RUTHFULLY YOURS

Putting aside the unpleasant personalities and pointless squabbles that the Democrat presidential candidates showed America on Wednesday night in Nevada, what was important was that they shared with us their vision for an American future. They see America as a dark, hate-filled dystopic country that can be saved only if a government under their care collects as much money as possible from its citizens and spreads it around to people whose votes they want.

If you cast your mind back to 2016, Trump did not speak to different racial or economic constituencies. He spoke to all Americans. His vision for America included secure borders, lower taxes, fewer regulations, strong national security, and a withdrawal from the Wilsonian ideal of America as the world’s policemen. To the extent Democrats claimed Trump was a racist it was because they interpolated racism into his words where none existed.

Trump continues to govern for all Americans. Sure, he boasts about low black unemployment, but his point is always that a rising tide lives all boats – and that he is the tide and all Americans, regardless of race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, etc., are the boats. His Keep America Great rallies continue to speak to everyone. He sees America as a shining jewel that can become even bigger and brighter in his next term.

The Democrat candidates’ see America differently. It’s an impoverished wreck. Its air and water are filthy as wicked industrialists pump oil out of the ground with no benefit to anything but their bank accounts. Medical care in America is so awful one has visions of bodies in the street, a la the scenes in Wuhan, China (a place in which socialized medicine isn’t doing very well). Pharmacy companies make wicked profits, not for the benefit of shareholders or to provide funds for research and development, but simply to exploit Americans. College students are begging on the streets thanks to the unbearable version of the debt they voluntarily assumed for their advanced queer/feminist puppetry degrees. And minorities and women suffer in all ways possible from every policy.

All of the candidates, no matter the topic, insisted that they would take money from the rich and, under their aegis, spend it in ways that would save the economy, save the environment, save medical care, and fund endless wonderful programs, from pre-kindergarten childcare to free college to free drugs. Only Bloomberg pulled back from this socialist dream (a dream common to all the others, whether they want Bernie’s instant socialism or Buttigieg’s and Klobuchar’s slower, Fabian-style socialism).

Only once did the subject of what socialism really is creep out and that’s when Bloomberg, having listened to Bernie’s economic ideas, shot back, “We’re not going to throw out capitalism. We tried that. Other countries tried that. It was called communism, and it just didn’t work.”

Bernie called the remark a cheap shot and insisted that he was just trying to turn America into Denmark. That, in its turn, was a cheap trick. Throughout his career, when Bernie got the chance to travel, he didn’t travel to Denmark, Sweden, or England, countries that have small populations, were once culturally homogeneous, and had low defense costs because America footed the bill during the Cold War. Instead, given the chance, Bernie rushed off to the Soviet Union (which he raved about), Cuba, and Nicaragua (to celebrate the Sandinistas’ 6th anniversary) – all communist police states.

Aside from a shared belief that government is the best repository for wealth earned by hard work and innovation, after which government should decide how to spend it, the candidates all had one other thing in common: They loathe Trump. To them, he is the embodiment of everything that is evil. It’s imperative that one of them make it to the White House in order to end the Trump presidency.

Despite all the hate, one thing was missing from the debate: Trump’s actual policies. Except for complaining about Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Accord, none of the candidates justified their hatred. Trump is no longer a president with policies. He is a bogeyman who lives in their heads, a monstrous creature whose mere existence despoils the world. They claim that he’s a fraud, as if he hasn’t already proven himself to the American people over the past three years.

In that time, Trump has fended off every partisan political attack leveled against him while simultaneously presiding over an extraordinary economy, making beneficial trade deals, bringing China to heel, defeating ISIS on the battlefield, securing our southern border, and generally proving that there’s nothing fake about his leadership and managerial abilities. You may not like the way in which he’s used those abilities, but they are very real.

If the Democrat debate had to be summed up in one sentence, it would be, “America’s a disaster and Trump is really evil, so we need to take all your money and spend it in ways that we super-duper promise you will make things better.”