The Dueling Cases for Donald Trump and Kamala Harris

A Merion West contributing writer and editor respectively make the case for each candidate for President of the United States.

Editor’s note: Given the endless discussion about the upcoming presidential election in the United States and the fact that such coverage can be found at nearly every media outlet and that few undecided voters remain among those who typically read publications such as this one, Merion West has generally limited the amount of discussion about the election in its pages. With that said, before the election, we would be remiss not to publish the respective case for each candidate. The case for former President Donald Trump has been authored by Merion West contributing writer Tony D. Senatore, and the case for Vice President Kamala Harris has been written by Merion West international relations editor Michael D. Purzycki. The ordering of the pieces was determined by a coin flip.

The Case for former President Donald Trump

By Tony D. Senatore

The 2024 United States presidential election is less than two weeks away. Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are basically tied nationally, as well as in the swing states that will ultimately determine the election result. As such, whichever party makes the best case to independent voters will win the presidency and other key down-ballot races. As a (new) Republican who is anti-war and skeptical of foreign interventionism and as someone opposed to the leviathan surveillance state and the entrenched interests that run it and also profit from it, I would like to offer four critical reasons why former President Trump is the candidate worthy of independent voters’ support.

Prioritizing Americans

The first reason is that President Trump seeks to end the idea of exporting democracy as the guiding principle of American foreign policy, which has been in place since the end of the Cold War. He wants to replace it with his America First agenda. Of course, his detractors use the phrase America First as a pejorative. Still, his supporters understand it for what it is: a plan for the United States to rebuild its infrastructure, become energy independent, and end American tax dollars being used to finance war and nation-building. One of the many ways President Trump would accomplish this is by making European nations pay more for their North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) security, avoiding putting American troops on the ground abroad, and correcting our current trade imbalances with China (and shifting them in favor of the United States via tariffs). Although some economists claimed that tariffs would do more harm than good, the Biden administration left tariffs initiated by the Trump administration firmly in place, as President Trump pointed out in his debate with Vice President Harris. This speaks for itself.