The next election is only a year away. Actually — less than that. Egad. 362 days (God help us). It’s no secret, no less, that the Intramuralist is not a fan of persons running for office that are cruel, callous or incompetent. I am also not a fan of Joe Biden or Donald Trump. (We’ll let you make up your own mind as to who fits into what category.) But in no way do I wish to be disrespectful or cruel and callous in return; I simply believe there are far better persons who could lead our country well. Based on most all recent polling, I am not alone. In fact, I am not in the minority either.
As the two most recent Presidents continue to attempt to convince us (having seemingly already convinced themselves) that they actually are the best person to lead our country, it makes me take a closer look at what a commonsense majority believes.
Ryan Clancy, Chief Strategist for the increasingly popular, nonpartisan No Labels organization, often speaks of how the majority of this country indeed advocates for commonsense. How do we consistently utilize sound judgment in practical matters? What decisions would a commonsense leader make? Clancy poses great questions, and then calmly presents how a president actually representing the majority of us would proceed…
1. On the left, we see some calling for the United States to reduce its assistance to Israel. On the right, some say we should stop providing support for Ukraine. What do you say to them?
Commonsense Answer: I say the world will become a much darker place if America abandons Israel or Ukraine at a moment when they are fighting for the very survival of their countries. If America pulls back from the world, it doesn’t make us safer. It just makes it easier for Russia, Iran and China to destroy the world order that America built.
Our adversaries want to create a world order in which they bully other countries into submission and use terrorism to get what they want. I’ll do what’s necessary as president to ensure that America – along with our many friends around the world – has what it takes to defend our country and the system of rules and alliances that we built, creating the longest stretch of peace and prosperity in the history of the world.
2. America’s national debt is over $33 trillion, and Washington now spends one out of every seven dollars just on interest payments. How would you finally get this debt under control?
Commonsense Answer: First, I will treat our national debt like the existential problem that it is. Our debt has grown under Democratic and Republican presidents, and if we don’t get it under control, we won’t have the resources to defend ourselves or make the investments we need to grow our economy and create jobs.
To solve a problem this big, we need everyone at the table, and we need to recognize that we’re running out of time. That’s why as president, one of my first acts as president will be creating an independent and bipartisan deficit reduction commission. They’ll come up with a deficit reduction plan that Congress would have to vote on in its entirety, meaning members of Congress could not offer amendments to change it. This is the only way we can finally make a dent in this problem.
3. For decades, Washington has tried and failed to fix our immigration system and now over 6,000 people are coming across our border illegally every day, along with drugs, weapons and potentially terrorists. How would you fix this problem?
Commonsense Answer: America is a nation of laws, so America must immediately regain control of its border, with more barriers, more technology, more border patrol agents and more immigration judges. America is also a nation of immigrants, and we need more hard-working people who can help grow our economy.
This problem will never get solved unless Democrats and Republicans work together instead of just demonizing one another.
So, we have a choice as a country. We can make some hard compromises to create a sensible system that protects our border and creates an orderly system to admit immigrants. Or we can have what we have today: total chaos that makes us less safe and tears our country apart.
The last few paragraphs get my attention…
… stop demonizing one another…
… making hard compromises for a sensible solution…
Yes. This, my friends, is commonsense.
Respectfully…
AR