Bolder Answers

a blog by Dr. Thomas O'Brien

 

Dr. O’Brien is a Co-Founder of New Statecraft. Dr. O’Brien was previously the co-founding Director for Research at Horizon Institute for Policy Solutions from 1990 to 2000. The Institute was committed to advancing socioeconomic justice while harnessing market mechanisms to minimize bureaucratic regulation.

Dr. O’Brien’s work has been published extensively in the world’s leading periodicals including The Economist, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal among many others.

In his blog Dr. O'Brien reluctantly departs from his unifying inclinations in order to call out the unique threats of disinformation that America faces in 2024.

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DISCLAIMER: The sentiments presented in the Bolder Answers Blog are exclusively those of Dr. O'Brien and do not necessarily represent or coincide with those of New Statecraft and are in fact a departure from the general spirit of unification which animates the organization. These viewpoints are presented in response to the unusual threat posed by an unprecedented disinformation campaign spearheaded by former President Trump and his advisors. To be clear, Dr. O'Brien offers no criticisms of former President Trump’s policy assertions or positions here. Instead this blog identifies the fatal flaws with the Harris-Walz campaign that have prevented them from leading this election by large margins. It is clear from voter registration in the swing states and voter statements in public opinion research that Kamala Harris is well on the way to losing the presidential election to Donald Trump. Every expert on the planet argues that this election is a toss-up, and anyone’s guess in a 50-50 election. Yet even at this late date, Ms. Harris can make changes in her campaign to decisively win the election by presenting more major substantive reforms that would inspire tens of millions of disaffected nonvoters to turn out and choose who will govern the nation for the next four years.

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The Most Important Question: Increasing Divisiveness

The objective to divide the nation even more is the most important issue. No matter how bad Kamala Harris is, with heavy Republican presence in Congress, there is no doubt that conservativism will be successfully protected in law for the next four years.

No one can dispute that Harris would be less divisive than Trump, or that a Harris administration would be less divisive than a Trump administration.

The human race is threatened by weaponized disinformation worldwide. At the dawn of AI, with information war across sovereign borders aimed at destroying democratic governments, with unremitting propaganda and contempt, these threats will grow more diabolical by an order of magnitude. We cannot permit an agent of the disinformation vector to tear the nation further apart than it already is. It is hard to even imagine what a further divided society might look like, but a Trump victory would guarantee that result.

THINK BIG: Support a Constitutional Amendment to Reduce Influence of Money on Elections

Kamala Harris should say that she will strongly advocate for a single-sentence amendment to the Constitution, stating that “Congress shall have the power to enact laws to reduce the power of money in determining election outcomes and to ensure that challengers have a more fair chance. Any statute which is not judged by the Supreme Court to be consistent with these aims can be struck down by the judiciary.

American voters want the richest contributors to have less influence on the enactment of laws.  The top 100 donors in the 2022 mid-terms significantly outspent the 3.7 million people who gave small donations.”  There are 340m ppl in the US, but only 1% ever gave at all! And the top 100 spent the MAJORITY!! Daniel Weiner, Brennan Center, C-SPAN, Washington Journal, April 26, 2024.  Three billionaires, Elon Musk, Miriam Adelson and Richard Uihlein gave the Trump campaign $220m just this year so far.  And the family of an assistant manager at a 7-11 is not able to even CONSIDER giving $200 to any political campaign.

Lawrence Lessig argued on the Diane Rehm Show that 96% say that money has too much influence on elections and government in the US, but 91% say that it can’t be reduced. This is “the politics of resignation”. He says that the belief in corporate ownership and control of the political process is the #1 reason citizens cite as their reason not to vote.

The biggest problem is not the money (it’s a tiny amount of money, relatively). The problem is how it’s raised; begging 400 people in the nation to fork over the “big” money.

Conservatives: Have No Fear!

Kamala Harris is at least HARMLESS because Republican chairs of every committee and majorities in at least one chamber will certainly prevent and cabin every intention to enact any progressive legislative attempts. 50+ Republican senators are a bulwark certain to make any radical progressive agenda dead on arrival.

For example, there is zero chance that the Republican senate will enact any ban on black arms, military-style guns. There is zero chance that you can get the votes to restore Roe v. Wade in full detail. Harris is relatively harmless because of the Senate and also huge numbers of Republican members of the House of Representatives also.

Take Far Bolder Actions on Chronic Problems

She should FORCE Congress to act on the problems that every American agrees need to be fixed. She should veto the HHS appropriations bill until Congress acts to finally fix Social Security. Force the committees of jurisdiction to stay in negotiations at least five days a week if not more until they reach a big majority to finally fix this. She can allow a temporary appropriations bill for one week at a time as long as these committees remain in continuous negotiations. Let Congress agree to any mix of tax increases or benefits reductions or adjustments. But require that Congress finally make this action.

Force Congress to reduce the tax code. She can veto any IRS appropriations bill until the committees of jurisdictions reduce the insanely complex tax code that EVERY tax economist agrees is stupid beyond description. Allow a temporary appropriations funding one week at a time as long as the committees remain in continuous negotiation to cut the size of the tax code by 20% in phased-in simplification. She can agree to accept ANY changes Congress chooses, but the tax code needs to be simplified MASSIVELY. EVERYONE agrees that this should be done, Democrats and independents. Yet no president has promised to fix it.

Similarly, she should fix the massive explosion of federal debt. All economists left and right are in agreement that the failure by Congress to make the hard decisions is remarkably irresponsible. She should veto any federal budget that does not put these massive deficits on a path to quick elimination. Congress fails to make the unpopular decisions that are necessary to balance our federal budget. She should allow a temporary week-by-week funding of the federal government as long as the budget and appropriations committees remain in continuous negotiations to fix the budget at least five days a week. She can let Congress choose any mix of spending cuts in any area and tax revenue increases in any areas (cut defense spending, cut any other funding, and close any tax loopholes it chooses or raise taxes it chooses (tax gasoline and poisons, etc.)

Merits of a Bipartisan Cabinet to Unify America

Her Cabinet needs to be AT LEAST 50% Republican. Now the Hobson's choice America is facing is: "100% Republican Cabinet" (Stephen Miller, Jim Jordan, Devon Nunes, John Ratcliffe, John Eastland, Chaffetz, Kash Patel) or a 90% Democratic Cabinet. To unify this nation faithfully, we need a Cabinet at least 50% Republican under a Democratic president. A single Republican does not unify 100% of this society.

Trump’s Age

Harris is failing to make an issue of his age appropriately. Trump at the end of a four-year administration would be OLDER than Joe Biden is today. Moreover, look at video from three years ago of Biden mountain biking and of the obese Trump playing golf. Trump’s diet is notoriously self-destructive, especially in comparison with Biden’s. Trump’s death in office would be particularly important because of Vance’s beliefs on many issues. It is those two issues – Trump’s PHYSICAL unfitness for a presidency four years from now, and the effects of Vance’s beliefs on his presidency in important ways. She refuses to bring attention to these issues; the only thing she has brought herself to say thus far is that she would be a new generation of leader if elected president, and that’s ‘it’s time to turn the page on Trump and his tired old playbook.’ Donald Trump is older than former President Bill Clinton is TODAY, and Clinton left the White House in January 2001.

Promise a Limited Pardon of Trump

Trump faces many state as well as federal criminal charges (tax fraud, elections fraud charges by the state of Georgia, federal charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results by inciting a bloody coup, charges on retaining classified government documents that he refused to turn over, payments to Stephanie Cliffords to remain silent on sex affair. Many conservative voters understandably feel that many of these charges may be motivated by partisan concern only. Harris can leave many of these charges standing, but assuring all conservative voters that her Department of Justice will not be weaponized for political purposes would reassure them that her administration will not be unduly vindictive. She can encourage with strong rhetoric Georgia to drop the charges of election fraud and promise to drop the federal charges of inciting violence in the Capitol building. These issues have been very well aired and Mr. Trump has paid a very high price emotionally as well as in other ways, including financially for attorneys’ fees. Unifying the nation by dropping certain federal charges will serve the nation’s future. She can leave the sex attack and the flagrant tax fraud cases standing. All conservative voters will be happy to hear that we can move beyond these matters for the future best interests of the nation.

Failure to Explain Inflation Reality

FIRST, and most centrally, inflation is a burning issue for modest-income eligible voters. Astoundingly, she has implicitly accepted Trump’s blame for inflation. The core wording is: “Prices are too high. I will take on corporate price gouging.” She submissively accepts Trump’s narrative: that U.S. inflation is somehow Joe Biden’s fault.

In reality, it is foundational to understand and to convey that the planetary coronavirus pandemic jolted the entire planet into a deep shock and recession. Worldwide, massive swaths of economic activity – entire industries across the Earth – completely shut down, and many virtually were operating only in a ghost capacity, with 90+% of their customers staying home and not spending their pennies to stoke economic activity.

Many industries and sectors shut down ENTIRELY. Every airport was entirely empty; everything in the airline industry, every airport business supply chain had their sales drop to a shadow of normal economic activity. Every restaurant, every bar, every concert arena, every gym. Yeah, Trump said they still should have stayed open the whole time. No one was showing up anyway, and Republicans taking his advice to go to work and to not get vaccinations were dying by the hundreds of thousands in excess [look up excess deaths in Trump counties].

Virtually every industry, the automobile industry, doors, batteries, toys, amplifiers, phone jacks, earbuds, kitchen utensils, you NAME it …. Manufacturing businesses shuttered or were hobbling along at low capacity ALL ACROSS THE PLANET or at the very least were operating with large-scale employee absenteeism. It was a catastrophic economic earthquake. Moreover, China shut down its ENTIRE economy BY LAW. The 1.4b Chinese citizens could not even legally LEAVE THEIR HOMES, unless they were having a heart attack or so. And China is FULLY 25% of the global economy, and its supply chain sprawls across every inch of Asia AND BEYOND (think US high-tech exports like machine tools). The Chinese economy crashed not “something like the Great Depression”. It crashed dead. Its economy – 25% of world GDP – went from long-term growth of something like 100% capacity and activity to virtually zero; a crash totality unlike any economic event in the history of our species.

Moreover, increases in U.S. federal spending to lessen the collapse were NOT the doing of Joe Biden! Every PENNY of spending by the U.S. government was appropriated by the REPUBLICAN-CONTROLLED HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES!!!! Every nation on the planet also experienced the global trauma of a sudden and large explosion in government debt. This debt explosion was unprecedented in human history with a few exceptions. So every government on Earth, rich and poor, received a tremor of immediate and permanent swelling of their societies’ debt burdens.

Yes, the U.S. national economy also took on this debt and spending explosion, but the votes in Congress were near-unanimous.

Look at the U.S. economy. Yes, grocery store prices are permanently higher; with our Republican-approved higher debt burdens, we must work our way back to pre-pandemic standards of living. But MARK THIS: the U.S. economy – yes, the Biden economy -- is WITHOUT DISPUTE the single economy among the large industrialized economies enjoying the HIGHEST AND FASTEST economic growth AND the highest PER CAPITA INCOME RECOVERY. AND, AND, AND, the U.S. economy is ALSO the best performing economy on STOPPING INFLATION THE MOST SUCCESSFULLY!!! Look it up.

Failure to Explain the Flaws in Trump’s Tariffs Proposals

The second AMAZING mistake that the Harris-Walz campaign is making is their failure to properly destroy Trump’s idiotic central economic plank: absurdly high proposed tariffs. This would be so monumentally destructive to our economic prosperity here that it’s hard to even convey properly. The main and only significant charge Harris levels at Trump’s signature plan is that it would cause huge price increases. While that is true, it is the LEAST of the self-destructive dimensions of his plan.

First, equal OR EVEN HIGHER counter-tariffs are a CERTAINTY!!! Emanuel Macron, and every other leader across the planet, will counter with equal or greater punitive tariffs targeted EXCLUSIVELY at the American economy. Note the following well: these tariffs by France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Australia, China Thailand, Vietnam, and on down the list will target ONLY the UNITED STATES economic products!!! France will still have almost NO TARIFFS against every other nation, but trade between France (or any other nation) with the U.S. will crater completely. We may export to South Korea or Germany, but these exports will collapse. Germany will stop buying U.S. products and will import competing goods from China, South Korea, Denmark, and every OTHER nation on the planet. Those customers will be lost, maybe forever as those new substitute trading relationships between companies replace U.S. exports.

The U.S. is certain to lose a unilateral trade war. Every U.S. company will face the counter-tariffs, and we’ll lose those contracts because every other nation on Earth will maintain the low tariffs with every other nation. ONLY the U.S. would be in a unilateral trade war. This is not 100 nations having sanctions against Russia. This is one nation at trade war against the entire world.

Moreover, -- and never forget this – look at these jobs that Trump will lose. We import low-wage products, but our exports tend to be very high technology and very high wage. These are the highest-wage employees in our economy. These are the jobs and industries that are the driving core of the American economy and prosperity and tax base.

If you’re not sure that Emanuel Macron will respond in kind to huge unilateral tariffs on French exports to the U.S., ASK HIM!!!

Moreover, and this is Economics 101, no economist or economic historian disagrees that the high tariffs applied by the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of 1930 are what made the Great Depression as bad as it was. The U.S. imposition on tariffs in 1930 resulted in IMMEDIATE counter-tariffs on U.S. exports to the other nations. The Smoot-Hawley tariffs are universally condemned by economists as having caused the depths of the Great Depression. Unemployment rates of 25%. Tariffs are what made the Great Depression so bad. Look it up!

Trump’s conclusion? “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff’. BBC World News America, video, 15.10.24.

Warn About a Further Rightward Lurch of the Supreme Court

Harris only mentions that Trump’s three “hand-picked Justices” overturned Roe v. Wade. She NEVER mentions that the next President very likely may in addition name replacements for Elena Kagan and Sonya Sotomayor. Elena Kagan is 64 years old expecting a happy birthday next April. Sonya Sotomayor is fully 70 years hold, hoping for another happy birthday next June. This puts them ALREADY past the retirement ages for many of our parents, for example. And Kagan has Type I diabetes, which yields a life expectancy fully 11 years shorter than the average American. Do a little math and Trump could soon manufacture an 8-1 court, and many informed voters argue that the court is already too extreme in its rightward departure from the nation’s mainstream in a 50-50 nation. Harris should emphasize (she never has) that the Court should not be jerked further to the right.

The Immigration Negotiation Process that Trump Killed

Democrats often focus on Trump’s central message of immigration. But they are obsessed with a single remark that he would stop immigration by pushing his political capital around by being ‘a dictator’ for only a single day to get his immigration enforcement adopted. This language needs to be left to ancient history and Harris needs to emphasize the pivotal central facts of the negotiations between Sen. Chris Murphy, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, and Sen. Frank Lankford. The most important facts of those negotiation and that bill are these:

First, three United States Senators negotiated FOR NEARLY FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS. They negotiated VIRTUALLY EVERY SINGLE DAY, with scarcely a single day off, and they negotiated for hours REGULARLY. Do you think that the other 97 Senators were not aware of what was being developed? Their jobs are interacting closely with their 97 colleagues. And politicians like to talk. The most senior Republican negotiators over the past few years, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Texas Senator John Cornyn, were consulting with Sen. Lankford regularly during those negotiations. Lankford did not negotiate alone.

That bill had so much support from Republican Senators that the vote was going to be roughly 70 votes; yes, even immune from filibuster and the 60-vote threshold. Sen. Joe Manchin said prominently on national television that four days before the vote, there were roughly 70 votes in favor, and Sen. Murphy said there were about 67 votes three or so days before the election. Again, this is IMMUNE from ANY failure to win any cloture vote, the 60-vote, immune to filibuster vote failures.

The stars had aligned in such an unprecedented way that it was going to be the first substantial immigration law reform since about 1983. The other prior major effort during the Obama era to change U.S. law died. Yes, they were stopped by a single man, former President Trump. But the important thing about his order (or suggestion?) to the Party was not just that they should kill the Lankford et al. bill, but they should prevent ANY bill from being enacted into law. Trump’s tweet verbatim said: “A DEAL will be bad for us.” And said please “blame me”. He ordered his followers to end ALL negotiations.

Moreover, Democrats have never done a good job at describing exactly the benefits that this bill would have provided. The new enforcement provisions is why 20 REPUBLICAN senators were committed to take the tough vote to finally approve American immigration reform. Democrats have done a poor job in explaining the powerful enforcement reforms in that bill. (More details to come.)

Righteous Questions

MAGA world is a Christian majority movement. Americans who are voting for Trump in a supposedly 50-50 election are overwhelmingly self-professed Christians. These voters describing themselves as Christians must ask themselves these most important questions: Is Trump Christian? Is Trump religious? And putting those questions of specific religion aside: Is Trump righteous? The answer to all these questions is: no. Bill Clinton is right that being president is a sacred responsibility. Yet Trump invariably engages in the politics of personal destruction, insulting the physical appearances of people’s faces, Adam Schiff, Ms. Clifford, Carly Fiorina, for example. He has said that women who have accused him of sexual attacks would not have been attacked by him because he would not have “CHOSEN” her because her sexual attractiveness was not extremely high enough. He has even joked publicly that you can grab the genital areas of unknown women and that: “If you’re a star, they’ll let you do it!” Devout Christians must ask themselves whether America should be divided even more than it is today with unprecedented divisiveness. He has made sick jokes about a hammer attack on an 81-year-old man. America is bitterly divided by tribal hate. The society should not embrace a descent for four more years into further contempt and destructiveness of our torn social fabric.

What Do Nonvoters Need to Hear Before They Will Vote

Both campaigns are bent on focusing on mobilizing the extra one percent of potential voters, but are not speaking to the passions of those who dislike both parties.

63% of voters dislike BOTH parties so much that they say that “a third MAJOR party” is needed in the duopoly party control system because the two parties do “such a poor job” (Gallup, e.g., Newsweek, “Americans Want a Third Party”, October 18, 2023). Almost all Americans believe that major changes are needed to disrupt the party tribalism, including MAGA voters. There are more self-identified independents than either Democrats or Republicans.

Right now, about 30 to 40% of registered potential voters refuse to bother to do the following: make a free two minute telephone call to the Registrar of Voters to tell the Registrar their name and address and let an absentee ballot application appear in their mailboxes, fill in their minimum information and spend 40c for a stamp to put it back in their mailboxes, and to follow the mail ballot instructions and put their vote into their mailbox for pick up or drop it at a Post Office or mailbox. About 40% of American adults will refuse to do this to determine who will govern America as president for the next four years.

Beyond the duopoly. Harris should at least vow to sign any bill passed by Congress that give independent voters better choices. Those 63% of ALL voters VERY MUCH want reforms that give independents strong chances to win seats in both Houses of Congress. Harris could additionally vow to veto any Federal Election Commission appropriations bill until Congress agrees to establish instant election runoff for all federal election races or, more moderately, she could vow to veto any FEC funding bill unless the Senate at least allows a vote on an amendment to require instant runoff in every federal election, with any details that the Congress might prefer. Harris can commit to signing the appropriations bill with or without instant runoffs but only after it has received a full floor vote in the Senate: “If the Senate votes no, I will happily sign the bill with no instant runoffs provision”. Any time that a voter is not satisfied with the two major party candidates (e.g., nominee for governor in North Carolina Mark Robinson) and there is at least one other conservative candidate on the ballot, those voters can vote first for another conservative running as an independent.

If Robinson still wins fewer first-choice votes than the other conservative independent and he finished third in votes, his votes would be transferred to whoever those voters had as a second choice. In the North Carolina governor race, there isn’t a remote possibility of Mark Robinson being elected governor. North Carolina needs a better choice than being forced to accept that duopoly choice. That’s 63% of ALL VOTERS who want a “Major” third party.

A Far Bolder Reform of American Pharmaceutical Pricing

Harris emphasizes achievements here by the Biden administration. But far bolder reform is necessary. Instead of Americans paying 400% higher price for a drug than sick Germans and the German government, Harris should simply demand a yes or no vote by Congress on a bill making it illegal to pay pharmaceutical prices that are greater than 20% higher than the average price paid by Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia. Yes, pharmaceutical companies can afford to pay more for R&D if Americans continue to be forced to pay excessive prices. But if that’s true, why don’t we encourage Big Pharma to double or quadruple today’s prices AGAIN so that they are able to increase their R&D spending further? If Big Pharma wants higher prices to fund new R&D spending increase, let them charge higher prices to all consumers and governments in all of our peer governments EQUALLY!!! But she should demand a yes or no vote on global price equity. If Congress votes down this proposal, she can then sign the appropriations bill without any price discipline reform.

Expand Women’s Abortion Rights in Reality

People already know what their feelings on abortion are. Kamala Harris is NOT going to get “Roe” re-enacted into federal law with the Republican senate. Even if Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, Congress will not mandate that all 50 states must allow abortion for any cause up through 22 weeks of pregnancy. But women in many states face draconian limits, even in rape and incest and exceptional cases like stillbirth and other nonviability. Many states have made abortion illegal or criminal entirely, or after six weeks.

It is a simple mathematical fact that the number of voters who strongly want to protect adult sovereignty over pregnant women’s bodies to eight weeks at a minimum is MASSIVELY higher than those who want to mandate that all 50 states allow abortion for any reason up to 22 weeks. Those who favor adult women’s rights over their bodies through eight weeks is about xx% while only about xx% want to mandate abortion on demand through 22 weeks. Yet Congress has failed to protect abortion rights through even SIX WEEKS! High percentages object to abortion on demand at even 12 weeks. She should focus on the most dire need to protect women’s rights over their bodies by mandating all 50 states allow abortion up to 8 weeks or 12 weeks, not mandating every state to provide abortion rights through 22 weeks, which will not be enacted in the foreseeable future IN ANY EVENT. Make fewer enemies and expand adult body sovereignty. Using the “re-instate Roe” nationally through 22 weeks is the wrong language for her stump speeches.

Congress CAN be induced to expand women’s rights in cases of rape, incest, nonviability, and through at least 6 or 8 or 12 weeks of pregnancy, and induced to do so NOW; rights that tens of millions of women do not have today.

Harris’ Public Appearances and Media Interview Strategies Should Reach More Voters

Ms. Harris has used her days to make three or so separate public speeches in a single battleground state, wasting lots of time in transit. A single appearance in Milwaukee that day is guaranteed to reach millions of Wisconsin voters in all media in Wisconsin and NATIONALLY (e.g., MSNBC and CNN on every program, and nightly news broadcast, radio and newspapers). If she also presents a powerful, divergent, new message for each media cycle, the message will reach EVERY MEDIA OUTLET IN EACH SWING STATE. Speaking additionally in two other cities in that state in the same day by comparison gives an EXTREMELY low return on investment of her time. Every voter at those two other rallies that day is already guaranteed to vote for Harris; it is preaching to the choir. The time of those additional voters would be better spent working to get out more votes or phoning friends and colleagues who may not vote Harris.

She can instead make a single appearance in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania THE SAME DAY. This guarantees that all state and local media appearance, and watercooler discussions focus on her unique message for that day. Even the single speech venue in Wisconsin would reach every national outlet if she has important new different messages for that day. Ain’t no problem in getting that message out EVERYWHERE.

She can reach millions more in the swing states by offering a five-minute discussion with a single host of a CNN or an MSNBC show, or the network broadcasters. A single short discussion with Ali Velshi or Caitlin Collins ensures rebroadcast all through the day on each of those networks, and a 5-minute discussion with Margaret Brennan ensures all-day coverage on NBC for that 24-hour cycle through the morning shows. Likewise with Neil Cavuto or Brian Kilmeade and Fox News Network. So, too, with a five-minute chat with talk radio stations and newspapers. If she has an important new policy reform for that day, even more so.

Harris Needs Bolder Answers

The Harris campaign should win every remaining news cycle overwhelmingly with earned media by bringing forward bolder solutions to America’s problems.  She should say she will keep pressure on Congress to reform its dysfunctional budget process, reforming emergency spending exploding the debt, achieving votes to reform out of control mandatory spending, improve American elections by pressuring to reform gerrymandering abuses, establish automatic voter registration, assuring skeptical citizens by establishing stronger penalties to deter individual election fraud cases, force incumbents to liquidate their campaign ‘war chests’ when incumbents sit on slush funds of $20 million that discourage any credible challengers from standing for election, reform executive pay and corporate buy back abuses that now have perverse incentives, oppose mergers and strengthen antitrust opposition to the abuses by effective monopolies, advocate to oppose bump stocks that make guns into machine guns, reduce perverse incentives that produce jailhouse ‘informants’ who provide false testimony against innocent individuals, oppose police interrogation abuses that also produce wrongful convictions, expand the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to stabilize world oil markets and protect the United States from future oil supply shocks, oppose judge shopping where rich litigants are able to hand-pick their own extremist judges to hear their cases. On this and many other issues, we would propose that Americans need bolder, CONCRETE reforms to improve the American future.

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DISCLAIMER: The sentiments presented above are exclusively those of Dr. Thomas O'Brien and do not necessarily represent or coincide with those of New Statecraft.