Opposing opinions

A new dawn for America with Trump’s second term

by Dorothy Moon
IDGOP Chairwoman

In the heartland of America, where values of hard work, patriotism, and neighborly communities thrive, a vision for the future resonates with clarity and purpose. As the 2024 election approaches, Idaho voters are evaluating their choices with great care. Among these choices stands a familiar figure whose influence and leadership have already left a significant mark on the nation—Donald J. Trump.

His vision for a second term as President promises to push America towards renewed heights of prosperity and unity.

President Trump’s agenda for his second term is built on core promises designed to renew the nation’s strength and restore its position as a global leader. It’s a vision that aims not only to address immediate challenges but also to lay a foundation for future generations.

The excitement surrounding this vision is palpable, particularly among those who have felt the tangible benefits of policies enacted during Trump’s first term. Idaho voters, known for their strong conservative values, find themselves drawn to the prospect of a leader who pledges to prioritize America’s interests to safeguard freedoms, and strengthen the nation’s economic and military prowess.

Central to Trump’s vision is the commitment to securing America’s borders and addressing immigration challenges with decisive action. The promise to seal the border and stop the migrant invasion is a powerful message that resonates with citizens concerned about national security.

This promise is coupled with a pledge to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history, reflecting a determination to enforce immigration laws and protect American jobs. These measures are an essential step toward reclaiming control over the nation’s borders and will ensure the safety of its citizens.

Another pillar of Trump’s agenda is economic revitalization, particularly through energy independence and manufacturing dominance. By making America the leading energy producer globally and transforming it into a manufacturing superpower, Trump envisions an era of unparalleled economic growth.

This vision includes large tax cuts for workers, ensuring that hardworking Americans can keep more of their earnings.

Such economic policies aim not only to bolster individual prosperity but also to create a robust and self-sufficient national economy capable of withstanding global uncertainties.

In the realm of defense and international relations, Trump’s vision is marked by a strong commitment to peace and security. Preventing a potential World War III and restoring peace in Europe and the Middle East are key objectives.

To achieve this, the construction of a great iron dome missile defense shield over the United States is proposed, ensuring that the nation remains secure from external threats. These ambitious plans are complemented by efforts to strengthen and modernize the military, maintaining its status as the most powerful force in the world.

In a recent interview with Joe Rogan, Donald Trump expressed strong opposition to windmills, underscoring concerns that many Idahoans share regarding the Lava Ridge Windmill project. Trump’s stance aligns with the sentiment that such projects are not environmentally beneficial, or economically sustainable, and will disrupt local landscapes.

As Idaho moves forward with the controversial project, despite significant opposition, Trump’s position on wind energy projects highlights a commitment to preserving natural beauty and preventing ecological harm. Idaho can expect Trump to continue advocating against large-scale wind projects, emphasizing clean, safe, and sustainable energy solutions for communities.

America under Trump’s second term is one of unity, strength, and unprecedented success.

It is a call to action for Idaho voters and all Americans who believe in the promise of a brighter, more prosperous future. By focusing on core principles and delivering on strategic promises, Trump aims to lead the nation to record levels of national pride.

This election represents for Idaho voters a commitment to core values and a future where every citizen has the opportunity to succeed. It is a call to support a leader who pledges to protect the nation’s interests, enhance its prosperity, and uphold its freedoms.

As the 2024 election nears, this vision offers a compelling path forward, inviting all who believe in its promise to join in making it a reality.

Win or lose, America will pay a high price for Trump

By Mike Weland
Publisher

We’re going on 10 years of Donald J. Trump and to date, we haven’t seen his true colors. That’s about to change, and it doesn’t matter if he wins or loses. We are all going to pay, even the many “liberty loving conservatives,” such as Dorothy Moon, who believe the words of a charlatan.

I was born in Germany in 1958 and until the past few years I never quite understood how rational Germans must have felt watching a fascist despot so easily turn a government against itself even as he convinced a rapidly growing group of ardent and zealous devotees that he understood their disaffection and only he and his Nazi party could make Germany great again. He was given dictatorial power and failed catastrophically. And the Germans of the time had reason for their malaise, having been defeated in the war to end all wars. They languished under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. They longed to work again, to prosper. To once more make the trains run on time.

Donald Trump, an admirer of Hitler, is on the same trajectory, but the disaffection he is tapped into has no logic, no foundation in truth. He has reached two distinct groups who share considerable overlap, both long simmering in the undercurrents and on the fringes, both needing conspiracies and falsehoods to bolster belief.

Both are cloaked in the coarse, cold cloth of supremacy; the supremacy of one race over all others. the supremacy of one religion over all others. No argument for either is tenable, but those convinced believe fervently, and will brook no argument otherwise.

No Dorothy, I’m afraid Trump has clearly explained his second term agenda, and his vision doesn’t extend past the tip of his nose. His goal is retribution, not on behalf of the American people, but only on behalf of the American people who showed fidelity to him. The many in his administration who went to prison for him, the many who answered his call to arms for his January 6, 2020, insurrection.

I’m no Nostradamus, no seer into the mists of time. But I have come to know a thing or two about con artists over the years and I think I can roughly predict what the immediate future holds. If I am wrong, I will gladly apologize. I hope I am. If I’m right, I won’t gloat. I will mourn.

If Trump wins on Tuesday, he will glad hand, smile and wave until the afternoon of January 20, 2025, when we will begin seeing “Retribution Donnie” emerge. Sworn in, his legal troubles disappear. His immunity from criminal prosecution takes effect the moment the oath concludes.

Few will note the significance, but the first president to be vested with that terrible power will relinquish it gladly, unused. Joe Biden appreciates the rule of law. Only one U.S. president has ever argued the necessity of being above the law, only one U.S. president has been charged and convicted of multiple felonies. Only one president, our “retribution,” looks forward to using such an unethical and unwarranted benefit. And he will, with impunity. Not in the best interests of the United States, but to assuage his lust for power, to get back at his “enemies,” all who have questioned him, opposed him, called out his folly.

Very few will consider his idea of retribution “theirs,” though the “stand back, stand by” crowds from January 6 he’ll undoubtedly release from prisons and jail might think so, at least for a short while.

Those who think Trump’s vaunted first act of confining and deporting millions in answer to his trumped-up immigration crisis will only involve illegal immigrants don’t know logistics or understand the mind of Trump. He has no federal agency to carry out such a massive operation, he has no infrastructure in place to facilitate it.

Even if he calls upon the U.S. Armed Forces to operate domestically, which is illegal, he will not have what he would need. But Corporal Bone Spur, Commander in Chief, will still not hesitate to launch Operation FUBAR, if for no other reason than to show that he’s a “strong” leader, a military genius.

For those who’ll be waving their flags and tossing their MAGA caps in the air in anticipation of having their high moral values, even their religions, imposed  on the nation “as intended by the founders” and as alluded to by Trump when he needed their support, don’t hold your breath … unless your morals and religion are identical to Trump’s, who has neither, you should just concede that it ain’t gonna happen … you got conned.

That’s the thing about trying to legislate morality … when you impose yours onto others who hold theirs in the same high esteem as do you, you are depriving fellow citizens their inalienable rights. If you would deprive others their rights, you can have no expectation of retaining yours.

The founders knew just what they were doing when they drafted the U.S. Constitution, holding up the Declaration of Independence as a road map. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

But under a Trump second term, constitutional arguments would be moot, for the constitution itself would be lost to us, replaced by the whims of a capricious and authoritarian egomaniac.

A more likely scenario is that Trump will lose to Kamala Harris, in which case a MAGA uprising will be immediate, widespread and lawless, egged on by Donald Trump’s rhetoric and continued lies.

In the best of all worlds, the loss will engender a national awakening and even while there is a scattered uproar among hardcore MAGA, most will awaken to the realization of how close we came to ceding the hard-won legacy of our founders, the sacrifices of our forefathers following the election of 1860, and the painful, painfully small steps taken through the years since necessary to right our wrongs ever to form a more perfect union. Courts will at last quit giving preferential treatment and justice will be meted out.

Out of the unnecessary distresses brought upon this nation by its worst president, perhaps there will be a renewed dedication and commitment to the words of our greatest and, while he lived, most maligned.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

“But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania