What
are the four “C”s? They are
Constitution, Competence, Courage, and Consistency. Which candidate can best deliver this? Let’s take them one at a time.
Constitution: Beginning with Obama, the Executive Branch of
our government began to blow through the constitutional boundaries on Executive
Action. When Obama used up his
extraordinary portion of public and Congressional good will by ramming
Obamacare down America’s throat in his first two years, he poisoned the
partisan well in Congress to the point where he was simply unable, or unwilling, to work with them on a
bipartisan basis. He then resorted to
new adventures in Executive Action that essentially shifted a lot of governing
power from the Legislative and Judicial Branches over to the Executive
Branch.
When
Trump followed Obama into the White House, he too became disenchanted with the
difficult task of working with Congress in the pursuit of governance. Like his predecessor, but to a lesser degree,
he overly indulged in the practice of Executive Action.
The
Biden/Harris Administration started from a position where the constitutional
barriers on Executive Action had been compromised and literally exploded it to
extremes heretofore unseen. Given her
political career up to this point, there is no reason to expect a president
Harris to slow down on this effort to distort the Constitution in ways that
empower the Executive Branch beyond what our framers intended.
As
I mentioned, Trump is certainly not blameless in this area. He largely refused to work with Congress in a
productive fashion, even when his party controlled both houses. But all things considered, Trump has a far
better record of respecting our constitutional blueprint than does
Biden/Harris. Harris certainly appears
to be nothing less than Biden 2.0…or
perhaps Obama 3.0. The advantage on
Constitution goes to Trump.
Competence:
Any reasonable and rational examination of VP Harris’s political career leaves
a large and nagging doubt about her level of competence to perform any position
of authority and influence at a high level.
She is vacuous, shallow, and an unprincipled bubblehead. She is an avatar for those who support and
control her behind the scenes. There is
no reason to expect that a president Harris would not continue, and perhaps even accelerate, the
Biden/Harris inclination to seed our government from top to bottom with stupid,
insipid, non-serious, irrational, and clueless liberal/progressive ideologues
who are, if nothing else, seriously and legitimately incompetent.
I
do not think of the words Trump and competence in simultaneous fashion. It is not a word I would use to describe
Donald Trump; but having said that, his history in the business world and his
record as president demonstrates clearly that he by and large surrounds himself
with intelligent and competent people.
And while a lot of those appointees were not sufficiently tolerant of
Trump’s monstrous ego to stay around for long, he always managed to replace
them with reasonably competent successors.
History dictates that on the subject of Competence, the advantage goes
to Trump.
Courage: While not a shining
example of intestinal fortitude, it seems fair to say that Harris could not
have achieved the position she now occupies as a candidate for president
without possessing a significant amount of personal
courage. There can be little question that
her identity of being a minority female has made it more difficult to have
reached this level in her political career and whether or not she wins the
race, she should be admired for getting to this point in the political
process.
For
many reasons, Donald Trump obviously does not lack personal courage. While a part of that trait is no doubt a
product of an entitled life, that privileged upbringing cannot fully explain
his business success and the valor he has shown while being under constant
political attack and life-threatening physical attack. Regardless of wherein lies its source, Trump
clearly is a brave man.
The
relevant question here is which candidate has political courage? Which one
will best be able to make the hard and difficult choices as president when no good
options are available and no one is willing to stand with you when you take the
bad or unpopular ones?
I
cannot find a single instance where Harris has taken a political stand based on
courage or principle. Much like her
mentor Joe Biden, she is intimately in tune with the direction of the political
winds and effortlessly flows in that direction.
While Trump is also prone to say
anything to anybody at anytime if it will serve his interests, he did
demonstrate his willingness to take unpopular actions during his term as
president and on occasions, even confronted his own party leaders. Once again, the reality of past actions
dictates that the advantage on Courage will go to Trump.
Consistency: In many respects,
consistency is a product of combining the previous three elements in this
post…Constitution, Competence, and Courage.
While I would never expect to find a president that performs exactly how
I as an individual citizen would expect, I would like to have one that is
sufficiently competent to comprehend
our constitution and has the courage, both personal and political, to
consistently adhere to its blueprint
as the leader of our nation.
While
considering that I have rated Trump superior on the foregoing three elements,
you would think that he is a clear winner on this fourth. The problem with that assumption is the
simple fact that Donald Trump is one of the most unpredictable and inconsistent
politicians you will ever meet. He was a
Democrat before he was a Republican. He
was liberal before he was conservative.
He will often be for something
today and against that same thing
next week. But here is the point: Even
though he is an inconsistent individual,
he is always consistently Trump. What you see is what you get; even though you
may not always know what that is going to be.
Like him or not…he is authentic;
he is real.
If
we have learned nothing else from the Harris campaign for president, we have
certainly learned that she is a vaporous and malleable person who seems to have
no solid core of substance or principle.
The one reliable thing that you
can say is that she has always been quite reliably…liberal and progressive.
Therefore,
on this fourth and final evaluation of desirable presidential traits, I will
give the advantage to Trump. I do this
not because he is any more predictable than Harris; they are both needy,
egomaniacal politicians. That is what
they both are. But as I said before, if a leader is a
combination of their constitutional respect, their competence as
administrators, and their political courage to do the right thing…then I will
select the personally inconsistent
Donald Trump that I have little respect for…because he has demonstrated a high level of administrative
consistency over his lifetime. After
all, we do refer to our presidents as “Chief
Executive”.
While
Harris has been a fairly consistent
model of political philosophy throughout her career, the simple fact is that
her model is one of liberal and progressive idiocy. It is a product of her failings in the three
components that blend into the final element of consistency. As a
political leader, she has been consistently bad.
Our
nation, relying as it must on its constitutional moorings, is incredibly strong
and enduring. It has survived many
disasters, both natural and manmade. It
has survived bad presidents, corrupt legislatures, and rogue federal
prosecutors and judges. While I have
grave concerns regarding what a Harris Administration might portend for the
next four years, I cling to the notion that our nation could survive that possible
outcome.
Legitimate votes matter. Politicians are elected to terms in order to
reward them or punish them for their service
to the people. Given the choices
before me, I must cast my lot with Donald Trump. His record and potential is markedly more
promising for America than that of his opponent, Kamala Harris.
This
will be my last post before the upcoming national elections in November. I urge everyone…educate yourself on your choices, think about what you want in your elected leaders, vote on election day, reconcile
yourself to those results as they may be…and then get on with living your lives. America will
survive a chaotic second Trump Administration full of bluster and
caricature or it will weather an
initial Harris Administration full of Obamaesque naiveté and Bidenesque
ineptitude. Yeah…just keep repeating
those words to yourself over and over…you might even start to believe it. We will
get the government we deserve.
Moving
on to other news of the day, here is all things National Media:
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/10/24/selling-the-apocalypse-the-press-and-pundits-face-devastating-polls-on-the-threat-to-democracy/
The Democrats and their allies tell
you that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.
Listen to this and then ask yourself: Who is the real threat: https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-mccarthy-report/last-minute-lawfare/
https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/20/j6-and-now-congress-knows-the-rest-of-the-story/
https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/24/cbs-refusal-to-release-60-minutes-harris-transcript-indefensible/
https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/21/a-media-beyond-caricature/
All
things Campaign 2024:
https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/20/the-strategic-consequences-of-kamala-harris-incompetence/
https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/24/kamalas-inane-talking-points/
https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/23/kamala-harris-keeps-reminding-voters-shes-joe-biden-2-0/
https://reason.com/2024/10/20/kamalacare-is-just-bidencare/
https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/10/the-biden-iran-scandal-gets-worse/
https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/10/the-october-bribe/
https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/20/2024-election-showdown-harriss-america-vs-trumps-comeback/
Sad but true:
https://reason.com/2024/10/23/trump-harris-ads-make-clear-they-wont-be-cutting-government/
https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/22/without-massive-reform-a-trump-victory-will-be-in-vain/
https://americanmind.org/features/what-trump-should-do-if-he-wins/how-trump-can-win-the-transition/
https://americanmind.org/features/what-trump-should-do-if-he-wins/make-peace-and-rebuild-americas-industrial-base/
All
things Election Integrity:
https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/22/asking-questions-about-election-integrity-doesnt-make-someone-an-election-denier/
https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/22/will-democrats-accept-the-results-of-the-2024-presidential-election/
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/10/22/the-mark-of-kaine-the-biden-administration-under-fire-for-virginia-lawsuit-over-non-citizen-voter-removals/
https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/23/there-is-no-good-reason-for-voters-to-not-expect-results-on-election-night/
All
things Education:
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/what-to-do-about-grade-inflation/
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/standardized-testing-is-good/
School choice anyone???
https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/24/parents-pull-kids-from-illinois-k-5-school-as-librarian-stages-public-gender-transition/
https://reason.com/2024/10/24/illinois-scholarship-program-explicitly-excludes-white-applicants/
Closing
Notes to think about:
Being an elder myself, I liked
this: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/americas-elderly-should-never-feel-alone/
Combine profligate federal spending
with climate lunacy and what do you get??? https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/three-years-after-allocating-5-billion-for-ev-chargers-government-has-completed-projects-at-17-stations/
Optional:
Post-Election Therapy…You can call it celebration, or
grieving, or consolation, or despair, or whatever you might choose. There is one remedy that will address them
all…music.
Outstanding attitude:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh8xy58dOV4
What a great place to grow up in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R50cMM5ADy0
Ever feel the need to just get
away? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh5Lt1ccdjA
More of that Tom Petty attitude,
Springsteen style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3cecpC75vw
Live it like you love it…:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV-Z1YwaOiw
…‘Cause it will be over with before
you know it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR-qQcNT_fY
Yeah…so many of the great ones left
us way too soon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ardglr9MVVQ
