OPINION:
Forget missing the forest for the trees. As the presidential election nears, many conservatives are focused on individual leaves while ignoring the arsonist who wants to light the whole forest on fire.
The arsonist in question is Vice President Kamala Harris, the most radical presidential nominee in our country’s history. She leads a party that now rejects the fundamental principle that Americans are in charge of the country. Today’s Democrats envision an all-powerful government run by a master class of “experts” who control what our children are taught in school, what cars we buy, how much groceries cost and virtually every part of daily life. In their vision of the future, the people don’t rule America; Washington does — end of story.
On the other side is former President Donald Trump. A deeply flawed candidate? Yes. A principled man? No. Yet on the whole, the leader of the Republican Party advocates the polar opposite philosophy of Ms. Harris and the Democrats. Mr. Trump has called for shrinking the federal bureaucracy, creating an “efficiency commission” focused on making government work and slashing one-size-fits-all regulations and taxes.
This isn’t a socialist vision of government control. It’s an American vision of freedom.
You’d think conservatives would recognize the stakes, not out of loyalty to Mr. Trump but out of a philosophical commitment to the American ideal. But that’s not what many conservatives are doing. Instead of acknowledging the moment we’re in and the choice we face as a country, they’re nitpicking Trump policies that broadly align with the conservative goal of shrinking government and expanding freedom.
Consider three examples. In recent months, Mr. Trump has called for ending taxes on tipped wages, overtime pay and Social Security benefits.
The reaction from professional conservatives has been borderline apoplectic. They have said these policies are fiscally foolish, unfair and economically unjustified, if not downright illiterate. Given the reaction, you’d think Mr. Trump had called for tax increases, as Ms. Harris has.
And that’s the point: Conservatives are savaging Mr. Trump for suggesting tax cuts when his opponent wants enormous and unprecedented tax increases. Where is the sense of proportion?
Sure, Mr. Trump’s latest tax cuts aren’t grounded in doctrinaire free-market economics. They’re targeted to specific types of workers and voting blocs, which makes them less beneficial than across-the-board tax cuts. But they still reflect the conservative impulse to let Americans keep more of their money. That’s a good thing, even if the policy isn’t perfect.
Flawed tax cuts are infinitely better than the tax increases that Ms. Harris wants. While conservative think-tank types are fretting that Mr. Trump’s policies will “distort” the economy, Ms. Harris’ policies will destroy it. She wants corporate tax increases that will kill jobs and crush wages, a capital gains tax increase that will stifle entrepreneurship and innovation and a wealth tax that will devastate ordinary investors saving for retirement.
Where is the conservative acknowledgment of the clear and present danger that Ms. Harris poses to America’s continued success — if not survival? Mr. Trump has some bad policy ideas, too. His tariffs are ham-fisted and are basically a tax increase themselves. But overall, he’s still pushing to give Americans some measure of relief, while Ms. Harris wants to ratchet up rates to fund a cradle-to-grave welfare state and corporate welfare bonanza that will bankrupt the country. Her agenda is predicated on the assumption that Americans work for the federal government, not the other way around.
Conservatives need to recognize the stakes, which are much bigger than taxes. One of the country’s two presidential candidates basically advocates near-total federal control of the American people. The other candidate is looking for ways to free Americans from their own government.
Are there better ways than targeted tax breaks? Of course. But as a conservative, I’ll take Mr. Trump’s imperfect ideas over Ms. Harris’ un-American agenda. She and the Democratic Party are ready to burn down this forest, which conservatives would realize if they stopped looking at the leaves.
• John Tillman is CEO of the American Culture Project.
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