Go ahead, say ‘Trump’The North Providence Valley Breeze, September 20, 2016. Tom Ward, Publisher
Last week, I met a friend who’s active in business. He told me, “You know, a lot of my acquaintances are still not sure of who they’ll be voting for in the presidential election. They tell me ‘I might make up my mind as I get into the voting booth.’”
“They’re voting for Donald Trump,” I told him. “They just don’t want to tell you.”
Maybe they are embarrassed, or just not inclined to share with others that they’re angry and want change. Maybe it’s buyer’s remorse on Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of America that insults police. They know that their pro-Trump words subject them to the ridicule of dyed-in-the-wool liberals, newspaper writers, armchair intellectuals, and academics who just can’t believe a blowhard like Trump could ever become president. Who needs that? Even the Democratic nominee herself, Hillary Clinton, called Trump’s supporters a “basket of deplorables.” So they shut up, or tell my friend they remain undecided. I don’t think they are.
Trump’s lack of an even temperament concerns me. That said, Hillary Clinton is so boring and damaged, I’m starting to wonder if a Trump landslide is in the works. Why would I think something so crazy? For me, Sept. 6 was a watershed day, when Emerson College released a poll claiming Clinton was ahead of Trump by just three points in deep blue Rhode Island. Just.......three.......points. Stunning!
By the way, Emerson’s poll was taken before Labor Day. Before she stumbled on 9-11 and had to stop lying about her pneumonia. Before she insulted millions of Americans.
My tepid support of Trump at this time is based on two major issues: The Supreme Court, and immigration policy.
On the Supreme Court, I happen to believe our founders were brilliant, and created a Constitution that makes “We the People” the pre-eminent authority in the United States. The government, they believed, should be limited in scope and power, and should not lord over us, creating public policy or laws from the bench.
Many liberals and progressives, including Clinton and Obama, believe our Constitution is flawed, a product of an archaic white European past, and should instead be viewed as a “living document” that needs fundamental change (under their supervision, of course) to keep it modern and relevant.
I agree with Trump, and the 11 conservative judges he has named as possible replacements for the late Justice Antonin Scalia (and others going forward) give me confidence in him. An activist liberal court is Clinton’s plan, and my dread.
Then there is immigration. Our borders are porous, and the spirit of the border patrol is broken. The Obama Administration chooses to not enforce federal law. Mayors of “sanctuary cities” are allowed to ignore the law, with a wink and a nod from Obama. That is where we are today, and people who use their God-given common sense to question the policy are called racist. We’re sick of it, and fed up with tyrants cloaked in political correctness.
We will always have room for immigrants; we should weed out criminals and deadbeats. We can always save refugees; we should never let their terrorist cousins pass. We should always welcome foreign students, but send them home when it’s time, letting only the best and brightest stay if they wish. Immigration policy must be about our interests, not theirs. Send criminal aliens home immediately; keep them out forever. Donald Trump promises this. Hillary Clinton will not.
As for Trump’s pledge to send millions of longtime illegal immigrants back home? It won’t happen. I don’t hold him to it because it’s an impossible promise. If good people – good workers – have been here for 15 years and have raised solid kids, let them stay. Eventually, Trump will reach this conclusion. First, though, secure the borders and restrict immigration sharply until things are sorted out.
If Clinton wins, keeps the borders open, and forms a left-wing, activist Supreme Court, my country will be transformed to its ruin anyway. The other issues – weak foreign policy, ISIS, the Fed, failed Obamacare, the suffering middle class, our ruinous debt – none of it will matter anyway. Our liberty will be lost in the haze of suffocating regulation and taxation, our “American Experience” lost forever. Orwell’s 1984 will be here.
I think people know who they’re voting for.
http://www.valleybreeze.com/2016-09-20/north-providence/tom-ward-go-ahead-say-trump#.V-J0OSVTHIV
