Morning Again (Again) in America

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Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Gage Skidmore

The optimism conservatives feel now echoes the arrival of Ronald Reagan to the White House.

Prouder, stronger, better.  That was the message from the most iconic political ad in history, called “Morning in America,” that was used during the Reagan campaign in 1984.  The message is resonating again in late 2024.

There is a brightness of spirit and a feeling of lightness.  It is as though dark clouds have been blasted away from America by a sudden sunburst.  Though the left remains suspicious and the uncommitted stay in their normal state of uncertainty, for the rest of us, the future now looks full of promise and renewed opportunity — and down the road, finally, an effective government.

The most exciting development post-election is Trump retaining the eager services of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy teaming together to address the massive waste, fraud, and abuse across all federal departments.  The target impact: $2 trillion annually.  They are optimistic from their involvement in government regulation and contracts and bureaucracy that it can be achieved.  Plans are already underway.

Like Trump in his first term, neither Elon nor Vivek wants any compensation; they are doing this important work apart from their businesses for love of America.  The left does not know what to make of this and likely will try to put a stop to it.

To attract perhaps our two best minds is testimony to the strength of the Make America Great Again movement, a key to which is moving quickly to a much smaller, more efficient, and effective federal government that mainly stays out of the way of American enterprise.

Follow that up with other inspired choices of brilliant people for top Cabinet, ambassador, and chief of staff positions.  Across all selections, the common theme is intelligence, relevant experience, not being plucked from the Deep State, and a firm resolve to Make America Great Again.  They all have demonstrated high performance, are each is driven and will brook no delay or resistance.  Importantly, they know that their jobs are not to follow protocol, but instead to innovate and change the culture in government.

Someone said Trump is assembling a team of SEALs.  Outstanding.

Many of these are government outsiders and will face the rejoinder that they have no bureaucratic experience to run, reconfigure, or eliminate large bureaucracies.  Yes, and look what our large bureaucracies have gotten us: $35 trillion in debt and little to show for it.  The government is not good with money.  It does not innovate or solve problems.  We do not need more “expert bureaucrats.”

Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense in particular will be questioned as not understanding the fine workings of the Pentagon.  That institution that has not come close to passing an audit, and billions disappear, unaccounted for, every year.  He is supposedly not qualified to set new leadership there.  His confirmation is a coming battle worth winning and not allowing a fallback of inserting another longtime bureaucrat — even a military general.

DNA has not mattered in the Trump choices.  Merit has returned, and scholarship across all disciplines will now have the perfect case study in comparing the two systems back to back.

The contrast is the Biden administration’s Cabinet, which from his V.P. pick on showed that he (or his advisers) was most interested in diversity of DNA, not perspective.  They bragged about being the most diverse ever and enforced it across all government agencies, via presidential executive order.  The objective for all federal departments was to achieve diversity, inclusion, and equity.

The resultant résumés were thin, and it cannot be said that these important if undistinguished secretaries and directors, given many opportunities, rose to the occasion during the term.  In fact, they were often vacationing or otherwise unavailable.  There was a slew of failures, from the Afghan withdrawal to the COVID mandates to the port crisis, to the planned collapse of the border and over ten million aliens swarming in, to the “transitory” inflation and the outbreak of two avoidable wars.  Despite it all, no replacements were made to the Cabinet or directors of subordinate agencies.  Punishment, rare as it was, generally was to be sent home on paid leave.

Very close to the election, a narrowly avoided assassination of Trump was so thoroughly and obviously bungled by the Secret Service that it raised dark thoughts about true intentions.  At least that director resigned — weeks after the fact, and after intense rebukes in Congress — but she was not fired for cause.

The Democrats’ and media’s incessant claims that Trump was a threat to democracy were based on two things: January 6 and the way they mentally processed that, and the threat that Trump posed to the institutions, the vast bureaucracy: the Deep State.

When they say, “Protect democracy,” they mean either protect the bureaucratic state or protect the Democrat party.  When they think of America, they think of the government.  They do not mean protect individual freedom — that was demonstrated with the COVID mandates.  They do not mean protect the Constitution: they want government censorship and restrictions on free speech and would like to do away with the Electoral College.

Getting to a positive impact of $2 trillion will involve eliminating the estimated $500 billion in annual fraud, cutting entire agencies, and eliminating tens of thousands of regulations that hamper business growth.  Simplifying the tax code would be helpful, along with eliminating subsidies that have existed unnecessarily for decades, and Trump will need to get those fair trade agreements with our key trading partners.

In summary, it is a bright day in America!  It is a relief to have an incredibly effective president in Trump, and the team he is assembling is the most talented of modern times, clearly disposed to work with and not against the private sector.  Finally, they are united in their dedication to the goal voters embraced: Make America Great Again.

Rick McDowell is a writer of political philosophy, sociology, history, and essays on the mind at “The American Perspective.”

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