This might be late, since the election is tomorrow, but I voted for Donald Trump (by mail), because I believe he deserves re-election.
I will begin by noting that I did not support Trump in the 2016 run for the Republican primary. I was a Ted Cruz guy. I didn’t support Trump because I had foolishly supported Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor in 2003, and I thought Trump was going to be another Schwarzenegger type faux Republican. I voted for Trump in the general election (because who, in good conscience, could vote for Hillary Clinton), but I did not think he would win. Boy was I surprised that not only did he not turn out to be a faux Republican, he has been an actual conservative, and deserving of conservative and Republican support for re-election.
The unfortunate part of being a Republican is that there are always those in the party who find virtue in hating the Republican that the mainstream media hates. These Republicans claim to stand on principle, and stand up for the “party of Ronald Reagan” when they do this, and, of course, they receive all the adulation and attention (many for the first time) that the media heaps upon them.
This is not new. I remember when I first registered as a Republican in late 1986. I had worked for Republican candidates since 1983, and I was the classic “Reagan Democrat” in those years, Democrat mainly due to family tradition, until Reagan showed me that the Democrat party of my parents was not who I was as a political person. I changed, and, during that change, I had a conversation with a client of mine, a big time Republican donor, who spent the better part of a half an hour telling me everything Ronald Reagan had done to hurt the Republican party. “Reagan brought me and a lot of other people to the party, so how could he be that bad?” I asked. “Reagan is too rigid, too off-putting. “He needs to be more flexible, he’s chasing all the reasonable people out of the party.” This was before the “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall speech.” After that the howls were heard from everywhere. “How could Reagan say such a thing?” “He could start a war.” “The wall will never come down.” “Reagan is going to destroy the party.” Blah, blah, blah. They opposed Reagan, ran candidates against him, and they lost, big time.
History has shown the critics to be wrong, and Reagan right.
Today, the same people who opposed Reagan claim the Reagan mantle to oppose Trump. “Trump’s just too divisive.” “He’s just too argumentative.” “He’s damaged the conservative movement.” “He’s going to destroy the Republican party…” Blah, Blah, Blah…
The fact is Trump has been good for the Republican party and the conservative movement, just as Reagan was in his time. Reagan defined conservatism, Trump has personalized the conservative movement as the movement of the common person. He may not be able to quote Mises or Hayek or Friedman or Bastiat, but he gets it, and talks to people in a way that makes our “high-sounding” principles understandable, and the working people of this country have come to believe that freedom, free markets and smaller government will make their life better. Reagan was, and Trump is, a transitional figure, and because Trump are changing the perception of the “common person” about the principles of freedom, those who are in favor of government hate him.
This is why the left and the media in this country howl so loudly. They are doing their best to drown out Trump’s words, so that those who would benefit from them the most won’t hear what he is saying. These lefties are also angry that Trump won’t put his tail between his legs or bow down to the establishment. He does the right things, regardless of whose ox is gored, and that just isn’t how it is done in Washington. The power structure there is supposed to protect the insiders, and Trump isn’t doing that.
There will always be those who suck off the government teet, whose livelihood is dependent on their connections to power. They will always be in both the Republican and Democrat party. They will always use their “access” to make money, and they will always complain when that access is cut off. Trump isn’t feeding their pocketbooks or their egos, so they oppose him.
History will show them to be wrong, and Trump right. And that is why I support Trump.