Last week, this column suggested that what the Republican Party really needs is a bold no-nonsense blueprint for a better America. I made up a list of what I believe constitutes the five top difficult situations a new president (in 2024) could and should promise that he and his political party would begin to work on immediately upon taking office.
The problems delineated were: 1) the wide-open and unprotected southern border; 2) the homeless encampments that have sprouted up in virtually every city in the U.S.; 3) the cost and availability of energy; 4) the progressive-agenda-driven and union-dominated public school system, and 5) the explosion of crime in American cities and towns of all sizes.
In addition to outlining what the problems and priorities are, the Republican Party should affirm its commitment to fixing those issues with a resolve and a purpose clearly outlined in a definitive policy statement.
Last week we offered solutions to the first two sticky problems, proposing that the southern border be closed until a satisfactory and comprehensive plan for legal immigration is put in place, that those here “illegally” shouldn’t be rewarded with federal largesse. However, by all accounts, those freely crossing the southern border by the hundreds of thousands have been invited — and showered with clothes, gifts, spending money, phones and transportation to a destination of their choice — by the Biden administration. And that presents its own difficulties. People in those human caravans really aren’t here “illegally,” so their status needs to be clarified.
The second issue we tackled is that of the cardboard-canvas-plastic communities clogging up sidewalks and parks in so many of our cities. Our proposal is to move them out of the centers of downtown commerce to designated areas and that U.S. military veterans be given first dibs at whatever the workable solutions may be.
We did ask for comments and suggestions, and here are a few from various readers.
Reader Lawrence added a sixth problem: that of government overspending. “The principal entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) are now about half of all federal spending,” he says, adding that “a simple way to control this expense would be to means-test at death: Give the government a first lien on the estates of all enrollees who received more than they contributed. Medicaid already has this provision. Why not add it to Social Security and Medicare?”
Not a bad idea and I like it.
Another reader (let’s call him “Sawbilly”) writes that we need to “stabilize the currency, secure the border, withdraw from any and all foreign wars, get back to basics in education, maybe dissolve the Department of Education, bring manufacturing back from China, and break Wall Street and Silicon Valley.”
I don’t know about breaking Wall Street but can’t argue with the rest of that either.
Reader Ron, on the other hand, believes “we really need those illegal ‘citizens’ (pouring across the southern border) to fill the presently empty jobs.” He suggests that their sacrifices “prove their willingness to seek a better life, mostly through hard work,” and that they “definitely fill a need.” He adds that “Biden’s border policy, or lack thereof” doesn’t bother him at all.
Ron believes that most of the homeless receive stimulus checks, “welfare and other handouts and no longer need to work,” which is why, he says, we need those illegal “citizens.” Ron (who is a vet) also theorizes that only a “tiny percentage of the veterans (among the homeless) ever faced combat or trauma of any kind” while in the military. He opines that “the drugs, cartel ‘bus drivers,’ and espionage agents, have always been a problem” and is “not sure those numbers have changed much.” He concludes by noting that “free handouts have created the homeless problem, period.”
Let’s go to energy, its production, price, and availability. The U.S. government should simply get out of the way of domestic energy production and let the market mandate how and when it should be provided. Republicans should call for doing away with the Department of Energy as a separate Cabinet-level entity, maybe turning over its functions and duties to a Department of Natural Resources within the Department of Interior.
TAKING ON THE SCHOOLS AND THEIR UNIONS
The monopolistic public school system and its national union-denominated workforce needs to be broken up.
The public school system should be treated as Standard Oil was at the turn of the 20th century and as AT&T was when Ma Bell controlled the entire telephone system in the U.S. We need to return control of elementary schools and high schools to the communities within which they operate.
The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, both of which act as arms of the Democrat Party, funnel money and manpower in every election to issues and candidates that work against the independence of school boards and parents. These two organizations are also responsible for the length and severity of pandemic-related school lockdowns and promotion of idiotic curricula such as critical race theory, along with promotion and protection of the gender affirming madness currently so popular.
The proliferation of readily available degenerate reading material, particularly in elementary schools, pushed by a cadre of “progressive” teachers and school administrators, must be curtailed.
The rights of parents should be institutionalized as predominate to the rights of teachers, administrators, nurses and psychologists. A law requiring parental participation, notification, and permission of anything and everything outside the specific school curriculum would be a good start.
Republican candidates need to take on the AFT and NEA directly and propose a new agenda that would include a challenge to the current policies of the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association that have turned so many of our schools into abysses of educational dysphoria.
We’ll tackle the crime issue next week. As always, your letters, suggestions, recommendations, observations, and criticisms to the News-Press and/or jimb@substack.com are always welcome.
James Buckley is a longtime Montecito resident. He welcomes questions or comments at jimb@substack.com. Readers are invited to visit jimb.substack.com, where Jim’s Journals are on file. He also invites people to subscribe to Jim’s Journal.
