For years, the shifting status of partisan politics has made New Hampshire one of the most tumultuous states in the country. Since it’s a swing state in the northeast, it has been incorrectly labeled as moderate territory. Those in the state realize that very conservative and very liberal values have been clashing instead of the standard narrative that voters prefer to sit in the moderate mushy middle.
Donald Trump’s lead in the state should signal the real driving force for the New Hampshire Republican Party: anger. Just because they aren’t in the Bible belt doesn’t mean that New Hampshire Republicans aren’t concerned about evangelical strongholds like immigration and gun rights. If anything, the state is a pinnacle of liberty that the rest of the country should emulate.
There’s a problem that’s being played out in the state prior to the primary. The issues have been skewed based upon the ineffectiveness of the Republican Congress. Rather than diving deeply into the backgrounds and policies of the candidates, many have latched onto Trump’s proclamations of strength and prosperity. If they looked more closely, they would realize that both Trump and Marco Rubio have policy proposals that go squarely against New Hampshire Republicans’ views on taxes, security, and liberty.
Those who are truly moderate should be looking at John Kasich, Jeb Bush, or Chris Christie. At least they are true moderates. Rubio’s push to the evangelical conservative right played nicely in Iowa, but it shouldn’t be appealing to those who are truly aligned with moderate Republican ideals.
Those who are true conservatives should be voting for Ted Cruz. In fact, a case can be made that Cruz’s perspectives are better aligned to address New Hampshire moderate Republican hot buttons than even the four Establishment candidates.
Let’s take a look at three of those hot buttons and compare Cruz, Trump, and Rubio.
Progressive Tax vs Flat Tax
There isn’t a state in the country that should embrace a flat tax more than New Hampshire. The very concept of an oppressive progressive tax plan like the ones that both Trump and Rubio have laid out goes against everything that New Hampshire Republicans have achieved over the last several years.
The Cruz flat tax plan is designated by the Tax Foundation as the best growth model for the economy, yet it cuts taxes more than either of his main competitors. Rubio has an advantage in the primaries by proposing the elimination of the capital gains tax, but this is also his Achilles’ Heel in the general election. Whether it’s Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, they’ll zoom in on Rubio’s “rich-person-friendly” elimination of the capital gains tax to demonstrate that he is opposed to the lower- and middle-class. He included it in his tax plan for one reason: to draw in high-end donors. He’ll get campaign cash and endorsements as a result, but it will be his kiss of death in the general election. Remember, President Obama won with a promise to raise the capital gains tax. The majority of Americans would rather see lower income taxes and a standardized capital gains tax rather than higher taxes for them and the elimination of a tax paid by the wealthy.
Security at the Borders and Against Terrorism
Whether it’s securing the borders or stopping the Islamic State, the issue of security is important in New Hampshire. On the surface, Rubio seems like the hawk on national security and Trump seems like the stalwart on border security.
The problem with these surface assessments is that the deeper dive reveals the problems with both assertions. Rubio is definitely a hawk, but his belief in worldwide interventionism goes against the Ronald Reagan style of foreign relations. One does not have to send troops everywhere to demonstrate strength, but Rubio seems bent on the Clinton/Bush styles of Neocon muscle-flexing and nation building. Moreover, as Rand Paul pointed out, Rubio’s insistence on spreading the military around the world will increase expenses massively.
At one of the debates, Paul asked, “How are you going to pay for it all, Marco?” He actually asked it repeatedly and never received a valid response.
As far as border security goes, Trump and Cruz have very similar plans. Build a wall. Enforce the law. Deport illegal immigrants (though Cruz has an actual plan while Trump just calls for his unrealistic “Deportation Force”). Halt and assess the visa programs. Install E-Verify. Employ biometrics. The two are mostly aligned, but there are two distinct differences.
Trump has the simplistic and easy-to-evade idea of halting all Muslim immigrants for a while. With his plan, two things will happen. First, Muslim extremists simply have to claim a different religion to bypass Trump’s safeguards. Second, it negates Trump’s ability to negotiate with many of the countries whose help we need in order to destroy the Islamic State.
By contrast, Cruz’s plan to halt immigration from countries that are greatly influenced by terrorist organizations cuts out the loopholes and allows cooperation with countries willing to help against the Islamic State. The countries that would be affected by the immigration hold would be the ones who wouldn’t help us anyway. It’s a much more prudent plan and again aligns very closely with what Senator Paul proposed.
The second distinction between Cruz and Trump is that only one of them is promoting the concept of touchback amnesty. If you were to listen to mainstream media, they’d probably say that Trump is the harshest when it comes to illegal immigration, but examining their actual plans shows Trump’s current support for old legislation that grants an expensive variation of amnesty to all non-criminal illegal immigrants. In many ways, Trump’s plan is actually more liberal than Rubio’s Gang of Eight debacle.
With Cruz, there’s no amnesty in any form.
Cruz is the conservative that has the right plan to truly secure the borders and protect the country without raising taxes or borrowing money to pay for it. It’s not just more conservative, though. Even a moderate Republican who cares about security against terrorism and at the borders can see the Cruz plans make much more sense.
New Hampshire and Liberty
Since the dawn of the country, New Hampshire has been the paragon of liberty. It’s the beacon of freedom that believes in strength while favoring the rights of the individual American. It’s in this area that Cruz is the only choice.
Rubio is a Patriot Act promoter. He doesn’t just want the return of the obtuse tactics enabled through the Patriot Act. He wants them expanded. His policy proposals are beyond hawkish. When it comes to individual rights, he chants the standard argument that if you aren’t doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear.
This is a false sentiment. The rise of an oppressive style of government is less than a generation away. It wouldn’t take much for the Rubio ideals to take a deadly turn away from liberty in the name of the greater good.
Then, there’s Trump. He exudes strength, but it’s not the Reaganesque strength that many in New Hampshire crave. It’s the authoritarian strength that calls for increased management of and by the Washington DC rather than the conservative principle of reducing the size and scope of the federal government. He is completely against states’ rights to govern; if something’s going to happen under his administration, it will be decreed by the White House. From his perspective, the states are there to support the federal government, not the other way around as it should be.
Supporting Rubio almost makes sense since New Hampshire voters are known for being pragmatic, but the vast support for Donald Trump in the polls is utter insanity. The Republicans of New Hampshire should be viewing Trump as the worst-case scenario as a nominee. His sales pitch is powerful, but one would expect the kind of discernment that gave Reagan 50% of the vote in 1980. Instead, it seems the Trump magic spell is working. This is a tragedy and if you’re one in New Hampshire that can influence a single Trump voter, you must do what you can to educate them rather than letting them fall for his false charms.
In 1980, New Hampshire launched the Reagan revolution. Voters have the power to do it again in 2016 by supporting the man that truly represents New Hampshire’s righteous values regarding taxation, security, and individual liberty. That man is Ted Cruz.
The post Taxes, Security, and Liberty: Why New Hampshire Must Embrace Ted Cruz appeared first on We Heart World.
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