By Hibberd V. B. Kline, III<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n In response to your May 5, 2024, Listen Up!, I agree wholeheartedly with Liz Chaney that U.S. voters should not vote for a candidate while \u201cknowing full well that he should not be in the White House simply because they do not like the alternative, and that the U.S. \u201ccan survive bad policies. We cannot survive torching the Constitution.\u201d Therefore, because I see Biden and the progressives as the real threat to democracy, I shall vote for Donald J. Trump to be the 47th<\/sup> President of the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Biden administration has converted the Department of Justice into a political wolf pack stifling freedom of speech and criminalizing opposition to the progressive agenda. Examples include the attempt to criminalize parental opposition to progressive school boards, spying upon Roman Catholic congregations, and bringing outlandishly excessive charges against those challenging Woke initiatives while refusing to enforce the plain letter of the law such as the immigration laws or those against the intimidation of judges including Supreme Court justices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden\u2019s Department of Justice is an intimidation bureau. Removing septuagenarian former presidential advisor Peter Navarro from a commercial aircraft in leg irons or conducting a late-night commando raid to arrest near-septuagenarian Roger Stone are acts of intimidation intended to silence any who would oppose the powers that be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 88 criminal charges against Trump are in large part proof of the politicization of the justice system by Biden and the progressives. The New York case is a misdemeanor case blocked by the statute of limitations unless one assumes Trump is guilty of a federal felony with which the federal DOJ refused to charge him and which the New York state court has no jurisdiction to hear. There simply is no underlying felony; thus, there is no case to bring before the New York court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, the Georgia case is a tortured legal theory attempting to find criminality in not uncommon political partisanship by using a statute designed to take down the MAFIA as a means of destroying political opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The federal insurrection case is more plausible but again goes too far in stifling expression. I have seen no evidence that Trump explicitly urged the crowd to storm the Capitol. His real offense was not acting to control the situation when it became obvious what was happening. The BLM\/ANTIFA 2020 summer of chaos saw over 480 riots close cities across the country, disrupt the functioning of government at all levels, including \u201cfree\u201d zones where the laws were not enforced for weeks, and even mob assaults on a U.S. Senator and other officials outside the White House gates. Those who encouraged or participated were not charged with insurrection or hunted, as were the participants on January 6th. Biden\u2019s message is clear: the law will be used to crush those who oppose his progressive agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a former intelligence officer, the mishandling of classified documents concerns me most. Trump’s atrocious behavior was highly detrimental to national and alliance security. Regardless, the commando raid nature of the seizure of the documents in Trump\u2019s case was out of proportion to the norm and again suggests the use of the justice apparatus to intimidate political foes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the impeachments, Trump\u2019s phone call to Ukraine was not out of line with the actions of numerous politicians before and after him, including Joe Biden\u2019s threats to Ukraine and Israel. Foreign policy actions that advance domestic political interests are not \u201chigh crimes and misdemeanors,\u201d actions imperiling the ability of the government to function as such. There were significant grounds for Trump\u2019s second impeachment concerning his failure to act to disperse the January 6th<\/sup> rioters. However, impeachment is used to remove an official from office so that prosecution may proceed in the courts, not to censure a former officeholder. Since he was already out of office, there was no reason or justification to impeach him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unable to enact all their radical programs in Congress, Biden\u2019s progressives have attempted to enforce their will upon society through promulgating regulations that go far beyond anything contemplated by Congress when it enacted the asserted enabling legislation. They have invoked the Clean Air Act and other 1960s environmental statutes to justify regulations intended to force unwanted massive changes in how Americans live, all in the name of climate change mitigation. This is an unconstitutional assumption of legislative power by the executive branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If there is no possibility of torturing an existing statute to support the progressive program, the Biden administration, in ways that well could constitute \u201cHigh Crimes and Misdemeanors,\u201d has simply refused to enforce the existing laws, such as its blatant disregard for immigration laws, resulting in the chaos on the border. In a democracy, such massive restructurings must come about through legislative action, not the fiat of bureaucrats and executive orders or scoff-lawing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As for truthfulness, neither Biden nor Trump deserve a merit badge. Trump constantly exaggerates the size of his crowds, the impact of his programs, and every other facet of his life. I believe that Trump actually believes his biggest falsehood, the \u201cstolen 2020 election.\u201d He is such a narcissistic egotist that he is incapable of accepting that he could lose at anything. Biden\u2019s myriad of false claims, from being at the top of his law school class to being arrested in South Africa while visiting Nelson Mandela, are shrugged off as Joe being Joe. Where Biden\u2019s falsehoods are of real concern are the repeated and morphing assertions that Biden knew nothing of his son\u2019s and brother\u2019s dealings around the world selling access to Joe and the enticement of some fifty senior intelligence officials knowingly and falsely to claim that Hunter\u2019s laptop was a Russian disinformation operation. These falsehoods have severely damaged the intelligence community and, in all likelihood, are attempts to cover up Biden\u2019s personal vulnerability to blackmail by foreign interests. To borrow from Ronald Regan, the statements of both men should be verified before being trusted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mental and physical health are issues that factor large in this election. Biden clearly is failing physically and mentally, and it is highly doubtful that he will be able to continue in office until January 2029. That would give us, President Kamala Harris, an absolutely intolerable, unacceptable eventuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, from the fiasco exiting Afghanistan to the waffling in Gaza, Biden has been a foreign policy disaster. Against the advice of every one of the joint chiefs, he insisted on the bugout from Kabul. Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea all concluded that Biden and his crew could be pushed around, and we have been. In Ukraine, Biden talked toughly but dragged his feet on supplying Ukraine with what it needed in a timely manner. First, he denies approval, then debates the matter for weeks, then decides to do it, and then it takes weeks or longer to actually provide the weapons in insufficient quantities. In the meantime, the Russians have been able to plan how to react to the new Ukrainian capabilities. In the Red Sea, Biden is playing whack-a-mole with Houthi drones rather than punishing the Houthis\u2019 controllers in Iran and inflicting massive damage on the Houthis themselves. More devastating to U.S.\/Western security, he has failed to rapidly expand the American military-industrial base and production in the face of the Chinese threat and the lessons learned in Ukraine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump, by comparison, in his uncouth, obnoxious way, actually got NATO nations to increase their defense budgets through threats to leave the alliance. This is his negotiating style; he is so unpredictable that one can never be sure what he actually will do; therefore, people concede more to him than to the usual diplomat. His waffling on support for Ukraine is disturbing, but given his personality, I cannot see him accepting \u201cdefeat\u201d in Ukraine. My guess is that he will express doubt to force other NATO nations to up their support for Ukraine and the alliance. The European nations are already taking measures to \u201cTrump-proof\u201d NATO, and that is a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, on November 5, 2024 (Guy Fawkes\u2019 Day), I, along with Bill Barr, shall hold my nose and vote for Donald Trump to be the 47th President of the United States. I shall do this because America cannot tolerate four more years of Biden\u2019s blundering, woke wackiness, and Democrat disassembling of democracy. <\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hibberd V. B. Kline, III is an author, an attorney, and an honors graduate in History from Harvard College. He earned his law degree from the University of Virginia and has been a member of the Missouri Bar since 1975. Hibberd also is a retired Colonel of Marines who served thirty years active and reserve, ashore and afloat, as an infantry officer and an intelligence officer in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, including active service during Vietnam and the Gulf War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2024\/05\/hibberd-734x1024.jpg\")
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