We have been consistent in these pages about several policy priorities that America must take.
We are for a vibrant American energy policy longing for the dominant position the United States enjoyed in December 2019 when we became a net energy exporter for the first time in decades. We firmly oppose the government picking and choosing winners like the Biden administration has done, with its disastrous one trillion dollar energy initiative that supports Electric Vehicles at the cost of traditional cars that has caused even the UAW, a steadfast Democratic constituency, to withhold support for Biden.
We are equally opposed to reckless deficit spending and are deeply concerned about rising debt levels that will soon become unsustainable. Inflation has to be tamed as it hurts households, and we hold the Biden administration's irresponsible spending responsible for the fiscal mess the country finds itself in.
We understand that aggressive American diplomacy could have avoided the Russia-Ukraine war. That conflict is not an existential threat to America, but continuing the fight could be. We have opposed America's unconditional support of Ukraine from the beginning for these reasons. The Biden administration does not have much to show for its $120-billion support of a war which has caused massive dislocation of nearly 11 million Ukrainians, killed and wounded almost a million people, and severely impacted food supply chains, impoverishing many countries.
We are for a strong southern border and are aghast at the nearly seven million illegal immigrants who have sneaked into the American hinterland, increasing crime in our cities to unprecedented levels and affecting the quality of life.
So, as the GOP House struggles to elect a new Speaker and the Republicans have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to save America from the disastrous policies of the Biden administration, we feel Byron Donalds would make an excellent choice.
If you don't know who Bryon Donalds is, you are not alone. The 44-year-old Congressman from Naples, Florida, has an impressive record of winning elections.
Running for the first time in 2020, he won a nine-way GOP primary election in his conservative district with a sufficient-enough margin to not necessitate a recount. In the general election, he beat Democrat Cindy Banyai by 22 points. In 2022, Donalds racked up an impressive win, defeating Banyai in a rematch by a whopping 36 points.
When former Speaker McCarthy went through 15 ballots to finally clinch the gavel last January, the young Donalds was nominated for the role - and he picked up the support of twenty of his colleagues, an impressive feat for a two-term congressman.
Donalds, who is African American, would bring traditional southern values of a Black family to the GOP leadership. We are reminded of former Congressman JC Watts from Oklahoma, a college football quarterback for the University of Oklahoma who served later as a Baptist clergyman. From 1995 to 2003, Watts represented the state's 4th Congressional District, rising to the GOP Conference Chair's position, a leadership role within the party, the first for a Black Republican. Watts was such a charismatic speaker that the Republicans chose him to deliver the GOP's rebuttal to former President Bill Clinton's State of the Union speech in 1997. Watts had a lifetime rating of 94% from the American Conservative Union.
Donalds, of the Freedom Caucus, steadfastly supported Jim Jordan for Speaker, although he is even more conservative than Jordan. When Jordan was defeated in a secret ballot after the third try, Donalds correctly held his mainstream colleagues on the appropriations and defense committees accountable for bringing about Jordan's downfall.
On policy, Donalds has repeatedly expressed frustration at how voters would view the GOP. We like this approach as we detest the many mainstream Republicans who seem to owe their allegiances to Beltway forces and lobbyists, and not those who elected them to office. Donalds favors strict limits on government spending and securing the border. He is also a firm believer in returning America to energy independence and a prominent critic of the Biden administration's energy policies.
A few weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, Donalds supported sending weapons to Kyiv, including Stinger missiles & MiG-29 fighter jets, a popular position with the GOP base then. But with the war going on endlessly and America's debt increasing, Donalds does not want to fund the Ukraine war anymore. Here again, he is responding to voter sentiment as multiple public polls have shown that Americans no longer believe in funding Ukraine. On September 23, he tweeted: "There's no money in the House right now for Ukraine. We're running a $2T deficit. Any money we give to them is borrowing from OUR future. That's the facts." It is a very responsible and rare position for a politician to take.
While we favor a color-blind society, it is not lost on us that the Left always plays identity politics with everything they do. The GOP can neutralize the Democrats' positioning instantly by elevating a Black man to a position that is second in line to the presidency, one-upping the Democrats' Hakeem Jeffries, who is the minority leader.
We would have liked experienced Jim Jordan to take the gavel, but given the current circumstances, Byron Donalds is an excellent choice for House Speaker.
