It is Election Day! Finally! Are you ready to make your voice heard? Please do it as your voice matters! But what if you are undecided? Fear not, Dear Readers! This blog is here to provide a review of both candidates and give you the information needed to make an informed choice. So, without further ado, let’s get into this!
Welcome to new and returning readers to the Branding24Seven community!
This blog is the brainchild of JMStrategy LLC (JMS), a boutique consulting firm that offers strategic solutions to strengthen the brands of organizations and individuals. The best solutions are the ones that take into consideration public policies (both at the local and federal levels) since, as we have all seen this year, their impact can turn our lives upside down in an instant.
So, Dear Readers, the JMS team is not in the business to tell you how to vote and how you should live your life. It was surprising to receive so many questions from undecided voters as we are nearing such a momentous presidential election! It dawns on the JMS team that you don’t trust the mainstream media to give you unbiased information on either candidate. This blog is grateful for your trust and will do its best to provide valuable points you need to keep in mind as you head to the polls.
Can you make a case for President Trump?
President Trump is not Barack Obama or George Bush! He is direct, at times petty or vindictive, and engages perhaps in way too many unproductive tirades on Twitter for your taste. But you know what, the people who voted for him in 2016 like his style. Today’s publication is not about making you like his style. You are entitled to dislike him. Absolutely! He is far from being a perfect candidate, but neither is anyone of us so let’s move onto a more constructive debate: an assessment of his 47 months in office.
Against all odds, President Trump governed quite conservatively.
Indeed, he radically cut regulation as part of his pro-growth regulatory rollbacks. By slashing over 1,500 planned regulation actions, he encourages job creators to spend less on regulatory compliance and invest instead of hiring or expanding their businesses. He did cut taxes and, as a result, 65 percent of taxpayers received an approximate $2,200 tax cut from the included individual income tax provisions. Despite what you might have heard, Dear Readers, this tax cut was not only for the rich. In fact, before the global pandemic, the economy was doing well with a low unemployment rate and an unprecedented rise in wages across all tax brackets.
For the most part, he has been consistent in appointing originalist judges who care about the role of the judiciary branch of our government. This blog has written extensively about the importance of preserving U.S. institutions as they are the ultimate safeguard of your God-given negative rights (life, liberty, property). The law does not care about your feelings, Dear Readers! Thus, appointing judges who stay true to the spirit of the U.S. Constitution is the best way to preserve what makes this nation the Land of The Free!
President Trump restored due process to accused students of sexual assault on college campuses. Even as the coronavirus mercilessly continues to ravage our nation, President Trump adheres to federalism, a cornerstone principle this blog believes in just like our founding fathers did. By resisting the understandable impulse to impose federal guidelines to control the daily lives of the American people, he continues to recognize that the power rests with the states to protect the God-given negative rights and not with the federal government. It’s not the first time President Trump shows restrain and avoids any sign of power grab. He has yet to threaten the legislature or the press even though, admittedly, his strained relationship with the media is fraught with quite a bit of criticism.
On the foreign policy front, President Trump aggressively defended American interests as he should, of course!
He got the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord to avoid putting the country at a more significant economic disadvantage and lower the competitiveness of our manufacturing sector. Furthermore, Dear Readers, you’ve heard of the much-publicized U.S. withdrawal of the Iran nuclear deal, the unending trade war with China, and the renegotiated free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada (USMCA).
Also, Dear Readers, did you know that he is the only president in the last 30 years who has not started a war? Nop! Even after he moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in Israel in 2018, there were no declarations of war! Instead, last September, during a global pandemic no less, President Trump announces a historic peace deal that would finally normalize relations between Israel and two Arab states.
It was incredible to see the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump on the White House South Lawn to confirm their recognition of Israel’s statehood! The fact that he was able to broker a peace deal is remarkable as he did order the killing of Iran’s top Gen. Qassem Suleimani (who were allegedly plotting imminent attacks on American diplomats and military personnel) at the beginning of this year. This high-profile drone strike is the second one President Trump approved as he announced the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who happens to be the leader of the Islamic State group ISIS, in the fall of 2019. What a remarkable record wouldn’t you say, Dear Readers?!!
Can you make a case for Joe Biden?
Well, Dear Readers, you cannot possibly expect this blog to summarize Biden’s 47 years in Washington! By all accounts, Joe Biden is a decent, much-loved man of the people. Many voters find him relatable, even-handed, and welcome contrast to President Trump’s in-your-face style. He himself has presented himself as a return to normalcy, whatever that means to all of us! He has managed to present an earnest façade and avoided the perception of being a corrupt lifelong politician. Any thoughts, Dear Readers?
Yet, Dear Readers, is likability not enough for Biden to win his third bid for the white house? This blog could painstakingly analyze every policy faux pas Biden has made here and abroad, but it won’t!
To summarize, his record is questionable at best.
Indeed, he seems to flip and flop at any given time, depending on the whims of the party. For example, he drafted the Senate version of the controversial Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (known as the 1994 Crime Bill). The bill was one of the drivers behind the frightening rise of mass incarceration in the 1990s, even though he now promises wide-ranging criminal justice reforms to undo the harm the bill he championed caused less than 30 years later! He flip-flops in the same way on foreign policy. Robert Gates, who served as defense secretary for the Obama administration, confirmed in his memoir that “Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy question”.
So, the real question is straightforward: can a politician, who shifts position at the whims of changing times, be strong enough to resist the extreme, progressist, socialist, and outright radical impulses that have pulled the Democratic party so far left in recent years? Why else would Bernie Sanders (a socialist this blog has already discussed) call Biden, a supposedly moderate democrat, the most progressive candidate since FDR?
Do you think, Dear Readers, that Biden will stand against the Democratic party to fight your religious freedom even if members of his party view your position as a threat to their social views? Will he destroy the free market to save the environment? Will Biden defend your right to bear arms? Or will he go along with the Democratic party that wants to restrict your Second Amendment right or outright abolish it? Will he fight for your due process, or will he side with the party to value intersectional identity where you should not be judged as an individual but based on your racial background above the Fourteenth Amendment?
Does he also believe that America, the Land of The Free, is systematically racist and that every single disparity is due to racism, prejudice, and bigotry as so many members of his party seem to decry every darndest day of our lives? Will he, therefore, endorse policies that encourage racial or gender or sexual orientation quotas overtly discriminatory? Do you think that Biden is strong enough to go against his party, or will he fall back on the flip-flop behavior that ensures a 47-year career in the swamp known as Washington D.C.? Isn’t that a questionable record, Dear Readers?!!
Final thoughts.
There you have it! Thanks for stopping by today and taking the time to read today’s publication. The JMS team hopes that this refreshingly honest take on public policy has struck a chord with you, Dear Readers. Please share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Comments are always welcomed below or by email at jms@branding24seven.com. Don’t be afraid to send questions or follow up topics you would like to see this blog examine further. The JMS team wants to hear from everyone, so questions from liberals, conservatives, and independents are all welcomed!
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