By Bill Wilson – When the Republican establishment is spending much of its time deflecting criticism and denying that the current field of candidates running for president is weak, rest assured, it is weak.
A recent AP poll of Republicans found that 45 percent were dissatisfied with the current crop of candidates. Why?
Likely because none of them so far are taking any risks in offering a bold strategy to confront the very real challenges we are actually facing, like how exactly to pay down the soaring $14.3 trillion debt, maintain America’s role as the world’s number one economic superpower, create jobs, and get the Ship of State back on course.
Instead, the candidates are all operating within the painstaking parameters of the establishment’s rhetoric, talking on safe Republican issues. Thus, nobody is saying anything that is unexpected.
Meanwhile, the American people, keenly aware of the problems we face, want a concrete plan delivered before they make up their minds.
Let’s be clear. This is not to say that if the field did not change from its current composition, whoever was nominated would not be able to defeat Barack Obama in 2012. In fact there are several reasons to be incredibly optimistic about Republicans’ chances of reclaiming the White House next year.
Why? Because as unsatisfying as the current field appears to Republican voters, Obama is in an even weaker position. Namely, because of the struggling economy: the double dip in housing, the persistently high unemployment rate, increasing food and energy inflation, and the rising foreclosures.
The continued failure of the “stimulus” that was supposed to cure these problems has become an albatross around Obama’s neck. That alone puts whoever gets the nomination in a strong position. But it hardly tells us who will break free from the pack and get the nomination.
There is a fear, a discontent, an angst — brought about by government policies that are putting special interests ahead of the American people, ahead of families, and ahead of local communities.
Whoever can explain a new paradigm to simply return to normalcy through an America first policy both economically and foreign policy-wise, will likely be catapulted into the White House.
For example, Barack Obama has recently spent time campaigning in Brazil promoting a $1 billion loan for offshore drilling, and in Egypt for $1 billion in debt forgiveness. Also, USAID recently announced a $3.5 billion program to help curb cattle rustling in Uganda. Is that putting America first?
A new paradigm would look to our own interests before those of the rest of the world.
At home, we are now a nation where the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decides that union jobs in Washington are more important than non-union ones in South Carolina. A strong candidate would promise to take on compulsory unionism, and to clean house at the Department of Labor and the NLRB.
We live in a world where international banks profit with hundreds of billions of dollars in debt interest payments while our kids and grandkids are being made broke. An America first strategy would find a way to balance the budget this decade and begin paying off the debt — before it crushes us like it has Europe.
Moreover, it has become conventional wisdom institutional investors who bet poorly on housing and sovereign debt are to be made whole by the Federal Reserve, the IMF, and other faceless central bankers.
A Republican candidate articulating a new paradigm might like to consider the example of Iceland, a nation where the government allowed its banks to fail — because they were too big to save. Yet, their economy did not crumble to bits as the salons would have predicted. Instead, Iceland is recovering faster than Ireland, which did bail out its banks, and without the burdensome increase in sovereign debt.
A new paradigm would necessarily mean bringing an end to special interest handouts on ethanol, sugar, and other agriculture subsidies. It would bring an end to community block grants and risky low-income lending via Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration, and the Community Reinvestment Act. It would tell the poverty pimps to take a hike, and privatize housing finance.
It would otherwise flatten the tax code, eliminating exemptions and other special interest goodies, while lowering rates. It would end the corporate tax, and attract capital to the United States, creating millions of jobs — which are desperately needed. In order to remain the number one economic superpower, the U.S. needs to be not just the best place in the world to do business, but to start a business.
Finally, ObamaCare, the Dodd-Frank financial sector takeover, and the EPA’s backdoor cap on carbon emissions would all obviously be repealed. Restrictions on domestic energy production would be lifted. And the U.S. dollar would be strengthened and stabilized, easing prices on American families and raising their purchasing power.
The American people are getting an increasing sense that their government is not looking out for them, but instead for other special interests and foreign institutions. They are seeking a champion, a candidate who can articulate this new paradigm that will finally put them first.
Bill Wilson is the President of Americans for Limited Government. You can follow Bill on Twitter at @BillWilsonALG.
