JaxPolitix

Dear Mr. President:

The illicit Trump war on our election and our democracy is over and we are facing multiple existential threats. Things are every bit as dire as when President Obama took office and the cultural divisions that bedevil us are now worse.

Trump may be out of office but he has not and will not leave. He will spend every minute of every day exacting revenge for his loss and that will include undermining your presidency every way possible. As you know, truth and reality will not be obstacles for him. Here are some ideas to make your presidency a success in the face of his malfeasance.

1. Before we can do great things we will have to be a united country. We all have to be pulling the wagon in the same direction. In fact, a call to patriotism is the most powerful tool you have, so start your presidency with a call to patriotism.
   1. We beat the pandemic by everyone doing the right things, including wearing masks, social distancing and washing hands. Those things are what patriotic Americans do.
   2. Soon we’ll be able to be vaccinated. There is a lot of anti-vax sentiment in the U.S., so televise your own vaccination and cite the statistics of how well those already vaccinated are doing so that others feel safe in taking the preventive. Tell Americans it’s the patriotic thing to do.
   3. Send members of your blue ribbon pandemic panel out to the public to address Americans (outside events) only especially in more rural areas – red America – about what they can do to stop this crippling virus. It’s a call to patriotism that will be amplified by the press.
2. China is using the pandemic to enhance its power and standing in the world and to diminish the U.S. It’s time to take aggressive steps to reverse our obvious economic decline and to ensure this is another American century.
   1. Find ways to reward American companies for re-shoring their manufacturing – perhaps tax incentives.
   2. Penalize American companies for off-shoring.
   3. At every opportunity, overtly encourage Americans to buy American, to make sure there’s a red, white and blue label on everything they buy. We cannot buy cheap foreign goods, have good paying American jobs and a strong economy all at the same time. We’ve tried that and the math just doesn’t work.
   4. Find productive ways to encourage Chinese behavior we like and be clear and forceful with measures to stop their bad behavior, like theft of intellectual property.
3. Drop Trump’s self-defeating trade tariffs.
   1. That will have a stimulative effect on the economy due to lower consumer prices. Tell Americans to expect that.
   2. Let the public know that the steel and aluminum tariffs cost 75,000 American jobs and hamstrung our farmers with cancelled export orders. Eliminating the tariffs will stimulate job growth. Tell Americans to apply for work where steel and aluminum are used in manufacturing and enlist manufacturers to advertise their patriotic employment opportunities.
   3. Tell China we’re dropping some to the thumbs we’ve stuck in their eyes and to buy American. And tell our agricultural people to crank up their export sales efforts.
4. Rebuild our infrastructure.
   1. Convene a meeting of people in the know and develop a long term growth plan with clarity about what we must do, especially in the short term. We have a very short attention span and need instant gratification in America, so find ways to create short term wins.
   2. Create a WPA or CCC-like program to get Americans working hard to build our country and constantly beat the patriotic drum about it.
   3. Challenge Republicans to get on board or get left behind, because Americans don’t want to be number 2.
   4. Make funding our rebuilding so patriotic that opposing methods to get this done is unthinkable.
5. Prosecute wrong doers.
   1. Turn your Justice Department loose to prosecute those who broke laws.
   2. Prosecute Trump. If he has pardoned himself, file suit to challenge that. Then prosecute him for extortion, obstruction of justice every other felony.
      1. His base will hate that, but they will remain loyal to him and oppose you no matter what you do.
      2. It’s critical to re-establish the rule of law and the clarity that nobody is above the law.

Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.