Nicholas Maduro was reportedly around 30 points down in the polls leading up to the election in Venezuela. So naturally after the election he declared himself the winner and moved swiftly to silence widespread protests given proof to the old adage that “Its easy to vote in socialism but you have to shoot your way out of it.”
The Wall Street Journal’s liberal opinion writer William Galston writes in the July 31 edition that JD Vance “is unfit to be vice president of the United States for many reasons, chiefly because he has shown a disregard for the constitutional balance of powers and the rule of law.” By that standard Galston should then argue that virtually every elected politician is unfit to serve. Perhaps he is ignoring Joe Biden – the ignorer in chief – who has shown a total disregard for the rule of law. Must I remind Galston of Dobbs, of presidential immunity, and student loans? What about the court rulings on Title IX and liquid natural gas? Biden has ignored all these and more – and not a peep from Galston.
Kamala Harris is accused of flip-flopping. That is about as surprising as discovering that the pope is Catholic. She was the most liberal senator in the Senate – even to the left of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Chris Murphy. She has favored defunding the police, eliminating private health insurance, the Green New Deal, posting bail for the George Floyd demonstrators, accusing Justice Kavanaugh of rape, reinstating Roe, getting rid of the filibuster, sympathizing with the proHamas crowd, opposed fracking and offshore drilling, open borders, getting rid of ICE, gun control, abortion on demand up until birth, Supreme Court packing, increased entitlements, anti-right to work law and socialized medicine. I probably left out a few. Again Trump should ratchet back the “Lying Kamala” rhetoric and just campaign on her record. Lest we forget that as California attorney general, Harris had the home of a pro-life journalist raided and tried to put him in jail for publishing videos of Planned Parenthood discussing the selling of aborted baby body parts. This from a person that George Stephanopoulos calls “middle-of-the-road”. Stephanopoulos is “Lying George.”
Just to be “fair and balanced” I don’t like JD Vance either. Vance is fully on board with Trump’s tariffs. Contrary to what both think, evidence supports that tariffs raise prices to domestic consumers and kills jobs. Protectionism doesn’t work. Tariffs shrink economic growth and limit consumer choice. It is one of those policies intended to get votes by sounding good. As my father used to say “That sounds good – if you are interested in sounds.” Vance sounds like a democrat in backing unions and demonizing Wall Street. Vance – not Harris – said that it was great visiting the striking auto workers in Toledo. It was Vance – not Harris – who called for a $7,500 subsidy for buying a US made gas powered automobile. He is for industrial policy. Can’t he see the disaster of Biden’s industrial policy? Maybe he just thinks it is just the wrong industrial policy. He may be the only so-called conservative who admires the FTC’s Lina Kahn who seems to be the Biden administration’s most consistent loser in court. Perhaps Trump will keep her on if elected. I know that when Trump picked Vance he signaled that it was more important to shore up the voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin rather than trying to broaden his appeal to swing voters. But Trump has also picked someone who borders on being an anti-capitalist populist. In so doing, the republican party is deviating sharply from its fundamental principles and has become a pandering pitiful caricature of itself. It is a place where free market laissez-faire conservatives – like I am – are no longer welcome.
haroldblackphd.com 