OPINION

Next Year is an Opportunity to Restore American Values

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

With every new president, our country inevitably changes course. These days the changes feel less incremental and more alarming because Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are undermining our American values at a break-neck speed.

The most glaring example? President Biden is presiding over a national border left open to the detriment of our safety and sovereignty. Drugs, human traffickers, and national security threats stream freely across our border without consequence – creating problems miles away in communities like Manchester. Making matters even worse, Biden wants to dole out $450,000 of taxpayer money to illegal immigrants. That means Biden will give more to those who break the law than they will to the 13 gold star families who lost a loved one because of his reckless actions in Afghanistan.

American heroes have for generations put their lives on the line at home and abroad to protect this country, only for President Biden to abandon his most solemn duty to the American people. It’s hard to imagine something that strikes more at the heart of what it means to be an American. 

Unfortunately, we see this undercutting of values in more places these days: city councils that recklessly defund our brave police and leave our communities unprotected; school boards that defy parents in implementing a radical curriculum that teaches our kids that America is evil; and oligarchic corporations beholden to America’s adversaries, such as China, that cancel and censor anyone who doesn’t toe the line. 

It’s easy to feel a sense of hopelessness when you see the country you love slipping away, but one year from today, Americans in every community will be empowered to hold these bad actors accountable. 

Midterm elections are typically about pumping the brakes on the ruling party’s agenda, but the course we take a year from now will not just define the next two years of the Biden presidency, but rather the character of our country. Will we be able to stop the runaway train of socialist ideas and spending that have undermined our work ethic and the American Dream, or the constant undermining of institutions that have held this country up from its inception, like the family, military, faith, and first responders? 

I am confident that we will. The elections this month provided our first glimpse into what it looks like when ordinary Americans stand up and reject this degradation of our values. 

A new Congress will provide funding for border security, including finishing the wall and other physical barriers that we know work. We will reimplement policies of deterrence and be vocal and honest that America will do what it takes to protect the homeland and ensure the safety and wellbeing of its own citizens first. Legal immigration provides opportunities for individuals and growth of the American economy. Illegal immigration puts American communities and jobs at risk.

A new Congress will freeze the inflationary spending coming out of Washington that plays well among the elites and lobbyists in D.C.— but forces a family in Gilford to have to decide whether or not they can afford to buy milk that week. We will shore up our supply chain and become less reliant on foreign countries so that we are never again in doubt about our ability to access critical supplies. Importantly, we will move manufacturing back from China and hold them accountable for the pain and damage they inflicted by lying to the world about COVID-19.

A new Congress will allow the Justice Department to ensure our taxpayer money does not fund racist Critical Race Theory programs that violate the Civil Rights Act. We will expand funding for advanced placement classes, rather than the bloat of school administrators, to create an environment where every student, of any background, is encouraged to strive for excellence. This will ensure that our children truly learn the lessons of Martin Luther King that they “live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

 Future generations of Americans, like my son Jack, will only reach their God-given potential in an America that gets back to the foundations of what made our nation great. Modern solutions anchored in core values will restore America to the proud, free, and safe shining City on the Hill once more – and it’s all within our grasp, just one year from today.