Lift Up Your Hearts!

Because I'm always saying it's better to judge politicians by their works than by their words, I was recently asked privately to compare President Biden's and President Trump's actions while in office. As a true Conservationist, I'm happy to reuse/recyle what I write when I can, so with minor modifications I post it here.

Oh, how hard it is to be brief! I started a more detailed and complete answer, but soon realized it would be too long.  I then intended this to be a much smaller Good Enough Is Better Than Perfect version. It's still lacking in major points—and it's still too long—but I can only do what I can do. Time is short.

INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS

• It is clear that I believe Trump's record is far superior to Biden's, but I will be the first to admit that he made mistakes. However, most of Trump's mistakes seem to be attributable to trusting the wrong people, which happens when you step into a new situation—you have to trust the existing people until you know otherwise. He has learned a lot that should stand him in good stead for a second term.
• When I say "President Biden" I'm talking about his administration, because it has been obvious for years that he, himself, has not been competent to do the job, although this has only recently been generally acknowledged. Nonetheless, whoever has actually been making policy—Cabinet heads? Vice President Harris? Jill Biden?—a vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for more of the same (or worse), as she did then and still insists that Biden was/is fully capable and has done a fantastic job. 

SPECIFIC EXAMPLES

• Supreme Court nominations The power of the president to nominate justices to the Supreme Court is of paramount importance. Conservative presidents tend to nominate judges who respect the Constitution rather then "legislate from the bench," which I consider extremely important. It is the job of the Legislature to pass laws, and the job of the Supreme Court to determine whether or not they are Constitutional.
• Border security
  • Trump prioritized immigration control and sealing our dangerously leaky borders. 
  • Biden threw open the borders, to the point where millions of people have been pouring in, not just from Mexico, but from all over the world, including Africa and China. This is not normal immigration, with all the vetting and investigation and waiting and work—as it is if a non-citizen wants to come from Switzerland, for example. This is uncontrolled, undocumented, dangerous, and a huge drain on American resources. Bus- and plane-loads of migrants are being transported by the current government into the interior of the country, without the consent of the destination towns, which they severely disrupt. This is not the same thing as settling the Southeast Asian "boat people" after the Vietnam War, which we lived through and participated in. That was much smaller in scale, and voluntary, as churches and individuals sponsored and cared for refugee families, helping them adjust and adapt to American culture. This is vastly different. Plus, because of their illegal status, refugees are being treated as slaves—there is no better word for it—for labor and for sex. This we know directly; it is not some Republican conspiracy theory. And with no control, there is no doubt at all that many people are getting into the United States who are dangerous criminals, terrorists, and spies. Border security is possibly the most critical of all the issues; I can say more, but this is already too long.
• American independence. Trump had been working on building up American energy and manufacturing and trade to encourage foreign trade while making incentives to encourage production in the U.S. and limit our dependence on other countries whose interests are not necessarily aligned with ours. I don't have time to deliniate more, but for one big example: Trump restarted the process necessary to build the Keystone Pipeline from Canada, and Biden immediately stopped it again.
• War and peace
  • Trump brokered the Abraham Accords in the Middle East.
  • Trump succeeded in convincing EU countries to take more financial responsibility for NATO and their own defense.
  • Trump did not get us into any new wars, and was drawing down our overseas military involvement. 
  • Biden presided over a disastrous exit from Afghanistan that left civilians, servicemen, and top secret technology behind. (Our own U.S. Representative, Cory Mills, personally stepped in to rescue stranded citizens when the federal government was slow to do so.
  • Biden has gotten us disastrously entangled in a war with Russia, and brought us closer to WWIII than since Russian submarine officer Vasily Arkhipov saved our bacon in 1962. The impulse to support the Ukraine was understandable, but ill-advised and inconsistent with our previous responses to Russian military action. Personally, much as I dislike Putin, I think he has been remarkably patient with our unbelievably aggressive and devastating actions against a country with nuclear weapons pointed at us. This is not self-defense; this is "poking the bear."
  • More close to home, the generators that had been allocated to help Americans during disasters like what hurricane Helene did to Appalachia were instead sent to the Ukraine. FEMA was supposedly paid for them—but they weren't there when we needed them, and you can't generate electricity with dollars.
• COVID response
  • Trump made major mistakes in his response to COVID, for which I'm still awaiting an apology, though at least he now knows that he trusted the wrong people on this.
  • However, while Biden set out immediately to reverse all the good things Trump had done, he doubled down on the COVID restrictions, mandates, and inflation-fueling massive handouts of non-existent money. The negative impact of this is incalculable—on the economy, mental and physical health, education, small businesses, family self-sufficiency, and public trust in our major institutions, not to mention our very basic Constitutional rights and responsibilities—especially for minorities and the most vulnerable.

This is just a quick comparison of a few aspects of what the two presidents have done; their policies are another, and perhaps more frightening, issue. But enough is enough for now.