Early voting begins Monday in Arkansas. This election, even more than most elections, is going to be a doozy.
Little Rock will elect a school board for the first time since the state takeover of its schools. It will have a profound impact on the future of Little Rock. Voters are being asked to issue $329 million in bonds for the Little Rock school district when they don't even know who will be on the board spending the money.
Then we have the dilemma of voting for president, with the prospect that with so many absentee ballots, we may not know the results for days or weeks.
If you get your information from social media, which feeds you individually what you already believe, you have long ago made up your mind on Trump vs. Biden. This may explain why so many have already cast their ballots absentee or in early voting.
But the presidential election, and especially the election of senators in 2020, could have a major impact on the trajectory of our country. We think voters should think long and hard about their votes and futures.
It seems every conservative column about the presidential election has to start out like this: "If it weren't for his personality . . ." Because President Trump's economic policies have been good for the country. He took so many regulations/handcuffs off businesses in the first year in office that the economy took off. He reduced corporate taxes to 21 percent so they are now competitive with most countries in the world.
Even during a pandemic, Americans have watched their 401(k)s go up. As far as foreign policy, he got us out of the Paris Accord's goals, finally got tough on Iran, and is polling very well--in Israel. Which must have a lot to do with his moving the embassy to its rightful place in Jerusalem. Which many presidents promised but President Trump actually did.
We wonder--if it weren't for his personality--if the polls in this election would even be close. Imagine a president who cut taxes for everyone. Imagine a president who oversaw the best economy in memory, and the lowest unemployment for people of color in modern recorded history. Imagine a president who oversaw a military that all but obliterated the Islamic State--whereas the last president dismissed the terror outfit as the JV squad.
Imagine a president who has appointed more than 200 judges who promise to rule on matters of law. And placed three outstanding jurists on the Supreme Court. Now imagine that president wasn't named Donald Trump, with the Twitter habit. And the unhinged opposition party that rose up against him in Congress.
If one were to pick policy over personality, in this center-right country this election wouldn't be close. And although many of us had to guess what a President Trump would do in 2016, we now have confidence in what he would continue to do.
What is remarkable about Trump is that he has kept so many of his campaign promises, especially compared to previous presidents. He promised to cut taxes, rebuild the military, destroy ISIS, get tough on Iran, defuse the confrontation with North Korea, force our allies to pay more for NATO and their defenses, and appoint Supreme Court judges from a list he provided before election day.
He has kept all of these promises, and more. His failure to do all he promised is largely due to Nancy Pelosi and a Democratic House refusing his initiatives. And it is worth remembering he did all this despite Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference which found no ground for impeachment. And the House impeached him anyway.
No doubt most Americans wish Trump had a better demeanor, a milder personality, and would get off Twitter. But that is wishful thinking. If most Americans consider Trump's personality a minus, then they have to weigh the pluses and the minuses, and consider the alternative.
Which is Joe Biden. Or is it? The Democratic Party quickly folded its tent and fell in behind Joe Biden after he won his first primary in South Carolina. Most of his opponents were far to the left of Biden, and were more in tune with each other than with Joe. One has to wonder if they didn't decide the best option was to back a more moderate-looking Biden, and if elected, try to get their policies implemented with the oldest American ever elected president.
During this past summer, after the nomination was secured, Joe Biden's people and Bernie Sanders' people got together to work out a policy document--a Unity Task Force--to guide a Joe Biden administration: "When I talked to Joe a while back, he said that he wants to be the most progressive president since FDR," Sen. Sanders told NPR (not Fox News).
"The goals of the task force were to move the Biden campaign into as progressive a direction as possible, and I think we did that," Sen. Sanders said. "On issue after issue, whether it was education, the economy, health care, climate, immigration, criminal justice, I think there was significant movement on the part of the Biden campaign."
According to a CNN report (not Fox News) last month, the Democratic nominee plans to spend $5.4 trillion on everything from universal Pre-K to tuition-free community college to his proposed green policies.
When it comes to the left, not many things are as radical as packing the Supreme Court. And Biden refuses to tell the American people his position.
Biden may not be thinking of himself as a Trojan horse. But many of his far left supporters may be looking at the election that way.
And the elephant in the room, or at least the donkey, is this: The former vice president and senator from Delaware doesn't look spry. He will be 78 on the next inauguration day. He would not finish his first term until he's 82. He doesn't have the energy and quickness of mind of Trump, who is four years younger. If elected, we wish Joe Biden a long life. But if he doesn't make it until the end of his first term, we are left with the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate as president.
Joe Biden says he'd like to be the most progressive president since FDR. Kamala Harris might get a chance to be.
Being liberal isn't disqualifying , and we have had other liberal presidents. But no liberal president had ever advocated the type of radical agenda liberals like Kamala Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez do today. A partial list is the Green New Deal, free college for all, defunding the police, allowing late-term abortions, opening our borders, and on and on. Joe Biden has already promised to spend $2 trillion in four years on green energy efforts.
With the nation's debt at unprecedented levels, this could force the country to the brink of bankruptcy, or more likely runaway inflation, with devastating consequences for all Americans.
If Biden wins and the Democrats take the Senate and end the filibuster rule--and along with a Democratic House pass much of the radical far left agenda--will Biden really veto it? We doubt it. A vote for Trump instead of Biden might be the best check on that becoming a reality in America.