Biden should learn history’s lessons, not double down on bad progressive ideas
Even in the relatively short history of the United States, our history illustrates lessons we should heed today. Some are recent enough that many of us remember them.
Our leaders are faced with decisions in real-time that often have no clear-cut right answers. But in the last 50 years, we have repeatedly turned away from policies that work. We need only to look at our own history for guidance.
In the 1970s, Jimmy Carter was elected president following the scandals of President Richard Nixon. Watergate led to the American people losing confidence in Nixon, who had otherwise led the nation with a firm hand. Nixon oversaw the reduction of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the first manned moon landings, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. But none of these achievements could overcome the scandals laid bare on television.
Carter, by all accounts a thoughtful and caring leader, won the 1976 election and took over a growing economy. His own record, however, will forever be remembered for stagflation, the Iran hostage crisis, and energy shocks that saw motorists queued around the block in search of gasoline.
The people lost faith in the man Nixon, not the policies. Carter lost the trust of the people because of his policies, not the man.
History clearly tells us — screams at us, in fact — that Americans want leadership with sound, secure policies and personal integrity. They will forgive imperfections, but not incompetence.
If the definition of insanity is to continue to do the same things expecting different results, what does it say about our national leadership today?
President Joe Biden took office amid a vibrant economic recovery during a pandemic, with a strong dollar and a measure of peace in the Middle East under President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. Yet today, a short 18 months into Biden’s term, we have a baby formula shortage, record-high gas prices, worse inflation than we’ve seen in decades and no end in sight.
Shockingly, the Democrat’s answer to this calamity is more — more spending money we don’t have, more debt, more government paying people money for not working, and continued restrictions on fossil fuels. Even releasing vast amounts of oil from the Strategic Oil Reserve is not keeping prices at the pump down, jeopardizing our energy supply and our national security even further.
This would be laughable in a Shakespearean play were it not so horrifying to endure in real life. We have open borders, economic collapse and lawlessness masquerading as progressive tolerance.
We must stop this cycle of insanity.
If the 1970s and 1980s don’t illustrate vividly for us what happens with liberal public policy versus conservative public policy, what will convince us? Limited government — including spending — expands and strengthens the economy. That’s not just an economic and political theory anymore; we have actual history to look at.
Law and order practices — investigating crimes and arresting those found to have participated, then holding them accountable at trial — provide safe communities where people are free to thrive.
The nation narrowly voted in 2020 to try the progressive experiment again. Today, the nation sees that again we are far worse off than we were with conservative policies.
There is no time to waste in returning to the road to stability, solvency and security.
Susan Wright is a member of the State Republican Executive Committee and a Tarrant County GOP precinct chairwoman. She lives in Arlington.
