Stump Speech to America
The candidate might have asked, in a tone of sincere curiosity: “Why, Madame Vice President, an opportunity economy! What a grand idea! But — might I ask you, does it bear any relation to the kind of inflation you and your administration have unleashed upon Americans, who ask only to be left alone to pursue their — if I may put it this way — dreams and opportunities?
“With all due respect, ma’am, do you not owe your fellow-Americans answers to these questions? You do view them as your fellow-Americans?”
I’d be much obliged if you could explain the difference between what you call an opportunity economy and what Americans expect. Why not a hands-off economy — the federals just get out the way and let opportunity grow and freedom ring?
Wish he’d asked her. Maybe it was in the subtext and I missed it. And too, why did not the candidate ask, in a reasonable tone of voice, Ma’am, I am not aware anyone has suggested I or any other Republican associated with my campaign wants to control any — [dramatic pause] any — woman’s body. On the contrary, we consider it our duty to protect and defer to ladies; no one wants to take away their rights, insofar as they concern them as individuals and Americans.
Allow me to ask, however: who is to speak up for the rights of the unborn among us? Who is to protect them from a control so drastic that they never have the opportunities they deserve?
(The candidate raises his voice above the ensuing protests and scowls to say, in a slightly professorial tone nowise condescending, that no one, least of all the Supreme Court, is in favor of a “national ban” on abortion; whereas it appears the vice president and Democratic candidate is proposing a “national right” to kill tiny children.) Who will defend them, he asks — who?)
(And in the stump speech one hopes he will take to the country over and over in the coming weeks, he might insist abortion is a moral, thus a civic issue; it is not a policy or political issue.) “That, my fellow Americans, is why the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. This is not a federal, or Constitutional, issue. It is an issue that must be decided by the individuals concerned, their families, their state legislatures.
But I’d be grateful, ma’am, if you could speak to us and to our fellow Americans on the gift of life.
And America’s gift. “A threat to democracy?” he might say, “Wanting to restore our way of life threatens our system of democratic representation in a Constitutional republic? Is that what you mean? A threat, Madame Vice President? May I remind you that I was chosen by the primary voters of my party, which, note, generously invites non-Republicans, in some states, to participate in the exercise. Who chose you, if I may ask with all due respect — backroom shadow government men accountable to no voters, and whose names we do not know? Who gave them permission to choose for them? To, if I may put it this way, control not only their bodies but their votes and voices?”
“Is it democracy to hide three years running from the American people that their duly elected supreme magistrate is senile and non-functional and that in fact we are governed — wouldn’t ruled be the better word? — by a cabal of ideologues, whose love of country we, I say this advisedly, have every right to doubt given the disasters they have brought upon us? [examples according to the audience, e.g. border invasion, spike in crime, foreign threats, etc.]
“With all due respect, ma’am, do you not owe your fellow-Americans answers to these questions? You do view them as your fellow-Americans?” [very slight raising of eyebrows]
America’s Course Correction
Maybe it is true what they say, debates do not matter as much as the hype suggests. But the medium is the message. Or something — at any rate, get the message to the people, the people of this great and bountiful and providential land, that the moderate in this year’s contest, the pragmatist, is the man from Queens, not the lady from California.
Turning back, indeed, back from nihilism, from evils foreign and domestic, that is what the conservative side wants, for those are the trends the progressives have set in motion and would amplify. Turn back from the road to wreckage, clear the head and the sights, and move back into the bright morn of the West, where America’s place is, with faith and charity, hope and opportunity, l’chaim.
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