(By David Prentice) The hard-left doesn’t want anyone to know a liberal case can be made on behalf of Donald Trump. In the world of their making, this is not possible. After all, Trump is the worst person in the world. Ever.
Since you’ve heard that repeated over and over again, let me be contrarian. There actually is a compelling case for liberals to vote for Donald Trump. By liberals, I mean people who are open-minded, have hearts to help their fellowman, and hope life can be made better for the not so powerful.
Believe it or not, In New York, Trump was once lauded by liberals as the kind of genius who thought differently, and ran his companies outside of the box, with forward thinking and actions. The New York Times even ran a long article back in the 1980s, feting him as a kind of genius, implying he would be a refreshing change if he ran and won the presidency.
But that was when he was a registered Democrat. Oh, he was a registered Democrat? Well, shocker of shockers, he was.
His companies pursued equal pay for women long before that became an issue-du-jour. He won awards for their work with minority communities. He counts many openly gay entrepreneurs and actors as his friends; Peter Thiel actually gave a keynote speech on the floor of the 2016 Republican convention.
President Trump’s trade policies follow Dick Gephardt’s “Fair trade” pronouncements during his tenure as a House Democratic leader and presidential candidate. Gephardt was against NAFTA, against WTO status for China, saying these would gut American blue-collar labor, gut the Midwest, along with American manufacturing.
If that sounds familiar, it should. When he ran for the nomination, Trump rocked the Republican party establishment with these trade ideas. He was the first candidate from either party to run hard against our near-sighted treatment of China.
If your attention is piqued, know that many of Trump’s policies were once mainstays of the Democratic Party. He wasn’t the racist, gay hating, anti-female person he’s portrayed now by the hard-left.
Besides the trade policies of Dick Gephardt, consider how Trump led the charge for criminal justice reform. This was an issue that liberals have championed for years. The unjust long-term imprisonment for small time offenses, was offensive. And wrong, destroying the lives, disproportionately, of black males.
At the behest of his friend Kanye West, it was Donald Trump who led the charge to change this travesty. A travesty championed not so long ago by the Clintons and Biden. And change it he did.
He was the one who ended this tragedy. And yes, he got it passed into law. Not Democrats, who never tried. It has given second chances to thousands, mostly in the minority communities. It has opened up great opportunity to rectify life for millions.
Trump has also taken seriously the old Democrat policy of diplomacy rather than war. His diplomacy has already stalled, if not neutered North Korea’s determination to use nuclear arms. His draw down of troops in Afghanistan and parts of Europe is historic in nature. He is using the military as a last resort. Not even Obama did that, and certainly not the Clintons, who always wanted to appear tough.
This latest agreement between Israel and The UAE should make liberals stand up and cheer. It is reminiscent of the Egypt/Israeli accords prompted by Jimmy Carter between Sadat’s Egypt and Israel. This new accord should excite us all, but most of all liberals who want peace, who reject saber-rattling. It has the potential to defuse much of the long-term cultural differences in the Middle East, allowing a major shift in attitude to happen. It is probable the Saudis and others will follow.
Those are major areas where Trump has fulfilled what were once Democratic Party issues; he actually implemented these issues, making them official US policy. There are others, but these are the big ones. The important ones. The ones that should have liberals cheering.
Instead, because of our irresponsible media, most liberals have no idea that these are major accomplishments they would normally be proud of. It’s as if this president actually wanted to make America a better place.
All of this to demonstrate that, even if you don’t like Trump’s personality, you can love many of the things he has accomplished. Hopefully you can have an open mind, and come to be pleased that Trump is not the right-wing Hitlerian monster the hard-left wants us all to believe. He actually has implemented genuinely old-school liberal policies to the betterment of our country and the betterment of world relations.
Will Democrats reclaim their party for the values of JFK and MLK?
Let me shift to the overarching reason liberals should support and vote for Donald Trump in 2020: They need to take back the reins of the Democratic Party from the radical hard-left. If this cannot be done, there will be little open-mindedness, big-heartedness, opportunity for the little person, respect for other opinions, acceptance of different races, following truth, science, or deeper meaning for all of our lives.
Like it or not, the reality is, the hard-left has hijacked the party of JFK, the party that once saw itself as making things better, that once accepted that this country had the capacity to do great things for the downtrodden; that party has lost its way. In place of big-heartedness, the hard-left has inserted some wrong, genuinely awful, and genuinely destructive ideas.
Ideas such as hatred of America’s founding and the great dreams of Western Civilization:
This is NOT a liberal ideal. Liberals once championed free speech, and the freedom to do better. They once championed that our Bill of Rights, and our freedoms as the best way to enshrine the ideals liberals love. Make no mistake, replacing these great, and liberal ideals will leave us worse. Meaning like downtown Portland, or Seattle, Chicago, or New York. Once great, now violent, ravaged, and a mirage of themselves. A harbinger of what the radical-left will bring us all.
Ideas such as hatred of free enterprise, and wanting its opposite - Socialism:
Freedom used to be a liberal desire, freedom of choice, freedom to become better, freedom to become better off. Socialism embodies little freedom, has never worked, has always created slavery, and always destroyed countries. Make no mistake, it will destroy America if implemented. Make no mistake, everything liberals love will be gone. Everything will be replaced as it was in Venezuela. Venezuela happens, when you take away the good old-fashioned liberal concept of freedom.
Ideas such as willingness to use violence to gain political power:
If you have not noted that neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris has denounced the violence of Antifa, nor the Marxist origins of BLM, that should give you pause. Yes, Black Lives Matter, but all black lives matter, not just the ones that will gain power for the hard-left. This violence enacted in the name of liberalism has NO place anywhere, and will not bring betterment, nor peace, nor liberal ideals. It never has, it never will, it won’t replace great liberal constructs. Accepting violence will destroy life as we know it. As will sowing chaos of all kinds to gain political power.
If you care about genuinely progressive policies, genuinely liberal ideals that would make us a better country, here is your chance. Your very important chance to remove the radical hard-left from the Democratic Party. The hard-left that, if not replaced, would bring nightmarish scenarios to all but the hard-left leaders in this country. You should not believe that chaos, violence, bullying, or blackmailing ways into power is good.
The party should be taken back to real liberalism, espoused by JFK, MLK, John Stuart Mill, Jefferson, and so many others. The party needs to marginalize the hard-left, take upon itself ideas that will make the country better, ideas that will elect true liberals and help the country see them as a genuine alternative.
This is liberalism’s last chance, voting for Trump, simultaneously voting out the hard-left. Take back your party, Democrats. Reform it into the once-great alternative it was.
David Prentice lives in the Midwest. He has published in American Thinker and Epoch Times, and is now working on a novel. Contact: davidprentice2@yahoo.com
