The midterm elections are just four weeks away. Those “experts” are quite sure that the GOP is in for a bloodbath, will lose their House majority for sure, and quite possibly the Senate as well. Maybe they’re right — but as of today, only a relatively few have cast their votes, and the election outcome remains completely in the hands of the voters.
While we voters usually tend to treat midterm elections rather casually, this one is as important as any in our history. Its outcome will surely dictate the course of our nation in these very challenging times. It will mark either a continuation of the course we chose just two years ago, or a frantic effort to derail it.
With that in mind, our responsibility as American voters is to actually VOTE in this election. And when you do — whether on November 3, or today, or any day in between — I urge you to vote with purpose.
Don’t just vote red or blue, simply out of habit. Ignore the polls. Don’t vote to be in line with polls or trends. Don’t vote to “send a message” (it never works). Don’t be swayed by some vapid campaign slogan — for example, in difficult times the idea of “change” can be enticing; but the more important matter is what we would be changing to, and why.
Voting with purpose means consciously considering what your vote — if replicated by enough others — would actually achieve, for good or bad.
The swarm of midterm election opinion polls floating around are actually quite helpful in that respect, revealing with surprising consistency the concerns felt most keenly by the voters. They are, in order of importance:
- The U.S. economy — including inflation, prices, and interest rates
- Trump, and by extension, government performance and ethics
- Immigration and border security — what should we do about it?
- Healthcare — including Medicare, Social Security, our safety net
Considering each in turn:
The economy. While the overall U.S. economy is quite healthy, the issue we hear about most is “affordability.” Many Americans feel, quite simply, that they can’t afford the life they want to live and will forever be stuck on the fringe, trying to catch up.
As a rule, when voters have a problem, we can count on our elected officials to shift the blame, usually to whoever was previously in charge, from whom they supposedly inherited the mess. But in this case, even if the blame-shifting feels politically opportunistic, it’s right on target. The current U.S. problem of high prices — unaffordability — is clearly the legacy of the Biden administration.
The composite inflation over the four Joe Biden years was 21.4%, and inflation has grown another 5.4% since the Trump administration took over (it takes time to tamp down). The net result is that, on average, the prices (of groceries, gas, and other commodities) that every American must deal with have gone up by nearly 27% in less than six years — and 80% of that increase is the residue of the Biden administration’s recklessly inflationary (and unnecessary) post-pandemic internal spending.
That’s not finger-pointing; it’s economic reality. For the most part, inflation consequences are a one-way trip, permanently baked in. Even after the rate of inflation is brought back under control (as is now happening), the higher costs of doing business and the higher consumer prices that result never retreat to prior levels. They’re here to stay.
Moreover, nothing is mysterious about the inflationary effect of Democrat policy and practices. As examples, deliberately cutting back on fossil fuel production and use, adding people (including illegal immigrants) to the public dole, drastically increasing the minimum wage, “forgiving” student debt, and the like — even if well-intended — all produce completely predictable results: inflation, higher prices, and worsening “affordability.”
And so, voters: if you are furious about ever-increasing grocery and gas prices, why in the world would you even consider voting for folks whose avowed policies have precisely that effect?
Trump. For some voters, Trump fatigue has clearly set in (let’s admit — it’s been a roller coaster of sorts) and worse, evidently some of those voters have succumbed to the distrust, dislike or even outright Trump hatred engendered by his Democrat political opponents (a central political tactic that has worked quite well for them). They speak of the Trump “nightmare,” whatever that is, and propose to use midterm election success to end it, now.
But voters, if you succeed in returning the House of Representatives to Democrat leadership, keep in mind two critical facts: (1) Trump won’t leave office any sooner than the end of his current term and (2) he won’t remain in the presidency any longer than that — regardless of midterm election outcome.
Dumping Trump’s political allies from the House of Representatives won’t dump Trump. It will simply give the new House majority license to impeach him, for the third time — and not because they have expectation, or even faint hope, that doing so will remove him from office. Conviction by a two-thirds Senate majority has no more chance than it did in the last two political impeachments.
No, the allure of another Trump impeachment is the stage it will provide for partisan theater, endless investigation, hours of TV time (probably prime time, patterned on the prior Democrat-led House January 6 tactics), all instead of doing the work they were elected to do.
Immigration. This one should be clear, even if controversy clouds it. President Trump deserves an A-triple plus for stopping illegal immigration in its tracks (a task previously viewed as impossible without sweeping bipartisan legislation), immediately upon taking office. And he rates a solid A in my book for identifying, locating, and deporting tens of thousands of violent illegal immigrants from our midst.
The controversy relates to Trump’s enormously challenging task of dealing with the presence of 10 to 20 million other immigrants residing in our country illegally. The job has been made immeasurably more difficult by the organized, large-scale opposition, particularly in Democrat-run “sanctuary” states and cities. The blow-by-blow slog has been unnecessarily painful for both sides, with fierce criticism from Trump’s political opponents but few constructive suggestions for alternatives.
Healthcare. The magic carpet openly advocated by Democrats is “Medicare for All,” the single-payer, one-size-fits-all, long overdue solution to the decades-old problem.
But voters, before we take that bait, recall Barack Obama’s deal-clinching argument for his signature healthcare system: “If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it.” That turned out to be untrue then — it was left-wing PolitiFact’s “Lie of the Year” in 2013 — and clearly would not be true under a Medicare-for-All deal today. Even more importantly, both common sense and real-life experience make it clear that a single government-run healthcare system would cost a fortune (trillions) and provide poor healthcare (e.g., dangerously slow response times). Think DMV.
And recall also that when Democrats pushed ObamaCare years ago, they were so certain it would reduce costs, they named it “The Affordable Care Act.” We know now that ObamaCare requires constant supplemental taxpayer funding and is effectively subsidized by private or employer-paid healthcare plans.
I suspect that, even if the Democrats regain control of both houses of Congress, their Medicare-for-All vision will quietly fade when they confront its untenable cost and certain opposition from all sides.
Without question, the above summaries leave little doubt about how I plan to vote — and why. I’m not asking that you agree with my conclusions. I’m asking that you fully consider how your votes would — or would not — address the concerns raised by your fellow citizens.
Please, vote with purpose.
