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Editor's Note: Mr. Vidal's opinions on tariffs and the reason for high distillate prices are not necessarily the opinions of CDM/Miami Independent. We stand behind the tariffs as free trade doesn't exist and the Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries were the primary cause of distillate price increases.
Doral, Florida — When Benjamin Franklin walked out of the final session of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia during September 1787, he was asked by a lady passing by: “Doctor Franklin, what have we got?” He replied: “A republic, if you can keep it!” Today, like during the Civil War in 1861-65, we are testing whether we can keep it.
The Republican defeat in this year’s mid-term elections does not constitute a repudiation of conservative government. For example, many conservative referendums were approved by voters, such as: (1) no wealth tax in California; (2) property tax relief in Florida; and (3) election integrity in Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio. Voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, South Carolina and West Virginia approved measures affirming that only U.S. citizens may vote in their elections. Instead, the mid-term defeat points to failures in governance by President Trump and the Republican establishment.
President Trump’s Failures
He failed to govern as he had campaigned. He over-promised and under-delivered.
1. Iranian War
Napoleon said that if you set out to take Vienna, then you must take Vienna. President Trump set out earlier this year to prevent Iran from building nuclear missiles, but hadn’t we already done that last year? Why did we have to do it again? Because the Prime Minister of Israel warned that Iran was within two weeks of building a nuclear missile? The Israeli government also predicted that the Iranian people would rise up and overthrow their regime, once the Allied air strikes started to take effect. If they were so sure of that, then we should have let Israel take the first shot at handling that threat. Jews are God’s canaries in the mine shaft, to warn the rest of us. We should support Israel, but not do its work for them. We also should not provide them with corporate welfare or preferential investments.
Also Europe, as well as Russia and India, are threatened by Iranian nuclear missiles long before those missiles could reach America. Let them take action after Israel. There is a reason why we Americans put the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans between us and the Eurasian landmass. The inability of the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow their tyrannical regime points to the importance of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing that the right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed.
President Trump said that the war would be over in a week or so, and then by Memorial Day, and on and on. Nevertheless, the war continues today. He stopped the initial attacks in order to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding with jihadists. Nothing could be more foolish. Now we have paused attacks indefinitely. This is no way to run a business, let alone a war. General Sherman said that war is Hell, and if we are not willing to bring nonstop Hell, then we should not go to war. President Trump has conducted this war as if he were assembling parcels of land from recalcitrant sellers for a new real estate development.
Noting that President Obama’s policies were worse, because they would have allowed Iran to obtain nuclear missiles by now, is not enough. President Trump was elected to reverse the policies of that jihadist president. He also promised in his campaign to end the war in Ukraine, but has failed to do so. You should not promise to do what you cannot reasonably deliver.
2. Gasoline and Diesel Prices
President Trump’s war on Iran led to an increase in gasoline and diesel prices this year, which also act to raise other prices throughout the economy. Higher energy prices affect almost all other goods and services, because energy is needed to produce them or to deliver them to customers. Of course, Democrat policies undermine affordability even more, but voters forget that.
In addition to energy prices, the growth in federal spending has contributed to an increase of interest rates for residential mortgages, contributing to the inability of many young people to buy their first homes. Local restrictions on construction probably made a bigger contribution to the unaffordability of homes, but higher interest rates did not help.
3. Tariff Disputes
Polling by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity shows that President Trump’s popularity started dropping right after his so-called Liberation Day last year. That was when he started using tariffs as a tool to force trading partners to drop their tariffs, and other non-tariff barriers, against American products, and also to persuade global investors to build their manufacturing and other plants in America.
These mercantilist policies have limited utility for a free-market economy. Those investors did not need to be pummeled into investing in America, because the President, Congress and his administration from the start have been reducing taxes, enacting reasonable regulations and practicing energy realism. This sound economic climate attracts investors, foreign and domestic, without starting a tariff war. Imposing reciprocal tariffs, in the range of 10% to 15%, would not be unreasonable, but a wholesale trade war is counter-productive. Many foreign countries retaliated strategically against American industries and consumers, increasing the pain to our voters from Trump’s mercantilist policies.
4. Personnel is Policy
President Trump’s golf resorts and other businesses are a pleasure to visit, in large part because the people who work there are so efficient and cheerful. When it comes to politics, however, the President does not appear to understand who to hire. Politics is a zero-sum game, while Business is a positive-sum game, while politics is a zero-sum game, and so they attract different people. President Trump is a professional businessman, but an amateur politician. Nevertheless, we should be grateful that he took time away from his business, in order to lead us for a time in saving our American republic.
He has been making bad personnel choices since his first term, when he appointed: (1) Senator Jeff Sessions, who lacked the courage to do his job, as U.S. Attorney General; (2) then Bill Barr replaced Sessions and failed to defend his administration from the fraud in the presidential election of 2020; and (3) a succession of Chiefs-of-Staff, National Security Advisors and others who undermined his administration, including even some Supreme Court Justices.
In his second term, he got off to a bad start by appointing Suzie Wiles as his Chief-of-Staff. She is a veteran lobbyist from the Florida swamp, and advised on the nomination of such cabinet secretaries as Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem. The best news after this shellacking in the mid-term elections may be that President Trump has appointed Stephen Miller as his new Chief-of-Staff for his final two years in office.
Part of the failures in personnel policy comes in the form of faulty endorsements of weak and untested candidates for the mid-term elections, including: (1) Michael Whatley in North Carolina; (2) Darlene Graham in South Carolina (Congressman Ralph Norman would have been a stronger candidate, but Trump endorsed Darlene); and (3) Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio (Attorney General Dave Yost would have been a stronger candidate, but Trump endorsed Vivek).
Republican Establishment’s Failures
1. Congressional Inaction
In 1948 President Truman ran successfully for re-election against what he called the “do-nothing” Republican Congress. In this year’s mid-term elections, President Trump could have done the same. His own Republican Congress has done next to nothing.
In the House of Representatives, they managed to pass several pieces of conservative legislation, especially the Working Families Tax Reduction Act (also known as the Big Beautiful Bill) last year. Fortunately, the Senate also passed that bill, fueling the economic boom that we are enjoying.
After that success, however, the Senate almost shut down legislating. For example, there are some 135 Presidential appointments waiting for Senate confirmation. Meanwhile, the Senate has refused to call a recess, so that the President has not been able to make recess appointments. This is a Presidential appointment power that goes back to George Washington. Instead, even when the Senate is not fully in session, Majority Leader Thune has arranged for a couple of Senators to convene the Senate into session for a couple of minutes, so that the President cannot make recess appointments.
Another example of our do-nothing Senate is its failure to take up the Save America Act, which would require voter ID and verification of U.S. citizenship in federal elections. This bill passed the House, but the Senate was not willing to even consider it. The Senate also refused to abolish its extra-Constitutional filibuster rule, which Democrats will likely do in January next year.
These failures are directly attributable to Senator Thune, the Majority Leader, and his leadership team. They had a three-member majority and lost at least seven Senators. Power is like that; use it or lose it! Senator Thune and his team should not be elected to any leadership positions in the new Senate. At least in Britain when political leaders lose an election, they resign the next morning.
2. Rigged Primary Elections
Part of the problem is that the Republican establishment puts its finger on the scales in party primary elections. This includes not only funding candidates selected by the establishment, without consulting the rank-and-file, but also interfering in the election process itself. For example, Michael Whatley was a low-ranked candidate to receive President Trump’s endorsement for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate in North Carolina. At the time that he was under consideration, he was Chairman of the Republican National Committee. RNC staffers, however, threatened campaign vendors against working with competing candidates, and those candidates dropped out.
As a result of election interference like this, Republicans fielded many candidates who had not been fully vetted, such as: (1) Byron Donalds for Governor in Florida, who received Trump’s endorsement at the beginning of last year, and won a very close race; (2) Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who was running for re-election to an unprecedented fourth term (term limits would have been useful); and (3) Ken Paxton for U.S. Senator in Texas, who had low favorability ratings even with primary voters (Wesley Hunt was a better candidate to challenge Senator Cornyn).
3. Election Integrity
This topic lies at the heart of representative government, but the Republican establishment hardly acknowledges it. That was the case in Virginia last year. Even in Florida, which is wrongly touted as the gold standard, the party fails to demand the cleaning up of voter rolls, proper certification of elections, and reining-in of Vote-By-Mail ballots. The lame duck session of Congress coming up later this year will give Republicans an opportunity to partially redeem themselves, but don’t count on it.
4. Stalinist Purges
Another factor is the intolerance by the Republican establishment of free speech, competitive primary elections, and citizen participation in their own party. For example, since at least August 2024, the Republican Party of Florida has conducted Stalinist-style purges to expel grassroots conservative activists. It is a wonder that Florida stayed Red in these mid-term elections, and that was due to the votes of Rednecks in the Panhandle and Cubans in Miami.
Conclusion
The American economy is booming due to Republican policies of tax cuts, deregulation and energy realism, and its positive effect will create a favorable environment for Republican candidates in 2028. Now is not the time to give in to sunshine patriots and summer soldiers. We must close ranks to oppose Caesar’s oppression, despite the offers of bribery with bread and circuses (and other free stuff). We must stand and fight for a life of freedom and responsibility.
Let these mid-term elections act as a forest fire that burns the undergrowth and thereby allows new growth to flourish. As Calvin Coolidge proclaimed in 1918 to commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill, be lovers of freedom and eager for the fray.
