By Phil Kasky
Warrenton
I was sitting across the aisle from a woman on a long flight home from Seattle recently. My clothing was conservative and I said nothing I know of that might have revealed my political leanings, but shortly after takeoff, the lady asked me what I thought of President Trump’s chances for reelection.
Nowadays I avoid engaging in political dialogue with strangers, but I obliged her with a head bob and the thumbs up sign. “Why,” she asked? “Can you name just one thing that Trump has done that makes you proud of him?”
Oh boy, I thought, I’m heading into a trap, but quickly rattled off about 10 noteworthy achievements.
“Proof is important, can you state the facts to support your claims?” she asked. The interrogation had begun. Reluctantly, but confidently I started with the economy, job growth, record low unemployment especially among African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, women, home construction. In this COVID era we’re in, numbers are changing rapidly, so I didn’t have the most recent statistics available at my fingertips.
“There!” she said, “you can’t prove what you say.” I continued, then there’s the reshoring of manufacturing businesses back to the U.S. because of the president’s initiative. Thousands of jobs are returning from overseas, namely from China and Mexico. There’s more the president is doing, I said, but the trend has begun and the numbers are increasing monthly. She challenged my comments with, “give me the numbers.” Whew!
I continued with how the U.S. has become the world’s largest producer of oil, ending our reliance on foreign purchase and helping to further boost our economy and employment, instead of adding to foreign treasuries. “Fracking is ruining the environment,” she lamented. I told her I didn’t think the science was on her side with that statement. “Everybody knows it!” was her reply. Then adding, “and he’s a liar.” I asked for an example. I got another, “everybody knows it,” response.
Trump’s also shoring up our southern border and has built hundreds of miles of new fence that protects our sovereignty, reduces influx of illegal immigrants, drugs and sex-trafficking, I told her. Now the lady was really getting irritated and shot back that “the whole wall is so shoddily constructed that it’s falling down.” No, I said, one small section that was built on a steep grade came down due to erosion from heavy rainfall, but that it was quickly repaired.
I added that drug prices in the U.S. were coming down after significant price increases under Obama, and as I continued with my list of the president’s accomplishments, I paused and asked her this simple question. “Just what has Joe Biden done in his 47 years of government service that makes you proud of him?” She snapped, “That’s not the issue.” I waited, watching the expression on her face as it turned bitter, when she finally got to the core of how she felt. “I hate Trump and everything he stands for. He has accomplished nothing! He’s divisive. I would vote for a tree stump before voting to reelect Donald Trump,” she fumed.
I felt sorry for that lady, or anyone who so hates a man that they would rather see an entire nation flounder, than vote for someone who was actually moving our country to so many successes. And a tree stump won’t solve the trend we are already witnessing with the left’s support of anarchists, rioters and looters. Note that it took four months for democrat leadership to finally say publicly they don’t support Antifa, or rioting, or looting, and only then because it was politically expedient after watching our cities burn. Did you hear Joe Biden say during the debate that Antifa was only an “idea?” Have you ever seen an idea burn down so many buildings across our nation? And he recently said he supported redirecting funds from the police (read defund the police). Now he’s flip-flopped on the issue because of the heat he’s taking. He is so easily swayed by progressive opinion and yields so much of what he might have once stood for. And his cognitive decline is apparent.
Progressive ideology (I link this term with hard left liberal thinkers) cannot and will not accept conservative governance, especially with this president. They cannot acknowledge one thing for which he deserves credit. They refute everything (I refer to the lady on my flight).
Certainly, President Trump has flaws. He is unorthodox and breaks from the traditional political box to which we hold our presidents, and his outspoken nature often doesn’t help his own cause. He is not a cultured politician, thank God. But his accomplishments are many and I have never seen a president fight so endlessly to fulfill his campaign promises to the American people. And he has repeatedly been attacked as a hateful man, yet the evidence I see from the left’s political leadership (Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Nadler and the entire shameful hoard who conspire to destroy him) are vicious, hateful, demeaning and are beneath the dignity of the offices to which they were elected. I include the mainstream media with that derogatory remark. No new war in four years and two historic Middle East peace deals orchestrated by the Trump administration in recent weeks and mainstream media remains silent on these remarkable achievements.
In the presidential debate Biden said that Trump was a divider, a hateful man, and he wasn’t presidential. Yet on public stage Biden called Trump a clown, a fool, a liar (numerous times), and told him to shut-up. Presidential, huh? And the liar…Biden is pathological!
In 1987 during Biden’s first presidential run, he was caught plagiarizing multiple famous speeches by such notables as British Labour Party Leader Neil Kinnock, the late Robert Kennedy, another by former President John Kennedy, and yet another from Hubert Humphrey. Biden lied about his academic awards, lied about scholarships, lied about his ranking at Syracuse Law School where he was nearly kicked out for plagiarizing five entire pages of an essay written by someone else. Biden claimed in this campaign that he graduated in the top half of his law school class. Another lie…he graduated in the very bottom 10 percent of his class. During the same campaign he also claimed to have received three degrees from undergraduate school…another falsehood. Biden later had to concede that he made some errors in his comments.
He made multiple false claims about marching in the Civil Rights movement saying he marched with tens of thousands of others to change attitudes. He dropped out of his presidential run after admitting they were false.
Biden calls Trump a liar…never cites about what, but it’s Biden who recently made false claims about attending Delaware State University, a predominantly African American college. Only…another lie. He was awarded an honorary doctoral degree there as a commencement keynote speaker. The school refutes that Biden ever attended. You might want to check out the false story Biden has been telling of traveling to Afghanistan in 2008 and presenting a Silver Star to a Navy captain for trying to rescue a soldier under fire (Aug 29, 2019 Washington Post fact check).
An honest man, secure in his moral convictions, confident in his abilities, and proud of his achievements, would not have reason to foolishly inflate his image with such incredulous falsehoods. Joe Biden does not possess these qualities. Biden cannot be trusted with the presidency of our great country and nothing good will get accomplished if led by such a man.
Hating the president as much as the woman I spoke with on my flight isn’t standing up for anything. It’s hoping that our country fails. Donald Trump will tirelessly continue to work for you. The alternative is the tree stump.
