With Donald J. Trump most likely headed toward defeat in the general election, many political pundits are talking about the impending death of the Republican Party. Nevertheless, these reports are very much premature. Thanks to successes in down ballot elections, the Republicans have a sufficiently deep bench of governors, senators, representatives and state legislators to remain competitive in elections throughout the next four years.
While Trump has capitalized on the frustrations of many Americans who have been left behind over the past several years, his appeal and policies are not resonating with a large enough segment of the population to win an election. A return to the big-tent policies of limited government, fiscal conservatism and the enacting of business-friendly policies can help attract voters who are concerned about the anemic economic growth since 2008 and the national crisis that is the steadily rising $20 trillion deficit.
The world has changed over the past 50 years, and returning to the economy of the 20th century will not set America up for long-term success in the 21st. I do not believe that protectionist tariffs and increased taxes on corporations, like the ones proposed by populists like Trump and Bernie Sanders, are going to stimulate economic growth in this country. As the Smoot-Hawley Tariff during the Great Depression has shown us, these tariffs can even lead to recession. America’s duty in this global economy is to take advantage of technological advances to create and build the high technology equipment that’s becoming more and more prevalent in the world today. The days of America making clothes and other low-skill, labor-intensive manufactured goods are over. Producing those goods in China and India reduces costs substantially and allows the American paycheck to purchase more goods.
One of our problems currently lies in the education system. There are over two million high-paying jobs that are going to be unoccupied because the American education system fails to equip students with the technological skills to hold these jobs. We need to dramatically reform our K-12 education system and implement a voucher system to give parents more choice in finding an educational option that suits their kids. This would allow those who struggle academically to go to technical high schools and gain valuable skills that prepare them for a good blue collar job right after graduating from high school or perhaps even community college. It would allow parents of children with learning disabilities to send their kids to schools that specialize in technical fields. Under this system, we should make it so that parents have the freedom to base their child’s education on their learning needs rather than finances.
In addition to reforming our education system to equip our students, we need to continue to implement policies that allow businesses the freedom to grow and expand and therefore create jobs for Americans. A solution could be to implement a corporate tax reform much like England, Japan and the rest of the world that creates a territorial tax system. This means that a company, regardless of where their headquarters are, will pay taxes on all U.S. earnings.
As such, relocating headquarters to tax havens like Ireland will not lower their tax burden. We need to eliminate a lot of deductions and loopholes while also reducing overall corporate tax rates to be more in line with the rest of the developed world at around 20-25 percent. In doing so, we can likely increase the total revenue we get from corporations, while also keeping them in America. Companies will not want to sacrifice the profits they’ll lose from doing business in the American markets in order to reduce their tax rate. We also need to enact comprehensive regulatory review and eliminate any and all regulations that fail to pass a cost-benefit analysis.
Trump, though a flawed candidate, has pointed out a number of issues with the Republican Party that should be addressed moving forward. For example, his belief that America has recently spent too much time, effort and resources abroad is valid. Given the problems we face domestically, it is reasonable to suggest that we reduce our expenditures abroad and spend this money at home to improve our crumbling infrastructure, take care of our veterans and invest in education and health care. While America cannot withdraw from the world as a whole, a passionate debate about our role in the world is certainly in order.
America is a nation built by immigrants, and that is something we need to protect. As American birth rates drop, we need to increase our high-skilled immigration to bring more taxpayers to this country and strengthen our economy. We need to invest in border security to ensure that we know who’s coming into our country. We need to enforce programs like E-Verify that will prevent businesses from hiring low-wage illegal immigrants who bring down wages for all Americans.
While Trump has brought up some valid concerns about the potential dangers of illegal immigration, the Republican Party needs to ensure that it is not seen as only a party for white people. Rhetoric matters, and without some minority support, Republicans will continue to lose in federal elections.
Libertarians such as Rand Paul have an important role to play when it comes to drug policy within the Republican Party. By reforming education and ending the war on drugs, we can create opportunities for minorities, particularly African Americans and Latinos, to rise out of poverty and achieve the upward mobility that many of them have not experienced recently.
Reducing the amount spent on enforcing the war on drugs and paying for incarceration can create tremendous cost savings that can be used on education, balancing the budget, infrastructure repair or even middle class tax cuts. It will also help eliminate the vicious cycle that is present in so many urban communities, where one arrest means that your chances at building a productive life after being released are slim.
While Donald Trump has made a number of appalling statements over the course of the 2016 presidential campaign, he is not representative of the Republican Party as a whole. The GOP has a variety of voices, from Northeastern moderates to libertarians to social conservatives to neo-cons. Despite the party’s problems, I still believe the Republicans’ best days are yet to come.
