Not Alone

Now that the political conventions are over, the battle for power begins in earnest. But the real battle may come down to personalities, rather than competence or accomplishment. On one hand, we have a cognitively disabled candidate, who his party wants you to believe is a moderate "Mr. Nice Guy." Joe Biden has had over 40 years to correct all of the ills his party delineates on a daily basis. He has failed miserably and become a prototypical swamp creature, playing fast and loose with ethics and enriching his family along the way. He hasn't worked in the private sector in four decades and has little if any understanding of its challenges. He will be a puppet of the Left.

Donald Trump is a bombastic, often crude, combative narcissist who gets stuff done. The four constituencies—the democrats, the media, #Nevertrumpers in the GOP, and most of the deep state—hate, hate, hate him because he doesn't play their game, he isn't what they view as presidential, and most important, he doesn't kick the can down the road when tough decisions must be made. Before his election, they worked (illegally, we have come to learn) to ruin his campaign, and after his upset victory, and throughout his four years a president they have done everything possible to destroy his presidency and remove him from office. Despite that, he gets stuff done.

For the four constituencies, words are all that matters. Say the right things, project what they characterize as empathy, go along and get along. If you're a GOP president and your opposition lies, turn the other cheek. If they say they care and then act differently, don't mention it. If they call you names, smile and move on. If they throw a punch, take the blow, but never punch back. Obviously, that's not Donald Trump.

The editors of the Wall Street Journal (never fans of the Donald) outline Trump's successes and his flaws—there are plenty of both. They write:

... it’s impossible to assess Mr. Trump’s behavior outside the context of the often unhinged opposition. We will never know how his Presidency might have gone without the Russia collusion accusations. But we do know the FBI, and the Obama Administration, knew early on that there was no evidence for the claims. They nonetheless fed the media stories to cripple him.

Before Election Day in 2016, we wrote that the biggest gamble of a Trump Presidency wasn’t the fantasy that he was a Mussolini from Manhattan. It was that he’d face a hostile press and bureaucracy that his inexperience and erratic management would be unable to navigate. So it has often been, and in 2018 the resulting tumult cost Republicans control of the House.

Americans now know Mr. Trump isn’t going to change, but then he isn’t running only against himself. He has a chance to win another four years if voters conclude that his disruption is less risky than the Biden-Sanders Democratic agenda.

The Biden-Sanders agenda is dangerous. It will elevate the administrative state to a level of suffocating control that will stifle economic growth, reduce personal freedom, dampen free speech, diminish innovation, use government as a weapon, dismiss historic allies and elevate adversaries. That's what history tells us socialism does.

A WSJ commenter, "Jeff Murray" speaks for the tens of millions of Normals (a.k.a. "deplorables") when he writes:

"I don't like being told what to do.  I don't like being called a racist simply because I'm a Republican.  I don't like being taxed to death in order to support people with too little education to support themselves.   I don't like being lectured on income inequality by people in office with more money than some small countries.  And I don't like Donald Trump's Tweets but they make more sense than Joe Biden's speeches."

He's not alone.