Scott Tibbs
The problems with Donald Trump's campaign announcement
By Scott Tibbs, November 21, 2022
Donald Trump's speech last week was extremely frustrating. Not because it was bad, but because it was generally good. When disciplined and focused, Trump he can be a good speaker and leader. Sadly, he does not care enough about his party - or his country - to be disciplined and focused the vast majority of the time. That was the biggest failure of his presidency.
This is not to say the speech was perfect. From a policy standpoint, there were several times that Trump sounded like a liberal Democrat. He proposed a top-down federal solution to problem after problem, especially crime. Trump wants to solve street crime normally prosecuted at the local or state level by implementing federal "solutions." That is not a conservative mindset.
We have a federalist system where the vast majority of policy is to be decided by the sovereign states. The federal government was always supposed to be limited in its authority. Top-down federal solutions imposed on the states are not conservative, no matter what that policy may be.
Some of it is just bad policy, such as same-day trials
and executions of drug dealers. While unduly delayed executions for many crimes are indeed an injustice, due process is a critical component of our justice system and our civil rights as well as a check against the power of the government. Same day trials an executions will inevitably lead to innocent people being executed.
Trump praised his policy of higher import taxes. The problem with this is that ultimately it is not other countries that pay those taxes. The taxes are passed down to the American consumer. What import taxes do is advantage domestic businesses at the expense of the consumer.
The best part of Trump's speech is that he would re-hire any member of the military who was fired for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine, with full back pay. I am very pro-vaccine, but the mandates are wrong. Even then, this was a missed opportunity. Trump could have opposed lockdowns and said he would do what he could within the limits of his authority to oppose unnecessary lockdowns, and could have said he would abolish all federal COVID-19 mandates. This animates the Republican base and can increase Trump's popularity with persuadable voters.
Trump promised in 2016 to dismantle the Deep State, but did not do much about it while President. While it is a good idea to
reform civil service, the details of any proposal are important.
My favorite line of the speech is when Trump said he would impose term limits on Congress and a lifetime lobbying ban on former members of Congress. Trump does not have the authority to impose term limits, which would have to be done by constitutional amendment. Any lobbying ban would run afoul of the First Amendment, which explicitly protect the right to petition government for redress of grievances.
Trump's proposal for voter ID, paper ballots, limiting early voting and ensuring that all votes are counted on election night are all good proposals - for a candidate for secretary of state. We do not have a single election, however. We have fifty state elections, and even within states we have many elections. In Indiana, for example, we have 92 elections run by 92 county clerks. This is a good thing, as it makes large-scale fraud much more difficult as the entire process is decentralized.
Overall, despite the usual Trumpian flair and self-aggrandizement, this was a solid, sober, and most importantly disciplined speech. Will Trump be able to keep this up for two years? Sadly, no. He will continue to run his mouth, post angry screeds on social media, and generally show a lack of professionalism, discipline and tact. This is Trump's biggest weakness, and is why the Republican Party should not nominate Trump as their candidate for President in 2024.
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