It’s hard to take seriously the political chant saying, “This is the most important election of our lifetime!” Politicians resort to that when they fear their hold on elected office is at stake, and it’s hard not to roll your eyes when you hear it. In a sense, this plea is reminiscent of the “boy who cried wolf.” Yet, given the current political discourse in America, one would be forgiven for thinking this really is one of the most important elections Americans have faced in the past 50 years.
The survival of our republic is at stake. And the threat from socialist-minded radicals who have explicitly called for nationalization of healthcare, doing away with the US Senate, abolishing prisons, defunding the police and the military, seizing private property, limiting the ability of the Supreme Court, and tossing out the Constitution. In other words, upend the republic and turn America into something it was never designed to be, much less anything the majority of commonsense Americans want now. The socialist vision for America would make the nation unrecognizable.
The radicals see the forceful takeover of your life, your choices, your property as a necessity to deliver what they believe is a utopia. Indeed, for them, the dystopian alternative is Donald Trump, whom they hate with a seething disdain. Their condemnation of the man rivals their infatuation with the socialist, indeed Communist, dream that has failed everywhere it has been tried. It will reliably fail again if they succeed in 2026.
So, what is in the balance? To answer that, one needs to understand what the election is and isn’t about.
What it isn’t about
Those who support the socialist myth tell us this election is about “affordability.” They blame Trump for inflation, gas prices, and high housing costs, especially food and fuel costs. They have conveniently forgotten how Joe Biden ruined the economy that Trump inherited. Unfortunately, things won’t improve enough before the election, even if the war with Iran ends.
Absent from their current claim that Trump has ruined the economy is the slightest recognition that wages are at an all-time high and poverty at an all-time low. The stock market is as healthy as it’s been in recent memory (up 18 percent). Despite gas prices, energy production has rebounded in America to new highs. Indeed, under Biden, average gas prices were $3.56. Under Trump, they are slightly lower at $3.52. So, while gas prices today—influenced by the war in Iran—are a real burden, the real issue is how socialists will handle the economy going forward.
We need look no further than Biden’s failed Inflation Reduction Act, the ill-named bill that did more to increase inflation than any binge spending in the past 50 years. The result? Inflation peaked at 9 percent. That’s what happens when too much money chases too few goods. Democrats and their Socialist understudies cannot wait to repeat that mistake. Moreover, the flood of money into Democrat-controlled blue enclaves has resulted in a level of waste and fraud we have never witnessed. So, do not be fooled. The crucial issue in this election is not affordability. It’s more fundamental.
What it is about
In a word, this election centers on survivability. The lurch to the left by the Democratic Party has taken it from one that putatively supported blue-collar Americans to one that now demands oppressive policies that would centrally manage every aspect of their lives. It is no longer the party of John Kennedy or even Bill Clinton. It is now the party of superannuated hippies and chic leftist millionaires who are thrilled to finance the political takeover of the nation by up-talking baristas, woke-worshipping activists, and pro-terrorist antisemites. Their collective trait is their ability to release a paroxysm of outrage over Trump that sounds like an operatic chorus of wounded animals. Their hatred for Trump is only exceeded by their hatred of the American Republic and our Constitution. And that is what is truly at stake this November.
Midterm or Midturn
American voters face a dilemma. The economy, for all its positive trends in employment, salaries, and reduced poverty, is overshadowed by high food and fuel prices. But if those are primary issues that determine the midterm result, we are in deep trouble. On the contrary, if we ignore the good trends that Republicans have delivered—lower taxes, a secure border, record low crime rates, regulatory reform, the expansion of energy production, record job growth, and an improved balance of trade—then we will set ourselves on a path where radicals will destroy all of that while undermining the republic and imperil our survival as a free constitutional republic.
The midterm must not become a midturn, where we turn back to the policies of the Biden years, which were an unparalleled disaster.
SCOTT LINGAMFELTER is a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, a retired U.S. Army colonel, and writer at Copybook Warrior.
