Of course, the starting point, the contemporary context, would be:
- the recent history of COVID lockdowns;
- massive government spending and inflation and constrictive energy policies driving up energy and food prices, as well as most “downstream prices,” and wiping out retirement savings;
- Fed strategies depressing the market; war in Ukraine threatening nuclear confrontation; China’s rising political aggression;
- political corruption of government institutions and apparent government-led attacks on the First Amendment, at least according to the “Twitter Files”; rising urban crime;
- a surge in illegal immigration bringing drugs, crime and a disrupted labor market; a growing culture war on women, fueled both by the Dobbs decision and the rising political activism of the trans community;
- and chaos in the American educational system, leading to a sharp decline in student performance.
Few would call 2020, 2021 and 2022 “good years” for America. Some might call them disasters — and 2023 may well be worse.
To begin with, there is no sign that the forces fueling these problems will abate or be reversed. If anything, they may become more intense.
Rightly or wrongly, the White House and the Democrat-led Senate, as well as most progressive interest groups, read the midterm elections as support for current policy directions. The White House will not make any centrist tack and will continue full speed ahead on high-spending and fossil fuel-constraining policies.
The suicidal support for the omnibus budget and spending bill by Republicans in the Senate handicaps the incoming Republican-led House from moving to get the budget, appropriations, and spending under control.
It also assures another round of inflation, and insulates the Democrats from political attack since Senate Republicans went along with it and now partly own the coming inflation, rising interest rates, and economic contraction or recession predicted by many financial leaders and economists. READ MORE...
