Trump, Harris election far more consequential than it should be

OPINION:

For months, it’s been clear that people on either side are terrified that the opposing presidential candidate will win.

Democrats have doubled down on their assertion that Donald Trump is a fascist or even a Nazi dictator in waiting. They warn of the end of democracy should he win.

Republicans fear that Kamala Harris will push a Marxist agenda and create a one-party state by removing election safeguards such as voter ID while continuing to facilitate the illegal invasion of millions of aliens.

Affecting neutrality at such a time epitomizes the axiom that the only thing evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

This stark choice comes with a backdrop of almost four years of Democrats’ hard-left policies and lawfare in four jurisdictions against Mr. Trump.

Their party has jailed his former aides, tried to jail him, created a Russian collusion hoax, impeached him twice and attempted to remove him from several state ballots. That’s their idea of democracy.

Judging by his term in office and his plans for a second, Mr. Trump poses no threat to democracy. He threatens only the Democrats’ gravy train and the deep state that has tried to destroy him since 2015. This past Tuesday, Ms. Harris accused Mr. Trump of being “out for unchecked power.”

But it’s Ms. Harris who has a long record of abusing power. The Biden-Harris administration has turned the FBI, the IRS and other agencies against its political opponents. The Justice Department has ignored attacks on churches and crisis pregnancy centers and treated pro-life demonstrators like dangerous felons.

They’re on the wrong side of virtually every religious liberty issue. They have built a bureaucracy that micromanages everything from toilets to washing machines, making them less effective.

Ms. Harris supports rules that will end the production of gasoline-powered cars and force Americans to buy only electric vehicles. Mr. Trump wants to let the market decide. Which one of them sounds like an autocrat?

She backs packing the Supreme Court, ending the Electoral College, empowering federal bureaucracies to impose the LGBTQ agenda, adding  the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as states to get four more Democratic senators, imposing gun control laws and abridging the religious liberty of Christians and others who oppose her worldview.

She supports providing sexually confused minors cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers and, in some cases, surgical castration or breast removal. Mr. Trump opposes all this and pledges to end it. He also supports keeping biological males from competing with female athletes.

The same stark choice goes for the vice presidency. Sen. J.D. Vance, Ohio Republican, has demonstrated his intellect and strength on the campaign trail, outwitting reporters who try to trap him into sound bites they can use out of context. He is a Christian family man and a conservative who respects the natural order and the Constitution.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, like Ms. Harris, has advanced extreme left-wing elements including the transgender movement, radical climate change policies, being soft on crime and bottomless spending. He has also been inordinately cozy with China.

According to the Harris-Walz ticket, the economic answer is more spending and seizing wealth from billionaires, a classic appeal to envy. Americans know better, especially since Democrats want to let the Trump 2017 tax cuts expire, which would raise taxes for the middle class. This alone is a reason to elect a Republican Congress.

Inflation is ripping apart family budgets, even while tone-deaf Democrats crow about how great the economy is. The Biden-Harris administration has awarded billions to interest groups and canceled student loan debt despite at least three court rulings declaring the latter unconstitutional.

Basic issues are so starkly stacked against Democrats that all they have left is abortion hysteria, vote buying and name-calling. Mr. Trump can rightly be accused of pettiness and other character flaws, but Democrats have left him in the dust, projecting on him their own lust for power.

Historians may well mark Mr. Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden as a turning point in this race. He presented a confident image of unified support in a deep blue city. Even when a comedian stupidly joked that Puerto Rico was a “garbage” island, it worked to Mr. Trump’s advantage.

President Biden picked up on it and called Mr. Trump’s supporters “garbage” in a gaffe reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” remark.

Ever the public relations genius, Mr. Trump donned an orange reflective vest and arrived at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in the cab of a garbage truck, where he took questions from the press.

This was right up there with his serving french fries at a McDonald’s, where a young woman at the drive-thru window asked him to keep the United States from turning into the socialist nation from which she had fled.

Democrats insist they want to “save democracy, while the Biden-Harris administration touts policies aimed at creating a one-party state.

This election is far more consequential than it should be. The government has become too big and is increasingly self-protective instead of serving the public.

Both sides say this is a choice between freedom and tyranny and good and evil. It is, but only one side is right about it.

God will determine the winner. We’ll soon know whether God will show mercy or deliver a harsh judgment.

• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.