Old-guard Republicans could be forgiven for mistaking 2023 for 1979. There’s a Democrat in the White House telling us how to manage our home appliances, inflation and gas prices are up, home loans are unaffordable, Iran is provoking war in the Middle East, China looks like an evil empire, and our last war ended with an embarrassing evacuation.
With so many parallels it’s tempting to think that a healthy serving of “Reaganomics” and a side of “peace through strength” would break the malaise, revive the country, and get us ready to party like it’s 1985. Unfortunately, while history might very well rhyme, there are key elements of America’s current moment that strain the analogy.
In 2023, America lacks a cohesive and coherent moral compass. In 1981, around 90 percent of Americans identified as Christian, today that number is closer to 60 percent and declining rapidly. America once debated the truth. Now, everyone has their own truth and anyone can be a woman. The “woke” application of relativism across our institutions has banished meritocracy and undermined the rule of law with a politicized federal bureaucracy.
The knock-on effects of moral decline and mediocrity are enormous. The government’s forestry practices cause wildfires. Power outages are more common. Flights are canceled more frequently. Health care costs are up. Kids can’t read. And small-town America is adorned with vape shops and lotto machines.
Beyond cultural decline, America is no longer an economic and manufacturing powerhouse. For 30 years, our nation’s GDP numbers have been artificially buoyed by software sales and by shifting mothers into the workplace. Congress has done its part to mask the decline with trillions in deficit spending.
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When Carter left office, the national debt was just over $900 Billion and 32 percent of the GDP. Today, the US is saddled with $33 trillion in debt, a staggering 120 percent of current GDP. While 14 percent interest rates were bad for Carter, they would be catastrophic today, with every federal tax dollar being required to pay just the interest on our debt.
On foreign policy, the relationship of America to its chief adversary is profoundly different than in 1979. The Soviets, while dangerous militarily, were never so entangled with the American economy; not so with Communist China. From economic espionage to elite capture, supply chain dependence to sea lines of communication, the threat to American freedom posed by a rising China is multifaceted.
Structurally, many “American” mutli-national corporations are economically entwined with China, and so a win for America is not necessarily a win for their bottom-line. When American companies can profit off of America’s losses, multinational corporations are increasingly incentivized to subvert national interest with their own statecraft.
2023 is clearly not 1979, and Americans need to elect a president who sees the difference. Those yearning for the Reagan Era must understand that the way to get there is not by doing the exact same things that Reagan did, but by undoing the missteps of his successors.
Recovering a healthy cultural consensus requires truth as a knowable feature and an understanding of Constitutional principles. It will require a reinvigoration of civics curricula and the accurate instruction of history. The fight for our future is a fight for our school boards and our libraries. It will be won or lost at the town, county, and state levels. At the federal level, a new president must lead with this in mind.
Given the unlawful behavior of many government agencies under Biden, it is unreasonable to expect the federal bureaucracy to fall in line without significant changes to senior leadership and structure. Small changes will not suffice, and the next President should keep all options “on the table.” This may mean reorganization, relocating offices from Washington D.C., and significant budget reductions.
Restoring confidence in the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense demands addressing the past abuses of authority in order to deter future violations of the public trust. Extensive firings, thorough investigations that culminate in prosecutions, and punitive administrative actions are a prerequisite of restoring accountability.
Economically, the next president must make America energy independent, loosen regulations, increase domestic manufacturing, and end the flood of illegal workers that is driving down wages. Spending must be cut and the bloat and grift in the federal budget must be eradicated.
After a 20-year experiment, it’s now clear that American capitalism doesn’t make China’s communism more free. Rather, China’s communism is making America’s capitalism less free. The next president must begin untangling American companies from China, helping them move production back home and to friendlier countries.
Today we may be mourning in America, but the next president has an opportunity to guide America home to greatness. We need more God, less globalism; more country, less China; more civil society and less communist socialism.
Matt Crouch is the Assistant Director for Grassroots Operations for Heritage Action for America, a conservative grassroots organization.
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