In the run-up to the 2020 election, and again this year, I’ve been dismayed to see a lot of allegedly conservative voices recommending against voting for Donald Trump, due to his, shall we say, less than ideal character. And yeah, I get it. I really do. The guy is by no means a paragon of Christian virtue, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. I’d personally have loved to see Governor DeSantis get the nomination. But we got what we got. And the thing is, as much as the mainstream media, in keeping with Alinsky’s 13th rule, loves to pretend that this is all about the individual candidates, it’s not and never has been.
What we’re voting for next month is the Executive Branch itself. We’re not voting for a President so much as the Administration that that President will bring with them. And interestingly enough, both candidates have a 4-year track record of the results their Administration produces. So, let’s look at the most important principle in political judgment: by their fruits ye shall know them.
Trump Administration track record
The chief executive’s personality flaws notwithstanding, the facts are clear: the Trump Administration gave us the best conservative Presidency in living memory.
Appointed 3 reliable conservative Justices to do what every other Republican presidency for 50 years has failed to do: get Roe v. Wade rolled back. It’s hard to overstate what a colossal achievement this was.
First President since Jimmy Carter to not involve the USA in any new foreign conflicts. (And given that the Iranian hostage crisis happened on his watch, Carter kind of gets the title only on a technicality because he declined to do anything about it — a colossal policy error we’re still dealing with today. The last guy who the honor really belongs to is Lyndon B. Johnson, who apparently had his hands too full managing the Vietnam War that Kennedy got us into to start any new ones.)
4 years ago today, gasoline was below $2/gallon throughout most of the country.
The Abraham Accords, one of the greatest foreign policy achievements of the past century. By rejecting the Establishment consensus around appeasing thieves squatting on Israeli land, the Trump Administration brokered an immensely consequential Middle East peace deal that’s been paying dividends in spades over the past year, as for the first time since the 1940s, Israel’s Arab neighbors have declined to pile on when a conflict broke out. They’ve even helped shoot down incoming rockets and attacks from Iran! Again, it’s hard to overstate just how immense of an achievement this is. 10 years ago if you’d have told someone that the Saudis would do that, they’d have laughed you out of the room! But Team Trump made it happen.
Drafting regulations on medical pricing transparency, and successfully defending it in court against the medical establishment. This gets us halfway to Restaurant Pricing, the tried-and-tested “conservative alternative to Obamacare” that the media keeps telling everyone doesn’t exist.
Net negative illegal immigration. Illegals understood they weren’t welcome here, and were leaving voluntarily.
Biden/Harris Administration track record
What have we seen over the past 4 years? In a word, devastation.
Over 10 million illegal aliens crossing into America, being welcomed with open arms, with the Administration actively impeding states’ efforts to keep them out.
Inflation such as we haven’t seen since the 1970s. Official numbers say we’ve had around 25% inflation since Biden took office. The bills we pay say it’s been a lot more than that.
The world’s on fire. Major conflicts have popped up in Ukraine and Israel that the current Administration did nothing to prevent, and has since gotten us deeply involved in. (Not to the point of sending US troops in yet, but still…) And does anyone really doubt that if they get in for another 4 years, China will make its long-anticipated move on Taiwan shortly thereafter?
The South is underwater, with Hurricane Helene wreaking havoc across multiple states, Milton about to hit before Florida has had time to catch its breath, and, bizarrely, reports coming in from all over about FEMA being useless or actively impeding private relief efforts.
Over 2/3 of fourth-graders can’t even read. We’ve gone from worrying that kids will be taught woke garbage in schools to worrying that they won’t be taught anything at all!
This is what’s at stake
The upcoming election isn’t about the person at the top of the ticket. It’s about the personnel they’ll bring into the Executive Branch and the policies they’ll enact. We know, for both sides, what those policies look like. That’s the choice we’re faced with. Not between Trump and Harris, but between sanity and chaos.
The time for picking a better candidate was the primaries. That’s come and gone now. It didn’t work out the way a lot of people, myself included, had hoped. Oh well. Too bad. That’s not the choice that’s before us now. Now we’re choosing between sanity and chaos. Hopefully the people allegedly on our side who find Trump personally distasteful can swallow their pride long enough to accept this simple truth, and vote for sanity.