Donald Trump speaks to what Americans instinctively know is true

Trump’s acceptance speech reminded me why American people have fallen so powerfully for him. It’s because he speaks past the political platitudes, past the parts of our minds anesthetized by political correctness and the fear of being called out, and tells us the things that our minds, in the deepest recesses, know to be true. And because we’re Americans, what we know to be true isn’t some scary genocidal Nazi fantasy. Instead, what we know to be true is about law and order, national security, equality before the law, our shared values, the fact that science is not a political football, and a whole host of other, common sense things that should be paramount in our governing system:

We know to be true is that for the past eight years, our government has simply ignored the laws that our representatives pass.

We know to be true that a sovereign nation gets to have a defined and controlled border, meaning that America can choose (for better or worse) the number of immigrants it wants to have enter this country, adding their vigor, color, and energy to our national fabric without overwhelming the system and depriving American citizens of entry-level jobs.

We know to be true that the phrase “undocumented immigrant” is a lie to conflate legal immigration, which Americans overwhelmingly support, and illegal immigration, which they overwhelmingly, and reasonably, oppose.

We know to be true that it is the government’s primary responsibility, as has been true for all governments at all times, to keep sworn enemies from entering our country and killing our people.

We know to be true that a militant strain of Islam is walking the earth and bringing knives and guns and bombs to the Koran’s militant strictures.

We know to be true that Israel is our ally in the existential war we face, and that we commit a profound moral wrong when we abandon this truly pluralist, democratic nation to the genocidal theocracies that surround her.

We know to be true that, when a nation such as Iran is the grip of an apocalyptic ideology, and is a sworn foe to you and your allies, you don’t hand it hundreds of billions of dollars and a pathway to a nuclear bomb.

We know to be true that leaders in allied nations have come to distrust America under Obama’s leadership and that leaders in enemy nations no longer fear America under Obama’s leadership.

We know to be true that our Supreme Court has taken an ideological tilt that’s walking it ever further from the Constitution, and that our Constitution (which is the government’s promise that it will not interfere with people’s natural rights) must be protected, not picked apart by an activist judiciary.

We know to be true that, over the past twenty or so years, as America has become more heavily armed our crime rate has dropped by half — something that happened because in America there are more good people with guns than there are bad people.

We know that the only bulwark ordinary people have against despotism is the right to bear arms — a principle perfectly illustrated by the fact that all despotic governments bar their citizens from bearing arms.

We know to be true that when you consign generations of people to dependence on the government, you get people whose emotional development is stunted and who never get the chance to fulfill their potential.

We know to be true that the bigger the government, the bigger the scope for inefficiency, waste, corruption and, eventually, despotism.

We know to be true that government is never a fair-handed actor but will, instead, always put its thumb on the scale for favored constituents (even if doing so is ultimately to the detriment of those same constituents, as is the case with perpetual welfare).

We know to be true that government is a poor business manager and that every new regulation destroys more wealth.

We know to be true that government prints money, it doesn’t create wealth.

We know to be true that, the moment the government begins to chip away at free speech, we have embarked upon a slippery slope that invariably ends with tyranny.

We know that political correctness is a form of censorship.

We know to be true that the government has developed an elite and untouchable class.

We know that Hillary deliberately, repeatedly, and quite dangerously violated America’s national security laws for her own convenience and paranoia, and that, unlike all others who committed much lesser crimes, she got away with it because she’s part of America’s elite, untouchable class.

We know to be true that, outside of the constant race mongering emanating from Progressives, from the White House down, racism is at its lowest ebb in America ever.

We know to be true that America’s police routinely put their lives at risk in edgy neighborhoods to save black lives, not to take black lives.

We know to be true that 25% of young women on America’s college campuses are not getting raped, but that 100% of young men are at risk of getting administratively rolled.

We know to be true that in today’s America women doing the same job as men earn the same as men, and that wage differentials exist because of life choices women make to care for children and elderly parents, or just because they have different goals, desires, and (yes) intellectual abilities and interests than men.

We know to be true that the climate has changed uncountable times since earth came into being and that, while we humans have a responsibility to value and preserve our planet’s health, we are not responsible for global climate change (although the sun probably is).

We know to be true that the vast majority of people are either male or female and that, while we should always treat the statistical outliers with kindness and respect, we do not need to subordinate reality to the needs of this minute cohort.

We know to be true that the Judeo-Christian tradition has, over the last few hundred years, proved to be the bulwark of everything we value, both morally and practically, insofar as it governs relationships between people in a safe, stable society; drove the end of slavery in the Western world (not in the Muslim world); led to equity feminism, which says that women should have equal pay for equal work and equal opportunities without unfair barriers; ended the practice of child labor; raised up equality between the races; and advanced true science through inquiry into the miracles of God’s world.

We know that children thrive best in a stable home, with a mother and father, who first got educated, then got married, then had children — even though it’s not politically correct to say that.

We know that human life begins at conception and that, while Americans still debate when on the developmental scale women have the right to end that life, the vast majority of us are agreed that this life is sentient by twenty-five weeks or so and that abortion after that point, when the mother’s life is not at risk, begins to look very much like murder.

We know that the abortion industry targets minorities, which would make Margaret Sanger proud, but that deeply disturbs those Americans who believe that all lives, not just lives of one color or another, are sacred.

We know that we Americans have a shared culture and that we weaken ourselves tremendously by denying our common bonds.

We know that there’s no such thing in America as “cultural appropriation;” there’s only “cultural appreciation.”

Trump may be an imperfect vessel for returning American government to the things we know, but we also know that Trump believes in the same things we, as Americans, instinctively understand. And we also know that for every one of these core truths, Hillary stands for the opposite. I’m sorry, #NeverTrumpers, but you’re just plain wrong. No matter how bad you think Trump might be, he’s in sync with the true American psyche, and Hillary has a different agenda entirely.