[This is part 4 of 9 in a series answering the question who American Christians should vote for in the 2024 Presidential election]
Intro – Biden – Trump – Issues Not Addressed – Third Parties
– Biblical View – Fear – Summary – Final Summary
Issues Unaddressed
So, I thought I should do a post about some of the issues that come up, but ones that I don’t think really play into the debate very much, or at least I didn’t know how to rate them pro-con.
#1 – The age thing.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Trump supporters have decided to attack Biden for his age and mental acuity. It’s like the perfect example of black kettles and pots. Trump is 3 (or 4, if you prefer) years younger than Biden. If Trump was 55, then sure. I just don’t get this angle.
Anyway, regarding Biden, my opinion is that he’s past the prime Presidenting age, but you know who’s #2 on the presidential age list? Ronald Reagan. Number 3 is Trump, who’s a whopping 3 years younger than Biden. And I don’t hear any Republicans arguing that Trump or Reagan were too old. I mean, even Chuck Norris is 81 and you can’t tell me half the MAGA crowd wouldn’t vote for him in an instant.
I think we should probably have an upper age limit, perhaps 65, but to make this the centerpiece of your campaign when your guy is almost identical is just bizarre to me.
# 2 – The economy
Another one I won’t put on a pro-con is inflation or the economy in general. The reason is because I do not believe the President has much to do with the economy. Yes, they can influence the stock market a little by their rhetoric,and yes, they do have to sign the budget. However, even those things don’t affect the economy much, especially in the short term. If you want to see how Obama’s presidency affects the economy, look at his last 2 years and the first 2-3 of Trump. If you want to see how Trump’s policies were working, look at his last year or possible 2, and the first years of Biden. If you want to know how Biden’s work out, check back in 5 years.
So, all the blah blah blah about inflation under Bidenomics is garbage. If anything, Biden’s policies have been quite successful, comparing them to inflation rates of other countries post-Covid. So yes, inflation sucks. Grocery prices Suck. I know. I have a family of 9. I work 70 hours a week. I’m well aware. I’m also aware that the guy in the White House, whoever it is, isn’t going to solve that problem, unless he personally writes me a check. I’ll let you know my paypal/venmo.
#3 – The Border
I am not an expert on the border, but I do trust Christian organizations that work with immigrants, particularly World Relief. I encourage to listen to them instead of FoxNews or Facebook posts.
There are several issues here:
1- Too few workers to process immigrants. There is a years-long backup to process people coming into the country. Whatever any administration does, this has to be addressed.
2- Wrong perceptions. People are NOT sneaking across the border in large numbers. On the contrary, the more recent trend is to LOOK for border agents, surrender, and ask for asylum. People (particularly on the Right) have a very distorted view of what illegal immigration actually is.
3 – (some of you aren’t going to like this) Trump created a huge problem by ham-fisted approaches to immigration, like slashing LEGAL immigration measures, and the border wall. This has created a huge backlog of immigrants for the Biden (and whoever’s next) administration to deal with.
I’m not going to put that under Pro or Con, because i think it can be placed in different categories. I think PRO in the sense Biden is trying to process more immigrants and raised some of the legal restrictions. But he’s also reinstituted some policies I really disagree with, and I think he’s still approaching it with too little funding and too much rhetoric.
So I think both Trump and Biden have done poorly with the border, though Trump moreso. But they could also claim some pro and some con, so I won’t categorize it here, just say that I think Christians should do some actual reading from actual immigration organizations. Again, World Relief, if you’re evangelical.