My Dear Friend: You ask if I am still supporting President Trump. I suppose you ask that question in light of his recent acts of idiocy, such as threatening to invade Danish territory if the United States is not able to buy Greenland, naming our JFK concert hall after himself, or placing the even more idiotic RFK Jr. in charge of our health ministry. I am responding to your question with, as you know, my great respect and affection for you.
First of all, I have never “supported” any President on all matters. How could one do so, given the panoply of issues that come to his desk? And of course I detest the President’s coarse manners and narcissistic mannerisms. But I continue to be very, very, very happy that I joined with the majority of Americans in 2024 in voting to place our powerful presidency in the hands of him and his team rather than those of Vice President Harris and her team.
I love my country, which means I love both our Constitutional form of government and the time-tested principles and institutions developed under it that protect Americans not just from foreign oppression, but from oppression by other Americans. You see, as an anti-imperialist living in the heart of the imperial city I have, since my days as activist against our empire’s invasion of Viet Nam, been keenly aware of how I am protected by our Constitution, principles, and institutions from the majority of Americans’ desire that I should shut up or be shut in prison.
And I believe that rule by the Democratic Party has been destroying my country and its Constitution, principles, and institutions. That is why I, and I think most other Trump voters, pulled his lever in 2024: as much to keep Harris out as to put Trump in.
President Trump campaigned clearly AGAINST: racial hatred and racial preferences, which poison our own and especially our children’s spirits; socialist economic policies like limits on price and profit and needless regulation of businesses and individuals; long-term rather than temporary social services for able-bodied adults; higher taxes; open border illegal immigration; completely unrestricted abortion; cutting off our support for Israel as it defends itself against the medieval fascists of Hamas; transgender surgery on minors; instruction – really, propagandizing -- in sexual or disturbing topics in primary and middle schools; denying girls and women their right to secure bathrooms and safe, competitive sports; and senseless restrictions on fossil fuels (because of their harmless, indeed beneficial carbon dioxide by-products), which raise energy prices and hence shorten our life span. In contrast, Harris campaigned clearly FOR all of those things, which President Biden had been promoting for four years in office.
If you’re interested, here’s a link to something I wrote in 2020 with more specifics on some of these issues. http://www.aemp.us/2020/10/the-undemocratic-party.html
Now, there is no doubt that Trump, like all Presidents, has not governed exactly as he campaigned. Tariffs, government shares in businesses, and favoring sycophants with contracts are not free-market policies. But on balance, I am right where I was when I voted last year: more scared of the Democrats than the Republicans, by a long shot.
I know you are vitally interested in our policy on the war against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Even here, I think Trump has done much better for Ukraine than Biden did, or Harris would have. He did what Presidents Obama and Biden claimed they were trying to do: he has forced Europe to take more responsibility for this threat to its own existence. Now Europe pays us for the advanced weapons that we manufacture (and also provides more of its own) while the U.S. continues to provide the vital real-time targeting and satellite intelligence that only a hyper-power that has a true fighting-ready force can afford to maintain. Yes, the President has failed so far to convince Putin to find a formula that could end the war, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Somebody has to take the initiative to break the logjam, or in ten years there will be no Ukrainians left to fight.
Looking forward to seeing you soon!
Fondly, Caleb
No comments:
Post a Comment