Winning the election, witnessing the inauguration, celebrating an America determined to return to core values, be done with woke nonsense – is a lifesaving relief. But now comes the hard work, for which resolve, patience, resilience, unity, and determination will be necessary.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan won convincingly, and the darker – literally – days of Jimmy Carter were consigned, as the Soviet Union soon would be, to “the ash heap of history.” But 1981 began a hard-bitten period in which Reagan had to restore trust in leadership and limits on government.
His return to optimism, along with judicial textualism, and respect for our Founding ideals, Founding Fathers, and Founding documents – and for institutions as they were intended to work – took time. It did not happen overnight, and it will not happen overnight this time.
Carter left Reagan a big mess – an economy on its way down, high interest, inflation and unemployment, a brooding recession, international order shaken by Soviet aggression, and a sense that America was listless, inconsistent, and ineffective in addressing major security threats.
Three years were required for Reagan to reverse the Carter recession, bring inflation, interest, and unemployment down, cut federal income tax by 25 percent, push the Soviets back on their heels, reestablish America as the world’s idealistic, authentic, true-to-our-roots, unblinking leader.
Trump has some advantages Reagan did not. He has already served, shown how he operates, and what a thriving economy, low inflation and interest, strong markets, energy independence, tight borders, real defense, fair trade, sanctions, Middle East peace, and deterrence work.
Before he assumed the presidency again, the world knew him, our allies and adversaries respected his word, resolve, vision, and record for success. In some ways, that will – or should – accelerate his ability to achieve – once again – the goals he has set.
But it will require hard work. Five sources of drag challenge the Trump team – and all of us – as the President seeks to restore faith and trust in our leaders and government.
First, an active pool of Marxist and anti-Trump activists will create drag. They lurk at the federal and state levels. They have inverted the traditional hierarchy of priorities. Rather than Nation, party, and personal agenda, they are about personal gain, party ideology, and maybe the last Nation.
Second, numbers are a source of drag. Republicans have a very tight US House majority, a slim three to five vote margin, and no room for personal agendas over party discipline in this two-year cycle; even if Republicans hold the majority through inevitable special elections in the next two years, a predictably rough mid-term cycle is ahead. Nation first must be the mantra.
Third, Biden left Trump a far bigger mess than Carter left Reagan. The December inflation numbers are up again, the energy sector crippled, illegal aliens by tens of millions in need of deportation, trust in our criminal justice system objectively trashed by rogue prosecutors and judges, Biden’s 1500 pardons of felons, and a psychology that undermined public safety.
Worse, Trump inherits a 37 trillion dollar debt, major challenges to national currency and security, an ideologically and materially weakened defense, rising China and Iran, resurgent Islamic terror threat, and intransigent Russia – which Biden invited into Ukraine. He also must right the legacy of 100,000 allies betrayed by Biden in Afghanistan, not to mention Israel.
Fourth, Trump has only one term – not the promise of a second as Reagan did, which shortens the window for everything, necessitating more executive action, faster judicial and administration appointments, and an early push for legislation to fix what Biden left in shambles.
Finally, an actively anti-Trump bureaucracy, if not new, is newly infused with anti-democratic ideological fervor, which means getting on top of it early, every single department, seeking both efficiencies, as the Grace Commission did under Reagan, but more – eliminating insubordinate elements, along with pure waste and pockets of ideological poison. That is a steep climb.
One need not be a student of Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, Bill Buckley, Ronald Reagan, Ed Meese, or any other legal scholar or conservative scholar to see the stakes. They are perilous. The nation is in debt, under ideological assault, and requires real and trusted leadership.
The modern, progressive Democrat party has betrayed the nation, our cohesion, history, solvency, security, educational system, and both Federal and State institutions, which require conscious limits on government. They have also betrayed houses of worship and family.
Bottom line: America won when Trump-Vance won. We are all relieved. But now comes the hard work, for all of us, not least our president and vice president. They will need us to help, not rest.
To quote Churchill, when good news finally appeared mid-WWII, “This is not the end, not even the beginning of the end, but it may be … the end of the beginning.” Let us hope. Onward!
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
President Trump and his surrogates (JD Vance and Trump’s cabinet secretaries) need to be arm twisting on Capitol Hill every day if the headwinds outlined in this article are to be overcome.
Hard work, yes; impossible, no.
RBC, your column today is on the money. It will be up to the nation to keep our representatives in the Congress accountable, to back the new administration as the evil in the government needs to be cleaned up and removed. As you stated, it will not be an easy road, and the people cannot sit back, thinking the administration can do things by themselves. THE CORRECTION NEEDED WILL BE A TEAM EFFORT on everyone’s part.
Excellent article on the reality of what has to be done and the amount of time it will take to restore the country. We’ve just endured an administration whose intent was to intentionally damage this country beyond repair, if they could accomplish all their goals. Thankfully they are no longer in charge, but their allies in the federal and state bureaucracies remain and must be overcome for us to achieve true success. That process is already well underway and will become readily apparent in the next few weeks.
Success is achievable, but it will require ALL the Republicans in Congress to act like responsible adults for once. We don’t have time for petty grandstanding and posturing for the cameras. Congress already knows what the agenda is, because it has been articulated by President Trump for all of 2024 and was voted on by the American people. So there really is NO JUSTIFICATION for delay on the party of Republican members in both the House and the Senate to immediately get to work on crafting the legislation and pushing it through both chambers of Congress. The American people merely need to keep an active eye on their congressional representatives and push back hard, if any of them show signs of straying or backsliding into their old, bad habits of trying to endlessly kick the can down the road and doing nothing. This is our last chance, and we can’t afford to screw it up.
A large majority of citizens woke up today STILL believing that Trump is a convicted felon, that he “stole” classified documents, that he was involved with Russia, etc. It will take a year of HONEST reporting to change the minds of all the people who believed the lies and half-truths put forward by the lying mainstream media outlets, the democrats in our government, etc. The TRUTH must come out so that by 2026 midterms, the Democratic party has been decimated. Trump got elected with the help of minorities and young voters and they need to be absolutely sure that they made the correct decision. We need not only optimism but support from the people to maintain Trump’s vision to restore America. Trump needs to let Vance be a star as well (hopefully his ego can take it) so that we get Vance as our next President. It will take that long to completely dismantle Obama’s changes.
When Trump succeeds the commie media will swiftly shift gears towards shaming success. They did this with Reagan, remember? First three years brought relentless attacks and smears. Then, when it was obvious that it was going to be morning in America they started bemoaning‘ ‘ conspicuous consumption’. They used new words: yuppies, beamers and mcmansions to denigrate success. Watch for it.
Our Marxists are Marxists because they haven’t known any better for too long. Our new leadership (not some washed-out phony who can’t spell “leadership”) can show them the beginnings of a future that can raise their income and standard of living.
How will Deep State & others try to Block, delay Trump agenda now?
Democrats and their colluding media are rooting for Trump failure even at the cost of American prosperity. Only true success will shut them up and out!
Thank you for this impassioned column.
Hopefully Trump will read RBNC’s article. I am dedicated to supporting Trump’s MAGA agenda 100%. How do I do that? Reagan had a weekly (I think) radio address letting Americans know what issues he needed us to contact Congress about. FDR had a regular “My fellow Americans” talk. I pray that Trump will do something similar. Congress has shown itself to be incapable so many times. Trump needs to bypass Congress and come straight to us. I have no way to talk to him. Can you?
A great thing in favor of reestablishing principles that were disrespected during the previous administration has to do with the spirit involved – the ideas that promote good , positive thoughts and actions. To proceed Onward – toward normalcy, toward intelligent building of solid foundations wherever needed – with the knowledge that something right and proper is being done – that will surely help to overcome the sources of drag that are present in the various systems. All the weather reports for here in Pennsylvania today indicate that this is the last day of single digit cold temperatures for at least the next week – maybe longer – I listened to a favorite ” cold weather song ” after reading those weather reports – the 1963 song ” Heat Wave ” by Martha and the Vandellas – it helped to think about living better without the emergency cold conditions . And the Nation has been dealing with emergency political and economic conditions since 2020 so this article is very appropriate and appreciated Robert , good work with it – the truth of everything mentioned will be a major part of a new spirit – something uplifting for the principles of Faith, Family and Freedom.