THE LINDER LETTER THIS ELECTION IS DIFFERENT This election is not about President Trump. This election is about you. The night President Trump was elected to serve his second term as president was 50 years to the day after I won my first race for the Georgia House of Representatives. Since that time, I’ve served 14 years in the Georgia House,18 years in Congress and have written and spoke on politics for another 20 or so years. I’m old. There were times during those years when I thought I was pretty important, but then my wife would always remind me of Bill Hudnut. Bill was elected to Congress from Indiana in 1972. He said the first call he received after being elected to Congress was from a lady complaining about her garbage collection. He said, Ma’am, I’ve just been elected to serve you in the Congress of the United States of America. Don’t you think you should call the sanitation department? She said, I really didn’t want to go that high. Since that night 50 years ago there have been 13 presidential elections and 12 off-year elections. And, as I recall, every one of them was the most important election of our lifetimes. This election is different. Let me begin by saying something that may surprise you. This election isn’t about Donald Trump. This election is about you. I know a lot of you have made up your minds about President Trump and nothing I say here is going to change that. That’s fine. I’m not here to talk about him. I’m here to ask you to look past him, at what’s been happening to the party that used to compete with him. Because whatever you think of the past, the ballot in front of you this year is, more than anything, about you and the future. Thirty years ago, we fought Bill Clinton over welfare, healthcare, crime, the environment, taxes and abortion among other things. There were “Blue Dog Democrats” who leaned conservative and liberal Republicans who leaned to the left, and all of the debates were fierce, but healthy, and all were among people of good will. The Democrats sincerely wanted to improve the lives of Americans and were also sincere in believing that the way to do so was through more government programs. A good example was the Clinton Crime Bill that insisted on midnight basketball leagues with mandated diversity among the players and teams. Republicans were more inclined to punish wrong doers. We believed different things. But we debated them honestly. Republicans also want to improve the lives of Americans but we believe that the way to do that is by creating businesses and increasing the number of jobs and increasing the size of the economy. We believe, as President Kennedy believed, that a rising tide lifts all boats. Whatever happened to the party of John Kennedy? The party of Harry Truman, Hubert Humphrey, Sam Nunn, Zell Miller and Bill Clinton? Truman began the containment of the Soviet Union and integrated the armed forces by executive order, and did both without batting an eye to the right or the left. Hubert Humphrey was a Cold War liberal who never apologized for hating communism. He saw the Democrat Party of Minnesota infested with Communists and formed the Democrat Farmer Labor Party which persists today. He never once apologized for America. Sam Nunn ran the Senate Armed Services Committee like a man who understood that the Soviet nuclear arsenal needed to be dismantled regardless of who was in charge. He partnered with Republican Richard Lugar to actually work on it. Zell Miller was the Lieutenant Governor of Georgia for 16 years. He was governor for 8 and then Senator. He was the keynote speaker at the Democrat Convention in 1992 and the Republican convention in 2004. He was a friend. I once asked him about changing parties and he said, John, I’m a Democrat through and through. Zell remains, in my view, the finest Georgia public servant of my lifetime. And Bill Clinton — whatever I said about him thirty years ago, and I said plenty — stood in front of Congress in 1996 and told his own party, “The era of big government is over.” He signed a welfare reform bill and a balanced budget to prove he meant it. I didn’t agree with these men on most things. But the debate was always inside a framework of a shared America. They believed in a strong military and a dangerous world. They believed work was better than a welfare check. They believed that Communism was an enemy, not a misunderstood alternative. We could fight about taxes and spending the way families fight about money, but inside the same house. And all of them – and all of us – were for secure borders. In any one of the previous 12 off-year elections one side or the other would win and the debate would again be as to how big or how little to tax and spend. How big or little the government’s role in our lives should be. And we survived. This election is different. This past year, Democratic Socialists of America candidates won the New York City mayor’s race and then, months later, in primaries unseated sitting Democratic members of Congress. Adriano Espaillat, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and a long time New York City political leader, was defeated by Darializa Avila Chevalier. No one saw it coming. Chevalier had founded a group whose stated aim was “the total eradication of western civilization.” Won’t it be interesting to see her take the oath to defend the Constitution. In Colorado, 29-year-old Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros defeated thirty-year incumbent Diana DeGette. The Mayor of Seattle is a Democratic Socialist as well as the likely winners in November in Washington DC and Los Angeles. The mayor of New York City went on national television and said that a democratic socialist can win any office in America. He may be right. We now have a radical Islamist leading in the race for the United States Senate in Michigan. His principal advisor is a man who believes that the US deserved 9-11 and that the US is worse than al Qaida in the world. The analysts will tell you these wins so far are mostly in the bluest ground in America, and that winning a primary in Manhattan isn’t the same as winning a seat Republicans and Democrats both have to fight for. That’s a fair point. But the direction of the Democrat Party is clear. The energy, the money, the volunteers, and now the elected candidates are moving one way. That train has left the station and normal Democrats are racing to get on board. Democrat Congressman Tom Suozzi from New York formed Promise to America to unite Democrats around four basic declarations. We are capitalists not socialists. We want safety not lawlessness. We are mainstream not extreme. We are proud, not ashamed of America. Just 13 out of 212 members of the House signed on. Analysts tell us that Democratic Socialists are not Communists. However, just before the Fourth of July, Ashik Siddique, co-chair of The Democratic Socialists of America appeared on The Will Cain Show. He said, “Our goal is Communism.” Over half of the Board of Directors of the Democratic Socialists of America self-identify as Communists. A recent poll concluded that 67% of Democrats prefer Socialism over Capitalism. I live by a simple rule – when someone tells you who they are – believe them. Just eight years ago Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated the Chairman of the Democratic Caucus for a seat in the US House of Representatives. She was the first recruit of the Democrat Socialists and was dismissed as a lightweight. Today she is in the top rank of Democrats for the presidential nomination in 2028. Other than bartending, this is her first job. She is 36 years old. Before her ascension, Chuck Schumer was one of the adults in the room. He was for secure borders and a secure Israel. He now shrinks in her presence and she will take his senate seat if she doesn’t run for president. He is fully on board the train. Quaking at every stop, but on board. Ten years ago, abortion remained the central organizing principle of the Democrat Party. Today it has to get in line behind support for Gaza, hate against Jews, mutilating children, boys in girls’ bathrooms, men having babies and punishment of success – and, of course, Communism. Everyone in the Party must get on board or get left behind. This election is different. And this election will have a direct impact on your life. When Joe Biden was elected, his first actions were to stop the building of the Keystone Pipeline and end the sale of oil leases. Oil, being a futures market, quickly spiked because the future did not look good. Everything you buy is brought to you by oil and the cost of living spiked. The trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that passed in 2021 was largely a bill to fund green energy projects. Increasing regulations to deal with the climate change myth increased the cost of everything you buy also, including the cost of housing. The border was opened up completely, the UN and other NGOs situated themselves in Panama organizing foreigners to come to the US. We gave hundreds of millions of dollars to them to help usher 15 to 20 million new people into our country costing local and state governments billions of dollars and increasing the crimes against American citizens. A working paper from the Fed concluded that 30% of the increase in the cost of new housing was caused by those immigrants. Our Department of Justice not only spent three years and tens of millions of dollars trying to put Donald Trump in jail, they also indicted 72 others who either worked for him or aided his election. They also spied on Catholic churches, prosecuted pro-lifers, deployed the FBI against parents at school board meetings - and tapped the phones of their political enemies. And when Donald Trump was elected, the Biden Administration spent the next 76 days before Trump’s inauguration shoveling money out the door to get it out of his reach. $93 billion was given away by the energy department. According to Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, many of these late-stage loans were being directed toward companies that “had no clear business plan or path to financial viability.” Not to be outdone, the EPA shoveled $20 billion out to a Citibank custodial account to be drawn down by 8 NGOs for green energy projects. One of the recipient NGOs, Power Forward Communities, was organized by Stacy Abrams just prior to the grant. She had $100 in its account. The EPA modified the grant agreements right before the transition to legally strip the agency of its own oversight powers. The unique structure allowed the eight NGOs to withdraw the money out of the Citibank accounts without requiring any EPA approval or even having a serious plan. Fortunately, Lee Zeldin caught the fraud, froze the money and is in the process of trying to recover it. They are, of course, suing him. The world we are looking at today is radically different than the world we lived in just two years ago. Our borders are no longer even a point of discussion. Contact with illegals at our borders is down about 97% and over 3 million have been removed. Our tax bill is permanent and relief for middle class Americans regarding tips, overtime and Social Security is secure. The EPA rollback of the 2009 endangerment finding on global warming will save American taxpayers and manufacturers over $1.3 trillion in compliance costs, and lower the average cost of a new vehicle roughly $2,400. In addition, there are new lifelines for the oil, gas and coal industries and finally – that mud puddle that forms by the barn after every rain will no longer be considered a wetland that must be protected by the EPA. Iran, for all the debate over the war, is no longer the imminent threat it has been for 47 years. Their nuclear capability has been neutralized. Their offensive capabilities no longer exist and Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis are on their own. Seven presidents have watched while tens of thousands have been killed across the globe. That is over. They still, however, chant Death to America. When someone tells you who they are – believe them. And, of course, corruption: Hospice care, child care, adult care, unemployment compensation, organ and tissue transplants, autism care, Covid loans and student loans have all been found to be riddled with fraud. American taxpayers have even been funding a civil war in Somalia. Pure fraud has been estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Not a single Democrat has even spoken out about it. That is all coming to an end under the task force let by Vice President Vance. And, most importantly, a world that has been moving inexorably toward a new world order for 70 years no longer is. The WTO is weak the WHO is neutered, the WEF is laughable, the UN is broke and the International Court has been told by Secretary Rubio that we just aren’t interested in playing, thank you very much. Nationhood is back. Just as in the security of the border, all of this didn’t take another Congressional law, it just took another president. We are once again respected – and a little bit feared – in the world. This election is different. If the Democrats win this election and re-take the Congress, expect every issue we have corrected – the world, the border, the economy, regulations, taxes, green energy scams as well as child mutilation, boys in girls’ sports and punishment of success and, who knows, perhaps even rampant corruption, to return – with a vengeance. Expect to see congressional investigations into conservatives and every conservative idea. And, of course, another impeachment or two. Expect their most desired change in 2021, HR1, to return. It is a total re-write of election laws across the country. We have been engaged in a knock-down drag-out battle over whether one has to be a citizen to vote in our elections and to have a photo ID to prove you are who you claim to be. We are told by the Democrats and their propaganda arm, the Legacy Media, that election law is a matter for state legislatures. However, their HR1 totally subsumes the states’ role and eliminates voter ID, even in states that have passed it. It expands mail-in voting and ballot harvesting. It also provides for federal funding of campaigns. Every dollar raised by a candidate in amounts below $200 will receive a 6 to 1 match by the taxpayer. Food stamps for politicians! In the 2024 election AOC would have qualified for a gift from you of more than 120 million dollars. You can do a lot of damage with 120 million dollars. In 2016 Bernie Sanders would have qualified for just under an additional billion dollars. That did not pass in 2021 because 2 Democrat Senators refused to vote to eliminate the filibuster. Those two Senators are no longer there. Today, if they win, the filibuster will be gone on opening day and HR 1 will pass. We will also have statehood for Washington DC, Puerto Rico and Guam giving the Democrats six more senators. The Supreme Court will be expanded to at least 13 members giving the Left a 7 to 6 majority immediately. Let us welcome 4 more Ketanji Brown Jacksons to the Court. The media tell us, of course, that this is all speculation. I repeat: When someone tells you who they are and what they intend to do – believe them. Which brings me back to why I didn’t want to make this about one man. Presidents come and go. Policies last forever. EVERYONE is angry today about our healthcare system. It is too costly, too distant and too out of control. It is the direct result of a policy decision taken by the Democrat Party when they had a huge majority in the House and a filibuster-proof Senate. The government decides what you must insure and who will provide it. The government will decide. Not you. If you are a 59-year-old single woman seeking health insurance today you must pay to insure for hair transplants, HIV/Aids treatment, obstetrics and pediatric dentistry. Would you rather not insure for matters that don’t affect you? Your government knows best. And more is coming. For many years what starts in California ultimately finds its way to Washington DC. Fifty years ago, it was the tax revolt and proposition 13. Today it is a series of proposals that are just revolting. California has given us five examples just this year. A young independent journalist named Nick Shirley went to California and filmed taxpayer-funded hospice and daycare corruption — the same kind of corruption he found in Minnesota and New York. The response from Sacramento wasn’t to investigate the fraud. It was to shut down investigations. The state will decide what is and is not corruption. Not you. California now bars schools from requiring staff to tell a parent if their child asks to be treated as a different gender at school. Supporters say it protects kids in unsafe homes. The state will decide about your child’s needs. Not you. California recently created the first state agency in America built to verify whether you descended from an enslaved person, as a qualifying test for state benefits in housing, education, and economic opportunity. The state will decide who was enslaved and who will benefit. Not you. A new state law this year lets the state override local zoning and allow multi-story apartment buildings in neighborhoods zoned for single families. You may think that’s good housing policy. You may not. But the state will decide on your zoning. Not you. California voters will decide this November on a one-time 5% tax on the assets of any resident worth over a billion dollars. You may think – a billionaire can afford it. But it will be coming to you soon. The plan doesn’t just tax what you own — it presumes you own whatever you control. Google’s Sergey Brin owns about 5% of Alphabet stock, but his special shares give him voting control over a quarter of the company. Under the plan’s own language, that voting control — not his actual ownership — is what gets taxed. A quarter of a $4.2 trillion company, taxed at 5%, comes to $52.5 billion. To raise that in cash he’d have to sell over $80 billion in stock, about 60% of his holdings, pay tens of billions in federal and state capital gains tax on the sale itself, and crater the share price on the way out the door. Brin and his co-founder didn’t wait around to find out what might happen in the future. They left the state. Today that line is drawn at a billion dollars. Nobody who has ever watched a tax threshold in this country believes it will stay there. And it’s coming. To a city near you. Five examples. Five different subjects — journalism, your child, your history, your city, your money. One answer to all of them. They decide. Not you. So let me tell you why “who decides” is not an abstraction to me. It is the story of my own life. I grew up in a small town in northern Minnesota near two Chippewa Indian reservations. The Indian children went to school with us. Every fifth-grade class I can recall had an Indian child at the top of the class. They were smart. They were artistic. They didn’t graduate. Teen age pregnancies, crime, alcohol, violence. There were no fathers in those homes. For over a hundred years America gathered the Indians up onto reservations and bureaucrats told them where to go to school, which dentist and doctor to see, where to buy school clothes, and we paid the bill. Soon, the influence of the breadwinner was replaced by a bureaucrat with a government check and the breadwinner left. I’m the only white man who ever played baseball with the Inger Indians. I was the catcher on that team and we had a pitcher named Richie Robinson. Richie had a curve ball that looked like it was coming at you from third base. He was offered a minor league contract that summer. He didn’t know if he should take it. I said, “Richie, you’re 26 years old and you’ve never had a job. They want to pay you to play baseball. Take the contract.” Six weeks later he was back home. I asked him what happened. He said, “I just couldn’t make it. I didn’t know how to get an apartment so the owner had to help me. I kept getting confused about changing buses. I didn’t know if I should get a black and white or color T.V. I just couldn’t make all those decisions.” At age 17 I realized that government decisions had stolen from them the ability to make decisions about their own lives. Richie Robinson, Esica Ogema, David Cloud, Johnny Wakanabo, Tom Bowstring. They all died young. Not because government did too little. Because government did too much. Having done so well with the American Indian we replicated the reservation in every major city in America with the very same results. Teen age pregnancies, crime, violence, drugs. No fathers in those homes. Not because government did too little. Because government did too much. In spite of the total collapse of communism and socialism around the world, the Democratic Socialists of America honestly believe that more government will fix the problems that government has created. They don’t trust your decisions. They trust theirs. They do not know – as we know – that the human being dreams – not for one more government program – but for freedom. The Soviet Union learned that in just 69 years. Ilya Ehrenberg, a Russian poet, wrote, “If all the world were covered with asphalt, one day in that asphalt, a crack would appear. And in that crack – grass would grow.” That is the dream of the human spirit. That is the dream of freedom. I refuse to say that this election is the most important election of our lifetimes. But this election is different. If they win, the world will never be the same. And it won’t be just how or when you can get healthcare. This will be a new debate, not over how much or how little. This will be a debate over what. And they will decide what. Bill Buckley founded the National Review in 1955. For the next 35 years, Buckley and his team, including for a time former Soviet spy and National Review senior editor Whittaker Chambers, were in fierce resistance against the threat of communism to the United States. In 1954 Chambers had written a letter to Buckley laying out his view that the threat of communism was not from without, but from within. Chambers wrote, “It is idle to speak of saving Western Civilization because Western Civilization is already a wreck from within. That is why we can hope to do little more than snatch a fingernail off a saint on the rack, or a handful of ashes from the faggots and bury them secretly, in a flowerpot, against that day ages hence, when a few men begin again to dare to believe that there once was something else. That something else is thinkable and need some evidence of what it was and the fortifying knowledge that there were those who, at the great nightfall, took loving thought to preserve the tokens of hope and truth.” I began this by saying that this is not about Donald Trump. This is about you. The future will come down to you and your neighbors and your friends. Are you the little platoons in the cities, in the towns, in the neighborhoods, who dare to believe that the tokens of hope and truth are worth saving? I think that you are. I think you will look at the choices beyond the personalities. I think you will conclude that this election is different and rally to turn out the communists among us and choose instead freedom. And my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will say thank you. As will I. Thank you. THE LINDER LETTER is free. But if you enjoyed this post, please subscribe and share it with your friends.