This Tuesday, in the 2024 Presidential Election, the American people finally got the chance to make their voice heard. After four years of foreign wars, a struggling economy, and endlessly-increasing immigration, they came out in droves to resoundingly reject the decline of their beloved country, a disaster overseen by the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. In doing so, Americans have ushered President Donald J. Trump back into the White House.
By winning both the electoral college and popular vote handily, Trump has cemented himself as the single most successful Republican presidential candidate in the past two decades. Not only has he eclipsed his performance in 2016, he has become the first Republican to win both the popular vote and the electoral college since George W. Bush in 2004. Indeed, if Trump surpasses the margin of victory enjoyed by the Bush campaign 20 years prior, which he seems likely to accomplish, Trump’s campaign will arguably be the most successful Republican presidential bid since 1988.
In re-electing Donald Trump, America has done far more than make the uniqueness of Grover Cleveland’s non-consecutive terms a thing of the past. The people have rejected the failure wrought by the status-quo policies which were formulated by unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, to whom the Biden-Harris administration gave over the reigns of Washington for the past four years. America has proclaimed its belief in profound change and made clear its refusal to be intimidated by those who utilized fear mongering about the future security of our democracy as their primary campaign tactic.
Looking back on the rhetoric of the campaign trail, Harris’ flaws become all the more apparent. An indecisiveness on whether to distance herself from Joe Biden made her liable for his mistakes and unrecognized for his successes. Regardless of how many economists the Harris campaign could gather to tell Americans how well our economy was performing, the people felt the burden of Biden-Harris policies emptying their wallets at gas stations and grocery stores. Despite cries from foreign policy “experts” that we must fund Ukraine no matter the cost, the American people dreamt of the peace and security of the Trump years. Ignoring the screams and shouts of media pundits and activists that “no person is illegal,” Americans instead swarmed the polls in response to the pains and anxieties of their countrymen caused by migrant crime flaring up in their communities.
This comes as the combination of future elites and academics at William & Mary and college campuses around the country seemed self-assuredly confident in their prediction of a Harris victory and are now evidently shocked by the results. On popular campus social media site YikYak one poster voiced their surprise, saying “I can’t believe he won.” Another poster, seemingly shook, related how they “just woke up, checked the results, and will not be able to fall back asleep.” Others seem to be in denial, citing racism and sexism as the primary reason for a Trump victory. Though some posts were more realistic and accepting of the results, the vast majority expressed surprise, reflecting the same trend that we are seeing among the broader American elite in the aftermath of one of the most pivotal elections in our history.
For many years, the academic, journalistic, and managerial elite of this country have been severely out of touch with the concerns and needs of the American people. While steel workers in Pennsylvania, tradesmen in Michigan, and the legion of truckers across the Midwest have struggled to put food on the table, looked on in dismay as their once-proud country gets repeatedly embarrassed, mocked, and humiliated, and seen the wealth gap between them and the tech oligarchs who run the world increasingly widen, the elites supposedly in charge of the ship appear to have been asleep at the wheel, or at least distracted by a sight off the port side. Their masquerade of concern for the nation’s genuinely downtrodden has conspicuously disappeared more and more each year, as their forceful agitation for foreign peoples and causes, inverted racial quota systems, and the destruction of American industry forever has grown increasingly in volume and pitch. The ‘cultured’ opinion makers and aspirational managers, completely insulated from everyday life in the provinces of the empire, have grown increasingly arrogant, spiteful, and delusional about their own ‘ubiquitous’ popularity and guarantee of a privileged rung on the social ladder.
There can be no mistaking it: Americans understood that the status-quo would not cut it for the next four years. They rejected the notion that there was no need to fix a Biden-Harris administration whose own self-styled elites claimed repeatedly was not broken. Instead, they boldly turned out, unifying behind the potentially radical change that they knew would come with Trump’s return to the Oval Office.
After four years in exile, forecasting Trump’s next four years will be a daunting task, one which will doubtless be explored by commentators left, right, and center as we near inauguration day on January 20th. One thing, however, is certain: if Donald Trump wishes to deliver on the popular mandate he rode back to the presidency, he must hold fast to the promises of his campaign and policy successes of his first term, the very things which made him so popular in the first place. The American people have cried out in one loud voice, demanding a change of the wind in the sails that propel us toward our country’s future. For Trump to cement his legacy as the most consequential figure in American politics since FDR, he must prove he can meet their passion with his will for action.
On the economy, for too long, the economic and regulatory elites in Washington have pursued starry-eyed globalism at the expense of the wealth of our families. The GDP grew, while our once-vibrant communities imploded on opioids and our great factories were shuttered, strewn about like whale bones across the sea shore. The people’s cry for a Second American Century of prosperity must be pursued with the forceful dynamism Americans deserve starting on day one. In a complete repudiation of late 20th century neoliberalism, a robust industrial policy, with sweeping tariffs and significant investment in domestic advanced manufacturing must be enacted to secure the future of wealth creation in the 21st. For America to retain her identity as a nation of innovators, creators, and dreamers, mere surface-level ventures or “friendshoring” is not sufficient. Like Clinton’s ‘it’s the economy, stupid’ before him, the motto of the 47th Presidential administration must be ‘Make American, Buy American, Hire American’ for real and long lasting changes to bear fruit in tomorrow’s economy. Good, high paying jobs and the advanced technological breakthroughs that come with them must return to the hollow core of America, like Detroit, MI and Youngstown, OH, so that independence, liberty, and the American dream can be handed down for generations to come.
When considering the last 30 years of American adventurism abroad and the sustained public backlash that has come with it, Trump should endeavor to build a foreign affairs counter-establishment that reflects America’s national interests. For too long the “national security” expert class has dictated from above an ideologically-bankrupt and disastrous policy that splatters the world with the blood of American patriots while wasting trillions of our tax dollars. Like Pat Buchanan before him, and Hans Morgenthau before him, and Charles Lindberg before him, Trump needs to pursue a focused foreign policy that puts the people first and paves the path toward a peaceful American century. Trump’s vision for the new global order is the world of tomorrow. An order based on mutual respect for sovereignty, desire for peace, and interest-based cooperation, one which aligns with George Washington’s founding vision of an independent and truly sovereign America. Trump must detangle the US from a failed century’s long experiment of entrapping alliances and mandatory defense pacts; and instead return to a posture which respects the sacrifice of our soldiers and prudently utilizes the peoples’ treasure solely in defense of our nation and its vital interests. To achieve this, Trump must enact a thorough spring cleaning of the Departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security, leaving no place for foreign lobbies and special interests, and instead hiring only loyal Americans who will stop at nothing to put our people first.
Finally, on immigration, President Trump must deliver a total and complete refutation of the immigration policies that have rained supreme since the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act passed under Lyndon Johnson to wide bipartisan acclaim. These policies have suppressed our workers’ wages and left our national identity diluted, opening the door to foreign hoards to stampede across our heartland, plunder our wealth, and destroy our unique and fragile national spirit. To put American workers and families first, our immigration policy must reflect a guarantee of good jobs for our people, prosperity for our families, and a revitalized American dream for all of our citizens. The porous southern border must be closed to ensure that nothing like the disaster of the past four years can ever be inflicted on our people ever again. Mandatory e-verification, vigilant enforcement, and tax incentives, among other steps, must be taken to ensure that it is economically impossible to exploit illegal workers and undercut American labor. We must clear out the underground criminal class forming the gangs across the Sunbelt states and in all of our major cities. To ensure freedom from fear for our people, we must guarantee that the injustice of random migrant crime is eliminated completely from our society. Trump must enforce our immigration laws to the fullest extent and deliver justice in response to the last four years of criminal replacement migration, enabled by the managerial elite in both parties. Every single illegal migrant that was transplanted into our heartland must be returned to their home country, and the integrity of our land must be secured for our posterity.
The 2024 election proves that Trump has a firm mandate to carry out his vision in each of these policy areas, and if he has any hope of transforming our society, then he must vigorously pursue the wishes of the American people. Undoubtedly, Trump’s second term comes with high expectations, expectations that we pray he surpasses in every possible way. There will be pushback from the very same status-quo elites who at the present moment are recovering from the shock produced by Trump’s victory. In spite of this difficulty, We look forward with hope that President Trump will lead our great nation to new heights. May Trump Make America Great Again, and may God Bless America!
