Just one year into near-uniform left-wing control of our government, Americans are waking up to the cruel outcomes of "progressive" policies. We are beset by historic inflation, a violent crime wave, cultural rot, a border crisis and foreign policy failures that weaken American security at home and abroad.
>>> Fighting for America’s Future
The leftist regime in Washington isn't just incompetent—it holds Americans and the values we hold dear in contempt. Just in the last few years, the woke Left declared war on parents, schoolchildren, women and girls; on police officers and the poor minority neighborhoods they serve; on Asian Americans, blue-collar workers, marriage and the Constitution; on science, individual rights and, indeed, almost all of American history.
Americans deserve better. They deserve a vision that puts the American people and their families, businesses and interests first. They deserve committed leaders who will fight for them on every issue and who will ensure that the great nation they inherited is the same one passed on to the next generation.
Conservatives can deliver on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity only with a new generational agenda.
The American people have made their views about our current government leaders and their destructive policies clear to us. Hearing their voices, we assembled a bold agenda with seven priorities that reflect their deepest concerns. Our policy goals are challenging, but achievable—if conservative leaders and candidates pursue them at every level of government.
First and foremost, conservatives must empower parents to make their own education choices: where their kids go to school, the curricula schools teach and the values schools promote. After the COVID era showed us what's really going on in America's classrooms, it's clear our education system fails our students at every level. After four decades of utter incompetence and waging war on parents, the Department of Education should be abolished. Parents, not bureaucracies and teachers' unions, must be in charge.
Second, we must secure America's borders and reduce crime. No excuses. No compromises. More illegal immigrants came to America in 2021 than any year on record, thanks to Joe Biden's America-last immigration stance. And violent crime is soaring. On our border, we must finish building the wall, turn away illegal migrants and implement E-Verify. On our streets, we must arrest criminals, prosecute them and throw them in jail.
Third, conservatives must ensure free and fair elections. Most Americans—Democrats, Republicans and independents—now believe that either the 2016 or 2020 election was wrought with fraud. Cleaning up voter rolls, ensuring voter ID and ending vote trafficking are essential to building back public trust in our elections—the very foundation of our republic.
Fourth, we must reverse the growth of federal spending and inflation and come to terms with our economic reality. Inflation is outpacing annual wage growth for the first time in nearly a decade, crushing American workers and their families with a hidden tax on everything from cars and clothes to groceries and gas. Congress cannot borrow, print and spend money to infinity, causing more inflation, deeper debt and a stagnant economy.
Fifth, we must counter the threat of the Chinese Communist Party. In 2000, President Bill Clinton promised that giving China most-favored-nation status in trade was a "hundred-to-nothing deal for America." In 2001, President George W. Bush extended the deal, citing the benefits to the economy, democracy and national security. Those predictions turned out to be false. It's time to overhaul America's diplomacy, national security strategy and economic policies to create a China-resistant economy and check its hostile ambitions. This includes reinvigorating U.S. industries hollowed out by decades of "engagement" with the Chinese Communist Party.
>>> How Washington Can End the Inflation Crisis It Created
Sixth, we must stop complaining about Big Tech and start taking the fight straight to it. Conservatives must hold Big Tech accountable for its monopolism, manipulation of our political discourse, censorship and complicity in China's military buildup and high-tech police state. Big Tech is beholden to the Left, and we must dismantle its outsized influence.
Finally, we must protect mothers and their unborn babies from abortion industry-sponsored laws intended to create a culture of death—including allowing abortion until birth—and to force taxpayers to pay for it.
No matter how many elections Republicans win in 2022 and 2024, if conservatives cannot deliver on these existential national needs, we will have failed America. Voting corruption, open borders, "defund the police," Big Education, Big Tech, Big Government, the CCP and abortion-on-demand threaten our values, our families and our constitutional order.
The war for America's future is upon us. This is our battle plan to win it.
This piece originally appeared in Newsweek
