Leadership always starts with vision. Whether or not a debate format and schedule gets back on track, President Donald Trump needs to focus effective communication to independent voters on key domestic policy issues in the home stretch of the campaign.
Because independents are leery of socialism, Trump can lead on his free market success record, in contrast to Biden and the Sanders-AOC left-wing coalition that will control him — who are all in on the Green New Deal that empowers government to socialize the economy.
Americans have short memories when it comes to politics, so it’s important to remind voters that Trump was elected in 2016 as an outsider to fix corruption and bring greater efficiency and accountability to Washington. The contrast could hardly be greater between Trump, who has kept his campaign promises and delivered results, and Biden, whose 47-years in Washington show few accomplishments — although five members of the Biden family have gotten wealthy through political favor that apparently came from Joe’s privileged positions of power as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and then as Vice President under Barack Obama.
Regarding the scope of corruption in high places, who would have ever thought the United States could find itself on a slippery slope to becoming a banana republic in which political power is determined by coups rather than elections? But that is what the leadership of the Democratic Party attempted to do to Trump and the American people. Had they been successful, nearly half of the American voters would have been illegally disenfranchised.
Arguably, the greatest injustice and worst crime against our country is a coup that subverts its constitutional government elected by the people. In fact, that crime against America orchestrated by public figures in the Obama-Biden administration makes the Nixon-era Watergate scandal look like Romper Room. Corruption is on the 2020 ballot as it was in 2016, and Americans would be taking a wrong turn at a critical time if the Democratic Party gets rewarded for its gross law-breaking. This point alone should tip the scale in Trump’s favor with independent voters.
If this crime goes unadjudicated and unpunished America will suffer more abuse of power and decline in the future. Cleaning that up would likely be the greatest legacy of the Trump administration. Reelection is vital and necessary for the Trump DOJ to bring lawbreakers to justice and deliver on his pledge to drain the swamp.
The second law enforcement issue on the ballot this November is restoring law, order and civilization to Democratic-controlled cities in America. The COVID-19 shutdowns combined with a few bad judgments by police responding to volatile situations under extreme conditions provided the perfect conditions for Marxist subversives to light the match under Antifa and Black Lives Matter to carry out pre-planned riots across the country, wreaking massive property destruction, looting and tearing down historic national monuments.
President Trump should stress that a top reelection priority is restoring local law and order and protecting American heritage. That is a position in which Trump has a profound advantage given his overwhelming support from law enforcement across the country. The first presidential debate revealed that Joe Biden has no endorsements from any police organizations, while his running-mate Kamala Harris supported the Minneapolis Freedom Fund that bailed out protesters and dangerous criminals and she has repeatedly expressed support for defunding the police.
The key remaining issue for President Trump to stress on the road to Nov. 3 is his leadership initiatives to defeat COVID-19. Trump’s record is both clear and strong, having banned incoming flights from China well before Joe Biden would have. Shortly thereafter he mobilized corporate heads to shift manufacturing lines to produce personal protective equipment and ventilators, which was followed by ordering U.S. Naval hospital super ships to New York and Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, the Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program was established in late March, and Operation Warpspeed was rolled out a month later, both of which cut through red tape, resulting in an unprecedented 350 drug and vaccine development programs. The unprecedented speed of initiating these programs would simply not have happened under leadership by politicians like Biden who lack a business sense of urgency.
Being persuasive on the facts of these domestic policy issues is the key to winning the independent vote, and that’s what could assure a Trump second term.
Scott Powell is senior fellow at the Discovery Institute. Reach him at scottp@discovery.com.
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