The past 50 years of our contradictory politics has been a decades-long period of missed opportunities for the United States. Politically, we have swung from one extreme to the other without much in the way of vision or direction, falling further and further into this partisan quagmire of blame and greed that we find ourselves in.
As a country we are floundering, forced to choose between a Democratic party full of emotional wokeness and celebrity endorsements and lacking gravitas, and a Republican party intent on a fascist path of social control and willing to steal from the poor, the sick, and the elderly to give to the wealthy. What a terrible choice.
This is the darkest of times for this country. The Supreme Court, the Congress, and the Presidency have joined together in a sort of unholy Trinity to create a government that is full of people who took an oath to uphold the Constitution but have chosen to break their oath and their promises, all in allegiance to one man who is angry, threatening, full of vengeance, delusional, and lacking in basic human emotions such as empathy, tolerance, and compassion. A man who controls by fear is not a leader but a tyrant, and that is what we have now.
History will record this year – 2025 – as the nadir of the United States. This year will become an example of how a democracy can fail if its people are no longer able to think for themselves but instead seize upon simplistic slogans, cheer empty rhetoric, and act out of fear. It is not that a democracy fails its people, it is that a people fail their democracy.
And right now, we Americans are failing our democracy.
Perhaps we are not yet ready to admit to ourselves that we as a country have lost our collective way.
Perhaps we need to allow the current administration to close down newspapers and media outlets, criminalize dissent, jail its political opponents, fire a hundred thousand workers, deport hundreds of thousands of our neighbors, fill the streets of major cities with a permanent military presence, pollute our land and our water and our air with industrial waste and toxic gases, declare martial law and suspend the mid-term elections, and watch as the most vulnerable of us are left to suffer while the most wealthy among us drink champagne and eat faux gras and caviar and black truffles on their mega-yachts.
At some point we will have to choose to either let our democratic ideals go and surrender our personal freedoms or to stand up and fight to regain what once made us a great nation. Each one of us must make our own choice. Woke or Maga, it all comes down to whether you value your ideology more than the future of our country.
If we are true patriots, the choice is clear. We fight. We fight to make America great again.
This is not about supporting one man or one party. The stakes are too high to limit our sights so low.
All of us should read the Declaration of Independence slowly and carefully to understand why this country was founded. All of us should read the Constitution with all of its Amendments to understand how our government is structured and what our rights are as Americans.
These documents are the foundation of our country and its people. Our government does not seem to take these documents seriously anymore, but we the people should. Perhaps then we will elect better politicians, politicians who will preserve our rights instead of ignoring them.
What must be done to return the United States to being the greatest democracy in the world?
WE MUST ELIMINATE INCOME INEQUALITY
We live in a capitalist society that benefits very few of us. Statistics on income vary, but the following is close enough to illustrate the point. 50% of individual Americans make less than $55,000 per year. 90% of individual Americans make less than $250,000 per year. 95% of individual Americans make less than $350,000 per year. The median salary/compensation of corporate CEOs is over $16,000,000 per year.
Corporate CEOs make 290 times as much than those Americans at the 50% percentile. Corporate CEOs make nearly 50 times as much as those at the 95% percentile. Corporate CEOs make 500 times more than a family of four who have a poverty-level income of $32,000 per year.
Corporate CEOs are only part of the problem. There are many even more insidious ways that society loses wealth to those who are smart and clever and have figured out how to skim from the financial system without adding anything of real and lasting value to it. Not to mention those who take advantage of various tax laws and provisions and utilize imaginative accounting practices that allow their wealth to be secreted away.
This extraordinarily unbalanced accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few people is a fundamental problem in our society. It has become a corruptive and controlling influence throughout our political system.
This is why we still have poor people in this country. This is why we still have people that go hungry in this country. This is why people have to work two or more jobs in this country. This is why we have a cost of housing crisis in this country. This is why we have deteriorating roads and bridges and other infrastructure in this country. This is why we have lost our manufacturing base in this country. This is why we have such a high and increasing federal debt in this country.
The wealth that society needs to address all these issues is here in this country and continues to be generated every year by those 95% of Americans that make less than $350,000 per year.
The problem is that the rich and powerful and influential people in our society are skimming all of this wealth for themselves. They did not earn it, they do not deserve it, they just take it, and the rest of us just let them do it, year after year.
The Achilles heel of capitalism is greed, and it has been destroying this country one dollar at a time.
WE MUST ELIMINATE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
This country benefits tremendously from legal immigration and the presence of guest workers.
Legal immigration brings highly motivated people to this country, many of whom come with important skills. Legal immigration helps to stabilize our aging population, bringing more workers into the Social Security and Medicare systems and helping to keep these programs solvent. New and different cultures enrich the American culture with new traditions, new cuisines, new ways of thinking.
With the exception of our indigenous population, our country is made up of immigrants that came from other nations to become Americans. The number of legal immigrants entering this country has averaged approximately 1.5 million people per year for the last decade or so. This is an immigration rate that is manageable given the resources needed to process and absorb these new arrivals into the country. There is no reason why this American tradition should not continue.
Guest workers, including those who are in this country without benefit of legal status, provide necessary labor to perform important and often under-valued work in a variety of industries including construction, landscaping, childcare, eldercare, hospitality services, crop harvesting, and the processing of fish, poultry, and meat. Much of this work would not be able to be done without these guest workers.
The problem with the current system is that too many of these workers are not of legal status and are vulnerable to exploitation by their employers. Guest workers would benefit by being of legal status and being provided with basic protections such as a minimum guest worker wage, standard working hours, and basic health care. In exchange, the continued availability of a less-expensive guest worker labor pool would be of benefit to employers, who would otherwise have to pay more for American and Green Card labor if they could even find such people willing to perform this type of work.
Individuals who hold student visas or visitor’s visas must be prepared to return to their country of origin following graduation or completion of their visit unless they have found employment with someone who will legally sponsor them and allow them to obtain a work visa as a registered guest worker. As a general rule, those who do not leave on their own accord in accordance with the terms of their visas must be deported.
Illegal aliens living in this country for a period of time, e.g. 10 years, who have been productive members of their community and have not committed felonies during this time, should be given an opportunity to become a registered guest worker. Their children should be eligible to apply for and be granted citizenship once they become of age.
There is a major problem with the millions of illegal aliens who entered the southern border of this country during the past four years, and who are now residing in this country without legal status.
All illegal aliens who entered this country, requested political asylum, and were given a notice to appear for an asylum hearing must honor their hearing. If asylum is denied, they must leave voluntarily or be deported, unless they have found employment with someone who will legally sponsor them and allow them to obtain a work visa as a registered guest worker. Any illegal alien who does not return to honor their hearing must be deported once found.
Any illegal alien who requested political asylum and has it granted following their hearing should be eligible for a Green Card.
All illegal aliens who entered this country illegally and evaded capture by the border patrol are unlikely to be here to live a peaceful, law-abiding life. Once found, they must all be deported.
Border security must be improved, to include completing the southern border wall to fill in gaps and to provide enhanced electronic monitoring of activity along and underneath the wall. At some time in the future, it is hoped that the border wall will no longer be necessary, but for now it is clearly an important check on illegal immigration, drug smuggling, and human trafficking.
America already accepts more legal immigrants than any other country. As we have seen, there is a maximum rate of immigrant entry that this country is able to absorb in an orderly, humane and controlled manner. This rate was far exceeded during the past four years, and this has caused many problems – both financial and social – that continue to burden this country in many ways.
This cannot be allowed to happen again. Control of our own borders is our right and our responsibility as a nation and as a people.
WE MUST CHOOSE TO BUY WHAT WE MAKE
There is much talk about returning manufacturing jobs to this country. Is this a good idea or a bad idea?
It is pointed out, probably by those who have a vested interest in the current system of importing essentially everything, that domestic production of goods will result in higher prices to the American consumer. It is pointed out that there are currently manufacturing jobs that are going unfilled, and that more manufacturing in this country means that there will be more manufacturing jobs that will go unfilled. It is pointed out that American-made products will never be able to compete in the international marketplace due to this country’s higher cost of production.
All that being said, Americans once made everything that Americans needed before corporations sold out America by off shoring our domestic manufacturing, primarily to China. There is no reason why Americans cannot begin to make what Americans need once again.
There are some products that are fundamental to our way of life that we cannot allow China to continue to control. Pharmaceuticals, for example, raw materials for high-tech and defense applications, for another. These critical products and materials must be made and sourced domestically or obtained from our closest and most trusted allies. Publicly accusing our allies of decades of unfair trading practices followed by punitive tariffs is not a particularly effective approach when it comes to obtaining their cooperation, but our allies know that there will eventually be a more reasonable American administration to deal with.
There are other products that could certainly be manufactured here, but this will require significant capital investment. These aforementioned tariffs seem to be encouraging investment in this country, as well as resulting in some shifting of production back to domestic plants. This needs to continue, but at an accelerated rate.
Once manufacturing plants are built and up and running, there are likely to be thousands of foreign-born workers who have obtained guest worker status that would be available to work in these plants.
The real question is whether Americans will be able to afford the higher priced, domestically produced products being designed and manufactured by Americans and registered American guest workers. This is why the existing level of income inequality needs to be addressed. Simply put, Americans have to make more money to be able to afford to buy what we produce.
There are many brilliant designers and creative engineers and others here in this country who would love to be able to use their expertise to make products that are of the highest quality and also produced in newly imagined, cost-effective ways. Right now, corporate America gives them no opportunity to do so.
In order for America to become great again, Americans must choose to buy American. First, however, we have to commit to making things again.
WE MUST EMBRACE SUSTAINABILITY
There used to be this quaint concept of durable goods. Everything made in America used to be a durable good. Things were purpose made to last indefinitely, designed to be repairable instead of designed to be disposable. Where we once had local dumps, we now have regional landfills, ocean depositories, and container ships full of garbage destined for underdeveloped countries.
We have become a society that imports things with the intention of throwing them away instead of making things with the intention of passing them down to the next generation. Instead of being wasteful and irresponsible consumers of the latest trendy, shiny objects, we would be much better off being champions of sustainability. So would the planet and everything else that lives here with us.
Sustainability means living in a mindful manner that uses resources in a way that can continue for an indefinite period of time without damaging the environment and stealing from future generations.
Some examples of sustainable practices:
- Using crop rotation to improve farmland soil instead of applying massive amounts of fertilizer every year.
- Using textiles made from naturally derived biodegradable cotton, wool, linen, silk, and bamboo instead of man-made textiles made from non-biodegradable polyester, nylon, and acrylic.
- Using naturally derived leather for clothing, accessories, and furniture instead of vinyl-based fabric.
- Using tools and appliances designed to be repaired and manufactured to provide a twenty-five-year minimum performance life instead of tools and appliances that are unable to be repaired and are designed to break from normal use after a few years.
- Using cellulose-based biodegradable packaging materials instead of plastic bags, plastic air-filled cushions, and Styrofoam peanuts and panels, none of which are biodegradable and do not lend themselves to recycling.
- Making recycling and composting programs mandatory so as to minimize the quantity of consumer and industrial waste that would otherwise end up in landfills.
- Requiring manufacturers to use a percentage of recycled materials instead of virgin materials in their manufacturing processes.
- Generating as much electricity as possible from solar, wind, and tidal energy sources, avoiding the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas so that these resources can be reserved for more valuable uses.
The United States has more people than all other countries except China and India. If we are able to live in a sustainable manner, minimizing our resource requirements and our negative impact on the environment, this will be a profound statement as to what is possible even in larger economies.
WE MUST STRENGTHEN OUR ALLIANCES
The world has never been as peaceful and as prosperous as it was under the world order created by the United States after World War II. We are now in a period where resentful, extremist, and ambitious nations want to eliminate this world order for their own benefit. We cannot control these dark forces, but we must do everything we can to defend ourselves against them.
One of the best ways to do so is to strengthen our political, economic, and strategic alliances with like-minded nations. Unilaterally imposing tariffs on other countries because of their perceived decades-long exploitation of our relatively open markets is not the way to improve our international standing in the world. The damage from this administration’s ill-conceived actions has already been done, but this damage can be mitigated over time with a different approach.
Our political and economic relationships with other countries should be evaluated by our government on an individual country-by-country basis. Our relationships should be evaluated constantly, reviewed annually, and adjusted as necessary to achieve the best relationships possible. Our relationships should never be taken for granted.
The intent should be to establish mutually beneficial relationships that focus on positive outcomes, are respectful of differences in cultures and political systems, and establish friendships between the United States and other nations as equal partners. Coercion, manipulation, and interference in the internal workings of other countries should never be part of this country’s foreign policy.
It has become evident over the past several years that the United States is no longer able to unilaterally police the world and act as peacemaker wherever there is conflict. We need support and assistance from other countries to do so.
The next several decades are destined to be a period in which China becomes ever more dominant before it stagnates due to its falling birthrate and aging population. China’s ongoing military research, development, and rapid expansion is both threatening and disappointing. The extent of China’s military and economic domination can only be countered by strong alliances that support a world order where sovereign boundaries are respected, free and fair trade is practiced, and cultures can interact in a way that results in greater appreciation of one another.
The rise of imperial Russia is destined to fail because of its internal corruption, a lack of a viable economy that can take part in international trade, and a shrinking population. However, as long as Vladimir Putin is Russia’s dictator, weapons of war and war itself will continue to be Russia’s main exports. Hopefully Vladimir Putin will die before he is able to carry out his threats of nuclear conflict.
No matter how much we may wish to believe that this is one world, that we are all one people, and that somehow we can achieve lasting world peace, the reality is that the tribal nature of humans and our willingness to be led by aggressive and ruthless men means that vigilance and strength will continue to be absolute requirements for the foreseeable future.
Alliances bring more vigilance and more strength to all who are in them. Their critical importance should never be underestimated, they should never be taken for granted, and, above all, they must never be abandoned.
WE MUST BECOME HAPPIER AND HEALTHIER
The happiest countries in the world are Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark. The United States does not even make the top 20.
The healthiest countries in the world are Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Australia, and Sweden. Again, the United States does not even make the top 20.
Why is this? If we would like to be a happier and healthier country, would it not make sense to study what these other countries are doing that the United States is not?
Unfortunately, Americans are generally under the assumption that we can’t learn anything from other countries, that the American way is the best way, and that to think otherwise is to be unpatriotic, anti-American, even traitorous.
Well, this way of thinking has not been working very well for us Americans, has it?
There are several obvious reasons why Americans are not that happy and not that healthy.
We have a much greater economic disparity between the richest and the poorest of us. Common sense tells us that the poorer we are, the more unhappy and unhealthy we will be. There are many of us who live in quiet desperation, stressed out from working more than one job, not having enough money to buy healthy food, and not having ready access to health care. These people bring down our overall happiness and healthiness scores. There is a tendency among many of us to ignore these people and wish that they would go away, but they are us.
In addition, Americans work more hours, with a poorer work/life balance. Americans are too sedentary and do not exercise enough. Americans eat more processed food and too much of it. Americans pay to support a medical system that prioritizes profit over helping people to be healthy.
Also, we are out of step with the rhythm of life. Too many Americans rely on external stimulus to fill their lives. We are constantly bombarded with sales pitches, infomercials, internet influencers, social media, podcasts, and other stimuli that requires limited involvement from us. We watch reality TV and live vicariously through others instead of actively engaging ourselves and enriching our own lives. No wonder we have such a high level of depression, such a high level of mental illness, and such a high level of suicide.
Much of what makes us unhappy and unhealthy has been institutionalized into our government and our economy and has become socially accepted as perfectly normal and perfectly American. Income disparity, excessive work hours, a reliance on overly processed food, unaffordable prescriptions, a consumption-based economy – these things are going to be difficult to change because they are very profitable for the powerful economic and political interests that control and define our lives.
We all need to reconsider what is truly important to us. As a whole, we should look to those countries where people are happier and healthier than we are and learn from them. As individuals, we should concentrate on ourselves, our family, our friends, our faith, our lives away from work, and not be in such a hurry to react to the latest trends or sensationalized dramas. We have allowed too much nonsense to dictate the way we live our lives.
There is a quaint, old-fashioned saying – “stop and smell the roses.” No one smells the roses anymore.
Figuratively speaking, whatever our individual rose garden, we should be actively tending to it. If we don’t have a rose garden of our own, we should plant one.
WE MUST PREPARE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EXTREMES
The past decade has seen an increase in the number and magnitude of extreme weather events, many of which have affected areas of the country that were previously thought to be safe. Fewer and fewer parts of the country are immune from the destructive effects of floods, tornadoes, forest fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, mudslides, tsunamis, and rising sea levels.
We have seen the extent of property damage, displacement of families, destruction of entire communities, and loss of life that extreme environmental events can cause. Our traditional insurance industry as it currently exists is increasingly overwhelmed by the cost of major environmental disasters and has begun to refuse to provide coverage in the areas of the country that are the worst affected. Much of our infrastructure such as roads, bridges, the electrical grid, and potable water supplies is increasingly unable to withstand these types of extreme weather events.
It is not a long-term answer to simply provide emergency assistance and low-interest loans to rebuild what has already been damaged, only to experience similar destructive events a short time later. There needs to be a concerted effort to harden our buildings and infrastructure to withstand these extreme weather events.
It is all too easy to blame FEMA for a slow response and an unwillingness to provide adequate funds for disaster relief, but state and local governments are not equipped to do much more than to provide emergency rescue services and make temporary infrastructure repairs.
A comprehensive study of weather trends is needed to predict where future extreme environmental events are likely to take place. Revisions to building codes must be made to ensure that new structures are built in a manner that will provide the best survivability to extreme events when they occur. Older structures should be retrofitted with newer technologies to the greatest practical extent. Passive barriers such as fire breaks, levees, drainage tunnels, detention reservoirs, and similar measures need to be constructed in anticipation of need.
Whether naturally occurring or man-made, extreme environmental events appear to be our new reality. instead of placing blame on people and organizations after the damage has been done and loss of life has occurred, it would be far more constructive to take measures ahead of time to improve our ability to minimize damage and loss of life.
WE MUST BECOME A MORE CIVILIZED AND PERCEPTIVE PEOPLE
A great many Americans find it acceptable to act in ways that show an ignorance of good manners, an inability to respect others, a willingness to insult and demean those with whom they disagree, and a selfishness of thought and action.
The current President and his administration have made a lack of civility into an art form where the disparagement of political opponents, judges, educators, lawyers, undocumented people, and others occurs on a daily basis.
Social media platforms, alternative news sources, and podcasting commentators appear more than willing to criticize anyone in the harshest of terms, often in ways that are very cruel and personal.
The sense of personal entitlement at the expense of others has been made into a virtue by self-proclaimed influencers, and manifests itself in rudeness in stores, in restaurants, on our roads, and on airplanes. What was once considered unacceptable behavior has become commonplace and is often glorified and applauded instead of being rejected outright as a cancerous, negative influence on our society.
Our lack of perceptiveness and critical thinking is equally troubling. A great many Americans are easily manipulated in their thinking by self-proclaimed experts, commentators, influencers, and others who present their opinions as facts. Why anyone would prefer to let others tell them what to think instead of developing their own opinions and drawing their own conclusions makes no sense.
It is remarkable and quite sad that fact-based history and science are so readily disputed by influential people who have no actual expertise to support their claims and opinions. Too many Americans are suspicious of the educated, distrustful of science, and dismissive of history, yet are so willing to believe theories that have no basis in fact and belie common sense.
Being skeptical of what people say is always a smart thing to do, particularly when what people say is in direct contradiction to conventional wisdom and reality. Just because someone speaks passionately and authoritatively about something does not mean that they are correct. Each of us has the right and the obligation to have our own opinion, to carefully consider the various sides of issues, and to demand substantiation of claims and allegations.
Unfortunately, the ability to logically think things through is a skill that must be learned and developed. This is called critical thinking, and it used to be an accepted part of our educational curriculum.
We should all be making a commitment to educating ourselves so that we avoid being foolish and ill-informed. This applies to the farmer and the laborer and the tradesman just as much as it does to the teacher and the lawyer and the financier. Ignorance and closemindedness exist in all walks of life.
There are too many Americans who prefer a life of simple ignorance and superstition instead of a more challenging life of thoughtfulness. Making America Great Again requires that Americans be independent thinkers and not be so willing to be told what to think, and then told what to do.
WE MUST EMBRACE OUR DIFFERENCES
With a few important exceptions, this country of ours is made up of people who chose to come here from someplace else. The exceptions to this being our indigenous peoples, who were already here, and the people forced to come here as slaves. Every wave of immigrants from a different part of the world has been mistreated by those who came before and have had to fight for the right to be equal members of society.
It is long past time to stop fighting amongst ourselves and to be more tolerant of one another. History has shown that, sooner or later, every group is assimilated into the greater American society. Too much time is spent fighting the inevitable, because everyone eventually ends up belonging. We end up realizing that we all have the same aspirations – to be left alone to live our lives as we see fit, to be able to practice our faith, to raise our families, to pursue life, liberty and happiness without a sense of fear and foreboding.
There are those among us who are haters and manipulators and self-serving agitators who do not want us to get along, and we must be smarter about recognizing them for who they are and rejecting their messages of divisiveness.
Our differences are what defines us as a society and as a country. Our differences have been a cause for division for decades, and this has weakened us at a time in our history that demands that we be strong.
We must learn to embrace our differences for our common good and our common benefit. There has to be more give and take between us, more tolerance, more appreciation, more having each other’s backs.
WE MUST LIVE WITHIN OUR MEANS
This country has been living beyond its means for way too long. That is why the national debt is so high that the payment of the interest on the national debt is taking up nearly one-quarter of the country’s annual budget.
Think of how many tangible improvements to our country are not being made due to this debt. Roads, bridges, airports, railways, ports, the energy grid, water infrastructure – all need long-overdue upgrading and expansion. Disaster preparedness, advances in agriculture and medicine and technology – much more needs to be done in these important areas. These are just a few examples of what is unable to be done because we cannot afford to do so.
Given that this country is the world’s richest, there is no justification for our current situation. The rest of the advanced nations of the world, as well as many Arab countries and China, have outpaced the United States for years. We are in a state of delusion and denial, brought about by decades of increasingly partisan politics and encouraged by the wealthiest among us who increasingly benefit at the expense of everyone else.
There is a problem with the Federal government spending too much money, to be sure, but there is also a problem with the Federal government not collecting enough money. Both problems need to be addressed if we are to have any hope of ending our addiction to deficit spending, let alone reducing our national debt.
Federal expenditures should be made for critical programs that safeguard our land, air, and water, that support the poor, the disabled, and the elderly, that encourage research into science and technology and disease, and that protect us from enemies both foreign and domestic. We should be carefully evaluating the importance and the effectiveness of everything that is being funded by the Federal government and ending the funding for what is unimportant and ineffective instead of simplistically eliminating departments and programs and personnel based upon a specific ideology, only to realize their importance later.
The ongoing and simplistic elimination of 10% of the Federal workforce will make little difference in reducing the deficit. The number of Federal workers has remained constant for decades, but the deficit has tripled over this time. This means that the size of the Federal workforce is not the problem.
Waste, fraud, and abuse do exist, as does redundancy, and it must be the responsibility of all Federal agencies to identify and eliminate these costly practices as a primary objective. In addition, there are a multitude of unnecessary programs, grants and earmarks, all of which need to be eliminated in a thorough, systematic manner.
There must be an annual review of all programs, grants, and other expenditures to ensure that monies spent are fully accounted for and anticipated/promised results are being achieved. This type of detailed financial oversight that leads to tangible action appears to be absent throughout the Federal government.
Addressing the revenue part of the financial equation is equally straightforward but will be much more difficult to achieve. The monies that are required to fund the necessary work of the Federal government can only be obtained from the people and organizations who possess and control the money, i.e., the wealthy and the large corporations.
In the years before the Reagan administration, the highest personal Federal Tax rate was 70%. It is currently 37%. The highest corporate Federal Tax rate was 48%. It is currently 21%. Due to the number of special deductions, accelerated depreciation schedules, and other tax benefits – also known as loopholes – that from a practical perspective are available only to the wealthy and large corporations, the tax rates that these people and organizations pay are even lower.
The Reagan administration’s tax policies saw the national debt increase from $738 billion to $2.1 trillion. In the 36 years since, a period that essentially saw the Reagan administration’s tax policies stay in place, the national debt has increased to $36.2 trillion, approximately $1 trillion being added to the national debt each year. There appears to be a correlation between the increase in national debt and the change in tax policies instituted by the Reagan administration that benefited the wealthy and the large corporations.
Unfortunately, the reconciliation bill just passed into law will prevent any significant increase in Federal revenue because the wealthy and large corporations retain their favorable tax status and avoid any increase. The reconciliation bill ensures that an additional $1 trillion will be added to the national debt for the remainder of President Trump’s term.
The idea that the U.S. economy can somehow be unleashed to grow at such a rate that the deficit will be reduced and then eliminated without any other action being taken is simply not true. This is nothing more than a self-serving falsehood being told by those who stand to profit from the elimination of regulations and economic safeguards that have been put in place to prevent economic and environmental disasters from occurring.
Time and time again, the wealthy and the large corporations have been given opportunities to share in the wealth with the rest of society. From trickle-down economics during the Reagan administration to the corporate tax reductions during the first Trump administration, it is clear that the wealthy and the large corporations have no intention of sharing their wealth once it has been made.
This forty-year period has seen a great transfer of wealth from the working class to the investment class. This same period has seen the end of the manufacturing and industrial capacity of this country in favor of imported goods that generate increased profit for investors. This has not been good for this country as a whole. The wealthy and the large corporations have not used their increased profits to benefit the working class, only to benefit themselves. This must end if this country is to live within its means.
There needs to be a reversal of this wealth transfer so that wealth is returned to the working class in the form of higher taxes on the wealthy and large corporations. Higher wages for the working class will result in an increase in tax revenue as well. The overriding point is that Federal government revenue must be increased.
This will require a change in the Federal tax code, which will not be possible until the Democratic Party controls the Presidency and the two chambers of Congress. The Republican Party has shown quite clearly that full control of the government is the only means to achieve such an end.
Sad to say, but the Republican Party has once again shown itself to be the party of the wealthy and the large corporations. So much for its insistence that it is the party of fiscal responsibility and the party of the working people.
In contrast, the United States has experienced its greatest periods of growth by far during Democratic administrations. The Democratic Party needs to be reminded of this as it tries to redefine itself.
We all benefit when the country is being governed in a way that benefits all of us, not just a favored few of us.
WE MUST BECOME MORE SELF-RELIANT
Being self-reliant as a nation means being able to take care of our own needs instead of being dependent on other countries for the basic necessities of life and commerce. Right now, we are partially or fully dependent on other countries for food, clothing, pharmaceuticals, rare earth minerals, oil, machinery, steel, aluminum, and virtually all of our consumer products. At least one of these countries – China – is in no way a trustworthy trading partner and has demonstrated a willingness to engage in economic blackmail.
According to macro-economic theory, global efficiency dictates that products should be made where they can be made in the least expensive and most efficient way possible. Everyone will excel at their own specialty, so the theory goes, and all will benefit from each other’s efficiency and expertise.
In reality, this economic theory does not work. It assumes that there will be no trade barriers between countries, no tariffs, no government subsidies, no monopolistic practices. It ignores differences in standards of living, worker safety, worker benefits, and environmental concerns that exist between countries.
Given the opportunity and freedom to do so, businesses will always look to the cheapest sources of raw materials, labor, and even finished products, without regard to the interests of domestic labor, in this case the American worker. We have seen what decades of neglect and negligence regarding the interests of the American worker has brought about. The world’s greatest economy can produce next to nothing except an increasing number of multi-millionaires and billionaires.
There has to be a way to begin to reverse this downward spiral, and it does not begin with taking money from the poorest, the oldest, and the most disadvantaged among us to give more to the multi-millionaires, the billionaires, and the large corporations.
This country needs to learn from our economic adversaries, namely China, and do what they have done. Our government must use its economic, regulatory, and taxation powers to force the immediate domestic production of strategically critical products, the domestic sourcing of raw materials and rare earth minerals, and to institute the strongest of trade barriers and tariffs to block the importation of subsidized products.
In addition, we must recognize that direct government involvement in financing specific industrial projects to achieve self-reliance in critical industries is not socialism but common sense. Our capitalistic system is based upon investment in industries where return on investment is a primary and usually overriding consideration. Government investment can serve as a guarantor of financial stability in situations where investors would otherwise be unwilling to risk capital. Government investment is one means of fast-tracking critical projects when the private sector is reluctant to act.
We need to make economic self-sufficiency a primary focus of our government. Public investment when necessary will be critical if strategic self-sufficiency is to be achieved. We cannot shy away from this based upon ideologies that do not acknowledge real-world necessities.
The threats facing this country are all too real. These threats must be faced head-on if we are to be successful in protecting ourselves from those who would take our wealth and our freedoms.
WE MUST PREPARE FOR WAR
For a brief time, the world was at peace, and all seemed well. We should have known better.
Now we see that the need for power and dominion, hatred and destruction, prejudice and greed – these terrible aspects of mankind never really went away. Their expression just became more nuanced and sophisticated, more clever, often still barbaric.
The tragedy in all of this is that most people everywhere are victims, innocent bystanders. The powerless among us suffer the most, usually at the whims and dictates of a sole leader or a ruling party, who are able to live a privileged life made possible by intimidation and violence.
We know the worst actors on the world stage – Vladimir Putin of Russia, Kim Jon-un of North Korea, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran, and Xi Jinping of China. The world can manage the first three, but the last poses an existential threat to a world order that believes in self-determination.
Consider this.
Russia has a population of 146 million people. North Korea has a population of 27 million people. Iran has a population of 93 million people.
China has a population of 1,416 million people.
China has over four times the population of the United States. That means four times the scientists, four times the technicians, four times the industrial capacity, four times the manufacturing capacity, four times the potential for world domination.
There may come a time in the future when the Chinese people will have more self-determination and choose a way forward based upon peace and prosperity, but that is certainly not the case right now. The Chinese people are simply workers in the great Chinese Communist Party machine that has unofficially declared war on the West and is doing everything it can to become the dominant power in the world.
The magnitude of the single-minded assault on this country by the Chinese Communist Party is really breathtaking in its multi-pronged scope and long-term goals. Defending ourselves against this threat and taking strong and decisive action to mitigate the damage done should be the first priority of any administration, as well as being the first priority of our senators and representatives, but it clearly is not.
Unlike the Chinese people, who have no choice but to support the efforts of the Chinese Communist Party in a unified effort, we have to choose to work together as the American people. Unfortunately, we have chosen to fight among ourselves, wasting decades on useless partisan bickering, ignoring clear signs of Chinese aggression, and listening to the American Civil Liberties Union argue for the rights of people who wish to do us harm.
For those who have forgotten, here is a brief list of the more egregious acts of undeclared war that China has committed in recent times:
- Infiltrated Defense Department and Defense contractor computer networks and stole military technology that were then used to build advanced aircraft, missiles, aircraft carriers, submarines, and other weapons of war.
- Purchased thousands of acres of farmland adjacent to domestic military bases to facilitate monitoring of military activities and potentially anti-personnel/anti-operations capabilities.
- Developed biological weapons including the Covid-19 virus that was prematurely released, and more recently threatened to contaminate our food supply by attempting to smuggle into this country a fungus-based pathogen that could have decimated crops and sickened livestock.
- Designed, built, and field-tested a naval vessel whose sole purpose is to sever undersea communications cables that allow western nations to communicate with one another.
- Established policing stations in major American cities to monitor and control the activities of Chinese citizens living in this country.
- Invested millions of dollars in prestigious U.S. universities so that Chinese nationals can attend the universities, be part of cutting-edge research, and then transmit the results back to China and the Chinese Communist Party.
- Provided precursor chemicals and technical support to Mexican cartels to facilitate the manufacturing and importation of illegal fentanyl into the United States, resulting in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths of Americans due to fentanyl poisoning.
- Asserted ownership and control of virtually the entire South China Sea, rejecting the rights of other countries that share the South China Sea and rejecting the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration that found China’s claims to be without merit.
- Embarked on a massive shipbuilding program that will greatly expand its navy and allow projection of force throughout the world, overwhelming the U.S. Navy in the process.
- Expanded its long-range hypersonic missile program in order to directly threaten Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, and other U.S. military bases, as well as allied nations in the Pacific region, with a first-strike destruction capability.
- Purchased outright or obtained controlling interests in important American companies, taking advantage of the absence of any regulatory oversight over such purchases.
- Used its Belt & Roads program to create debtor countries throughout the world, essentially forcing these countries to act in China’s best interests and not in the interests of their own people.
- Monopolized various raw material supplies worldwide, including rare earth minerals, thereby allowing China to engage in economic blackmail.
- Controlled the port facilities on either end of the Panama Canal, through which 40% of U.S. container traffic passes, with approximately 75% of the shipping through the Panama Canal originating from or destined to U.S. ports.
It is astonishing and infuriating that all of this has come to pass with so little action being taken by the United States to counteract these very threatening Chinese initiatives.
Part of this is due to a lack of understanding of Chinese history and what its history says about its culture.
Part of this is due to an attempt to rationalize Chinese actions from a Western perspective in order to avoid conflict or avoid being identified as anti-Chinese, i.e., being bigoted or racist.
Part of this is a reluctance to regulate commercial business and investment practices, often times at the direction of American special interests that have placed profit over patriotism.
Finally, part of this is basic geopolitical ignorance, vulnerability to special interests, or wanton disregard of hard facts on the part of our elected representatives.
In the face of overt and covert Chinese aggression, continuing to do essentially nothing would be tantamount to accepting that China is now the dominant power in the world. The U.S. will have essentially surrendered its position of global influence to China without realizing what has happened. Given the partisan nature of our current political discourse, and our overall unwillingness to confront China, this could very well happen.
This outcome should be unacceptable to Americans, but it may not be. Our character is not particularly strong and clear-eyed right now. Fewer and fewer of us are prepared to stand up and fight unless it is to fight among ourselves. We like to think that we are a strong country, but a country is only as strong as its people, and how strong are we really? Are we prepared to stand up and fight for the right of self-determination for ourselves and for each other, let alone for our friends and allies around the world? Right now, it seems doubtful.
In any event, assuming that we are in fact prepared to fight, the first thing that we must do is to agree that China, as led by the Chinese Communist Party, is infinitely more of a threat to the American way of life than is either Democratic Wokeness or Republican Magaism.
Then, our elected Democratic and Republican senators and representatives must come together to pass a series of bills to accomplish two goals: to put an end to the most egregious actions that China predominantly but not exclusively has taken in this country by limiting the rights of foreign nationals, foreign companies, and foreign governments within the United States; and to commit to the active involvement of the U.S. government in subsidizing and otherwise facilitating American manufacturing and mining capabilities in support of critical industries.
To that end, we must:
- Secure the southern border to prevent fentanyl smuggling into this country. This means the completion of the border wall, the installation of surveillance and detection equipment, and the expansion of the border patrol agency.
- Prohibit foreign companies from owning land in proximity to domestic military installations. All lands currently owned by foreign companies must be sold back to the Federal government at fair market value.
- Deport all foreign nationals operating on behalf of foreign governments within the United States who are engaged in the surveillance and extortion of their own citizens who reside in this country.
- Prevent foreign students from taking part in advanced research at U.S. universities without full vetting, to include their social and political ties to their country of origin.
- Prohibit foreign nationals from engaging in political activity while residing within the United States.
- Subsidize the mining of critical rare-earth minerals within the United States, fast-tracking permitting requirements and waiving environmental regulations to the greatest extent practical.
- Subsidize the development of industries and manufacturing capabilities necessary for domestic production of products required for energy production, pharmaceutical production, food production, tool & die manufacturing, and industrial/manufacturing equipment.
- Protect critical infrastructure to mitigate damage that could be caused by the ongoing cyber-espionage activities of foreign adversaries.
In addition, the United States and its allies must learn from ongoing military conflicts and adjust its strategies to ensure that the defensive strategies, weapon systems, and consumables we have are adequate and appropriate for the future threats we may face. We must make the best use of the designs and production capabilities of each allied country. For example, Ukraine has superior battlefield drone technology, South Korea has superior ship-building capability, the United States has superior missile defense systems, etc. The existential threat that we all face requires that we work as a unified alliance to create a formidable deterrence.
WE MUST UNDERSTAND OUR PRIMARY ADVERSARY
It is foolish and naïve for the United States to interpret the actions of other countries through the lens of our own values and beliefs, but that is what we seem to insist on doing. The United States is a young country, only 250 years old. Our values and beliefs are aspirational, full of emotion-driven assumptions about our inherent greatness. Our leadership of the free world was not earned because of our centuries of world experience, but instead became ours by default. An honest appraisal of our performance suggests that we have been too simplistic in our view of the world.
China is a 2,500-year-old country, which makes our own history insignificant in comparison. China has never been a country that values self-determination, independent thought, and democracy. China has always been governed by dynasties, defined by powerful families that ruled for generations until defeated in battle by the next powerful family who would then establish its own dynasty. The Chinese dynasties kept their rule through the ruthless use of power.
China has not changed. The Chinese Communist Party is simply another dynasty. Mao Zedong was the great leader of the CCP-Mao dynasty. Xi Jinping is the great leader of the current CCP-Jinping dynasty. It would appear that Xi Jinping views the United States as weak-minded and ignorant, a failing dynasty that out of necessity must be overthrown for the CCP-Jinping dynasty to prevail.
The United States urgently needs to understand the significance of Chinese political history in order to fully understand the threat that China poses.
We must appreciate China’s ability to take advantage of the openness of our country and the freedoms inherent in our way of life. China must view these as foolish weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and they have been perfectly willing to exploit our weaknesses and vulnerabilities over a very long period of time.
China is not our friend or our competitor. China is our adversary, an adversary that has ten times the strategic experience, and four times the population. China means to do us harm. China will negotiate in bad faith. China will sign treaties and agreements that it has no intention of abiding to. China will lie about its intentions. This is all strategic warfare, and this is all part of China’s history.
WE MUST ALWAYS SEEK PEACE
The United States has experienced a great deal of conflict in its 250-year history. First, it was to break free of British tyranny and then to stay free from it. Next, it was to aggressively realize its “manifest destiny” to extend its borders from sea to sea at the expense of native Americans and Mexicans. Next, it was to eliminate slavery through a brutal and bloody civil war. Next, it was to further our geopolitical interests and protect American business by engaging in a war with Spain.
But since then, all of the conflicts the United States has been a party to have been in defense of self-determination, one way or another. Along the way, the United States has made many bad decisions that have led to accusations of imperialism. Too many covert operations, too many attempts at regime change and forced democracy, too many innocents killed who happened to be in the way.
After 75 years of trying to establish and maintain a peaceful world order, the United States is seeing its position as the world’s premier superpower being challenged and diminished. If one is honest about the past 75 years, the United States has expended great wealth and lost many lives in this endeavor to achieve world order, and has not benefited in any lasting way. No additional territory has been won, no colonies have been created, no foreign populations have been subjugated, no wealth has been stolen.
There are those who would attempt to tarnish, minimize and dismiss the history of the United States and what it has accomplished. These people are entitled to their opinion, but we are also entitled to question their credibility and their motivation in doing so. On the whole, particularly in the past 75 years, the United States has acted a selfless, principled manner, and has shared whatever benefits it has received with the rest of the world.
The world is entering a difficult time where the dark forces of despotism, fascism, religious fanaticism, dictatorial and imperial rule seem to be becoming stronger. More and better weapons are being obtained by countries who seek to destroy the peaceful world order that they disparagingly dismiss as a “western construct”. These countries offer chaos and violence and subrogation as the alternative.
There are profound challenges that face the world right now that this dark alternative future will only make worse. Global warming, famine, pestilence, oceanic flooding, an increasingly volatile climate, widespread pollution – only a peaceful world order can successfully confront these challenges. All of the countries of the world must be involved and working cooperatively if these threats to our common existence are to be addressed.
This is why it is so important that the United States reject any calls to retreat from international involvement. Instead, the United States should expand its efforts to seek peace. Instead of focusing on conflict after conflict after conflict, every attempt should be made to speak instead of the shared challenges that all peoples face, and to make every attempt to bring the world together to address them. Much more time should be spent speaking of our commonalties instead of our differences.
Of course, there will be those countries who would attempt to gain advantage from such an approach and act in a self-serving manner at the expense of all others. There should be no hesitation to call out these countries and their behavior when it threatens our collective future, and to counter their behavior whenever possible.
And, above all, we must never forget the importance of peace through strength.
WE MUST LEAD BY EXAMPLE
If we are to be seen as a great country, we must act like a great country. We are not a great country at the moment. There are few metrics where the United States is considered to be the best. And yet, we persist in believing that we are better than we are. Until we can recognize our failings as a nation and as a people, we will never regain the greatness that we once had.
If we are so great, then why does one third of our people and one of our major political parties have as their slogan “Make America Great Again?”.
If we are so great, then why are we systematically deporting our citizens who have lived here for decades as peaceful contributors to our society because of fear and hatred and resentment?
If we are so great, then why is our murder rate so high, our depression rate so high, our suicide rate so high, our infant mortality rate so high, our poverty rate so high, our level of substance abuse so high?
If we are so great, then why do our children score so low on the worldwide educational scale?
If we are so great, then why is our life expectancy dropping, our happiness level dropping, our confidence in our elected leaders dropping?
If we are so great, then why does poll after poll consistently show that a majority of Americans think that the country is going in the wrong direction?
Perhaps the simplest answer to all these questions is that we are no longer a great nation.
Given the divisions within our society, given the income inequities that we seem so willing to accept, given the immoral and unethical behavior of so many of us including many of our elected leaders and even Supreme Court judges, given the level of greed and corruption that exists throughout our society, clearly our greatness as a nation is now in the past.
Of course this can all change, if that is what we want. But we must be committed, we must be resolved, we must be resolute. In the end, we will only get what we fight for, not what we wish for.
It is not enough to blame others and yet do nothing ourselves. It is not enough to express concern and disappointment for the way things are but to not act to make things better, even if only on a personal level. It is not enough to leave the leading to the leaders when they clearly have no idea in which direction to go.
We must all be leaders. We must all speak up for one another. We must wake up with the intention of doing what is right and what is good every moment of every hour of every day. We must learn to be disciplined and to be strong-willed, and to reject what we all know to be wrong.
We do this long enough, and people will notice. Some will understand, and then they too will begin to speak up and do what is right and good, making such action a part of their lives. More people will notice, more will understand, more will take on the responsibility of being a positive influence in their own lives and in the lives of others, and so on until all become aware of what needs to be done and begin to do it.
Americans need to understand that it is the people who make a country great, not the other way around.
The more we fight, the more we resent, the more we blame, the more we hate – the less of a people we become, and the less our country becomes as well.
It is up to we the people to lead by example. The nation will follow. Then, perhaps the world will as well.