Joseph: 7 Steps the New Congress Needs to Take to Restore America
With victory comes responsibility, and then the hard work of restoration begins…
What a mess! The clean-up job to be done to return the United States of America to law, order and economic prosperity is daunting.
But history has shown that the people of the United States can do it.
Once before, when the Republicans controlled the 80th Congress and the Democrats controlled the White House, bipartisan support was garnered for a restorative economic and law-and-order undertaking.
When World War II came to an end, when almost the whole world was in tatters — distraught and directionless — it was the indomitable U.S. that directed the revitalization of devastated countries and brought back stability and hope for all, including for the shamed and hurting people of former enemy nations. American confidence was heartening. It wasn’t so much the money — though that was pretty effective and remarkably efficient in its implementation — but the confidence of the U.S., the can-do attitude, the let’s-get-this-done determination.
The U.S. did an incredible job enabling the rebuilding of post-war Japan. Generous American aid was given not just to war-torn Europe but also to China and Korea, as well as French Indochina, Thailand, Burma and the Philippines.
The Republican Party described the restoration efforts accurately at the time as “the most far-reaching measures in history adopted to aid the recovery of the free world on a basis of self-help and with prudent regard for our own resources.”
There was a real focus on exercising prudence. There was real concern for getting recipients of American aid to commit to self-help.
The importance of encouraging self-help
Sadly, in today’s U.S., there are some 7 million men on welfare who have no jobs and have stopped looking for work. Their disposition for self-help is shot.
The socialist-leaning Democrats keep making the same mistake of mollycoddling the needy as though they are utterly helpless. They forget the importance of self-help in restoring the human dignity of those being helped.
This was one of the Democrats’ greatest mistakes during this disastrous half-term in power: their imprudent determination to provide the kind of over-comprehensive help that turns the temporarily improvident into lifetime welfare dependents.
They just don’t understand that genuine social justice can be achieved only through prudent means.
Social justice and social prudence cannot be separated.
It’s that older, prudent American spirit in the post-World War II search for justice that we need to fire up again right now. No hesitation, just sensible direct action along with the reasonable and prudent demand that those being helped will cooperate with self-help.
Here you go, Congress!
- Close the southern border right now and secure it. True justice cannot be served by the continued toleration of surging illegal immigration exploited by drug cartels and child traffickers and prostitution racketeers. Address the explosion of fentanyl deaths and tackle the drug problems and drug cartels.
- Restore law and order and community safety undermined by Democrats. Stop the shrinking of police forces that have been under unfair attack. Punish all violent crime and address public disorder. Protect citizens from violence committed by repeat offenders freed by lenient bail programs.
- Reign in the $4.8 trillion spending binge that has financed family and social disintegration and been wasted on climate activism that has brought economic chaos and soaring energy prices. Dismantle immediately the Democrats’ imprudent wealth redistribution programs launched under the guise of remedying the effects of the coronavirus — even as the pandemic receded. Pull into line and back to economic good sense the woke corporations whose business sense seems to have been corrupted by political ideology.
- Restore energy independence. Reopen pipelines and power stations, issue exploration permits, and incentivize the energy industry to address the supply and demand imbalance. End President Joe Biden’s inflation-causing war on fossil fuels still needed to power the economy. Reject and expose delusional claims allotting human responsibility for climate change and demonizing natural gas and fossil fuels. Recognize that natural gas is an essential transition power source until renewables become genuinely viable economically.
- Build up U.S. defense force strength with a view to securing the Pacific. Warn China not to mess with the U.S. Challenge the European Union to take seriously its true responsibility and put forward its fair share in securing peace between Russia and Ukraine.
- Tackle miseducation in schools and restore parental rights. Ensure basic decency is taught in families and in schools. Unwind the Democratic obsession with the failed woke policies on gender, race and sexual perversity that has wrecked the social fabric of families and communities, and contributed enormously to increased drug addiction and homelessness.
- Restore integrity to the upper echelons of the politicized Department of Justice, FBI and other government institutions that have been corrupted. Sack the top ideologues who have presided over the whole mess.
Piece of cake!
Restore the principle of equality.
Simply go back to first principles.
Back in 1948, there was great confidence in the very real worth of upholding the principle of equality, as seen in the Republican Party’s Declaration of Principles.
“One of the basic principles of this Republic is the equality of all individuals in their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This principle is enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Constitution of the United States; it was vindicated on the field of battle and became the cornerstone of this Republic. This right of equal opportunity to work and to advance in life should never be limited in any individual because of race, religion, color, or country of origin. We favor the enactment and just enforcement of such Federal legislation as may be necessary to maintain this right at all times in every part of this Republic.”
Their conclusion is still invaluable today:
“Guided by these principles, with continuing faith in Almighty God; united in the spirit of brotherhood; and using to the full the skills, resources and blessings of liberty with which we are endowed; we, the American people, will courageously advance to meet the challenge of the future.”
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