The media would have us believe that this race is between Kamala the Magnificent, on the one hand, and Trump the Dishonest and Vance the Weird, on the other hand. This is a lie. What matters is that Americans must decide on November 5 if we are a constitutional nation with traditional values or a communist nation with values exemplified in the 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremonies.

In the second half of the 20th century, Americans mostly shared the same values: They liked the Bill of Rights, believed in the traditional family, wanted a color-blind society, expected a sovereign border, demanded strong national security, and desired capitalist-style prosperity that would allow them to ascend the economic ladder. Presidential candidates promised them these things. This year, though, the candidates and their parties have vastly different visions for America. Let’s break it down.

Image by Andrea Widburg

The Bill of Rights: Republicans believe in religion free from government interference, free speech, the right to assemble and petition government, the Second Amendment, due process at law, and, perhaps most importantly, the limited federal government promised under the 10th Amendment. They know a dictatorship is possible only when a government attains too much power and wealth.

Democrats are different. They believe:

• The federal government should quash traditional religion outside of the narrow confines of the home and replace it with a secularism that is now rapidly veering into paganism (i.e., religion).
• “Free speech” applies only to government-approved speech.
• Their assemblies, no matter how violent, are protected, but those that challenge their ideas, no matter how peaceful, are not.
• Personal safety means only the government is armed. The examples of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Venezuela, North Korea, etc., do not persuade them otherwise.
• Due process of law is an outdated concept tied to race and political affiliation. They prefer a system that favors their side and uses the law against the other side.
• American freedom requires an all-encompassing, heavily bureaucratic federal government.

The Traditional Family: Republicans believe that people and societies thrive in the nuclear family—a mother, father, and at least 2.1 children to help the nation replenish its population and grow. They think that traditional religious faiths strengthen the family and society. They know the sex binary is real and that people whose sexual proclivities deviate from the norm should be free from persecution. However, they shouldn’t control America’s political and cultural center. They understand that abortion kills babies, although many want it available for extreme situations such as rape and incest.

Democrats are different. They believe:

• The traditional nuclear family is a repressive, white social construct that perpetuates the patriarchy.
• There is no such thing as biological sex, making the concepts of mother and father, not to mention son and daughter, retrograde and discriminatory.
• Children will destroy the planet by advancing climate change.
• The traditional Judeo-Christian faiths are racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic, making them inherently violative of the First Amendment and liberty itself.
• Abortion is a constitutional right, and the clump of cells inside a woman attains viability only if the woman wants it. As Pete Buttigieg just said, abortion frees not only women but also men from the imprisoning effects children have on sexual freedom, financial obligations, and the ability to enjoy one’s life.

Race: Republicans know that America’s constitutional liberty extends to all people, regardless of race, color, creed, sex, etc. An optimal country values merit and judges people on their character, over which they have control, not their immutable physical characteristics, over which they have no control.

Democrats believe race, sex, and sexual identity determine everything about a person’s place and opportunities in America. The Constitution, our laws, and our culture must all bend to accommodate those immutable differences.

The Border: Republicans believe that a nation without a border is not a nation. Immigrants are good, but (a) Congress, not the immigrants, sets immigration policy; (b) the policy should benefit Americans; (c) immigrants should not be a charge on the public purse; and (d) people who (logically and understandably) don’t like the conditions in their own poorly run countries are not refugees.

Democrats see borders as racist. America exists not for the benefit of those who already live here but as a safety valve, resource, and refuge for the “people of color” in poor countries.

National Security: Republicans believe that, if America goes to war, expending her blood and gold, the war should benefit America. They also believe that a strong military repels other nations’ aggression.

Democrats support those wars that have no immediate benefit for America (i.e., Ukraine) and oppose those that, at least in theory, do benefit America. (Thus, while it turned out that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, at least as our government waged them, did not benefit America, they were supposed to.) They see the military as a petri dish for their social experiments.

Economic Prosperity: Republicans believe that a free market and a small government that limits itself to preventing fraud in the marketplace creates prosperity that benefits all Americans. They know that capitalism unleashed unprecedented prosperity beginning with the Industrial Revolution (check out this chart) and that post-World War II American capitalism raised not just Americans but large parts of the world out of the grinding poverty that plagued humankind since the dawn of time. Without Europe’s class limitations, the sky is the limit for hardworking people.

Democrats believe in communism—a point Kamala effectively makes by saying the government is there to ensure that all outcomes are equal. The obsessions with DEI and climate change are vehicles for ensuring that the government controls how wealth is distributed throughout society.

A Bonus Difference. If it matters to you, Democrats have become the party of open antisemitism.

I know from correspondence that many Republicans still dream of Nikki or hate Vance. Fine. Feel free to indulge your dreams and your hatreds.

But please, don’t let those feelings get in the way of what’s really at stake:

• Constitutional, free-market values versus big government socialism;
• an economically prosperous, sovereign nation built on individual liberty versus a poor, borderless geographic mass with a powerful government and forced economic redistribution;
• a color-blind society versus a color-obsessed society; and
• a liberal(ish) but still traditional cultural versus the morals of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.