messing
messing

By Steve Levy | Fox News

I didn’t vote for Donald Trump for president in 2016 but I probably will in 2020.

It’s due in large part to the fascist antics and modus operandi of the left, including actress Debra Messing, of “Will and Grace” fame, who is seeking what amounts to a blacklist of Trump supporters. (Messing and her co-star, according to FoxNews.com, now claim that they weren’t calling for a blacklist but rather wanted to bring attention to already-public information.)

Many of my colleagues thought I’d be a natural supporter of the Queens tycoon. Long before “The Donald” rode down the escalator in the tower that bears his name, I had been a fierce critic of illegal (as opposed to the legal variety) immigration and was calling out the media for its liberal slant.

PRESIDENT TRUMP CALLS DEBRA MESSING ‘MCCARTHY STYLE RACIST,’ ASKS NBC IF THEY’LL KEEP HER ON-AIR

I even published a book, “Bias in the Media,” to document how press coverage of my political career changed so dramatically once I switched my registration to the Republican Party from the Democratic Party.

But there was too much about this political neophyte that was bothersome. Trump possessed no apparent core political beliefs (other than a consistency on unfair trade policies).

He had seemingly no desire to tackle deficits (which is why I wrote in the name of spending hawk, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, on my 2016 ballot).

Trump also had an apparent isolationist foreign policy. And worst of all, he appeared to have a mean disposition and an unfiltered impulsiveness that could belittle the office of the presidency.

These foibles have endured through his first term, but there is something of far more concern weighing on me as I ponder my 2020 vote: the fanatical leftward shift of the Democratic establishment and the mainstream media.

I’ll be supporting Trump in his reelection bid, in part, because of his surprising policy successes, and, in part, because he is the only thing standing between an America as we’ve known it and a nation that will be irretrievably transformed into an unrecognizable socialist state.

As frustrating as his insensitive and often divisive rhetoric can be, any danger Trump may pose is far less than a Democratic Party seeking to impose open borders, class warfare, an unrealistic Green New Deal that will cripple our economy, appeasement to traditional foes such as China and Iran, a hostility toward the Israeli democracy and a clampdown on free speech, as highlighted by Messing’s quest to punish those not sharing her political views.

When close to 50 percent of the population is constantly barraged by the Democratic media cabal with accusations that they are complicit in a racist mass murder in El Paso because they had the temerity to support Trump, or to not follow liberal orthodoxy, these folks are going to push back.

I’ll be supporting Trump in his reelection bid, in part, because of his surprising policy successes, and, in part, because he is the only thing standing between an America as we’ve known it and a nation that will be irretrievably transformed into an unrecognizable socialist state.

The best way to thumb your nose at those who would seek to destroy you for not following their groupthink is to lend support to the very person they so loathe. As the old saying goes: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Who do these radical scoundrels think they are trying to intimidate average law-abiding American citizens from carrying out their constitutional right to support anyone they so desire?

The left has emboldened Antifa and its violent ways. It condones the banishing of conservative speakers on college campuses.

It is giving a wink and a nod to miscreants who are hurling water, and even concrete slabs, at our police officers.

It is now doxxing contributors to political campaigns to pressure them into dropping their support for a candidate of their choice.

Why would so many Americans support Donald Trump even though they basically don’t like him personally? Well, as a wise politician once said: People will vote for someone they don’t like, but won’t vote for someone they believe doesn’t like them.

It is increasingly clear that the Democratic Party and their allies controlling the media, academia and the entertainment industries have a visceral disdain for middle America.

On the other hand, despite his often grating personality, Trump is perceived as truly fighting for these forgotten folks in flyover country.

His economic policies have jump-started a stagnant Obama economy that gave us an anemic 1.6 percent level of growth in his final year.

Wages for the middle and working classes are growing significantly for the first time since the advent of the recession. And while Trump hasn’t yet succeeded in reining in illegal immigration or China’s criminal trade practices, the feeling is, at least he’s trying.

At least Trump has the guts to weather the push back that comes from the hopelessly liberal New York Times editorial board, while other well-meaning, more articulate Republicans, such as Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, too often wilted to the pressure.

And then there is the judiciary, which Trump is slowly moderating after Obama stacked the courts with hundreds of leftist, interventionist jurists who had been undoing hard-fought conservative gains made through the legislative process.

Equally important is the department heads a president appoints. Trump’s appointees have reversed ludicrous Obama regulations that classified rain puddles on farms as toxic sites, or protocols that restricted due process for male students on campus accused of sexual assault, or restrictions on needed pipelines to heat our homes in the winter.

An election is a binary choice. Even if an independent-minded voter has reservations about Trump’s demeanor, there is far more to be concerned about with the intolerant, radical, anti-public safety and often anti-American forces seeking to displace him.

How ironic it would be if, on Election Day in November 2020, these Trump skeptics were pushed into his camp because of the McCarthy-like tactics of leftist elites like Messing and others who seek to destroy his supporters.

Steve Levy is president of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a New York state assemblyman, and host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.”

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