Forget the personalities, look at the contrasting policies
This commentary was submitted to VDC by Mark Shepard, former state senator from Bennington County. It sums up VDC’s thoughts on the presidential election. Republished from affordableandsaferamerica.com
This election is about as clear as any presidential election in our lifetime. Both candidates have been a key part of a presidential administration, Trump as president and Harris as Vice President. Harris has made her alignment with the policies of the Biden-Harris Administration clear. Furthermore, because of Biden’s weak cognitive state, it is more than likely that Harris was leading more than Biden.
For these reasons, there is no excuse to not know the effect of our vote. We need only compare the policies of the Trump years to that of the Biden-Harris years.
Below are comparisons between Trump and Harris on four major policy areas. They unequivocally show that who is president of the United States makes a massive difference to millions, perhaps even billions, of people. Indeed a vote for Trump is not nearly as much about Trump as it is about loving our neighbors, from next door, to across our nation, to around the world.
If you are inclined to not vote, please consider the outcome for millions of Jews in Germany because the people in the German churches decided to stay out of politics. Staying on the sidelines, when the differences have real consequences, is putting comfort above the well-being of your neighbor.
Energy Cost and Inflation
The chart below shows a stark contrast in regular gasoline prices under the policies of Trump vs. the policies of Biden-Harris. Once Biden-Harris policies drove the price of gasoline above Trump’s highest level, the price of gasoline never dropped down to even the highest cost under Trump.
This is not simply about gasoline prices. Almost everything we buy – groceries, clothes, home products, building supplies, cars, tools, toys, etc. – is tied to the cost of petroleum. The Biden-Harris high inflation is directly related to their dangerous opposition to oil being readily available at a low cost. The impact of that mindset on the third world is devastating, even deadly. (For more information on the good vs. bad debate over fossil fuels, consider reading Fossil Future, by Alex Epstein.) Small businesses, especially minority businesses, which had thrived under Trump, were hit especially hard under Biden.
It is dishonest for Harris to promote a livable wage when the policies she helps advance produce unlivable inflation. Policies are enacted intentionally to achieve goals. High inflation works as well as low wages to create a discontented working class that can be easily exploited to gain power.
Border with Mexico
Even without being able to finish the wall, Trump border policies created far more orderly immigration processes and a more secure border. When given the reins of government, one of the first thing Biden-Harris did was overturn policies of Trump that were working, including ending work on the border wall.
Trump border policies helped inhibit drug and child trafficking across the border. Under Harris, empowered as the Border Czar, annual overdose deaths in America were over 100,000 in both 2022 and 2023 impacting millions who lost their loved ones. There is likely not a person in America who does not know someone who lost a friend or family member to Fentanyl. We need a serious president.
We must be cautious that we don’t embrace ideas that do not accomplish what proponents claim they will accomplish, or even worse be counter-productive. Here is a simple gumball model on world poverty that helps bring clarity to our current immigration policy.
Wars and stability
Under Trump no new large-scale wars started, instead unimaginable moves toward peace and better relations took place.
The Abraham Accord Peace Deal between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Crippled Iran’s ability to fund terrorism and its proxy-wars.
A better trajectory in our relationship with North Korea.
Under Biden-Harris two major wars are underway and both were arguably encouraged by Biden-Harris policies. Minimally, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced. These wars are a great cost to Americans in taxes or debt, but an even bigger issue is that they use up military resources and divert focus from a much bigger threat, that being the Chinese Communist Party’s expansionist mindset and growing military might.
Harris’ February 2022 speech in Germany, which did nothing to lower the tensions brought about from efforts to bring Ukraine into NATO, presented a Vice President that was oblivious to the realities not far from her. Not only has Putin been consistently clear that Ukraine joining NATO was not an option Russia would accept, but he had amassed at least 150,000 Russian troops along the Ukrainian border to strengthen his position.
Could Harris not have tested Putin with consideration of a neutral Ukraine? After all the United States did promise Russian and Soviet leaders, as part of ending the Cold War, that NATO would not expand one inch to the east. In spite of that promise, by 2022 NATO had expanded eastward by 14 nations, and Ukraine would give NATO a nearly 1300 mile direct border with Russia.
We don’t have to agree with the positions of other nations, but to prevent wars we need leadership that will at least try to understand them. How would we respond if Russia or China were about to enter an alliance that could put their military power on the Canadian border?
The Biden-Harris administration wasted no time reversing the Trump Iran sanction policies, thus allowing Iran to rake in billions of dollars in oil revenue to arm its proxies and terrorist activities, as well as invest more in its own nuclear weapons program.
Democracy in America
Every election Trump has gone through the normal election process, never using his party to defeat his Republican Primary opponents, nor the government to defeat any opponent. By contrast, those controlling the Democrat Party have employed numerous shenanigans, law-fare tactics, and even weaponized government agencies for political purposes to force any real opposition out of the Democratic Primary Process, such as it was.
They forced challengers to Joe Biden, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. being one, out of the Democrat Primary, ensuring Biden would win the “primary.” It is clear now after the smooth ousting of Biden that the Democrat Primary was to clear a path for Harris to be the nominee without having to earn a single vote from the people. Harris proved her unpopularity among Democrat Primary voters in her 2020 run for president where she did not even make it to the first primary.
With a “nothing is off the table” attitude, Democrat Party leaders and their proxies used law-fare, weaponizing of government, and weak security to make it almost impossible for Trump to run an effective campaign.