On policy
I wish this election were about policy
In this series of posts on the 2024 election, I’ve written about Democracy, Party over Country, The people who served under Trump, and the shocking degree of connection and support a candidate for President of the United States is getting from Russia. I’m now going to address readers who think this election is about policy, and talk about some of the policies about the economy, immigration, and using the military against American citizens.
Before we get there, the degree to which this isn’t a normal election pervades even policy questions. His platform is exceptionally short (roughly 10 pages of actual text, covering 20 bullets in 10 chapters, some of which have as much as a page of text). Compare that to Harris’ 82 pages, just on the economy.
Does Trump plan to treat Project 2025 as a plan? He’s denied knowing what it is, which seems inconceivable, given that he’s shared plane rides with its author, but here we are. In a normal election, we’d be having a debate about its merits, rather than playing a guessing game. My expectation is many of his appointees will treat it as a plan, but we don’t actually know, and that’s another way in which this election isn’t normal.
It’s hard to shake the sense that we’re not talking about policy because Trump knows that his policies are unpopular. From Arnold Palmer’s genitals to false claims that immigrants are eating cats and dogs, he’s emitting a stream of nonsense that takes us away from the important questions of the election: The economy, the international system and America’s role in it, climate change, and more. I’d like to know why we have three(?) separate(?) listeria outbreaks and an e. coli outbreak going on at the same time. There are plenty of important issues. [Update: on exactly this point, apparently Senate candidate Larry Hogan “who has publicly rejected an endorsement from Donald Trump, actually bragged about receiving one in a private fundraiser.” See here.]
I’ve voted for Democrats, Republicans and small parties. I’m a small business owner annoyed by the amount of time, money and energy I spend on complex regulation. But as is obvious from what I’ve written, I see a Republican party has recently lost its respect for international order, free trade, and limited government, and I hope it becomes a home for those ideas again.