vu.  On the surface, this seems like a very unique election compared to any other in recent memory.  On one side, there is a successful former president who could become the first since Grover Cleveland to serve two, non-consecutive terms.  On the other side, there is a politician whom both sides dislike, and who got crushed in the Democrat primary four years ago so badly that she dropped out in disgrace, but was then handed the nomination this year by the powerful elites in her party without receiving a single primary vote.  Why they would pick somebody as unpopular and unlikeable as Kamala Harris did not make much sense.  It is almost as though the Democrats have some sort of a bet going.

Then, a lightbulb went off in my head.  I knew why this story seemed so recognizable.  She’s All That!  Harris’s candidacy made me think of the 1999 teen romantic comedy starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachel Leigh Cook.  In the film, Prinze plays Zack, a popular high school senior who gets dumped by his girlfriend six weeks before the prom.  He tells his friend Dean, played by Paul Walker, that he can replace her with any girl on campus and make her popular.  Dean doubts it and proposes a wager that Zack cannot turn a girl picked by Dean into the prom queen in six weeks.  Zack accepts the bet.  Dean smells an easy win because he can pick any girl, and it can be the most unlikeable, unpopular, ugly girl in the school.  It is a test of Zack’s power and influence on campus.

This has to be what happened in this election cycle!  The media (our Prinze character) is so overconfident in their ability to control the public that it seems like they made a wager with the Democrat party (our Walker character) that they can make anybody win the presidency, even if they select the most heinous, unlikeable, extreme candidate we have ever seen on a presidential ballot for a major party.  We, the unknowing public, are represented by the students at the school.

This is where the similarity ends and the movie gets unrealistic.  Instead of choosing a fat girl with a bad complexion, bad teeth, and body odor, Dean chooses a hot girl played by Cook, Laney Boggs, because she has glasses and is a little bit awkward.  Here, the Democrats made a truly horrendous selection.  Harris has literally no positives going for her.  On policy, Harris is the most far-left candidate we have ever seen on the ticket.  She is so far left that she hides her actual policy positions by avoiding any tough policy questions, and did not even feature a policy page on her campaign website until being attacked for that omission last week.  The few policy positions she has proposed could have come straight from Karl Marx.  Her most notable idea is to impose Soviet-style price controls that would lead to empty grocery store shelves. 

Internationally, she is weak when it comes to support for Israel.  She claims to want Israel to be able to defend itself while simultaneously chastising them for doing so.  She panders to pro-Hamas protesters and the antisemitic members of her party.  She even passed over a far more electable VP pick, Josh Shapiro, because he is Jewish. 

Not only is she terrible on substance, but she is lacking even the superficial qualities on which Democrats usually base their campaigns.  She is not charming like Bill Clinton.  She is not a smooth snake oil salesman like Barack Obama.  She is one of the most unlikeable candidates that has ever come along.  Her voice is annoying and her famous cackle is awkward.  She somehow comes off as simultaneously condescending and unsure of herself.  With all of these flaws, both deep and shallow, there has to be a bet going on.  There is no other reason for them to choose a candidate as awful as Kamala Harris.

Unlike the bet in the movie, this seems like it should be a sure loser.  The media is trying, though.  In this sequel, they have a bigger ego than Zack did in the original.  They are blanketing the airwaves with wall-to-wall positive coverage of Harris, and constant insults and attacks against her opponent, President Trump.  They are covering up all of her many negatives.  Just like Zack got Laney to hang out and be seen with all of the cool, popular kids to help raise her status, the media is focusing on Harris getting support from glitzy Hollywood stars and popular musical artists.  They are building a mirage.

Is the media all-powerful like they think they are?  Is the American public as gullible as they think we are?  Is Kamala Harris all that?  Let’s make the media lose their bet. 

Make America Great Again:  What Does it Mean?

I was recently asked a question that I had never really given much thought to.  I had mentioned to a friend that the reactions to my “Make America Great Again” hat have been extremely positive this year.  Whenever I go out with the hat on, there are five to ten “I like your hat” comments from people.  My friend then asked me, “What do you mean by Make America Great Again?  When do you want to go back to that was so great?”  I immediately knew where he was going.  You see, my friend is black.  America does not have the best record when it comes to how black people have been treated in the past.  Until the 1860’s, Democrats thought black people were inferior, so they enslaved them.  Until the 1960’s, Democrats thought black people were inferior, so they segregated them.  Now, Democrats think black people are inferior, so they push lower standards for them through affirmative action and DEI.

As you can see, you have to look at what people actually mean by the slogan to really understand it.  Obviously, it does not mean that we want to go back to slavery or segregation.  When my friend asked me, I answered that it is not about that at all, but when I tried to explain what it is about, I had trouble putting it into words.  Since then, I have been thinking about what we mean by “Make America Great Again.”  When you look at it from the right perspective, it really is simpler than it seems.

First, you have to realize that the slogan “Make America Great Again” implies that things have gone wrong in our country.  If you can agree to that fact, the rest of the explanation falls easily into place.  My friend who asked the question would be the first to say that our country has gone off the rails.  When we say, “Make America Great Again,” we do not mean that we want to bring back failures from the past.  We fixed slavery.  We fixed segregation.  Those bad things should be left in the past.  The things we want to bring back are the good things that have gone awry.

Most of us can acknowledge that our country has some major issues.  By looking at those problems, we can fill in the blanks of what needs to be made great again.  Here are some of the obvious ones:

  • We used to be able to afford to buy a meal for the family at a local drive-thru restaurant.  Now, inflation has made food (and almost everything else) exorbitantly expensive.  Making America Great Again means making our money worth more and our lives affordable again.
  • People used to strive for the American Dream.  They wanted to start a successful business and make enough money to buy a house and provide for their family.  Now, government regulations and excessive taxes have made it nearly impossible to run a successful business.  Making America Great Again means bringing back the opportunity to reach the American Dream.
  • We used to fight crime, support our police, and prosecute criminals so that we could live in relative safety.  Now, we make major crimes into misdemeanors, we unfairly slander and try to defund our police, and we let criminals get away with murder, sometimes literally.  We even make it easy for criminals and terrorists from other countries to enter our country illegally.  Making America Great Again means taking criminals off our streets and securing our borders so we can be safe again.
  • We used to have both major parties agree when it came to supporting our greatest ally, Israel.  In fact, Harry Truman, a Democrat, was the president who pushed for the creation of modern Israel.  Now, we have people in our streets shouting “Death to Israel and death to America!”  We have Democrats walking out of speeches by the Israeli Prime Minister and trying to block military aid to Israel.  Making America Great Again means standing with Israel.
  • We used to have something called comedy.  Movies and television shows were made with jokes that were funny.  You could make jokes about being gay, race, disabled people, and more.  Now, people are overly sensitive and are told to feel offended about everything.  We hear things like, “That movie hasn’t aged well.”  (If you hear that, it is probably a funny movie that you should watch.)  Comedians are criticized and sometimes blackballed for making jokes.  Making America Great Again means being less sensitive, defending comedians, and making America funny again.
  • In the past, most people on both sides loved God and wanted to please Him.  Now, Christians are slandered as bigots for holding mainstream Christian beliefs.  Making America Great Again means praying and advocating for a religious revival and a turning back to God by our nation. 
  • We used to have sports for both men and women to compete.  Now, men can say they identify as a woman and compete in women’s sports.  Making America Great Again means recognizing that men are different than women and should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports.

This is in no way a complete list, but it is a taste of what we mean by “Make America Great Again.”  It does not mean that America was ever a perfect place, but it does mean that many things have declined and should be repaired.  To make an analogy, say that ten years ago your house had a leaky roof, and you got it repaired.  Now, your plumbing has a broken pipe and the house has flooded.  If you said, “I want to make my house great again,” would that mean you want to go back to when you had a leaky roof?  Of course not.  It means you want to fix the broken pipe that is causing problems now.   Just like that, “Make America Great Again” does not mean that we want to bring back problems from the past.  It means we want to repair the problems that we have now.  Now, let’s get to work and “Make America Great Again!”

Five Quick Thoughts About the Assassination Attempt on President Trump

  1. When I first heard that President Trump had been shot, a person I know reacted by saying, “Good.” I would like to say that this surprises me, but unfortunately, the left has spent such so much time vilifying the man, it was half expected. Democrats and the media have spent the last 8 years comparing him to Hitler, baselessly calling him a dictator. By the way, a dictator is somebody who has absolute power and exercises control over the lives of his people. This is a ridiculous claim to make about a President who had deregulation and lessening the government interference in our lives as a cornerstone of his 4 years in office.
  2. Another person told me that they were surprised it wasn’t a Trump supporter who made an attempt to kill President Biden, because Trump supporters are “a little wacko.” While I am sure that out of the many Trump supporters there are plenty of bad apples, most of his fans that I have met are very kind and loving people. The scary thing about this comment was that it came from a conservative. Unfortunately, this person is older, and still watches the mainstream media and late night talk shows. President Trump, and his supporters, are painted as wackos by the network news and the late night talk shows. You cannot trust the sources that informed the public 50 years ago. Those sources can only be seen as opposition research. Also, if you have any negative thoughts about Trump supporters, I encourage you to go to a Trump rally and talk to the people there. They are the people who you would hope to live next door to.
  3. The failures of the secret service need to be investigated. How was somebody able to get on a rooftop so close to the stage? How was he allowed to get off a shot after spectators pointed him out?
  4. Things like this are likely to happen when one side of our political spectrum is actively protesting and ridiculing the Ten Commandments. Our country needs to turn back to God. There is no other way to turn the tide.
  5. President Trump is a real man. This is a guy who got shot, stood up with blood on his face, and raised his fist in defiance telling Americans to “fight!” Who would be a better guy to face down our enemies abroad than him?

A Compromise to End the Divisiveness

On the morning of June 14, 2017, James Hodgkinson went to a park and opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a practice for the annual congressional baseball game, injuring 4 and leaving Majority Whip Steve Scalise in critical condition.  To many people, this was not surprising because of the polarized climate of political discourse in the United States.  According to a 2022 NBC News poll, 80 percent of Americans believe that their opposing political party poses a threat to the country, and if not stopped, will destroy it.  Most politicians claim to want to end the divisiveness and bring people together.  Many regular Americans are fed up with the division in our country, especially in Washington.  We should all want to stop this division from becoming violent.

In light of this polarization, I thought it would be the perfect time to propose a compromise that should unite Americans on one major issue.  It turns out Hodgkinson was a strong supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran to be the Democrats’ presidential nominee in the last two elections.  His Facebook page was reportedly covered with posts about a major talking point of Senator Sanders and the Democrats:  income inequality.  For years now, the main strategy of Democrats to win elections has been to divide people into groups and tell one side that they are victims who need to vote for Democrats to fight for them.  They divide people into black vs. white, male vs. female, gay vs. straight, and Christian vs. non-Christian, but maybe the biggest division they push is rich vs. poor. 

You have probably heard Senator Sanders or other Democrats talk about “the top 1 percent” or how “the rich need to pay their fair share.”  Democrats consistently propose that we raise taxes on whoever they deem rich.  They want us to keep our progressive tax system, where the percentage of income that you are forced to give the government in taxes goes up as you earn more.  Not only that, but they want to raise taxes at an even steeper rate.  In fact, the shooter at the baseball practice was shown in a photograph holding a sign that reads “Tax the rich like Congress did for 70 years till Reagan’s Trickle Down.  We need 20 brackets – $20 million.” 

Republicans often refer to this rhetoric as class warfare.  They note that somebody else’s success does not hurt the people on the bottom, and in fact, it helps them.  Most Republicans prefer a flat tax system, where everyone pays the same percentage of their income in taxes.  This still means that people with higher incomes pay more taxes, but not at a higher, disproportionate rate.  A flat tax is without a doubt the most fair tax system.  Unfortunately, there is too much opposition by Democrats to get a flat tax system in place. 

This is where my compromise comes in.  This may even sound like a lopsided win for Democrats at first glance.  I propose that as a compromise, we keep the Democrats’ progressive tax rates that we currently have.  The current tax brackets range from 10% at the bottom up to 37% at the top.  Here is the catch that should unite Americans.  We should lock all of the tax brackets together on a sliding scale.  By this, I mean that if the top rate is raised by 5%, to 42%, the bottom bracket goes up equally to 15%.  If the top rate is lowered to 32%, the bottom rate is lowered to 5%.  The result?  Every American would now be on the same team.

Many Republicans are going to balk at this idea because it is unfair and a progressive tax system punishes achievement.  I agree.  As I said, the only fair tax system is a flat tax.  Hear me out, though.  Think about the results of this compromise.  No longer could someone say, “Raise taxes on that guy over there, as long as you don’t raise mine.”  Very few people will want to raise your taxes if it also raises theirs.  Democrats would not be able to pit people against each other like they always do.  At least, not on this issue. 

This is, ultimately, the best way to unite Americans.  Align their interests.  That way, when Democrats fret that Republicans want tax cuts for “the rich,” people will all be happy because that means lower taxes for them too.  When Democrats want to raise taxes on the rich, who will support them if that also means raising their taxes?  While at first glance this idea might seem unfair, the practical effect would be to unite rich and poor, eliminate tax hikes, and likely end the career of politicians who try to raise taxes. 

When Americans are united on a cause, it generally leads to success.  This is one of the rare instances that unity can be easily achieved.  I do not make a lot of money, but I want to lower your taxes.  Do you want to lower mine?

A Wartime Consigliere

“I think it’s sad that these are our choices.  It seems like we can do better than Biden or Trump.”  This sentiment was recently overheard at a barbeque I attended, and it is not the first time it has been proclaimed as we lead up to next year’s presidential election. 

With an incumbent president who has given us massive inflation, rampant crime, porous borders, unparalleled corruption, and shown weakness to our enemies worldwide, it seems obvious that he should be replaced in 2024.  The part that is not obvious is who should replace him.  Under normal circumstances, there would be a clear candidate.  We have a former president running with an impressive record on almost all of the important issues.  He was feared by our enemies, leading to unprecedented peace treaties in the middle east, and putting China, North Korea, and Russia in a holding pattern until America became weaker.  He was a great friend to Israel.  He fought to protect our borders.  He lowered the government’s interference in our lives, leading to a booming economy.  He appointed three Supreme Court Justices who make rulings based on the Constitution instead of the political whims of the day.  That person, of course, is Donald Trump.

With all of that in mind, it seems as though the case should be closed.  President Trump should be the easy pick.  Unfortunately, there are obstacles that come with President Trump.  He has an unpolished image and often says things that turn off large swaths of the population, including many conservatives.  He has been attacked by the media and entertainment industry obsessively for 7 years, and some of it has poisoned the opinions of many people who agree with almost all of his policy decisions. 

The supporters of President Trump try to use logic to point to all of the great accomplishments that he had in office.  Then, they are frustrated that logic does not make much of an impact.  Those on the left simply hate his guts.  They will never change their minds, but they will feel the same way about Ron DeSantis or any other conservative candidate, so their opinion should be irrelevant. 

The problem is the many otherwise conservative people who cannot stomach his antics.  Their concerns are not imaginary.  His unpolished persona and sometimes outlandish rhetoric contribute to his unlikability in some circles.   These are the ones who prefer candidates like former Vice President Mike Pence.  Many Trump supporters are incensed by Pence and call him a RINO (Republican in Name Only).  He is not.  Mike Pence holds conservative positions and is a very nice Christian man.  This is what those conservatives long for.  They want a candidate who is nice.  The problem is, nice only works with a nice opposition party and an honest media.  The United States today has neither of those things.

Our opposition party, the Democrats, is relentless in its dishonest attacks.  Our media is their propaganda wing, and will stop at nothing to destroy anybody with an R after their name, or who espouses traditional Judeo-Christian values.  They vilified President George W. Bush as a far-right monster, and he was a moderate, and a nice man.  They even crucified candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney as extremists, and they are not even close to conservative.  The media will cover for Democrats who do unethical things.  Then they will dig and dig and dig to find the smallest piece of dirt, real or imagined, on Republicans, and never let it go.  They are at war with us and they fight to win.

A nice candidate has not, and will not work in this climate.  I recently rewatched one of the greatest films of all time, The Godfather, and there is a scene that seems relevant to the situation we are in now.  After things have gotten out of hand and the five families are at war, Michael Corleone returns from hiding in Italy and becomes the leader of the family.  He gathers together all of his top men and lays out his plan for the future of the Corleone family.  During the meeting, he does something that always seemed a little unfair to me.  He tells the consigliere (the top advisor in the family), Tom Hagen, played by Robert Duvall, that he is no longer the consigliere.  Tom Hagen was Vito Corleone’s adopted son, a savvy lawyer, extremely smart, and very loyal.  Tom protests.  Then Michael says, “You’re not a wartime consigliere, Tom.”  I did not understand it until recently.  I thought Tom was cunning and completely trustworthy, so why would you want to demote him?  Then I realized what Michael meant.  Tom is a pretty strait-laced guy, who likes to work within the system and avoid getting dirty.  As the narcotics trafficking Virgil Sollozzo says earlier in the film, “I know you’re not in the muscle end of the family, Tom.”  As much as you can be in a movie about mobsters, Tom Hagen is the nice guy.  This is what my conservative friends who wish we can do better than President Trump remind me of.

This is not an endorsement of President Trump.  I have still not decided who I am going to support.  It is, however, a defense of his tenacity and combativeness.  He calls out the left for their lunacy and he calls out the media for their hypocrisy and bias.  At this moment in time, those qualities are a necessity.  Maybe DeSantis, Larry Elder or some other candidate has that fight.  Hopefully, they do.  We need a lot of fighters.  The people who are hoping for a better candidate are looking for an unrealistic candidate.  They want someone with the looks of Brad Pitt, the kindness of Mr. Rogers, and the magical ability to unite people who hold biblical values with people who think that men can get pregnant.  That person does not exist.

If we try to play nice against people who are playing dirty and playing for keeps, we will continue to get used as a punching bag, and we will lose.  In the past, both sides shared Judeo-Christian values and wanted America to prosper and lead.  Now, the Democrat party stands for the destruction of Judeo-Christian values and no longer wants a prosperous, powerful United States.  This is not the time for compromise.  We need to utterly defeat the left and we need a leader who will push on without regard for what the left thinks.  For those of you who want a nice president, instead, let’s make them an offer they can’t refuse. *

*My proofreader suggested I change the last line because the left might accuse me of making a threat and use it to attack me.  While I think it is naïve to think that the left needs a reason more than that I disagree with them to attack me and try to silence me, I will clarify.  That line is not a threat or a call for any horse head shenanigans.  It is just a tie-in to The Godfather, and it means that we should support a candidate who will be uncompromising on any issue of importance.

How Democrats Have Ruined Election Day

On election day, 1980, my dad took me at 2 years old to walk a precinct to get out the vote for Ronald Reagan.  In the first 7 presidential elections of my life, I continued the tradition and volunteered to go door-to-door, asking Republican households to go vote.  Afterward, I would go home and eagerly watch the returns come in and races get called. Election day in the United States used to be fun.  It was an event.  To political nerds, it was like Super Bowl Sunday.

Unfortunately, election day is no fun anymore.  Democrats have ruined it, like so many other things in America.  This is not because the results of the midterm elections were disappointing.  It has little to do with who wins or loses.  It is about the mechanics of the election itself.  There are four main reasons why that special Tuesday in November no longer holds the magic that it once did.

  1. We don’t get results. –  Back when there were VCRs, my parents tried to record the Alfred Hitchcock classic, North by Northwest.  The only problem was that the tape cut off with Cary Grant hanging from Mount Rushmore, a literal cliffhanger.  We had to wait until we could go to the video store and rent it to find out what happened.  Nobody wants things left up in the air without a resolution.  This is, sadly, how election day is now.  We go to bed without knowing who won.  It took a few days to find out who had won the Senate, and it took 10 days before we finally found out that Republicans had taken control of the House in last month’s midterms.  That is partly because, after the 2000 election, nobody wants to call a race incorrectly and have to pull it back.  However, the bigger culprit is that there has been an assault by the Democrats on election day itself for years.  Now, there are mail-in ballots and ballots dropped off anonymously at drop-boxes, with at best, questionable authenticity, that take days to count.  There is no good reason for this.  For most of my lifetime, people voted in person on election day, and we had far more trustworthy and reliable results, and knew most of them on election night.
  • Early voting. – In many states, there is early voting for weeks prior to election day, before the campaigning is done.  This means that if somebody is persuaded in the final weeks of the campaign after they cast a vote, they are out of luck.  This also eliminates the ability of voters to take into account some late-discovered information about a candidate.  For example, some people believe that the FBI’s reopening its investigation into Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton’s staff and their use of a private email server swung the election to President Donald Trump.  Now, many people have already voted, so late-breaking information is too late. 
  • News coverage is terrible. –  Years ago, the media was biased in favor of the Democrats, but they generally tried not to turn off half of the country by openly and obviously attacking Republicans and rooting for the Democrats.  Now, most of the television news coverage is so bad that it is unwatchable.  On an election day when the Democrats had destroyed the economy, leading us to a plummeting stock market, massive inflation, and small businesses struggling to survive, the news coverage steered the conversation away from that and towards whatever sideshow they could come up with.  One example was an interview by ABC news anchor David Muir with a moderate Republican, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, at his victory party after he won re-election.  While Governor Sununu tried to focus on his supporters and his vision for New Hampshire and our country, Muir kept trying to segway into irrelevant things, like the 2020 election, and the media’s favorite target of hatred and vitriol, President Trump.  It was uncomfortable to watch.  The media will bend over backward to avoid any subject that will be damaging to Democrats, no matter how obvious.  This election, the crumbling economy was the elephant in the room, but what you heard on election day was, “yeah, yeah, inflation, but what about so-and-so?”  Every single one of you, whatever your political leanings, know that if the Republicans were in power with a bad economy, the media would be laser-focused on it.  The last time the news was fun to watch on election day was in 2016, and not because the coverage was good, but because most of the “journalists” looked like they were about to burst into tears.
  • Distrust of the results and fear of cheating. – Whichever side you are on, you cannot deny that a large portion of the country does not trust our elections right now.  This is a problem.  When things are going poorly, people need to be able to vote out those in power.  If they distrust our elections and feel like no matter how they vote, the elections are rigged, it leaves them backed into a corner with no other recourse except to fight in other, possibly less peaceful, ways.  We need to restore accountability and faith in our elections.  When I see a close race on election night, I get a sinking feeling, because I know that they will find enough ballots, however they do it, to make the Democrat win. I don’t trust the results, along with a whole lot of other people, and while there is an easy fix, Democrats refuse to do it because they don’t care if people have faith in our elections as long as they stay in power.  If anybody honestly cares about preserving our democracy, they would want to alleviate these fears.  Calling people “election deniers” and trying to vilify them does not work.  Neither does saying, “you can’t prove fraud.”  That is the point.  Due to mail-in ballots and a refusal to verify voters with ID at polling places, there is nearly no way to prove fraud.  That does not prove that cheating is not rampant.  It just proves that we have no way of knowing how much cheating is happening.  Instead of gaslighting people who have concerns about our election security, just prove to them that our elections are secure.  It is actually very easy to do.  Simply require voters to show ID when they cast their ballots, in person, on election day.  If we do this, it makes it very difficult to cheat. 

Election day can be fun again if we fix these four things.  Hopefully, we can do it.  If not, what is left for Democrats to try to ruin?  Groundhog’s Day?

What Is Liberty?

The week before California’s recall election I had the privilege of meeting the world’s greatest athlete from 1976.  That title was traditionally bestowed on the winner of the decathlon, and at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal Bruce Jenner won the gold medal for the United States while setting a new world record.  In 2015 Bruce Jenner shocked the world in an interview with Diane Sawyer in which he told Sawyer that he was now a she.  (Disclaimer:  So as not to be a science denier I am using the scientifically correct gender pronouns in this article.  That is not the focus of the article.)  Jenner, who now goes by the name Caitlyn, ran in the California recall election as a Republican to replace the inept Governor Gavin Newsom.  The Friday before election day Caitlyn Jenner was the guest speaker at a discussion group that I have been attending for the last couple of months.

Caitlyn’s talk was impressive.  He was personable, friendly, and funny.  Jenner said that after the Sawyer interview there was more criticism for coming out as a Republican than there was for coming out as transgender.  Jenner also told a funny story about being in the weight room at the Olympics when a female East German athlete came in and started lifting heavier weights than him, ironically causing him to leave because he felt emasculated.  Jenner genuinely cares about California and wants it returned to the greatness it once had.  I did not expect much talk about actual policy positions, but Jenner has a pretty solid grasp of many of the problems Gavin Newsom and years of Democrat control have caused, including sky-high tax rates and backbreaking regulations.  A lot of ideas that Jenner had to fix some of these problems were good, including a sunset provision which would require regulations to be reevaluated by the legislature every ten years or else they would fall off the books. 

There was, however, one major point that Jenner made that stood out to me because it was based on a flawed premise.  Jenner said that he decided to run because of his belief that California needs a moderate Republican to fix the state.  Specifically, he said that people should vote for him because he is conservative on economic issues and more liberal on social issues.  Jenner also said that the candidate that I endorsed, Larry Elder, is “far-right.”  The premise of that argument ignores the fact that conservatism comes with a built-in solution to people disagreeing on social issues:  liberty.

Jenner’s reasoning assumes that the choice you have is between voting for a left-wing government controlling your life or a right-wing government controlling your life.  In actuality, the choice is between a left-wing government controlling your life or you controlling your life. 

For example, as a conservative Republican, I believe that the country would be much better off if every single American attended church weekly.  I would agree with Jenner if a governor who is “far-right” was going to mandate church attendance.  As much as I think we would all be better off if everyone went to church, I only believe that to be true if it was done voluntarily instead of under coercion.  If the Right operated like Democrats this might be something to worry about.  Imagine, the government forcing all businesses with over 100 employees to require proof of church attendance to be employed there.  Jenner’s argument only works if the Right did that kind of thing.  Instead, the Right wants people to be free to choose, even if we disagree.  That is what liberty is. 

Conservatives, especially Christian conservatives, are often accused of telling people what to do on moral issues.  The truth is, we do care about your moral decisions and we want you to choose what God wants for you.  Notice, however, that I said: “choose.”  Except on the issue of abortion, where the choice directly harms another person, we do not want to take the decision away from you.  The difference is huge.  Conservatives may try to persuade you to do certain things, but that is not the same as using tyrannical power to force those things.  This is what Caitlyn Jenner was missing.  The further to the left a politician gets, the more parts of your life they want to control.  Being a moderate Republican still means they want to have more control over you than a “far right” candidate does.  That is not a good selling point. 

Jenner was asked if he would run for office again if he lost this election and answered that he wasn’t sure about running again, but he would definitely work with the Republican Party to become more of a big tent party that is more inclusive.  I hope that he does, but it needs to be done by explaining clearly that the way to do it is to push for a return to limited government and personal liberty.  We can agree to disagree.  You are welcome in the Republican Party even if you want to use your God-given liberty to do things we may not agree with.  I certainly do not agree with many of Caitlyn Jenner’s lifestyle choices, but I also do not want the government to force him to do what I would prefer.  The Right has no interest in taking away your liberty.

Give Us the Same Courtesy That We Gave You

The first paragraph of this article is here for a very specific reason. To promote the article on social media I had to make sure that there was no political speech in the first couple of lines so that it wouldn’t be censored. The original started here:

Democrats now control the White House and both chambers of Congress.  They are calling for unity, but what they mean by that is, “Now everybody needs to agree with us.”  That is not going to happen.  I am not saying that in an obstinate way.  I’m just being realistic and honest.  People disagree and that is alright.  Republicans were in charge for the last four years and many people disagreed with them, and I expected that as well because that is how life works. 

This leads me to my one request to Democrats.  Now that you’re in charge please give us the same courtesy that we gave to you when we were.  That courtesy is this:  When people disagree with you, don’t force them to do what you want. 

This may surprise some of you after being told by the media for four years that President Trump was a fascist dictator, but I cannot think of anything that he forced us to do during his term.  If you disagreed with President Trump and the Republicans, they did not make you do anything against your will.  Republicans let people agree to disagree.  

If, for example, you disagreed with the tax cuts that were passed, Republicans did not force you to go along with it.  They implemented no penalties for people who wanted to keep paying the higher tax rates voluntarily.  Yes, you can do that.  Surprisingly, wealthy Democrats who complain that rich people don’t pay their fair share do not opt to pay more themselves when given that choice.  Alright, maybe not so surprisingly.

Ultimately, this is the main thing that Republicans want:  to be left alone.  We want to control our own lives and let others control theirs.  Another example; we may understand that homosexuality is immoral, but we do not block people from the practice.  In fact, the Trump administration started a global effort to end the criminalization of homosexuality.  (In contrast, Democrats kowtow to countries like Iran who put homosexuals to death.)  Republicans also disagree with divisive groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter, yet do not want them prevented from speaking or kicked off of social media.  Another Republican belief is that God is central to the American way of life and necessary for our success, but we do not want to require church attendance.  In other words, Republicans would like everybody to act in particular ways but think that people should be free to choose for themselves.

This approach is not a new one.  It is actually one of the principles that our country was established on.  Our Founding Fathers were wise men who understood that people would not always agree as to what should be done.  They also knew that throughout history, when the powerful forced those who disagreed with them to conform to their will it sowed contempt, division and conflict.  Their solution was liberty.  If one group wants to do “A” and another group wants to do “B,” the answer is not to have the group in power force the other group to do what they command.  Instead, the first group can do “A” and the second group can do “B.”  They can try to use persuasion to win the other side over but they should not use coercion.

If Joe Biden really wants unity this is what he should do.  Refrain from taking away our liberty.  Allow people to have free will and do what they think is best for themselves.  He can disagree with our choices but he should not overrule them.  Here are ten great suggestions that the Democrats can do to respect the liberty of Americans:

  1. If you decide to raise taxes, make it optional to pay the old rate like the Republicans did for you. 
  2. If you want people to wear masks, make it optional like the Republicans did.
  3. Let scared restaurant owners who want to shut down do so, and let the ones who want to remain open choose to do that.  If patrons want to show up they can but if they are afraid they should also be free to stay home.
  4. Let churches decide whether to remain open or close down.  If congregants do not want to attend they should not be forced to, but those who do should be allowed in.
  5. President Trump stopped enforcement of the Johnson Amendment, which threatens to take away tax-exempt status from churches if the pastor endorses a political candidate.  Continue with that policy and allow pastors to decide for themselves what to say from the pulpit without threat of retaliation from the government.
  6. If somebody wants health insurance that covers pregnancy and drug rehabilitation they should be allowed to purchase it.  If another person wants less expensive insurance that does not cover those things they should be allowed to choose that.  If someone else prefers to pay out of pocket for medical care instead of buying insurance they should be able to do that.
  7. Do not force law abiding citizens to buy guns.  Likewise, do not prohibit them from buying guns.
  8. If someone wants to do a job for $8 per hour, do not prohibit them from doing so and force them out of a job.  Let people decide for themselves what wage to accept.
  9. Do not force people who are against murdering babies to pay for the murder of babies.  Do not use taxpayer money for Planned Parenthood.
  10. Refrain from banning or restricting us from using certain products like incandescent light bulbs, straws, grocery bags, soda, and shower heads with good water pressure.

These are all things that Democrats have tried to dictate in the past.  If they truly want unity this list would be a solid first step.  Instead of using tyrannical power to control those of us who disagree with them, try going back to our founding vision of liberty.  It’s the least they can do after Republicans did it for them the last four years.