President Reagan once said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Millions of individuals have placed great hopes on the new Trump administration as they believed that in four short years, our fundamental freedoms were in danger of disappearing. Those who welcome the second term of President Trump believe he will restore the DOJ, FBI and other federal law agencies to political neutrality while returning the military to its primary functions and purge itself of DEI which has weakened its ability to meet the anticipated challenges from China and others. The list goes on and on, the economy, the budget, EV mandates, the Ukraine war, the Middle East, Russia, and so on. They believe that his second term will be even more successful than his first. That is a tall order.
When he began his first term, he faced challenges that seemed large at that time; President Obama left a feeble economy, unchallenged advances in the Crimea and the Middle-East, a fast growing and aggressive China as well as various domestic issues stemming from a ballooning federal bureaucracy that was drowning small business in an ocean of new regulations. The challenges this time are much greater as he faces:
• An inflation rate that is being fed by:
• A federal national debt that grows by nearly one-trillion dollars every one-hundred days
• New federal rules and regulations which cost the American citizens about $15,000 and have a total cost of about $1.37 trillion over the past four years.
• Repairing our standing in the Middle East after the Biden administration managed to all but kill the Abraham Accords while trying to second guess our best ally in the region,
• Continue to force the European nations to increase their defense spending in the face of little or no growth in their economies.
• Proving realistic military spending after four years of budgets which did not keep up with inflation let alone provide for adequate growth.
• A national deficit and budgets which drive inflation restrict borrowing for new growth.
• The list goes on and on.
Will he and his team be able to successfully attack that list of problems and others which cover every aspect of our daily lives? Let us hope so, for we need a renaissance to free us from the trials and tribulations of the past four years and the “hope and change” of the Obama administration. The next few years shall be trying, but we all need to recognize that fundamental changes, within the limits of the Constitution, need to be made. There can be no more of the Executive ignoring the Supreme Court, no more of a back-room cabal of unknown players making national decisions and no more of a federal bureaucracy that sees the American people as an ATM machine to foot the bill for their ever expanding quest for more power of our everyday lives.
Let us, as we always should, wish our new President strength and wisdom and may an honest and fearless team surround him.