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As much as it might sadden and enrage Americans who care about things like the rule of law, personal integrity, and basic competence, it's unlikely that revelations about Joe Biden's corruption or the persecution of Donald Trump and his supporters are going to change anyone's mind about who to vote for next year. While it's still important to seek justice in these matters, it's also important to recognize what truly matters most for voters: the economy.
Nothing else can explain the desperate push to keep an increasingly senile, corrupt, and creepy Joe Biden in office. Other Democratic contenders, like Gavin Newsom, Bernie Sanders, Gretchen Whitmer, and Kamala Harris may be more cogent and slightly less creepy and corrupt than Biden, but they all have abysmal economic records. Newsom and Harris hail from the failed state of California, which is hemorrhaging population and degenerating into a feudal state; Sanders is a committed socialist who dreams of the U.S. becoming like Cuba; and Whitmer crashed the already weak economy of Michigan with insane COVID restrictions.
By contrast, Biden's economic performance looks somewhat strong. He hasn't (yet) ushered in a Great Depression. He has overseen the (slow and painful) reopening of the country after COVID. He can boast about high employment numbers (consisting mainly of low-wage jobs). And he can take credit for investing in domestic (and Chinese) manufacturing (by spending like there's no tomorrow).
Of course, compared to Trump before COVID, Biden looks quite weak. Gas is much more expensive, inflation is devastating, and the housing shortage is reaching crisis levels. In a typically bumbling defense of abortion, Kamala Harris actually admitted that most Americans have no savings and are living precariously: "most Americans are a $400 unexpected expense away from bankruptcy." Perhaps the wealthiest Americans who donate to Democratic political campaigns are sufficiently insulated, but everyone else is feeling the pinch.
In response, Biden is campaigning on "Bidenomics," a name his administration gives to its supposedly pro-working class economic policies. Judging from the latest polls, the message doesn't seem to be resonating. But this is all Biden has, so he and his surrogates continue to push it.
Any conservative candidate for office will have a great opportunity to win hearts and minds by articulating an economic plan that really does help all Americans. However, this task might be harder than it looks, since conservatives are deeply conflicted on economic issues.
For many decades, conservative leaders embraced the free-market, "laissez-faire" economic philosophy popularly known as "Reaganomics." This philosophy prescribed low taxes, little regulation, and minimal public assistance. However, leading conservative thinkers are starting to argue that this system is unpopular, hurts workers, and has hollowed out the American economy.
In his new book Hell to Pay: How the Suppression of Wages Is Destroying America, policy scholar Michael Lind explains how mass immigration, outsourcing jobs, and union busting have stifled wage growth for the past three decades and led to the government subsidizing cheap labor. In Tyranny Inc., journalist Sohrab Ahmari shows how the financialization of the economy effectively tyrannizes Americans. He recounts many instances of hedge funds and private equity firms buying up companies, squeezing out short-term profits at the cost of long-term growth, and leaving workers and consumers poorer and more powerless.
Although free-market dogmatists will disagree with these conclusions, extolling the virtues of their iPhones, make-work jobs, and cheap Chinese trinkets, most Americans will agree that something needs to change. As it stands, wealth creators are no longer creating wealth, most employees are struggling to earn a living wage, and the government is horribly in debt. No amount of tax-cutting and corporate welfare is going to change that. The same goes for the Bidenonomics approach of expanding the government, increasing entitlements, and inflating the currency.
Whoever wants to win the next presidential election needs to propose an alternative economic policy that ends the corporate tyranny and suppression of wages. There are a few ways to achieve these goals. First, the federal government must secure the border and limit immigration and discourage the outsourcing of jobs. Second, monopolies must be broken and anti-competitive practices must actually be stopped through legislation and litigation. Third, federal and state governments should protect workers' rights, allowing them to organize, seek legal redress for exploitative practices, and change jobs freely. Fourth, federal and state governments need to update and expand the existing infrastructure and encourage energy independence to make it easier to do business in America.
These policies wouldn't necessarily preclude removing useless regulations that hurt small businesses, offering tax incentives to employers, or subsidizing strategic industries. The goal would be to accomplish what Bidenomics only pretends to do: make the economy fairer and help Americans who aren't millionaires. These policies would do so while preserving a free market system capable of economic growth.
Unfortunately, the main people who would be hurt by this agenda are those who currently hold the greatest sway in American politics—after all, they're called "oligarchs" for a reason. They will use every tool at their disposal to take down any candidate who threatens their hegemony. This strategy has been apparent in the ongoing war against Trump and the MAGA movement.
Americans are going to have to push back. What we have currently is not sustainable and represents a real "road to serfdom" for most people. Left alone, we can expect either an economic crash, a totalitarian takeover, a violent revolution, or all of the above in the coming years. The hour is late.
Auguste Meyrat is a high school English teacher in North Texas. He is the founding editor of The Everyman, a senior contributor to The Federalist, and a regular contributor to The American Mind, Crisis Magazine, the American Conservative, and the Acton Institute.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
