The outcome of the 2020 election will answer a poignant question: has America forgotten why we fought and won World War II and the Cold War? These wars told us that individualism, not collectivism, prevails. President Donald J. Trump has done a stellar job protecting God-given rights and continuing economic growth. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), on the other hand, represents an often-attempted, terrible ideology known as socialism. We cannot let our great country be overrun by the socialism we have fended off for a hundred years.
Trump is a popular and wildly successful leader, hovering around 50% approval this month, the highest of his term. The Wall Street Journal reported that most economists agree Trump’s presidency has been significantly positive for the economy while Obama’s presidency had adverse effects. Trump’s economy has flourished: a 50-year low unemployment rate, a rising labor participation rate and 74% of Americans in a Gallup survey feel they will be better off financially in a year. The net worth of the bottom half of earners has increased by 47% under Trump, three times faster than the top 1%. This continues the long-term trend that real poverty in the United States has been all but eliminated by capitalism.
Trump is the most pro-life president in history, something I wrote about last week. He refuses to lie down and be beaten by the mass media. His foreign policy has been somewhat inconsistent but effective overall, leading to the deaths of major terrorists and committing to peace and freedom in the Middle East. He’s proven durable, overcoming an entirely political impeachment. Finally, race relations have significantly improved under Trump, after degrading significantly since 2009.
Compare Trump to the Democratic frontrunner, Sanders, a lifelong and self-described democratic socialist. He has never recanted his support for numerous collectivist regimes throughout the world, sympathizing with the likes of Fidel Castro and Nicolás Maduro. He even honeymooned in the Soviet Union. Competitor Mike Bloomberg described Sanders aptly, saying, “The best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses.” Sanders is blatantly hypocritical in championing socialism as he practices capitalism privately in ways he proclaims to detest.
Sanders wants to surrender total control of health care to the government and abolish private insurance. In addition to this being a flagrant violation of free-market enterprise and putting health-care workers out of work, the move will increase wait times, reduce innovation and take away the health-care plans that millions of Americans have and love through their employers. And Sanders has advocated for the government takeover of many industries. He wants to enact a $15 minimum wage, but Seattle has shown us that this lowers earnings, and studies show that it hurts the economy. He wants to model the “socialism” of the Nordic countries, but these nations insist they are market economies.
If you aren’t sold on widespread government interventionism, consider the numbers. For most of his campaign, Sanders refused to explain the cost of any of his plans or how to pay for them. He supports a wealth tax, which I condemned last week. His new spending proposals total a minimum of $97.5 trillion over 10 years. This translates to 70% of the projected gross domestic product spent on government programs.
His policies are not his only problems. His campaign organizer Kyle Jurek stated that we should put Trump supporters in Gulags for “re-education.” People praise Sanders for his honesty, but he reneged on his promise to release complete medical records after having a heart attack. His record of over 30 years in Congress extends little beyond creating a post office and sponsoring a bipartisan Veterans Affairs bill. He is admittedly unlikely to get his socialist policies of stealing money to pay for national health care, free college, the Green New Deal and free housing enacted. These policies seek to buy the votes of the uninformed.
Trump has made America great again. Sanders is an unapologetic socialist. So when you cast your ballot, remember the words of Trump in his State of the Union address: “Socialism destroys nations. But always remember, freedom unifies the soul.”
Patrick Czabala (23C) is from Roswell, Ga.
