OK, it’s going to be a brutal campaign. “The Donald” always plays for keeps, with the jugular as the usual target. On the other side, the Clintons are the proverbial roaches after a nuclear war — always surviving, even thriving in the midst of chaos.
Yet, sooner or later, this unusual presidential election cycle will turn to issues — including THE ISSUE: Does America really want four more years of progressivism on steroids?
My purpose herein is not to analyze the familiar litany of Obama/Clinton offenses: Obamacare’s myriad deficiencies, a sloppy and expensive stimulus, ultra-left Supreme Court nominees, big lies about the Iranian nuclear deal and Benghazi, a resurgent Islamic State in Iraq and Afghanistan, historically slow growth, major tax increases and historic deficits.
Rather, this column is about what the pundits might label secondary issues — those that might not jump off the front page but nevertheless have serious impact on the state of our economy and culture.
Labor Policy: Continuously declining private sector membership rolls are not a problem, as Big Labor calls the shots at Obama’s Department of Labor. Despite a line of negative court decisions, this DOL has followed Labor’s playbook on issues ranging from mandatory agency fees to higher minimum wages to union -ictated workplace organization.
Alas, few Washington special interests have done more to accelerate automation and eliminate entry level jobs than those who claim to represent the “little guy.” Such is life in today’s Washington.
Israel: The animosity between Obama and Bibi Netanyahu was obvious from the start. But contrary to conventional Washington wisdom, such dysfunction was not damaging in the least to a progressive president demonstrating little regard for Israel’s right-wing government.
Talk about having your cake and eating it too: engage in regular brow beating of Mr. Netanyahu — allege massive growth in West Bank settlements (untrue); lend your political team to the Israeli opposition at election time; even downplay the strategic empowerment of the world’s leading state sponsor of terror at Israel’s doorstep; and still maintain majority political support among Jewish Americans.
I understand that the progressive appeal for younger, more secular Jews makes this policy turnabout easier, but few could have thought this move away from our strongest ally in the Middle East possible prior to Mr. Obama’s presidency.
Today, it’s not just possible — it’s done. That the existential threat posed by Iran could be so successfully minimized is indeed quite a victory for Israel’s numerous enemies.
Housing I: The old community organizer just won’t give up. The infamous ACORN (now “Neighborhood Watch America”) may be discredited, but leave it to the Obama Justice Department to find yet another way to shake down corporate America in the name of social justice.
Yes, you read that right: The Holder/Lynch DOJ negotiated the diversion of millions of dollars slated for casualties of the housing crisis to left-wing interest groups engaged in the usual “voter registration” and “mortgage counseling” efforts.
And, yes, “Neighborhood Watch” is an extortion beneficiary of the banks’ forced largess. FYI: In some cases, it appears that every dollar “contributed” to a major settlement reduces the bank’s debt by $2 dollars.
And so the same activists who cried “racism” when banks refused to underwrite subprime loans now receive diverted shakedown dollars from those same banks because the banks ended up underwriting the loans. What a country. And who said Eric Holder can’t think outside the box?
Housing II: Many years ago, minorities who could otherwise afford more expensive suburban homes were “steered” away from certain white communities and zip codes. This practice was immoral and racist. The feds soon made it illegal as well with the passage of open housing laws.
But, typically, today’s federal government is not satisfied with naturally occurring upward mobility. Today, Mr. Obama’s HUD seeks to dictate the racial and ethnic makeup of America’s suburbs. Neighborhoods tend to thrive when populated by people who can afford to live there regardless of race, ethnicity or gender — a fact lost on Washington’s all-knowing social engineers.
Speech: The proliferation of “speech codes” and “safe zones” on our college campuses is a national embarrassment. Yet, the coddling of our ultra-sensitive millennials proceeds apace. This tortured movement is nothing but a frontal attack on our First Amendment; you know, the one that the Left used to celebrate.
Today, not so much as illiberal progressives seek to limit speech that fails their ideological litmus test. Here is one remedy should Mr. Trump prevail in November: Tie loss of federal funds to the establishment of a speech-limited safe zone. Talk about a “trigger warning” — the loss of all those taxpayer dollars will surely depress our out-of-control college professors and administrators.
So if you have undecided friends, please remind them of the classic definition of insanity. In this case, four more years of this nonsense will leave us with an America we won’t recognize — and not in a good way.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich is a Washington Examiner columnist, partner at King & Spalding and author of three books, including the recently released Turning Point. He was governor of Maryland from 2003-07.
