Good screenwriters know that every story should require an audience to ask themselves subconsciously, “What do I hope for? What do I fear?” So, too, for Americans who wonder what the next four years will bring. It’s delightful that the things most right-thinking Americans hope for are the exact opposite of what the Left fears.
So what exactly do we hope for? What reasonable expectations can we have with a new crew, to stop the Titanic from hitting the iceberg that a certain former failed President steered it towards? Here are the primary endpoints for January 20, 2021, in no particular order:
Media Reform
Clear signals have already been sent to the Fake News Networks: get honest or get lost. President Trump’s smackdown of Jim Acosta of Fake News Network CNN was the first casualty. Sean Spicer calling the media out on Day One and excoriating them for their dishonesty regarding inauguration attendance and the Fake News story of MLK’s bust being removed was the second.
This is going to occur every single day, unless and until the media learns what “journalism” really means.
These first moves are all Steve Bannon. It is the legacy of the late Andrew Breitbart. One of Andrew’s primary drivers was to hold the media to account. As long as the “Democrat-Media Complex” controlled the narrative in this country, Conservatism didn’t stand a chance.
Replace the ACA
The Left freaked out when Congress voted to repeal ObamaFailCare. They were punked and they didn’t even know it. Congress did it via budget reconciliation, not a straight up-down vote – exactly the way it was passed. This wasn’t actual repeal. It was flipping off the Democrats who rammed this law down America’s throat without knowing what was in it.
A real replacement plan will emerge. Health care and health insurance should be two separate concepts. We can hope for holistic reform, such as interstate insurance sales to increase competition among insurers, the retention of pre-existing condition bans (extremely likely), the creation of high-risk pools, medical malpractice claim limits, and a host of other concepts.
This will be challenging to tackle, but anything will be better than ObamaFailCare. By the way, it will be forever known as Obamacare, a failed plan in the name of a failed President.
Repair Relations with Israel
This should be a slam-dunk. Trump is a supporter of Israel. Netanyahu is the man to lead Israel. These are two tough guys who will support each other.
Economic Recovery
Under the former failed President, post-recovery GDP growth averaged an anemic 1.5%, about half of what it was under Reagan. There’s no surprise here. Regulations strangled American business. We want to see that number get to 3% on a fairly steady basis.
We can see the result of the poor economy not only in GDP
We want to see that number rise by at least 1.5% by January of 2021.
Lower Taxes
We want to see a lower corporate tax rate. Anything lower would suffice, but if Congress actually drops it to 15%, the economy is going to boom big-time. Not only will hundreds of billions of dollars be repatriated, but also corporations will have hundreds of billions to invest in growth. With any luck, this will create a virtuous economic cycle.
Lower taxes for those in the $50,000 to $150,000 tax brackets would be welcome.
Secure the Border
The pipe dream is a new policy of ICE raids on businesses that employ illegal aliens. If they are caught, they pay a massive fine. This policy alone would eventually result in self-deportation. Then we wouldn’t need a wall to keep out illegal aliens. We would still want one, however, to keep out terrorists. That’s not a bad investment. Every other country in the world protects their borders. Why aren’t we?
Confirm a SCOTUS Constructionist
Nobody else will suffice. We want a strict constructionist on the bench. Not only that, Justice Ginsberg turns 84 in March. With any luck, she’ll retire and we’ll get a second pick.
Cohesive Anti-Terror Plan
Let’s hope national defense becomes as important to President Trump as it appears to be. He is, after all, a businessman. What’s bad for America is bad for business. We’d love a cohesive plan to combat Radical Islam terrorism, one that doesn't just involve drone strikes that yield no intelligence.
These are the major issues that need to be tackled. There’s also a great chance that there will be little effective resistance from the Left. They are already in total disarray, overwhelmed by fear. They are shrieking and hand wringing, still caught in the earliest stages of Kubler-Ross. Now they’ll be looking everywhere, wondering where the next shot comes from. They’ll run around like avian-flu-infected-poultry-without-heads trying to put out fires, when A) they haven’t even been set, and B) they’ll have no power to stop them.
So always be sure to take a moment each day, and laugh at them. Remember, we won. Elections have consequences.