When I look at the damage done by the current President, it seems more
likely that the nation is locked in a downward death spiral with no
bottom in sight.
And even worse, the number of Americans who remain complacent, and willing to accept the 'new normal' is shocking.
But, as our pals at the NYSun note, we've been in difficult straits
before, and all it takes are the right, the 'Right', policies to regain
our former greatness.
1. " The thing to remember about the cataract of woe that has befallen
our country is how fast things can be turned around. We may be in
retreat overseas, with riots simmering in Missouri and the economy stuck
in second gear. With the right policies, the right leadership, all that
can be overcome.
2. But none of the GOP contenders is capturing this simple point .... It can be turned around, and fast....
3. .... making of that point .... was the valedictory speech given by
the editor most associated with the Reagan Revolution, Robert Bartley of
the Wall Street Journal.
4. .... he didn’t want to hear about the good old days — since our
troubles were nothing compared to what we faced in the 1970s. He was
referring to defeat in Vietnam, Soviet expansionism, the collapse of the
gold-based monetary system, the rise of world inflation, economic
stagnation, the Arab oil embargo, war in the Middle East, soaring
unemployment.
5. ..... Henry Kissinger conceded that Bartley had been right to take a
harder line than Nixon on the Soviet Union. Jack Kemp toasted Bartley’s
leadership of the tax-cutting movement. Theodore Olson, who had won the
Bush v. Gore lawsuit that cleared the way for George W. Bush to claim
the White House, spoke of Bartley’s commitment to the Constitution.
6. Optimism, [Bartley] said, pays. “In human affairs, nothing is ever
solved completely,” he said. He was for the steady application of sound
policies, confident that economic and political freedom would
triumph..... the president he backed, Ronald Reagan, who ran on the
slogan “morning in America.”
7. This is the missing element in today’s politics. In 2008, President
Obama promised hope and change. But he lacked the policy chops. The GOP
today has the policy chops, but nailing the optimism is key.
8. Bartley stood for two big things. One was a military buildup to meet the Soviets. The other was economic growth.
9. Reagan took office in the wake of a recession (in 1980.... once the
tax cuts came in, wow did the economy respond. At the Federal Reserve,
Paul Volcker choked off inflation by pushing up interest rates above 20
percent. And the value of the dollar on Reagan’s watch soared. (Measured
in gold, it rose 38% to one-405th of an ounce of gold.)
a. Within nine years of when Reagan was sworn in, the Soviet Union was gone — voosh.
10. Under President Obama, the dollar has lost a third of its value
(it’s up from its low but still down to barely more than a 1,300th of an
ounce of gold). ... people feel poor. Unemployment is still above 6%,
higher if you count people who’ve given up looking for work. ....the
point Bartley stressed — how fast things changed once the right policies
were brought to bear. Find the candidate who can give voice to that
optimism, and that is the candidate with the winning formula."
I would agree. Our greatest economic system in the history of history is still in place (such as it is currently), and with these Socialist/Marxists' policy results front and center on even the dullest of the low info' dinner plate at every meal, all it will take is just a mediocre conservative effort to net eye popping results. Not even a Herculean effort, just a ho-hum effort at righting the ship and we will see gains that will gobsmack us all.
ReplyDeleteYou can turn the economy around, but it will be much harder to turn the country around if That is even possible.
ReplyDelete