A Golden Age, If You Can Keep It
Editor's Note
American politics have become an existential conflict between those who wish to preserve our way of life, and those who wish to destroy it. In twenty days, Donald Trump will return to the White House thanks to the votes of tens of millions in the former group. But the war is far from over. Peachy Keenan writes that Trump can usher in a new American Golden Age during his second term — if he understands the gravity of the moment, and faces it accordingly.
We find ourselves, almost incredibly, at the dawn of what may be a new Golden Age. President-elect Trump is planning to unleash a mile-wide tornado of Executive Orders on January 20th that will obliterate four years of Biden-era crud in its path. I have no doubt that the entire southern border will be sealed, Venezuelan gang members will be loaded onto deportation transports, and peace will break out in Ukraine within the first few weeks of his presidency. Hamas will suddenly remember it’s holding hundreds of Israelis in dungeons and sheepishly let them go.
Just a few bold, early moves in the right direction will echo into history and set the stage for one of the most consequential eras in modern American history.
Perhaps more importantly, the instantaneous changeover from the out of gas, broken down jalopy Biden admin to a rocket-propelled jet engine blasting out of the gate will be enough to lift the leaden blanket off our hearts and minds. Vibes will flow. The energy will shift hard. It will be a glorious celebration, and optimism will once again course through the nation’s veins. The rivers will turn red, white, and blue. The birds will warble the Star-Spangled Banner. Happiness will awaken and come out of its long slumber, squinting in the bright January morning.
Yes, I feel this way.
But this is not my first time at the rodeo. We are still mere mortals, earthbound, subject to the conflicting desires of all the other millions of people crowding this democracy. Barring pure and enlightened monarchy, we are going to experience disappointments. There will be setbacks. But, this time around, there will be no corrupt FBI traps or grotesque special counsel investigations or slanderous “Russia” hoaxes. There will be no hairless moles like Lieutenant Colonel Vindman in his dirt hole burrowed beneath the Oval Office, spying on the president and squealing to Nancy Pelosi.
This time, the pitfalls and landmines are more obvious. That’s good! At least they’re visible, we can see them, prepare for them. Not all of them, of course; black swan events seem awfully frequent in the 21st century. But a lot of them.
Still, dangers abound. And the solutions are not as simple as abolishing regulations or signing executive orders, or even cutting the billions in waste that the Department of Government Efficiency is tasked to find.
As Tom Klingenstein recently noted, “the primary focus of draining the swamp and say, regulating immigration, is not “efficiency” but preserving the American regime. Focusing on efficiency is an error that businessmen like Elon and Vivek are especially prone to make. Tyranny is not more welcome for coming on the cheap.”
Indeed. The thing that must be preserved and prioritized at all costs is us — you and me and our kids, the people who survived this far and have pledged our lives to this country. We are currently bleeding out; everyone I know is running around clutching open wounds, just praying we make it to the 20th.
To save ourselves and give this thing the best possible chance to work, we need to keep scanning the horizon for icebergs. The fewer surprises the better!
To let Americanism really stretch it wings and make that new Golden Age a reality, we need to clear its path as best we can.
To that end, here are a couple potential obstacles I am worried about right now.
First, this ridiculous debt ceiling. It’s no accident that the debt ceiling limit increase happens to expire a few days before the inauguration. An economist at Heritage said, “The federal debt has fallen $77 billion over the last 2 days, but only because Treasury has simultaneously drained $104 billion from its cash account; sure seems like Yellen is trying to set up her replacement at Treasury for failure.”
I always suspected they would lay booby traps set to explode in January. Wrecking the economy just so they can hurt the citizens they profess to serve? That’s a Democrat specialty. Our declining quality of life and crushing inflation is why we voted for Trump — and they are going to make it as hard as possible for him to fix it.
Second, the corrupt legal immigration system. Who knew we needed to build another, second wall: this time to stop the flood of technically legal but highly corrupt immigration coming in via the “highly skilled” work and foreign student visa system. The H-1B visa system, the fraudulent F-1 college immigrant visa system, and the associated costs to native-born citizens are an outrage. This great MAGA vs. Tech Right debate exploded on X over Christmas break and was finally fought to a tenuous compromise. The DOGE dudes are promising H-1B reform. Regular people just want colleges and companies to prioritize hiring Americans without being called racist or accusing them of wanting “DEI for white guys.”
I’m tired of seeing recent arrivals calling Americans “entitled.” Entitled? It’s our country. Of course we’re entitled to it.
This matters. The argument that illegal immigration is the bigger issue is actually false. Yes, there are more illegal than legal immigrants, and mass migration increases crime, breaks local budgets, and makes a mockery of our laws; but the Venezuelan gangbangers flooding places like Aurora are not taking middle-class children’s jobs or spots in college.
Meanwhile, millions are arriving here completely legally from foreign lands and cultures. They don’t care about our “national identity” and don’t give a crap about our “shared heritage” or history. They are free to take full advantage of jobs earmarked just for them, and a corrupt university system originally founded for Americans that now has quotas just for full-tuition foreign students.
The students and the H-1B “highly skilled” workers get to make quick cash at companies that were built here, exploit generous loopholes, and extract as much as possible from a system we pay for.
To twist the knife in our hearts a little deeper, their presence almost exclusively benefits the already flush bottom lines of the rich universities and big corporations who — by the way — also boast about mercilessly shutting out hardworking, qualified native-borns in droves, which they do by hiding behind DEI. In reality, the native-born simply cost much more to employ and educate.
The natural goodwill, empathy, and wonderful generosity of the American people has been turned against us in the most merciless and callous way possible. The icing on the cake is calling those who object to this ridiculous system “racist.”
The guiding principle that should direct all the work done by the incoming administration is very simple: it can’t just be “America First.” This is actually too broad, too open to interpretation. We should have been more specific. So, allow me to clarify.
The rule must be: Americans first.
If not, this honeymoon maybe short. But we will see. Until then, I remain cautiously optimistic that, with a little luck, America is indeed about to be made great again.