First Thoughts on 2016 Presidential Election

First Thoughts On 2016 Presidential Election


As we look forward to 2016, one of the biggest events in the next year will be the Presidential election in the U.S.  I've assembled a few initial thoughts about this race, primarily in order to keep the idiot class (ie. pundits) from dictating my thinking.  This election will be vitally important largely because the world is a much more dangerous place than at any time since 1980.  The world is largely leaderless, and dangerous forces are moving in to fill the vacuum.  Nuclear proliferation is on the rise.  So is Jihadism.  Our allies no longer trust us and our enemies no longer respect us.  Our economy muddles along at best.  With that backdrop, here are some of my collected thoughts:


1.  Republicans are stupid.  So are Democrats.  So are conservatives and liberals.  All are equally stupid and all are equally corrupt.


2.  Our next President will be a war time leader.  We can no longer hide the fact that there is a faction of Islam that is at war with us.  And has been for 20 years.  It's time to stop burying our heads in the sand regarding this issue.


3.  Donald Trump is so far the 800 lb gorilla in this race.  He says stupid, offensive, horrible things.  So, why do people like him?  I have several theories:  1.  He talks about making America great again.  Most people intuitively have the sense that we have lost our greatness.  He tells us that America no longer wins.  Quite frankly, this is a very believable narrative.  2.  He projects power and lots of it.  For all his flaws, Trump has a larger than life personality.  3.  People sense that Trump will garner international respect.  I'm not sure if this is actually true.  He has obviously caught the attention of Vladimir Putin.  Putin, as I see it, respects those who project power, and walks all over those who don't.  He respects Trump and walks all over Obama.


4.  Reaccelerating economic growth needs to be a top priority for the next President.  Between 1947-2000, average GDP growth in this country was 3.5%.  We have topped that only once in the last 15 years, in 2004. During the current economic recovery, GDP growth has averaged 2.2%.  Wages are stagnant to down and the labor force participation rate is at a 40-year low.  In other words, our economy basically sucks.  No wonder this doesn't feel like a recovery to most people.  And there are voice in this campaign that are already saying this is the best that we can do. I utterly reject that.  I know we can do better and I want a President who knows we can do better.


5.  We need a leader who will honor the work ethic.  We currently have an entitlement culture that I find rather baffling. We have a nation of people today who think they are entitled to all the luxuries of this life simply because they are.  Hey, how about you go work for it and earn it?  This entitlement mentality needs to go.


6. We need leaders who stop disparaging success.  All we hear is how successful people are corrupt, that they are basically thieves.  We need to celebrate success in the economy to help generate more of it.  Painting all "rich people" as corrupt is also insulting.  It tells us to believe the worst in people.  Indeed there are plenty of corrupt rich people.  But there are plenty who do wonderful things with their money, whether it is to help those in need, or invest in the betterment of our communities or in successful companies that create jobs. 


7. We need leaders who will honor and lift up our free enterprise system instead of tearing it down.  For all its flaws, capitalism is the best economic system of all time.  It has created more wealth than any other system in history and created a higher standard of living than any other system ever.  We need to lift up our innovators and our entrepreneurs, not stifle them. 


8.  The biggest barrier to entry for many people today is an abundance of regulations that keep entrenched competitors firmly in place while keeping new entrants out.  Regulation increases the cost of doing business, which is a nuisance to large, established competitors and a killer to newer and smaller businesses.  In the last 7 years, we have been inundated with harmful regulations in finance, health care, communications and energy.


9.  The United States has zero credibility in the Middle East these days, and not much more in other places around the world.  The next President will have a tremendous re-building job ahead of him, especially with Israel and our Arab allies in the Middle East.


10.  Our #1 long-term enemy in the Middle East is Iran.  We keep being told that the Iranian people want to embrace our Western values.  That is likely true.  However, the mullahs in Iran rule with an iron fist and they have no interest in establishing any sort of friendship with us.  We had our chance with all the protests in 2009, and we did nothing.  Remind me again why we are paving their road to a nuclear bomb?


11.  ISIS must be defeated.  The wholesale slaughter they are performing on "infidels" is appalling.  And the young women forced in sex slavery is sickening.  Their celebration of different, yet unbelievably cruel ways of putting people to death makes me want to vomit.  This is basically a death and rape cult.  They are also a different kind of terrorist organization.  They have a sustainable source of revenue in the form of oil sales.  ISIS derives an estimated $500 - $700 million annually from the sale of oil.


12.  We need to find our friends who are fighting ISIS and arm them.  Why aren't we befriending the Kurds and arming them?  These guys are tough, they fight, and they have had some success in fighting ISIS.  Carpet bombing ISIS is a hopelessly flawed strategy.  We need "boots on the ground" in this fight.  Again, why can't the Kurds be our boots on the ground? 


13.  Deporting all illegal immigrants is hopelessly unrealistic.  However, in this Age of Terror, we need to take all steps to secure our borders.  The first job of the President is to keep the citizens safe. 


14.  Russia will be a problem, too.  Vladimir Putin respects America's power, so he will not directly go after us.  But we need a leader that he respects, too.  We need to arm the rebels in the Ukraine that are fighting the Russian military presence there. 


15.  Most of all, this election will be about leadership.  We need a leader who is in engaged, one who is in touch with the concerns of average Americans.  We need a leader who truly understands that the best leaders are a servant, not a master.  We need a President who will lead the world when called upon to do so.  We need a leader who has enough trust in the people to unleash their creative genius, not cage it.


16.  Economic growth is hard work, and does not have a simple government solution.  We need a government that will let go of its power in order to create that growth.  This is where leadership comes in.  Entrepreneurship is dying in this country.  We need more innovation, we need new companies that can succeed and bring fresh perspectives to the market place.  We need a government that will trust its citizens.  This is what will spread the wealth around, this is what creates good jobs at good wages, and this is what trickle down economics is all about.


17.  We need a President that believes in us.  That believes in the good that we can do.  And will lead us down that path.  I personally am sick of being lectured to by this President.  I want a President who believes in America, in the American dream, and will lead us back down that path.  One who believes that we can do better, and is relentlessly optimistic about America, and truly believes our best days are still ahead of us.


I am sure I will have more as time goes on.  This is all I have for now.