A Sense of Optimism About America’s Future is Back: 2025
New Year’s Day again. This time it’s 2025 and I’m looking
forward to a better year.
Optimism on Tap
It’s easy to think of the political turmoil of the last year
and be grateful that Joe Biden is out of office. Not that politics is
everything, but it does set the tone for a lot of people. When we feel better
about ourselves and our country, a sense of optimism pervades. When Trump asked
Tom Homan to come back and be his Homeland security chief, he came out of
retirement. In an interview with Tucker, Tom said that so many retired border
patrol officers offered to come back once he was selected. The reason is
obvious. We know instinctively that patriots are going to run key positions in
DC. They love the country and want to help. It’s knowing that your leadership
is for you. That’s inspiring.
Presidents Matter
I don’t buy anymore that the economy isn’t really affected
by the president’s policies. The Wall Street Journal and others would always
run these snotty articles about how it doesn’t make a huge difference. They
think the ‘rubes’ need an
education on how unimportant the president is to the economy. I wish it
were true, but anti-business moves, flooding the country with illegals and canceling
drilling leases for oil companies have trickle down effects.
There may have been a time when policies were similar enough
from Republicans to Democrats. In the 90s and even early 00s, the economic
policies weren’t that different. Candidates talked like they were. Democrats
always sounded like FDR and Republicans like Reagan, but in reality, the big
budget stuff was always signed off on. No one was going to seriously threaten
social security or defense spending or Medicare. Even today, those programs are
fully funded without a lot of fuss. The difference is what the democrats
restrict, the climate mullahs have attacked oil and gas by shutting down new
leases for drilling. President Biden shut down the Keystone Pipeline that’s
been hanging by a thread since Obama’s term.
Climate Hysteria and Insurance Fraud
In the same vein, Uncle Sam subsidizes electric vehicles and
forces CAFÉ standards on automakers. EV’s come with a discount ($7,500) for the
buyer and upwards of $10,000 with the state subsidy. This is an industry that
shouldn’t need the boost anymore. But taxpayers still have to shell out for
plug ins that are getting
less popular by the year.
Since President
Obama’s two terms, the separation of a private and public sector in medical
insurance is a joke. Most of the big insurers are owned by the federal
government after Obamacare. You may hate insurance companies but they’re hardly
even making their own decisions anymore. They
signed on to impossible rules that govern their businesses, like covering
pre-existing conditions. They also signed up to limit their own profits. Costs
continue to go up for the ACA (Affordable Care Act) while Insurers denied more
claims than ever last year. They took something complicated, insurance, and
wrapped in more red tape. They wanted windfall profits and didn’t care about
the future. Obamacare is probably the biggest single reason that the president
does make a difference on the economy. It ruined what was at least marginally a
private industry.
Somewhere in those Obama years I stopped being a libertarian.
It’s laughable to think there exists a sharp distinction between federal and
private business anymore.
Rising Pride Lifts all Boats
If investor exuberance can hold the stock market afloat, then
so can pride in country boost the mood in future ventures. People need leadership and it
doesn’t even have to be perfect. It does however, need to be genuine. Joe Biden
was never the duly elected president and he knew it, everyone knew it. Most
didn’t admit it. The sense of hopefulness after the Trump win is about the
future and progress. It’s difficult to describe a sense of optimism but you
know it when you see it.
It’s like when the substitute teacher, who’d been filling in for the sick teacher finally leaves. This particular substitute was teaching Marxism and letting the bullies pick on the
other kids. He was deconstructing the whole idea of education and telling lies
about the country, God and gender norms. He did real damage. But now the regular teacher is back and a
sense of optimism has returned.
Conclusion
Not that it won’t be an uphill struggle. But Trump won a
mandate and if he doesn’t root out the poisonous corruptocrats it will be for
naught. He has a much better sense of what needs to happen in this term.
Hopefully, he won’t trust the swamp dwellers in the Republican party this time.
I mostly like his cabinet picks. I’m not completely sold on Kennedy (RFK Jr),
but there’s time.
