It’s not about either of them.
Photos © 2024 Paul L. Gleiser
(CHICAGO) I have spent this entire week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and I have heard speech after speech praising Kamala Harris as something akin to the second coming and I have heard speech after speech calling Donald Trump everything but a child of God.
Here’s the truth. Kamala Harris isn’t all that and neither is Donald Trump. Both are human and both are flawed.
I don’t hate Kamala Harris. I’m not in the tank for Donald Trump.
I’m in the tank for the country.
My politics are animated by my desire for the United States to continue to be the “Shining City on a Hill,” as Ronald Reagan so eloquently characterized her in his farewell address to the nation.
I love this country. I cannot know how my life would have played out if I had been born somewhere else. What I know is that the freedom and opportunity that were my birthright for having been born here have allowed me to live a life for which I am more grateful than I can ever express.
When my two daughters are my age, I want them to feel the same way. I want them to have the freedom and the opportunity to pursue their passions just as I have.
I want as many Americans as God in His wisdom will allow – white, black, brown or whatever – to live prosperous, healthy, happy lives. I am a huge fan of that wonderful American invention called the middle class.
I want people all over the world to look at America with awe, a reasonable modicum of envy and, depending on who it is that’s looking, either a healthy respect or a chastening fear.
For these reasons, I am supporting Donald Trump. Not because I like or dislike him personally but because I believe that his governing policies – with which the country has recent experience – are the most likely to bequeath to my daughters the freedom, opportunity, prosperity and happiness that I have enjoyed.
Kamala Harris’s idiotic word salads don’t of themselves disqualify her. What disqualifies her are her well-documented policy beliefs – beliefs that she has been of late at some pains to hide – that have proven to be disastrous in places as far away as the Soviet Union and Venezuela and as near as her home state of California.
My support for Donald Trump isn’t personal nor is it blind. I believe that his presidency was by and large a policy tour de force. But I also believe that he has made very significant and costly political mistakes, and that those mistakes are now getting in the way of what might otherwise be an easy path to victory in November.
With that said, I believe in the American people. Get out of their way and the American people will amaze you. Give them the facts – good or bad – and they’ll make the right choices. I believe that Donald Trump shares that conviction.
But based on what I have heard this week, I’m quite convinced that the ruling class Democrats whose speeches I have suffered don’t share that conviction at all. In fact, I believe that they find the very premise preposterous.
The Democratic Party of 2024 is more top-down, command & control-statist in its governing philosophy than at any time in American history – with the possible exception of the Woodrow Wilson era.
So, the choice isn’t really between a more likable Kamala Harris or a less likable Donald Trump. It’s not about either of them.
It’s about a choice between two governing visions that are more divergent than at any time in my adult life.
My experience as an engaged adult, a business owner, a father and a husband – together with my appreciation for the lessons set forth on the blood-soaked pages of history – has led me to my choice.
When I consider it from that perspective, I find that I couldn’t care less about the persons of Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.
Paul, as usual, you have most definitely struck the nail on the head. As an older American, a husband of one, a father of five (one still at home), a grandfather of six, a 100%, service-connected, disabled veteran, a former federal law enforcement officer, a former state law enforcement agent (take a breath), a past elected, appointed, and encumbered city alderman, and a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ of more than 50 years, I both salute and applaud you for the clarity of our country’s current situation. I ask that you continue to voice the standards of Freedom and Liberty that the public so desperately needs to hear. Thank you.
And congratulations on your pending induction into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. It is clearly well deserved.
More of this!
Amen!
Paul, I couldn’t agree with you more. Don’t think you could express how I feel any better. My family were big fans of The Apprentice, me, I always left the room. As the late Charles Krauthammer once called Trump, he is a clown, but when I look at his four years and compare it to what we have now, there is only one choice, so like I did with Romney and with McCain, I’ll hold my nose and vote for him again. Like my brother inlaw and I both have said, in a country of over three hundred million, it’s sad that this is the best we can do. God help us.
Perfect.
When you look at the PERSON they are outside of a camera & media, what do you see? kamala has had most of her staff quit or she has cussed them out and they leave on their own.
When you look at President Trump you see a person who takes time to know people who works for him no matter how low the job or how high. I think it is quite clear WHO would be the better choice.
What do you think the leaders of other countries think of her, she truly has NO PEOPLE skills! President Trump on the other hand knows very well how to get along with leaders and dignitaries. Personally, I can not find one single thing to like about kamala. Her word salads make me feel she is talking to grade school children and her cackling drives me to distraction…she cackles at EVERYTHING serious matters or not!
If you look at this as WHO is better for this Country on their records, the choice is hands down President TRUMP. kamala has NO positive record to stand on, where as President Trump does! I want this country to PROSPER, which it was under President Trump.
I want this Country to regain it’s standing in the world, which it had under President Trump. You can tell which candidate REALLY LOVES this country…it is NOT kamala!
So well stated Paul… It’s about the survival of our COUNTRY and not about personalities.
Yes, Mr. Gleiser you have published another factual You Tell Me Texas. I don’t understand how the US public continue to follow the Democrat Party down the road of socialism, debt and destruction. Our huge trade imbalance, the national debt, the interest on that debt, our wasteful lifestyles and the lack of common sense in our lives are problems that have to be discussed and changed if our country is to survive. Please continue your efforts to keep our attention focused on the real problems.
I keep asking . I’ll vote for RFK or Thomas J Henry as write in. Extremes on abortion and exceptions to have kept thousands of women and seniors who know ‘pre-Roe’ times from the polls. Personally, will not vote for Harris or Trump. Trump agrees with sending he issue back to the states .. In Texas our Governor even tried to block the morning after pill till he was forced to change. Mother’s life, incest and rape victims are not protected as doctors are too afraid of prosecution . Both parties are playing to the extremes with this issue and neither deserve my vote. Have volunteered in politics since age 16. I remember back alley abortions’ before ROE. Do you?
Your message definitely points out the negatives. Have you thought about anything positive before you waste your vote?
Very well said. I agree with you, totally!! It appears to me that kamala is taking the same route as Killary.