Where I Stand- A short summary

Political disagreements should never stand in the way of friendships and family relationships

Originally thought to be Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, these were just two friends,

I had recent Facebook exchange with an old friend. Like many such, this was profoundly unsatisfying because we are on polar opposites of the political spectrum. He brought up the recent publication of the latest indictment by Jack Smith, whose relentless pursuit of Donald Trump has raised eyebrows even among those who roundly dislike Trump. My friend is educated, measured, reasonable, and anyone would regard him as a “good person.” He says he has read the indictment word for word and categorically rejects any notion that Trump is not guilty and strongly feels he does not deserve to be president. as I pondered and drafted my reply to him I thought it might be worth sharing. Like Dennis Prager, I value clarity over agreement. Here is my reply (unlike in my direct message, I have added some links here):

Good morning, Dan (not his real name). This will be a bit long for a direct message, but if you can wade through a 165-page tome of legalese, this should be a cinch. I have thought almost continuously how to approach this conversation going forward. I do not expect to change your mind, nor you mine. We both feel strongly about our positions and feel we can defend them at length. We can both claim countless, brilliant, decent people who share our respective positions. To be candid, I do not have the stomach to read every detail of Smith’s indictment. I read most of section I carefully and skimmed the rest. If indictments were definitive, we would not need trials. I easily found much that could be labeled hearsay and little that I regarded as proof. I read multiple evaluations of Smith’s prior case against Trump wherein his payments, allegedly to cover up his tryst with Stormy Daniels, were jacked up using convoluted legal means, from a misdemeanor that prosecutors originally chose to ignore and were now past the statute of limitations, into felony charges. I don’t know anyone who feels this was other than a politically motivated prosecution or doubts it will be overturned. It did, however, serve the purpose, which was to paint Trump as a felon. While this was successful, it failed to derail Trump as a candidate because the antipathy to the current administration is so strong. It is not just extreme alt-right zealots who support Trump; it is also millions of educated, reasonable right centrists, like me, who are disgusted with what has happened to the US in three and a half years. As to Smith’s current prosecutorial project, I will wait for legal scholars to weigh in on this. The unhinged hatred against Trump is, in my view, inexplicable by anything he has done, certainly nothing he did as president, and unjustified. I am mystified how nothing the democrats do arouses anything close to this level of hatred and outrage. As a former (left blank), I wonder how you feel about Kamala Harris’ support for defunding the police movements, offering to pay bail for rioters in Minnesota, and abject failure to enforce our laws at the southern border. No need to answer. That is a conversation for another time, or never.

The 2020 election was a perfect storm. Covid led to unprecedented changes in how voting was carried out, many of which were questionable, e.g. ballot harvesting and mail-in voting at never-before-seen levels. The shutdowns erased much of the economic resurgence of Trump’s policies. The suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story alone could have tipped the balance of the election in favor of Biden. How did the Biden administration escape culpability for this? Again, I do not expect an answer.

Dan, after watching our cultural battles and seeing a number of controversies play out, I have come to conclude that all of our institutions and government agencies are corrupt, including most, if not all, of the lettered agencies: IRS, DOJ, FBI, CIA, NIH, CDC, FDA, HHS, and HSA among others, and in need of major reform. Social media has colluded with the government to censor citizens in unprecedented fashion and suppress any views that did not align with the approved narrative. In my own profession of medicine, I have seen the capture of individuals and entire organizations by illiberal woke ideology that seeks to divide us into warring demographic groups according to our race, ethnicity, and gender. I was banned for life in my College, the American College of Surgeons, for speaking up and objecting to being characterized as a racist and my profession as racist. As a physician, I believe there are two sexes and you cannot jump from one to the other. I believe that gender-affirming care in minors is nothing less than criminal child abuse and will one day regarded in the same category as frontal lobotomies and eugenics..

 I believe the DC “swamp” is real and needs to be drained. I don’t know that anyone other than someone like Donald Trump has any hope of doing this. Even his enemies marvel at his resilience and ability to shrug off relentless, arguably politically motivated prosecutions, and even multiple assassination attempts. I fear that one of these will eventually succeed and we may be thrown into a state of chaos unlike any in our history since the Civil War.

As I have grown older, I have slowly crystallized my positions. I believe our Constitution is a sacred document drafted by men who were divinely inspired and uniquely prescient. I believe any changes to it must be carefully and humbly made. I am for small government. I am for compromise in legislation, but not in principle. We must reform our bloated, overarching federal bureaucracy. I am for fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget. We are currently on a path to an economic reckoning with unsustainable spending and a debt that will affect generations to come. I am for peace but believe we only achieve this by having a strong military. I support Israel in its existential war against an enemy that has explicitly stated its goal is nothing less than extermination of Israel and all Jews. I am for free-market capitalism and free enterprise but feel there must be reasonable controls to insure fairness. I believe voting is a privilege of citizenship and that voting ID laws are common sense and not “vote suppression”.

 I am for secure borders and legal, properly vetted immigration. Among the worst of the Biden/Harris administration’s failures, this is near the top. I do not believe we are systemically racist as a nation. I am for responsible environmental stewardship, but do not believe we are in an existential climate emergency state requiring suspension of civil liberties or taking measures that are not only unproven but will potentially destroy our economy. I am not a globalist. Unlike Obama, I believe we are an exceptional nation, despite our flaws. Speaking of Obama, I believe he is still calling the shots in the democratic party and in the present administration and will be de facto president if Harris is elected. I believe our country is inherently good and our trajectory has been one of trying to live up to the ideals on which our nation was founded. I believe the world is infinitely better with the USA in it than without it.

I believe in our individual, unalienable rights as described in our Declaration of Independence, and as citizens of a democratic republic, but feel we also have individual responsibilities that go along with those rights. One is to be informed citizens and another is to vote.

I am a Christian and do not look to any man (including Donald Trump), woman, or institution for ultimate answers. I agree with the wisdom of our founders in prohibiting the establishment of a state religion, but I also feel that we abandon our undeniable Christian roots at our peril. I believe, like Thomas Sowell, that in this world there are no answers, only trade-offs. I believe the ill-conceived attempt to establish a utopian society on earth has led to more human misery than all the other failings of humans.

Finally, I blelieve God can use even the most flawed persons to accomplish His plans, e.g. Moses, Jonah, David, Rahab, Saul, Paul, Peter, and others, and I think Donald Trump is a perfect example of that.

Dan, I always liked you and I always felt we were friends, and still do. I hope that we will meet again some day and that, when we do, it will be as old friends rather than political adversaries. I don’t think politics should ever stand in the way of family and friends. I hope and pray that you will feel the same. Stay safe and healthy.

Warmest regards,

Rick

Richard T. Bosshardt, MD, FACS Senior Fellow at Do No Harm Founding Fellow of FAIR in Medicine.

My book, The Making of a Plastic Surgeon: Two Years in the Crucible Learning the Art and Science, is available in eBook and paperback on Amazon. It chronicles the most difficult two years of my life learning the art and science of plastic surgery. I believe readers will find it both entertaining and informative.