Before you go off to the polls to vote tomorrow, here’s some food for thought.
Although the nation’s condition may not be on the “edge of a cliff,” as some pundits (or, for that matter, President Obama) would have you believe, our country is in pretty dire straits economically.
A great transfer of wealth is taking place right under our noses — the biggest transfer in world history, to be exact. Nearly all of this money is going to the top one percent of the world’s (and the U.S.’s) wealthiest people, at the expense of the middle class and those who once were part of the middle class.
In fact, the middle class itself is shrinking faster than an all-cotton shirt in a Chinese laundry as the government and the rich soak the average person for all they’re worth. Between skyrocketing costs for health care, education, transportation and housing — on top of threatened changes to programs like Social Security — the average person is getting a royal screw job from the government courtesy of our president and his “progressive” party.
Hillary Clinton wants to not only extend those programs; she wants to expand them. And she wants to waste more of the government’s money — your tax dollars — on regressive foreign wars, irrational trade policies that cost Americans jobs and dumbfounding “social justice” programs and policies that are a complete waste of time and money (not to mention serving as a distraction from all the outright corruption that’s going on).
Most of these expenses will only help one class of people — those at the very top. And many of them aren’t even American citizens.
By contrast, only Republican candidate Donald Trump wants to reclaim and restore America to what it was — not just 20 years ago, but what it was and stood for generations ago, when being an American was something you could talk about with pride anywhere in the world and point to values that were positive and enviable, instead of embarrassing and sad.
America’s infrastructure is in need of major, major repairs. Just getting us up to the level of many European or Asian nations will take a complete overhaul of numerous government departments and much trimming of fat.
As an independent businessman, Donald Trump has the experience and the leadership to run our government like a tight, disciplined ship, instead of the morass of free-flowing waste and bureaucracy that it’s become.
Our schools need major reform. Our colleges cost too much and leave too many of our best and brightest people in unmanageable debt. And too many college graduates (and non-college graduates) are going out into the marketplace and finding that they have to compete with non-Americans for the same jobs that they would have easily gotten 20 or 30 years ago.
And those jobs pay less and are more difficult to do because foreign-born workers (illegal and not) will now perform the same work for less money with fewer complaints. One candidate — Hillary Clinton — wants to let MORE of these people into the country, believe it or not. It’s time to stand up for Americans first and for the protection of American labor.
America’s priorities are at home, and that starts with negotiating trade agreements that are fair to the nation’s workers, who should be considered first, not last.
Donald Trump wants to end “free trade” — the same free trade that was wrought large with NAFTA and so many other disastrous trade deals that his opponent has endorsed — deals that have destroyed American jobs — deals that the Democrats have committed to passing so a rich few can benefit.
American streets need to be safer so that when our children go to school, they won’t be at risk of being hurt or killed in our streets. We need to safeguard our Second Amendment, which protects all Americans in their homes and workplaces from threats, both foreign-born and domestic, which have become too commonplace. The security of this country is paramount, and only Donald Trump will protect it above all else.
Only Trump will commit to defeating ISIS and then getting out — instead of staying mired in a Middle Eastern or other regional conflict that could take decades to resolve — with no guarantee of an American victory or even stability in that country or area.
American lives are precious — especially those of our veterans, who Donald Trump has committed to helping. Only Trump wants to make our military so powerful that no other nation on Earth will even think about testing our strength.
And speaking of the military, our forces need to be rebuilt practically from the ground up — stronger, faster and better than ever before. We need to face up to new enemies that are highly lethal and dying (often literally) to enter our country like a trojan horse.
We need to seal our borders and vet people as they’ve never been vetted before — both when they come in and afterwards, so they don’t hurt our kids or take people’s lives as they have in places like Orlando and San Bernardino.
Donald Trump will strengthen our country’s security and give law enforcement the tools and the autonomy it needs to take these threats seriously, instead of being restrained by federal (or even international) authorities.
It’s crucial that citizens have access to the tools and the resources they need to protect themselves and their families from violent groups, individuals and even the government itself should it become necessary. But it’s this very government that Donald Trump will bring to heel when he takes office, and it’s this government that will answer to him when he calls on it to end its monumental waste, execrable spending, hapless inefficiency and dysfunctional Congress.
The swamp, as Trump vows, must be drained. “Business as usual” is no longer an option; “business as usual” has run the country into the ground, and it can no longer be our standard operating procedure.
It’s time for someone from outside Washington D.C. to take charge of our nation — an outsider with vision, who has the guts and the honesty to not just point out the problems, but to enact real solutions.
Our nation won’t heal by continuing to go in the same direction it’s been heading in for the last eight years; that course only ends in poverty and disaster. Washington needs to be shaken up, and Trump is exactly the “un-politician” who will do it.
