November 14, 2023
Dear Friends and Family,
Few citizens will disagree with the statement, “We are at war with ourselves” or the corollary “We need to come together as a nation.” The excerpts suggest there are two fundamental reasons for this polarization.
Happy Learning,
Harley
Dear Friends and Family,
Few citizens will disagree with the statement, “We are at war with ourselves” or the corollary “We need to come together as a nation.” The excerpts suggest there are two fundamental reasons for this polarization.
- A strong minority believe our country was founded on evil principles and that needs to be rectified by starting over beginning with our values.
- Simultaneously, that minority is successfully enacting policy to amass the power to alter those values. Those policy changes are creating significant political instability which in its chaos is strengthening not only the polarization but lessening the resistance to the change to “calm the waters.”
Happy Learning,
Harley
SEEKING WISDOM FOR AMERICA – SEGMENT 19
THE INTERNAL WAR: POLITICAL INSTABILITY
Problem Definition
The continual instability of our Federal Government is another trend of decline and polarization. This is the result of two things. First, our major national institutions are ignoring their missions and have been captured by bureaucratic and elite interests, including corporate America and the fourth branch of government -- the bureaucratic state. Second, is the tension and differences between our two political parties, some in direct conflict with the Constitution, Rule of Law, and attempting to ignore or marginalize the checks and balances among the three branches of government, with the help of the bureaucrats and elites. These two unfortunate aspects of our current government translate to both elected and unelected entities assuming control over what they view as their obligation to “right” the country from their point of view without any accountability or authority in doing so. This results in constant tension, confusion, frustration, disregard for the will of the people and lack of fairness. It also results in what is seemingly a two-tiered system of justice. These causes of instability can be evidenced in the following examples:
THE INTERNAL WAR: POLITICAL INSTABILITY
Problem Definition
The continual instability of our Federal Government is another trend of decline and polarization. This is the result of two things. First, our major national institutions are ignoring their missions and have been captured by bureaucratic and elite interests, including corporate America and the fourth branch of government -- the bureaucratic state. Second, is the tension and differences between our two political parties, some in direct conflict with the Constitution, Rule of Law, and attempting to ignore or marginalize the checks and balances among the three branches of government, with the help of the bureaucrats and elites. These two unfortunate aspects of our current government translate to both elected and unelected entities assuming control over what they view as their obligation to “right” the country from their point of view without any accountability or authority in doing so. This results in constant tension, confusion, frustration, disregard for the will of the people and lack of fairness. It also results in what is seemingly a two-tiered system of justice. These causes of instability can be evidenced in the following examples:
- Disregarding some of our liberties – free speech, due process, and right to own and bear arms. In December 2019 a Harris Poll Survey reported a vast majority of Americans 92% -believe their rights were “under siege.”
- An open southern border
- Weaponization of Federal institutions – e.g., the IRS refusal to grant tax-exempt status to political opponent organizations (e.g., the Tea Party); the FBI investigations of the Trump campaign (e.g., Crossfire Hurricane)
- Soros Prosecutors
- Defunding and demonizing local police forces.
- Failure to provide protection for Supreme Court Justices.
- Covid Mandates
- Police action or inaction for violent crime and riots (particularly those of a killing of a black man by a white cop)
- Attempts to move election laws from the states to the Federal Government.
- Four Trump investigations and indictments with 91 total counts and little investigation into the Biden family alleged corruption
- Public schools indoctrinating students, usurping parental rights.
“Justice without the blindfold is a vengeful angel wielding power as a weapon to intimidate and oppress, not the guardian on whom we all rely in our hours of need. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Our nation’s founding fathers understood this principle, and for that reason the Constitution was designed, as Jefferson put it, as chains to bind the mischief of government.”
It is interesting to look at these examples collectively. In most cases the cause of the tension is Democrat action followed by Republican reaction. Many contend these are different efforts for the Democratic Party to seize more political control in an effort to eventually achieve absolute one-party control. Their effort to do so is labeled as the adoption of Marxist ideology and greater authoritarianism.
Money is also impacting political instability. The scale and power of the U.S. lobby is extraordinary, particularly in finance, health, and telecommunications/media to the point they are writing laws and regulations in concert with the federal bureaucracy (“the Swamp”) for Congressional approval. According to Victor Davis Hanson in his book Dying Citizen, “The permanent bureaucracy has overwhelmed the office of the presidency. That all-powerful office often lacks sufficient knowledge to control the permanent legions deeply embedded within the state. Elected officials come and go. But the bureaucracy outlasts all, knows best, and so grows and breeds, often at the expense of the citizen. We are reaching a point where the bureaucratic elite believes that it can and should preempt any elected official who deems it dangerous. If the citizen, cannot elect officials to audit, control, and remove the unelected, then he has lost his sovereign power.”
WISDOM ON POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS -- EXCERPTS
WE HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE:
In the 1970s, inflation and unemployment were so acute that Americans turned to a “misery index” to capture the situation. The misery index summed the rates of unemployment and the annual inflation. It sat in double digits for much of the 1970s and, in a testament to how far we slipped, surpassed 20% during the Carter years. Productivity growth slowed by half, meaning wages stagnated as well. “Stagflation,” as it came to be called, undermined any confidence in the future of the U.S. economy. The 1973 oil crisis exacerbated matters when OPEC embargoed shipments to the United States as retribution for supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Gas lines went dry as the price of crude oil grew by over 900% between 1972 and 1981. Americans not only had to wait in line for hours for a tank of gas they also couldn’t keep their heat on or light up their Christmas trees.
The 1970s also beheld political disorder – assassinations, violent protests, and domestic terrorism – and decay. The FBI reported 2,500 bombings on American soil during an eighteen-month period in the early 1970s. The rot permeated national politics. The Watergate scandal led to Nixon’s resignation. His two successors – Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter – failed to win reelection. Both left office with few successes to their name. The core foundation of civility seemed to be breaking down. In the 1970s, American leadership in the world seemed at risk—just as it does now. The sense of decline took hold quickly. We faced real-world challenges of stagflation, loss of opportunity, and a seemingly resurgent Soviet Union. He likewise saw the depth of the spiritual crisis in the country. The national consciousness was in crisis.
While many factors contributed to the reversal that followed, President Reagan and his team took three practical steps that made it possible. First, they recognized the major challenges before the country and opportunities implicit in each. Second, they crafted a visionary agenda to restore American power. Third, they turned that vision into reality through sound policy and political will. Perception, vision, and execution: these are what my friend and former professor Aaron Friedberg called the “three general prerequisites for an integrated, national response to relative decline.” While there is no simple explanation for how America went from malaise to the unipolar moment in just over a decade, there is no doubt that Reagan’s leadership during this period and the story of Morning in America that resulted was consistent with Friedberg’s assessment.
THE MORNING OF AMERICA STORY:
First, Reagan believed Americans were the center of gravity of America life, so often forgotten by Washington. He believed that renewal began with them, and the government’s job was to support them and help them overcome the worst that life could throw at them and otherwise get out of the way. That belief and his deeply felt compassion for the needs and dreams of the average American fueled his confidence in America’s future.
By the time Reagan became president, America was poised for a technological explosion that changed the course of history. The microprocessor had unleashed a wave of computer innovations. Apple and Microsoft were gaining steam, and in 1981, IBM released its first commercially available personal computer. This was the dawn of the information age, and Reagan rightly believed America was ready to take advantage of it, both in the market and in the military. And he correctly surmised that our chief competitors in Moscow could not adapt. In 1982, Reagan declared that “the Soviet empire is faltering because of rigid, centralized control has destroyed incentives for innovation, efficiency and individual achievement.” Reagan drew a clear line in the sand between America’s commitment to liberty and opportunity and the Soviet command-and-control model. The latter, he believed, could not long survive.
Reagan brought into office three big ideas for how to renew America: revitalize the American dream, rebuild the military, and take on Communism. Guided by that vision, the government went to work rebuilding the pillars of American power. The economy was first. Chiefly, the Federal Reserve needed to get inflation under control. Reagan and his defense secretary Casper Weinberger stepped up defense investment, oversaw tremendous advances in stealth and other military technologies, and launched the Strategic Defense Initiative. Reagan’s vision began at home, with the revitalization of American economy and military power, but extended abroad. His strategy for taking on the Soviet Union was simple: “we win, they lose.”
Reagan gave the country direction. He laid out a vision of renewal and strength, grounded in his faith in everyday Americans and in a conceptual understanding that American strength, prosperity, and leadership are inseparable. To have one, we must have the others. The lessons are simple: We need visionary leadership, and we need to remember that what we do at home echoes abroad.
Source: Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America by David H. McCormick (2023)
GIVEN THE WISDOM OF HISTORY WHAT DO WE DO NEXT?
1) Change in Leadership:
The revival of a free society rooted in the foundation of basic American principles requires a recognition of how things have gone wrong, but also an understanding of how to set society on a better course. Limiting the size and scope of government and bringing the administrative state to heel requires the prudent use of political power. The failure to robustly wield authority permits the unaccountable Leviathan to metastasize. This applies both to Congress utilizing the full extent of its Article I powers, such as the power of the purse, as well as an energetic executive who is fully committed to re-constitutionalizing the executive power under Article II.
Source: The Courage to Be Free by Ron DeSantis (2023)
It is not too late to free ourselves from the errors of three decades of decadence and confront these challenges of our day. Despite the events of the past thirty years, America remains a powerful and wealthy nation built on timeless ideals ingrained in the very creation of mankind.
But to seize on our advantages we must act decisively. We cannot get things as wrong in the years ahead as we have over the past several decades. Indeed, it is time for new leadership, because for the past 30 years, the polite and orderly caretakers of America’s decline have had their moment. They failed to leave America stronger than what they inherited. They saw China’s rise, but they didn’t see a problem with it. They didn’t prepare a nation for hard times. They plundered our economy and sent it off to the rest of the world. They scorned traditional America values, prizing short-term consumption and identity politics over intact families, strong communities, and national pride. And they have been incapable of articulating a focused foreign policy that is prepared to deal with the economic and national security threats our nation faces.
We must face the return of history guided by leaders who understand the threats and the inherent evil behind those threats.
Source: Decades of Decadence by Marco Rubio (2023).
2) Productivity:
Productivity is one clear indicator of how well off a country is. When growing, people produce more, get paid more, and can purchase more and better products and services. The economy and quality of life improve. Innovation is critical to productivity growth, and it is necessary to reenergize it again.
3) Deal with the Vicious Cycle:
Our major national institutions have deviated from their missions, caught in a vicious cycle. They have been captured by bureaucratic and elite interests and by politicization at the cost of them not fulfilling their role in society. As a result, their cultures and our country have suffered.
a) Corporations: The problem is particularly pronounced in the business world. In the last few years, corporate America has become consumed with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives wherein businesses use their positions to achieve political and social objectives. My greatest concern is that the ESG push will undermine our merit-driven, capitalist systems by driving corporate leaders to lose sight of their commitment to their shareholders and customers and make decisions for political purposes, which would in turn diminish America’s dynamism and its security.
Source: Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America by David H. McCormick (2023)
Concentration of private power must be checked. From Big Tech to traditional corporations, these private institutions wield authority in a way that protects individuals from these powerful institutions. For years, the default conservative posture has been to limit government and then get out of the way. This is, no doubt, much to recommend to this posture – when the institutions in society are healthy. But we have seen institution after institution become thoroughly politicized. Many are actively trying to impose an ideological agenda on society. In this context, elected officials who do nothing more than get out of the way are essential green lighting these institutions to continue their unimpeded march through society. The ESG movement represents an attempt to short-circuit democratic debate by engineering hugely consequential policies via large corporations and asset managers. This has the potential to dramatically alter important policies related to energy in ways that can have a devastating economic impact, especially on low-income people. In Florida we recognized the implications of the ESG movement on both policy and constitutional accountability by prohibiting the state’s pension fund managers from using ESG criteria when making investment decisions. If other states can join with Florida, it is possible to generate a massive anti-ESG voting bloc that can make a difference when these matters rear their heads before large companies.
b) Government Reform: The framers structured the Constitution to prevent the consolidation of power. They divided power between three different branches of government, armed each branch with the ability to check and balance the others, and reserved most authority to the state governments that had preexisted the Constitution’s creation. This structure has been eroded over the years such that there is now a massive concentration of power in what has effectively become an unaccountable fourth branch of government: the federal administrative state. To make matters worse, the rise of “woke” capitalism has witnessed large and powerful corporations engaging in political activism to such an extent that some exercise quasi-public authority. The upshot of this is that an enormous amount of power has been concentrated in ways that are not readily accountable to the people. This is what James Madison and other Founding Fathers feared. The concentration of power in this post-constitutional arrangement has made individuals less free, empowered elites who reject core American values, and exacerbate divisions in our society.
Legislative authority is the most significant power in a republican system of government, largely because it has the power to tax and spend. This power of the purse may, in fact be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure. If the government abuses its authority, the House can withhold funding to the offending executive branch until the abuses are corrected. Congress has great leverage to shape executive branch behavior by making funding conditional to the desired behavior. The Founders wisely structured the Constitution so that this most important authority is lodged in the legislative body that is closest to the people and that has the most frequent elections. There is, thus, the opportunity for near immediate recourse whenever government abuses its power.
These tools have fallen by the wayside in the operations of the modern Congress. Rather than wield the power of the purse to hold the administrative state accountable and curtail its scope, Congress has effectively placed the government on autopilot through the routine use of so-called continuing resolutions and omnibus appropriation bills. A continuing resolution simply extends the current appropriations into a date specified in the future, but invariably does nothing to rein in any wayward agencies. Even when Congress does appropriation bills, it usually takes the form of a single omnibus bill that typically runs over two thousand pages and does nothing to reshape the federal Leviathan. Both mechanisms essentially forfeit the oversight authority of Congress because those running federal agencies know that such oversight is not backed up by a willingness to use the power of the purse to hold them accountable.
Subcontracting out self-government to an elite cadre of bureaucrats in a faraway capital is not consistent with the structure and purpose of the Constitution. The Founders wanted those wielding power in the political branches to be directly or indirectly accountable to the people, yet the concentration of power in the hands of so-called experts turns that vision on its head.
Florida has done a much better job than Washington in fostering accountability in government. For one thing, the Florida Legislature is much more willing to wield the power of the purse to hold the bureaucracy accountable. As governor, I aggressively sought to leverage my authority in ways that fostered accountability in government. In ensuring that government operates in the best interests of the taxpayer. I utilized tools such as the line-item veto, which provides the governor with the authority to line our individual line-items in an appropriations bill. The line-item veto provides the governor with the ability to ensure discipline in government agencies and among private contractors who perform services for the government. What is more, the line-item veto provides a source of leverage for the governor to wield against the Legislature.
An American revival requires that the power arrangements in Washington, DC, be tamed so that the government is constitutionally accountable. It also requires that corporations are treated as political actors when they use their economic power to advance ideological agenda. The discombobulation of the constitutional order is rooted in the failure of Congress to use its Article I powers to hold wayward agencies to account and to legislate without delegating important policy choices to unelected bureaucrats.
Restoring constitutional government requires the executive branch also to do its part. Article II of the Constitution provides that the “executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America,” yet some of this power has been transferred to bureaucrats due to civil service laws. It is one thing for a low-level employee to be granted standard employment protections; it is quite another for executive branch employees with policy-making authority to be beyond the reach of the head of the executive branch.
Many had hoped that the administration of Donald Trump would rectify this by implementing a plan known as Schedule F, which would recharacterize about 50,000 federal employees who are engaged in “Policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating” as being effectively at-will employees who serve at the pleasure of the president. Thus, the president would be able to terminate federal employees who frustrate his policies, thereby dealing a blow to the idea that the bureaucracy is the fourth branch of government. This would create an executive branch that much more closely resembles the one envisioned by the creators of the Constitution. Clearly, having a federal establishment that is practically immune from the results of elections is not conducive to the type of accountability that is required to enact good policy, much less to preserve freedom.
All told, Florida’s government is much more accountable to the electorate than the federal government. The Legislature exercises the power of the purse in a way that hold wayward actors accountable, making it more difficult for the bureaucracy to act as a fourth branch of government.
c)Progressive Prosecutors: As the wreckage built up around the country due to the reckless policies of so-called progressive prosecutors in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. I asked my staff to review the performance of twenty elected state attorneys in Florida. The prosecutors throughout the country who were causing so much damage almost all ran campaigns that pulled in millions from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, and I knew that Florida had some who had Soros support. The modus operandi of these prosecutors is to “reform” the criminal justice system through non enforcement of criminal laws that they do not like.
My staff’s review revealed that the Soros-backed state attorney for Hillsborough County had instituted a series of “presumptive nonenforcement” policies and signed a letter pledging not to enforce laws related to sex change operations for minors and to abortion. This constituted a clear case of incompetence and neglect of duty that merited suspension. Accordingly, I pulled the trigger and announced Warren’s suspension with the sheriffs of Hillsborough, Pasco, and Polk Counties as well as the former police chief for the city of Tampa, standing behind me.
4) Wokeness: It is now routine for large companies to force employees to undergo training in which they effectively must self-flagellate over concepts such as “white privilege.” Conducted under the auspices of “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI),” the trainings are a way for corporations to advance woke ideology through its employee ranks – and virtual signal in the process.
In Florida, I signed the Stop Wrongs against Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act that, among other things protected employees from corporate DEI trainings that deem one race morally superior or attribute immutable characteristics to someone due to their race, including assigning guilt to someone due to skin color or endorsing concepts like “white privilege.” Under our law, imposing woke ideology as a condition of employment constitutes a hostile work environment, and employees have a right to be free from such indoctrination. Of course, regardless of how noxious it may be, businesses can freely advocate for race essentialism or any other fad they choose, but the freedom to speak does not include the right to indoctrinate. The latter is more in line with cultural Maoism that with American freedom.
Source: The Courage to be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival by Ron DeSantis (2023).
OTHER IDEAS:
Campaign Advertising: In the marketplace of ideas, the consumer is offered no protection. Campaign advertisements are permitted to deceive consumers, and in fact this seems to be their express purpose today. Political campaign ads not only stretch the truth to excessive degrees, but they routinely present distorted facts and devious lies and regularly malign and attack the character of opposing candidates. Since we essentially cannot regulate the content of political advertising without sacrificing the most hallowed protection of free speech, all political advertising on television and social media platforms should be prohibited entirely. Candidates would be permitted to advertise as much as they desire but obliged to make their case with the written word, using long-form media like print, mail, or email that voters can read at their discretion.
Term Limits: One of the most important structural changes that we can adopt for congressional representative and Supreme Court justices is term limits. A senator should be limited to two six-year terms, and a House representative to six two-year terms, thus giving both a cumulative limit of twelve years of service. Given the nearly unrestricted power of the Supreme Court, lifetime appointments are as unjust to future generations as hereditary rule would be in the executive branch. Supreme Court justices should have term limits of twenty years of service on the bench, after which time they can either retire or return to a lower court.
Source: American Schism by Seth David Radwell (2021)
Enacting term limits for members of Congress would also help restore constitutional accountability, because it will produce members more willing to use the powers of Congress because they are not socialized in the failure theater that is the modern Congress. In addition, a balanced budget amendment would prevent the ruling class from plunging the nation into a state of debt-ridden destitution and force Congress to take more seriously its spending powers.
Source: The Courage to Be Free by Ron DeSantis (2023)
THE PROJECT OF RENEWAL: The national renewal agenda may push the boundaries in many areas, but it remains anchored to three timeless and universal principles that we must hold dear: that American exists to preserve our liberty, that the American dream is the promise we pass on to each generation, and that America is exceptional.
The first principle holds that liberty is the God-given right of each and every one of us, and its protection is the chief purpose of our government. We must not forget these truths. The second principle reaffirms that with liberty comes opportunity. America is best when all within it have their shot at the American dream. But the American dream does more than promise opportunity; it also bestows the solemn duty to preserve it. It means we must create good jobs here at home and build a more resilient economy to ensure America is not subject to the whims of dictators or the winds of fate. The third principle asserts that the creed of liberty and opportunity makes our nation exceptional, and that exceptionalism gives us a unique role in the world. America has misused and wasted its power in frivolous foreign expeditions, yet no other country has done so much to advance freedom or prosperity. In our absence, none can fill our shoes. That’s what is most frightening. China has a plan for global supremacy. What’s ours? The national renewal agenda is my answer to the question of what we must do next – a set of policies that are anchored to those three principles but fit for the unique moment in history in which we find ourselves. The agenda has three parts.
Great leaders focus on the mission and those along with them in that mission, not themselves. Great leaders rally people through vision, courage, humility and service.
Source: Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America by David H. McCormick (2023)
POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
Government Reform:
Government reform is desperately needed. We have elected officials not stepping up and making decisions their office calls for and we have unelected officials filling in making decisions they are not authorized to make. This calls for a significant change in leadership to get us back in balance both in the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. The following are examples of the types of actions that have to be taken.
Implementing school choice is another avenue to pursue, but it will not have an immediate impact.
Convention of States:
Article V of the U.S. Constitution reads as follows: “On the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States shall call a Conventions for proposing Amendments, which in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several states.”
In short this means that our Constitution can be amended by bypassing Congress and going to state legislatures to do so.
Such an effort is underway. To date, 2,538,271 voters have signed a petition calling for a Convention of States. The legislatures of 19 states of the 34 needed have passed legislation to apply and in seven more the application has passed in one chamber of the legislature but not in the other. Twenty-five more have agreed to consider a Convention of States Resolution in 2023. Among the amendments they are considering include term limits on members of Congress, limiting the power of federal regulations by allowing for a congressional override, and fiscal restraints including a balanced budget.
If you are interested in more information or to sign the petition and donate, go to the “Convention of States” website.
The unabbreviated version of the above can be found in the pdf document below.
Money is also impacting political instability. The scale and power of the U.S. lobby is extraordinary, particularly in finance, health, and telecommunications/media to the point they are writing laws and regulations in concert with the federal bureaucracy (“the Swamp”) for Congressional approval. According to Victor Davis Hanson in his book Dying Citizen, “The permanent bureaucracy has overwhelmed the office of the presidency. That all-powerful office often lacks sufficient knowledge to control the permanent legions deeply embedded within the state. Elected officials come and go. But the bureaucracy outlasts all, knows best, and so grows and breeds, often at the expense of the citizen. We are reaching a point where the bureaucratic elite believes that it can and should preempt any elected official who deems it dangerous. If the citizen, cannot elect officials to audit, control, and remove the unelected, then he has lost his sovereign power.”
WISDOM ON POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS -- EXCERPTS
WE HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE:
In the 1970s, inflation and unemployment were so acute that Americans turned to a “misery index” to capture the situation. The misery index summed the rates of unemployment and the annual inflation. It sat in double digits for much of the 1970s and, in a testament to how far we slipped, surpassed 20% during the Carter years. Productivity growth slowed by half, meaning wages stagnated as well. “Stagflation,” as it came to be called, undermined any confidence in the future of the U.S. economy. The 1973 oil crisis exacerbated matters when OPEC embargoed shipments to the United States as retribution for supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Gas lines went dry as the price of crude oil grew by over 900% between 1972 and 1981. Americans not only had to wait in line for hours for a tank of gas they also couldn’t keep their heat on or light up their Christmas trees.
The 1970s also beheld political disorder – assassinations, violent protests, and domestic terrorism – and decay. The FBI reported 2,500 bombings on American soil during an eighteen-month period in the early 1970s. The rot permeated national politics. The Watergate scandal led to Nixon’s resignation. His two successors – Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter – failed to win reelection. Both left office with few successes to their name. The core foundation of civility seemed to be breaking down. In the 1970s, American leadership in the world seemed at risk—just as it does now. The sense of decline took hold quickly. We faced real-world challenges of stagflation, loss of opportunity, and a seemingly resurgent Soviet Union. He likewise saw the depth of the spiritual crisis in the country. The national consciousness was in crisis.
While many factors contributed to the reversal that followed, President Reagan and his team took three practical steps that made it possible. First, they recognized the major challenges before the country and opportunities implicit in each. Second, they crafted a visionary agenda to restore American power. Third, they turned that vision into reality through sound policy and political will. Perception, vision, and execution: these are what my friend and former professor Aaron Friedberg called the “three general prerequisites for an integrated, national response to relative decline.” While there is no simple explanation for how America went from malaise to the unipolar moment in just over a decade, there is no doubt that Reagan’s leadership during this period and the story of Morning in America that resulted was consistent with Friedberg’s assessment.
THE MORNING OF AMERICA STORY:
First, Reagan believed Americans were the center of gravity of America life, so often forgotten by Washington. He believed that renewal began with them, and the government’s job was to support them and help them overcome the worst that life could throw at them and otherwise get out of the way. That belief and his deeply felt compassion for the needs and dreams of the average American fueled his confidence in America’s future.
By the time Reagan became president, America was poised for a technological explosion that changed the course of history. The microprocessor had unleashed a wave of computer innovations. Apple and Microsoft were gaining steam, and in 1981, IBM released its first commercially available personal computer. This was the dawn of the information age, and Reagan rightly believed America was ready to take advantage of it, both in the market and in the military. And he correctly surmised that our chief competitors in Moscow could not adapt. In 1982, Reagan declared that “the Soviet empire is faltering because of rigid, centralized control has destroyed incentives for innovation, efficiency and individual achievement.” Reagan drew a clear line in the sand between America’s commitment to liberty and opportunity and the Soviet command-and-control model. The latter, he believed, could not long survive.
Reagan brought into office three big ideas for how to renew America: revitalize the American dream, rebuild the military, and take on Communism. Guided by that vision, the government went to work rebuilding the pillars of American power. The economy was first. Chiefly, the Federal Reserve needed to get inflation under control. Reagan and his defense secretary Casper Weinberger stepped up defense investment, oversaw tremendous advances in stealth and other military technologies, and launched the Strategic Defense Initiative. Reagan’s vision began at home, with the revitalization of American economy and military power, but extended abroad. His strategy for taking on the Soviet Union was simple: “we win, they lose.”
Reagan gave the country direction. He laid out a vision of renewal and strength, grounded in his faith in everyday Americans and in a conceptual understanding that American strength, prosperity, and leadership are inseparable. To have one, we must have the others. The lessons are simple: We need visionary leadership, and we need to remember that what we do at home echoes abroad.
Source: Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America by David H. McCormick (2023)
GIVEN THE WISDOM OF HISTORY WHAT DO WE DO NEXT?
1) Change in Leadership:
The revival of a free society rooted in the foundation of basic American principles requires a recognition of how things have gone wrong, but also an understanding of how to set society on a better course. Limiting the size and scope of government and bringing the administrative state to heel requires the prudent use of political power. The failure to robustly wield authority permits the unaccountable Leviathan to metastasize. This applies both to Congress utilizing the full extent of its Article I powers, such as the power of the purse, as well as an energetic executive who is fully committed to re-constitutionalizing the executive power under Article II.
Source: The Courage to Be Free by Ron DeSantis (2023)
It is not too late to free ourselves from the errors of three decades of decadence and confront these challenges of our day. Despite the events of the past thirty years, America remains a powerful and wealthy nation built on timeless ideals ingrained in the very creation of mankind.
But to seize on our advantages we must act decisively. We cannot get things as wrong in the years ahead as we have over the past several decades. Indeed, it is time for new leadership, because for the past 30 years, the polite and orderly caretakers of America’s decline have had their moment. They failed to leave America stronger than what they inherited. They saw China’s rise, but they didn’t see a problem with it. They didn’t prepare a nation for hard times. They plundered our economy and sent it off to the rest of the world. They scorned traditional America values, prizing short-term consumption and identity politics over intact families, strong communities, and national pride. And they have been incapable of articulating a focused foreign policy that is prepared to deal with the economic and national security threats our nation faces.
We must face the return of history guided by leaders who understand the threats and the inherent evil behind those threats.
Source: Decades of Decadence by Marco Rubio (2023).
2) Productivity:
Productivity is one clear indicator of how well off a country is. When growing, people produce more, get paid more, and can purchase more and better products and services. The economy and quality of life improve. Innovation is critical to productivity growth, and it is necessary to reenergize it again.
3) Deal with the Vicious Cycle:
Our major national institutions have deviated from their missions, caught in a vicious cycle. They have been captured by bureaucratic and elite interests and by politicization at the cost of them not fulfilling their role in society. As a result, their cultures and our country have suffered.
a) Corporations: The problem is particularly pronounced in the business world. In the last few years, corporate America has become consumed with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives wherein businesses use their positions to achieve political and social objectives. My greatest concern is that the ESG push will undermine our merit-driven, capitalist systems by driving corporate leaders to lose sight of their commitment to their shareholders and customers and make decisions for political purposes, which would in turn diminish America’s dynamism and its security.
Source: Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America by David H. McCormick (2023)
Concentration of private power must be checked. From Big Tech to traditional corporations, these private institutions wield authority in a way that protects individuals from these powerful institutions. For years, the default conservative posture has been to limit government and then get out of the way. This is, no doubt, much to recommend to this posture – when the institutions in society are healthy. But we have seen institution after institution become thoroughly politicized. Many are actively trying to impose an ideological agenda on society. In this context, elected officials who do nothing more than get out of the way are essential green lighting these institutions to continue their unimpeded march through society. The ESG movement represents an attempt to short-circuit democratic debate by engineering hugely consequential policies via large corporations and asset managers. This has the potential to dramatically alter important policies related to energy in ways that can have a devastating economic impact, especially on low-income people. In Florida we recognized the implications of the ESG movement on both policy and constitutional accountability by prohibiting the state’s pension fund managers from using ESG criteria when making investment decisions. If other states can join with Florida, it is possible to generate a massive anti-ESG voting bloc that can make a difference when these matters rear their heads before large companies.
b) Government Reform: The framers structured the Constitution to prevent the consolidation of power. They divided power between three different branches of government, armed each branch with the ability to check and balance the others, and reserved most authority to the state governments that had preexisted the Constitution’s creation. This structure has been eroded over the years such that there is now a massive concentration of power in what has effectively become an unaccountable fourth branch of government: the federal administrative state. To make matters worse, the rise of “woke” capitalism has witnessed large and powerful corporations engaging in political activism to such an extent that some exercise quasi-public authority. The upshot of this is that an enormous amount of power has been concentrated in ways that are not readily accountable to the people. This is what James Madison and other Founding Fathers feared. The concentration of power in this post-constitutional arrangement has made individuals less free, empowered elites who reject core American values, and exacerbate divisions in our society.
Legislative authority is the most significant power in a republican system of government, largely because it has the power to tax and spend. This power of the purse may, in fact be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure. If the government abuses its authority, the House can withhold funding to the offending executive branch until the abuses are corrected. Congress has great leverage to shape executive branch behavior by making funding conditional to the desired behavior. The Founders wisely structured the Constitution so that this most important authority is lodged in the legislative body that is closest to the people and that has the most frequent elections. There is, thus, the opportunity for near immediate recourse whenever government abuses its power.
These tools have fallen by the wayside in the operations of the modern Congress. Rather than wield the power of the purse to hold the administrative state accountable and curtail its scope, Congress has effectively placed the government on autopilot through the routine use of so-called continuing resolutions and omnibus appropriation bills. A continuing resolution simply extends the current appropriations into a date specified in the future, but invariably does nothing to rein in any wayward agencies. Even when Congress does appropriation bills, it usually takes the form of a single omnibus bill that typically runs over two thousand pages and does nothing to reshape the federal Leviathan. Both mechanisms essentially forfeit the oversight authority of Congress because those running federal agencies know that such oversight is not backed up by a willingness to use the power of the purse to hold them accountable.
Subcontracting out self-government to an elite cadre of bureaucrats in a faraway capital is not consistent with the structure and purpose of the Constitution. The Founders wanted those wielding power in the political branches to be directly or indirectly accountable to the people, yet the concentration of power in the hands of so-called experts turns that vision on its head.
Florida has done a much better job than Washington in fostering accountability in government. For one thing, the Florida Legislature is much more willing to wield the power of the purse to hold the bureaucracy accountable. As governor, I aggressively sought to leverage my authority in ways that fostered accountability in government. In ensuring that government operates in the best interests of the taxpayer. I utilized tools such as the line-item veto, which provides the governor with the authority to line our individual line-items in an appropriations bill. The line-item veto provides the governor with the ability to ensure discipline in government agencies and among private contractors who perform services for the government. What is more, the line-item veto provides a source of leverage for the governor to wield against the Legislature.
An American revival requires that the power arrangements in Washington, DC, be tamed so that the government is constitutionally accountable. It also requires that corporations are treated as political actors when they use their economic power to advance ideological agenda. The discombobulation of the constitutional order is rooted in the failure of Congress to use its Article I powers to hold wayward agencies to account and to legislate without delegating important policy choices to unelected bureaucrats.
Restoring constitutional government requires the executive branch also to do its part. Article II of the Constitution provides that the “executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America,” yet some of this power has been transferred to bureaucrats due to civil service laws. It is one thing for a low-level employee to be granted standard employment protections; it is quite another for executive branch employees with policy-making authority to be beyond the reach of the head of the executive branch.
Many had hoped that the administration of Donald Trump would rectify this by implementing a plan known as Schedule F, which would recharacterize about 50,000 federal employees who are engaged in “Policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating” as being effectively at-will employees who serve at the pleasure of the president. Thus, the president would be able to terminate federal employees who frustrate his policies, thereby dealing a blow to the idea that the bureaucracy is the fourth branch of government. This would create an executive branch that much more closely resembles the one envisioned by the creators of the Constitution. Clearly, having a federal establishment that is practically immune from the results of elections is not conducive to the type of accountability that is required to enact good policy, much less to preserve freedom.
All told, Florida’s government is much more accountable to the electorate than the federal government. The Legislature exercises the power of the purse in a way that hold wayward actors accountable, making it more difficult for the bureaucracy to act as a fourth branch of government.
c)Progressive Prosecutors: As the wreckage built up around the country due to the reckless policies of so-called progressive prosecutors in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. I asked my staff to review the performance of twenty elected state attorneys in Florida. The prosecutors throughout the country who were causing so much damage almost all ran campaigns that pulled in millions from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, and I knew that Florida had some who had Soros support. The modus operandi of these prosecutors is to “reform” the criminal justice system through non enforcement of criminal laws that they do not like.
My staff’s review revealed that the Soros-backed state attorney for Hillsborough County had instituted a series of “presumptive nonenforcement” policies and signed a letter pledging not to enforce laws related to sex change operations for minors and to abortion. This constituted a clear case of incompetence and neglect of duty that merited suspension. Accordingly, I pulled the trigger and announced Warren’s suspension with the sheriffs of Hillsborough, Pasco, and Polk Counties as well as the former police chief for the city of Tampa, standing behind me.
4) Wokeness: It is now routine for large companies to force employees to undergo training in which they effectively must self-flagellate over concepts such as “white privilege.” Conducted under the auspices of “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI),” the trainings are a way for corporations to advance woke ideology through its employee ranks – and virtual signal in the process.
In Florida, I signed the Stop Wrongs against Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act that, among other things protected employees from corporate DEI trainings that deem one race morally superior or attribute immutable characteristics to someone due to their race, including assigning guilt to someone due to skin color or endorsing concepts like “white privilege.” Under our law, imposing woke ideology as a condition of employment constitutes a hostile work environment, and employees have a right to be free from such indoctrination. Of course, regardless of how noxious it may be, businesses can freely advocate for race essentialism or any other fad they choose, but the freedom to speak does not include the right to indoctrinate. The latter is more in line with cultural Maoism that with American freedom.
Source: The Courage to be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival by Ron DeSantis (2023).
OTHER IDEAS:
Campaign Advertising: In the marketplace of ideas, the consumer is offered no protection. Campaign advertisements are permitted to deceive consumers, and in fact this seems to be their express purpose today. Political campaign ads not only stretch the truth to excessive degrees, but they routinely present distorted facts and devious lies and regularly malign and attack the character of opposing candidates. Since we essentially cannot regulate the content of political advertising without sacrificing the most hallowed protection of free speech, all political advertising on television and social media platforms should be prohibited entirely. Candidates would be permitted to advertise as much as they desire but obliged to make their case with the written word, using long-form media like print, mail, or email that voters can read at their discretion.
Term Limits: One of the most important structural changes that we can adopt for congressional representative and Supreme Court justices is term limits. A senator should be limited to two six-year terms, and a House representative to six two-year terms, thus giving both a cumulative limit of twelve years of service. Given the nearly unrestricted power of the Supreme Court, lifetime appointments are as unjust to future generations as hereditary rule would be in the executive branch. Supreme Court justices should have term limits of twenty years of service on the bench, after which time they can either retire or return to a lower court.
Source: American Schism by Seth David Radwell (2021)
Enacting term limits for members of Congress would also help restore constitutional accountability, because it will produce members more willing to use the powers of Congress because they are not socialized in the failure theater that is the modern Congress. In addition, a balanced budget amendment would prevent the ruling class from plunging the nation into a state of debt-ridden destitution and force Congress to take more seriously its spending powers.
Source: The Courage to Be Free by Ron DeSantis (2023)
THE PROJECT OF RENEWAL: The national renewal agenda may push the boundaries in many areas, but it remains anchored to three timeless and universal principles that we must hold dear: that American exists to preserve our liberty, that the American dream is the promise we pass on to each generation, and that America is exceptional.
The first principle holds that liberty is the God-given right of each and every one of us, and its protection is the chief purpose of our government. We must not forget these truths. The second principle reaffirms that with liberty comes opportunity. America is best when all within it have their shot at the American dream. But the American dream does more than promise opportunity; it also bestows the solemn duty to preserve it. It means we must create good jobs here at home and build a more resilient economy to ensure America is not subject to the whims of dictators or the winds of fate. The third principle asserts that the creed of liberty and opportunity makes our nation exceptional, and that exceptionalism gives us a unique role in the world. America has misused and wasted its power in frivolous foreign expeditions, yet no other country has done so much to advance freedom or prosperity. In our absence, none can fill our shoes. That’s what is most frightening. China has a plan for global supremacy. What’s ours? The national renewal agenda is my answer to the question of what we must do next – a set of policies that are anchored to those three principles but fit for the unique moment in history in which we find ourselves. The agenda has three parts.
- First is the talent strategy to improve the quality of education through school choice, STEM programs, and a commitment to American values.
- Second is the strategy for technological leadership.
- The third and final piece is the strategy for winning the race for data leadership and getting Big Tech under control.
Great leaders focus on the mission and those along with them in that mission, not themselves. Great leaders rally people through vision, courage, humility and service.
Source: Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America by David H. McCormick (2023)
POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
Government Reform:
Government reform is desperately needed. We have elected officials not stepping up and making decisions their office calls for and we have unelected officials filling in making decisions they are not authorized to make. This calls for a significant change in leadership to get us back in balance both in the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. The following are examples of the types of actions that have to be taken.
- The administrative state has to stop making decisions for the executive branch. To accomplish this the House of Representative must use the power of the purse to hold the administrative state accountable by cutting off funding for their agency if they go astray from their duties an usurp elected official’s responsibilities. Further to set the stage for such action Schedule F needs to be implemented to recharter a significant number of federal employees developing policy to becoming at-will employees serving at the pleasure of the president. In doing so, if they go rouge the president should discharge them. This process should commence in the Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service who have clearly participated in weaponizing their institutions to go after political opponents, to date without retribution.
- Corporate America also has to be brought under control, particularly with respect to “personal information protection,” censorship, and political advocacy. This needs to start with the squashing of ESG rules which can be achieved in large part by prohibiting federal pensions fund managers from using ESG criteria in making investment decisions, as was done in Florida. Hopefully, by implementing the unification of Big Tech companies with government in technology innovation as described in the Technology War potential solutions some of the information problems can be resolved.
- The administrative branch of government in concert with the judicial branch have to start insisting the executive branch uphold the rule of law and the Constitution. The tragedy of the southern border and the macerations surrounding student loan forgiveness are illustrations of elected officials not doing so. Whether this be done via lawsuits, public pressure, or the ballot box it must happen.
- In the Legislature pass a Stop Wrongs against Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act similar to the one enacted in Florida.
Implementing school choice is another avenue to pursue, but it will not have an immediate impact.
Convention of States:
Article V of the U.S. Constitution reads as follows: “On the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States shall call a Conventions for proposing Amendments, which in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several states.”
In short this means that our Constitution can be amended by bypassing Congress and going to state legislatures to do so.
Such an effort is underway. To date, 2,538,271 voters have signed a petition calling for a Convention of States. The legislatures of 19 states of the 34 needed have passed legislation to apply and in seven more the application has passed in one chamber of the legislature but not in the other. Twenty-five more have agreed to consider a Convention of States Resolution in 2023. Among the amendments they are considering include term limits on members of Congress, limiting the power of federal regulations by allowing for a congressional override, and fiscal restraints including a balanced budget.
If you are interested in more information or to sign the petition and donate, go to the “Convention of States” website.
The unabbreviated version of the above can be found in the pdf document below.
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