Lately, I’m being asked to make a positive case for why anyone should vote Republican. Many Christians think that they can take the easy way out and just prove that Republicans do better than Democrats on social issues like marriage and abortion. But that’s lazy. A better strategy is to take a kitchen sink approach by arguing that Republicans are also better on fiscal policy and foreign policy.

Today, let’s look at three stories that clearly show that Republicans correctly identify evil and take effective steps to deter it – at home and abroad.

Let’s start with an international story, where Trump is confronting the autocratic Iranian regime, which is seeking nuclear weapons to menace peaceful countries in the region.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

The Trump administration on Monday announced an unprecedented set of new sanctions on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile sectors.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was joined at the State Department by top Trump administration officials as they announced the new measures, which target Iran’s proliferation of nuclear materials used to feed its atomic weapons program. The sanctions also seek to restrain Iran’s contested ballistic missile program, which has progressed in tandem with its nuclear program as the country seeks to construct a weapon capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

The most far-reaching sanctions will target Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics agency, as well as its leaders, for exporting arms to Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, who also was targeted by the new sanctions. The measures are aimed at stopping Iran from exporting arms across the globe, including to regional hotspots such as Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.

The new sanctions are being issued under a fresh executive order announced Monday by the White House enabling the United States to sanction Iranian government actors and those globally who have been identified as aiding Iran’s nuclear and missile programs. The move comes a month after the United States invoked a procedural mechanism at the United Nations that ordered the “snapback” of all global sanctions on Iran. Snapback took effect on Saturday. The unprecedented move was met with anger by European powers and Tehran’s allies, raising questions about whether the world will uphold the sanctions. Pompeo and senior Trump administration officials warned that they will not hesitate to sanction any country caught working with Iran.

“Now that virtually all U.N. sanctions have been reimposed on Iran, stakeholders worldwide are warned that the United States will aggressively use U.S. sanctions authorities to impose consequences for failures to comply with the snapped-back U.N. measures on Iran and ensure that Iran does not reap the benefits of U.N.-prohibited activity,” the State Department said in announcing the new action.

Let’s move down to the federal level, with a story from The Federalist:

The Department of Justice labeled New York City, Portland, and Seattle as cities “permitting violence and destruction of property,” in a statement Monday.

Attorney General William Barr said state and local leaders in these cities are endangering citizens, including peaceful protestors.

“We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance. It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens,” he said.

Citing various failures by each city such as rising gun violence, police budget cuts, lack of prosecution for those arrested and charged with “protest-related charges,” lack of protection against property destruction and vandalism,  rejection of federal law enforcement, and allowing anarchists to take over certain geographical areas such as CHOP, the DOJ noted that these cities all failed to handle the rapidly increasing violence that occurred in their areas in response to the death of George Floyd in May.

The article notes that this action follows on an order from Trump to not waste federal tax dollars on cities that neglect to protect their citizens from criminals.

Meanwhile, at the state level, there was this story from Florida, repported by Daily Wire:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced new legislation Monday that would create additional felonies to punish protesters who turn violent and would create severe penalties for cities that elect to defund or disband their police departments.

Local Miami news reports that “violent protesters and looters would face new felonies” under the legislation, particularly if they damage property as part of their demonstrations, engage in “disorderly” conduct,” or assault a law enforcement officer.

If caught and convicted, violent protesters could lose their access to state-based welfare programs, DeSantis said.

DeSantis says, though, that the new legislation is designed to prevent the type of violence, anarchy, and destruction Americans have witnessed in places like Portland, Oregon, where unrest has raged unabated for more than 100 days. The legislation also covers activities like harassing people dining at restaurants and tearing down monuments.

[…]To reinforce the idea that the new laws were designed to provide law enforcement with more tools to control destructive demonstrations, the package includes proposed penalities for municipalities who elect to “defund the police” or disband their local police departments.

“The proposed package would also strip municipalities of state money if they defund law enforcement,” local Miami news reported.

I think it’s important for people to understand that good and evil do exist. We can’t fix everything in the world, but we can certainly deter future aggressive acts by standing up to terrorists and criminals at home and abroad. If you agree, then you vote Republican.