It’s clear that in spite of boisterous bad behavior, a lack of workable policies and a few very bad ideas, Donald Trump is the odds-on favorite to become the Republican nominee for president of the United States.
Why? It may be that his theme of “Making America Great Again” is resonating with voters.
While starting trade wars and building a wall to keep out Mexicans would have the opposite impact, American greatness could emerge as the theme of this campaign.
That’s because, as the charts below demonstrate, America’s greatness has faded mightily during President Obama’s administration. Home ownership, median family income and labor force participation has plummeted. Meanwhile, student loan debt, the use of food stamps (aka the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP), federal debt, money printing, healthcare costs and—not coincidentally—black inequality have soared.
So voters have latched onto The Donald as the anti-Obama.
Why Candidate Trump Exists
In fact, former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, whose own presidential candidacy never gained any traction, notes in The Wall Street Journal that Presidential candidate Trump would not exist if not for President Obama.
“After seven years of the cool, weak and endlessly nuanced ‘no drama Obama,’” he wrote, “voters are looking for a strong leader who speaks in short, declarative sentences. Middle-class incomes are stagnant, and radical Islam is on the march across the Middle East. No wonder voters are responding to someone who promises to make America great again. You can draw a straight line between a president who dismisses domestic terrorist attacks as incidents of workplace violence and a candidate who wants to ban Muslims from entering the country.”
In addition to the economic disasters detailed in the charts, we’ve lifted restrictions on Cuba, negotiated an arms deal with Iran that Iran promptly violated, pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and failed to stand up to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and virtually every other repressive regime in the world.
As Zerohedge asked, “Can Americans handle four more years of this?”
The question is appropriate, given either frontrunner. Hillary Clinton has been running to the left of President Obama, as if heaping on even more government control over our lives and over the economy were the answer to the problems created by big government.
Meanwhile, as The Wall Street Journal noted, Trump’s protectionist policies would, instead of making America great again, “Make Depressions Great Again.” As we’ve previously noted, The Smoot Hawley Tariff Act, played a major role in the Great Depression. The only thing Donald Trump would likely make greater as president is his personal fortune.
What Would It Take?
So, with everything trending in the wrong direction, what can be done to make America great again?
More free trade, not less, would be a good starting point. Less regulation, not more, would likewise boost the economy. And, most important, tax reform that lowered the world’s highest corporate rate while eliminating breaks for special interests would help make America great again.
Jindal suggests other ideas: “Imagine how different things would be if Mr. Obama had pursued a stimulus bill that included targeted tax cuts and infrastructure spending balanced with gradual entitlement reforms—instead of a stimulus that merely dusted off congressional Democrats’ wish list of pork-barrel projects and ideological experiments.
“Imagine if Mr. Obama had actually worked with Republicans in an open process to bring down health-care costs—instead of pushing through, on a partisan vote, the largest expansion of government-welfare programs in a generation. Or if he had listened to the message that voters sent in the first midterm election by putting Republicans in charge of Congress—instead of petulantly relying on executive orders, and using an eraser and whiteout on the Constitution, to shove the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies deeper into Americans’ lives.
“Over the past seven years America could have been transformed in an inspiring way if its education system had been opened up, if its energy policy had been liberated, if the entire approach to governing had been overhauled. President Obama chose the opposite approach, favoring a closed education system that fails millions of children and an energy policy that chains the economy to his green agenda.”
What it would take to make America great again is no secret. Too bad the leading candidates for president have no clue about what it would take.