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What a ride this year has been.

Remember how the major news networks and newspapers excoriated Republican candidates for president in 2016? At one point there were 18 Republicans vying for the brass ring.

There wasn’t the same level of vitriol leveled at the twenty seven Democratic candidates running in 2020.

Says a lot about the media bias.

But, here we are. Just days to go before the ballots are due.

Overshadowing the entire election-year histrionics is the coronavirus pandemic, which has stolen the thunder of all the campaigns, to a certain extent, just as it has deflated a once-booming economy.

I believe the choice is clear: Donald Trump.

Before the pandemic reared its ugly head, all indications were that the United States was on an upward track. The stock market was booming. Unemployment numbers were at historic lows for all ethnicities. Companies were returning factories to U.S. soil. Mr. Trump, over the previous three years, had made historic progress in a number of fronts, including meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, challenging Communist China’s unscrupulous global business practices. Dire predictions of international catastrophe made at the prospect of Trump being elected were unfounded. Trump brokered a deal in the Middle East that normalizes relations between previously antagonistic countries.

The last man standing of the 27 Democrats was former VP Joe Biden, and that’s being kind, that he’s standing, I mean. As in 2016, the Democratic Party shish kabobbed independent Bernie Sanders again, unable to stomach his socialist political philosophies, engineering the process to shut out Sanders. The proverbial smoke-filled room.

Political affiliations aside, Biden has shown time after time, something is amiss. He is unable to string together very many coherent thoughts before his train of thought derails. Numerous gaffes have been documented…too many to ignore. Recently he dribbled off on a tangent, naming “George” as his opponent in the presidential race. George who? Bush? McGovern? Washington? The Curious Monkey?

It is unthinkable that a person with these readily apparent disabilities would be conferring with heads of state and have his finger on the nuclear button. It is equally unthinkable that a political party would put forth such a candidate and actively profess his competence. That’s what Trump Derangement Syndrome will do, I guess.

Also daunting, should Biden win, is the possibility of succession by Kamala Harris. The pursuit of power turned Harris from a debate-stage attacker to a sycophant.

Since taking office, Trump has endured much. The Obama Administration, with Biden involved, weaponized the FBI against Trump days before inauguration in 2017. Russian collusion was alleged. No proof was found, so Trump’s opponents went after him with impeachment, and that didn’t work either.

Perhaps his triumphant State of the Union Address earlier this year was too much for the Trump Haters to endure. If a booming economy is what Trump was hanging his hat on, then that’s the target, and the coronavirus is the weapon.

During the 2016 campaign, both parties realized that the next presidency would be likely to nominate several Supreme Court justices, and they were right. Recent appointment of Amy Coney Barrett was Trump’s third justice, along with Neil Gorsuch and Bret Kavanaugh. Obama and George W. Bush each nominated two justices during their terms.

Trump isn’t so much a politician as he is a businessman and a negotiator. And the liberals have been apoplectic over his use of Twitter. It’s a distraction he’s used to advantage over and over, getting things done behind the scenes.

On the U.S. stage, however, the distractions created by the anti-Trump factions have kept the country from advancing as quickly as it would have. Politicians bent on destroying Trump should have been taking care of business.

As October yields to November, conservatives are enjoying the turnabout-is-fair-play “October Surprise” on Biden & Son. Once deftly employed by the Clintonistas, the “October Surprise” this year solidifies for me that Biden should be put out to pasture.

With a trio of his Supremes on the bench, the question answered by the country’s presidential choice will be: Capitalism or totalitarianism. With governmental regulations reduced, we saw what Trump being in office did for the U.S. economy. If Biden is elected then replaced by Harris when his competency is realized, I believe we’re looking at socialism, loss of liberty and change to this marvelous country on a scale never before seen.