Rebuilding the American empire

For the last seven years, President Obama has pursued a dedicated policy of American retreat, withdrawal, and appeasement. He has reduced American prestige, power, and presence in the world, causing our age-old enemies Iran, Russia, and China to expand their respective spheres of influence, their troop presence outside of their borders, and their tests of American defenses and resolve. Obama has embraced America’s foremost enemy, Iran, and has made clear to Israel and America’s European and Asian allies that the United States will not lead in defense of freedom and, indeed, may not take any action to defend even its own vital interests. He has embraced America’s enemies and betrayed America’s allies. To the world, Obama is either a farce or a disgrace, and it is that image of foolishness, weakness, and irresolution that emboldens those who despise us to act against us.

Whether Obama’s unilateral dismantlement of the American empire will continue, be abated, or be reversed is among the most important questions facing the next president. If Hillary Clinton is elected, she will maintain the largely incoherent foreign policy that she implemented as Secretary of State. She will not sacrifice welfare dollars to finance a rebuild of the American military or an expansion of American power in the world. She will not likely alter the anemic military operations Obama maintains against our terrorist foes. She will keep in place the “deal” with, the sell-out to, Iran. She will continue the path toward decline with apologies that Obama made central to his international mission.

If a Republican becomes president, efforts will be undertaken to halt the dismantlement of the American empire, but we cannot know whether abating the decline or rebuilding the empire will be the new president’s mission. Given eight years of rapid and substantial decline and dismantlement, America will be incapable of resurrecting its status as an empire unless it dedicates a significant amount of wealth, resources, and effort to that cause. To achieve that end a revitalization of the American economy and a substantial reduction in the welfare state are essential.

A president serious about restoring the American empire must first restore the American economy and constitutional republic. He must dismantle the regulatory state, cut back the welfare state, eliminate Obamacare, cut corporate and individual tax rates, and work with the states to create the most hospitable environment for capital accumulation, investment, and entrepreneurship. A substantial reduction in the size and scope of the welfare state combined with massive tax relief can liberate the private sector to grow and can provide the revenues necessary to rebuild the American empire. The first order of business would then be to expand and modernize the American military so that we may take the lead in the war against radical Islam and may have at the ready the power to oppose Russian and Chinese expansionism.

Reassertion of American power is essential if we are to avoid greater challenges from Iran, Russia, and China. Now emboldened by American weakness, those countries need to learn anew from a determined and fearless president that the United States intends to act with overwhelming force to repel aggression against our nation, its people, and its property and to take new and decisive military and economic action against our enemies. We need to rebuild American bases in Europe, reinstall short range ballistic missiles in Poland and throughout NATO in Eastern Europe, and maintain substantially increased 24/7 military operations via coordinated special operations and air power against all those who engage in, support, finance, and provide aid and comfort to terrorists around the world.

Much is at stake in the elections this November. Indeed, the fundamental course of the nation will be determined by who is elected. If the new president is Hillary Clinton, she will preside over a continuing decline in the American empire, a lackluster American economy, a “new normal” in which terrorist acts on American soil occur again and again, a Supreme Court that turns increasingly away from the plain and intended meaning of the Constitution in favor of further grants of new legal protection for unlimited government, and an increasingly dangerous world where to be an American is to be a target. If, on the other hand, the new president is a Republican, much will depend on whether that person has the commitment, stamina, and resolve to turn rhetoric into action and to rebuild rapidly the American republic, a free enterprise economy, and America’s global empire. The world, particularly our hapless friends and our emboldened enemies, are keenly interested in the outcome of this coming election. The fate not only of the United States but of the free world largely hangs in the balance.