I’m voting Republican in this election.
Not because every Republican is right about everything. They’re not.
Republicans can be frustrating, shortsighted and politically timid. The Republican Party isn’t a monastery of saints.
But elections are choices, not exercises in perfection.
We must decide which party is most likely to protect our rights, preserve public safety, strengthen our economy and leave a freer country to those who follow us.
My choice is clear.
I spent ten years as a cop, ending up as a sergeant, and twenty-five years with a major engineering and construction company. I also lived in Russia and India.
Those experiences taught me that freedom, prosperity and respect for law shouldn’t be taken for granted.
The Second Amendment
The Second Amendment is one of the reasons I vote Republican.
For the past quarter-century, attacks on the rights of Nevada gun owners have come from Democrats and their legislative allies, not Republicans.
Republican legislators have generally stood with law-abiding gun owners, while Governor Joe Lombardo has consistently used his veto pen to stop legislation that would have burdened lawful gun owners without stopping violent criminals.
The right to keep and bear arms isn’t merely about hunting, recreation or collecting.
It’s about the right of ordinary citizens to protect themselves, their families and their liberty.
A government that doesn’t trust peaceful citizens with guns while repeatedly releasing dangerous criminals onto the streets has its priorities backward.
Public Safety
Public safety is another reason I’m voting Republican.
My years as a cop taught me that compassion for offenders must never become indifference toward victims.
Police deserve support when they act lawfully.
Prosecutors should prosecute, judges should impose meaningful sentences, and repeat offenders shouldn’t be treated as though each arrest was their first.
Criminals may receive second chances. Their victims don’t.
Economic Freedom
I’m also voting Republican because I believe in economic freedom.
Government doesn’t create prosperity. People do.
Government has no money of its own.
Every dollar it spends must be taken from someone who earned it, borrowed against our children’s future, or printed at the cost of reducing the value of the money already in our pockets.
Workers and businesses create the jobs and wealth that sustain our country.
Nevada needs leaders who will resist new taxes, protect our right-to-work laws and treat taxpayers’ money as carefully as families treat their own.
Education and Parental Rights
Education matters as well.
Parents, not politicians, bureaucrats or teachers’ unions, bear the primary responsibility for raising their children.
Schools should never encourage a child to adopt a different sex or begin a “social transition” while deliberately concealing it from the child’s parents.
Except where there’s credible evidence that a child would face physical violence, schools shouldn’t keep important information about a child’s welfare secret from those legally responsible for that child.
Schools should educate children, not enlist them in someone else’s social crusade.
The Direction of the Democratic Party
Speaking of social crusades, today’s Democrats scare the Hell out of me!
The current Democratic Party is far removed from John Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey and Scoop Jackson.
The Democratic Socialists of America aren’t the entire party, but their candidates run in Democratic primaries and sometimes win.
Their program calls for abolishing the United States Senate, subordinating the Presidency and Supreme Court to Congress, abolishing ICE, ending deportations, abolishing police and prisons, replacing capitalism, and placing major industries under public or worker control.
Not every Democrat believes those things. But the people who do aren’t standing outside the party throwing rocks.
They’re winning Democratic nominations and pulling the party farther left.
Too many Democratic leaders refuse to draw a firm line against them.
Border Security and National Interests
At the national level, I want a government that controls our border, enforces our immigration laws, supports legal immigration, maintains a strong military, and places America’s security and economic interests first.
Borders aren’t hateful. They’re one of the things that make a country a country.
Personnel Is Policy
When I vote for a President or governor, I’m voting for an entire administration.
Their appointees write regulations, interpret laws, decide which laws will be enforced, and exercise enormous power over Americans who never voted for them. Personnel is policy.
Joe Biden is a good example. He campaigned as a centrist who would return America to normalcy.
After winning the Democratic nomination, however, he established joint policy task forces with Senator Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist who honeymooned in the Soviet Union.
As President, Biden adopted versions of several Sanders policies, including broad student-debt cancellation, enormous climate expenditures, higher corporate taxes, expanded regulations, and broader federal protections based on gender identity.
Here’s one rule for evaluating candidates: If a candidate can’t tell me what a woman is, that candidate has no business holding public office. A woman is an adult human female, designed by Nature to conceive and bear children.
He didn’t enact Sanders’ entire program, but after he was elected, the reassuring centrist governed considerably farther left than voters had been led to expect.
During Biden’s presidency, inflation reached 9.1 percent, its highest level since 1981.
Illegal immigration exploded. The unauthorized immigrant population grew by roughly five million.
Millions were released to await hearings years in the future, while more than two million known gotaways slipped past the Border Patrol.
No responsible government should have permitted that.
Why My Choice Is Clear
None of this means that I’ll blindly support every candidate with an “R” after his or her name.
Character matters. Competence matters. Records matter. Promises alone aren’t enough.
But it does mean I will never vote for a Democrat.
Parties establish the direction of government. Today, Republicans are far more likely to defend the country and the Second Amendment, support law enforcement, restrain taxes and spending, protect parental authority, enforce our borders, appoint judges who apply the Constitution as written, and in general look out for the best interests of America and her people.
I’ve read enough history to know that freedom is rarely lost all at once.
It’s surrendered one “reasonable” restriction, one emergency measure, one government program, and one supposedly temporary expansion of power at a time.
I’m voting Republican because I want government to protect our rights, not ration them.
I’m voting Republican because criminals, not their victims, should fear the consequences of the law.
I’m voting Republican because parents should guide their children, working people should keep more of what they earn, and citizens should remain in control of their government and their lives.
Republicans aren’t perfect. Neither am I. But in this election, the choice between the two parties could hardly be clearer.
That’s why I’m voting Republican.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. Digital technology may have been used in the research, writing, or production of this article. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
