By John F. Di Leo -
From the moment that President Trump was diagnosed with symptoms of the China virus, the punditry has declared that this news “fundamentally changes the race.”
But why?
Yes, the President would have to work out of Walter Reed Hospital for a few days instead of from the Oval Office… And the president will have to take a break from his wonderful campaign rallies…
But that is all. In fact, the cancellation of his rallies means he can do even more from the White House, without all that time spent in travel from state to state. The President has excellent surrogates to campaign in his place; he can continue to focus on his job, a luxury few candidates are afforded in the weeks before an election.
Outside of that minor campaigning shift, the fundamentals of this race have not changed a bit.
Having spent the last six months hiding in his basement, if anything, Joe Biden’s health and age are now brought to the forefront.
President Trump is halfway through his eight-year presidency at 74, and he has recovered quickly from the China virus, thanks to both his own fine condition and terrific medical care.
If elected, Joe Biden would begin his presidency at 78, and a two-term Biden presidency would end with him being 86. How would Joe Biden fair, if confronted with a health challenge, either this or something worse, at his advanced age, while in office?
If Donald Trump is reelected, he would close out his second term younger than Joe Biden would begin his first. If the health and fitness of the candidate is an issue, this event only pulls the truth into even greater focus than before.
This momentary reminder of the virus aside, we return to the fundamentals of the race. What has changed, with regard to the issues that drive the nation’s decision?
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris remain the candidates of economic catastrophe, of an overbearing bureaucratic state, of global conflict and burning cities.
This is not hyperbole. Joe Biden has committed to repealing the Trump tax cuts that have spurred our current recovery; he has promised to re-regulate in every that the Trump administration has freed from the jack boot of government red tape and restrictions.
When Joe Biden was is in the Obama White House, he gleefully supervised the distribution of government grants to sham companies in bankruptcy… and he proudly participated in the nationalization of healthcare, from which we have still not recovered. As a US Senator, he supported WTO membership and Most Favored Nation trade status for Red China, the single most destructive one-two punch that the American economy has ever suffered.
Joe Biden supports the complete detachment of our legal system from the rule of law, by a lifetime of support for corrupt judicial appointments, and the most outrageous attacks on honorable appointments. Remember, then Senator Biden’s attacks on the supremely qualified Robert Bork appointment ushered in the poisonous modern process of judicial appointments. Today, Joe Biden even refuses, again and again, to denounce the concept of packing the Supreme Court; he has made it clear that, if elected, he would join a Democrat Congress in doing so. He won’t even denounce the socialist rioters that have destroyed dozens of American cities’ downtowns this summer, because he knows these mobs are his voters.
Joe Biden’s energy platform would throw millions of workers in the coal, nuclear, petroleum, and natural gas sectors out of work, as his policy is to pour American money entirely into unproductive Chinese “alternative energy” production like windmills and solar panels… yes, admit it or not, it’s the radical Green New Deal, in all but name.
And we know from Kamala Harris’ radical voting record in the US Senate, that she and Joe Biden see eye to eye on all this and more. They are the most admittedly radical, unAmerican candidates for the presidency in American history.
By contrast, Donald Trump and Mike Pence are a known quantity. They have had four years in the White House to prove their commitment to the American Way: serious tax cuts, responsible regulatory reform, peace at home and abroad.
The record of the Trump/Pence presidency is clear and impressive. They inherited eight years of the most sluggish “non-recovery recovery” in American history. Almost immediately upon taking office, the Trump/Pence plan restored faith in the American economy, and both job growth and real personal income growth skyrocketed under their stewardship.
Just the removal of the many brakes that Presidents Clinton and Obama placed upon the economy finally enabled entrepreneurship to grow again, and even enabled American manufacturing to return in force.
The Trump/Pence approach on the world scene has been remarkable. Their willingness to stand up to foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as the WTO and WHO – not to mention the UN! – has finally started a process of reform in those agencies that most of us never dreamed possible.
The Trump/Pence approach to foreign trade, far from being counter-productive, as originally feared, has even inspired a recognition in other countries that it is safe, and even wise, to finally stand up to China’s misbehavior and criminality.
Donald Trump’s respect for the judiciary, through excellent appointments from the lowest federal circuit judge to the highest positions on the Supreme Court, has reformed our third branch of government in a way that would make our Founding Fathers proud.
And after four years… Not only has President Trump not brought us into any new wars… he has been a peacemaker, working behind the scenes to engineer peace agreements between Israel and multiple individual neighbors who have been hostile for over seventy years!
The pundits may claim that a brief hospitalization, this close to an election, changes the dynamic of a race. But they are merely attempting the political spin of the average partisan, that’s all.
In fact, nothing could be clearer: The choice in 2020 is plain, and critical.
While a Biden/Harris election would mean radical socialist policies from top to bottom, economic destruction, endorsement of public corruption and open lawlessness, and the reversal of all the achievements we have recently gained…
…A Trump/Pence reelection will mean continued broad economic growth, opportunity for personal prosperity, and continued hope for a veritable Pax Americana, as President Trump’s focus on tough diplomacy continues to bear fruit across the globe.
copyright 2020 John F Di Leo
John F Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based trade compliance trainer, writer, and actor. His columns have been regularly found in Illinois Review since 2009.
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