Economics
American exceptionalism is based on our nation's unique founding as a great middle-class society, without oligarchical rulers. This foundation of our popular sovereignty is under attack, as the middle class slowly declines from its peak during the postwar boom. Conservatives and liberals alike praise small business in word but seek to kill it in deed. The economic policies of the neoliberal Washington consensus are hostile to small business, favoring faceless international conglomerates and investment bankers who despise our traditional values and identity as Americans.
From its founding, the Republican party has always been a corporatist party, originally organized for Wall Street banking interests and their railroad and oil concerns[1]. Libertarianism's reflexively pro-corporate philosophy heavily influences the economic policies of the Republican party. These abstract ideological commitments prevent conservatives and libertarians from curbing the inevitable rent-seeking, regulatory capture, and other anti-competitive behavior of for-profit enterprises. Free-market economics are a blessing to the middle class in so far as they provide robust employment and high wages, but as the centralization of industries accelerates, competition declines, and the middle class suffers. The Republican party is congenitally incapable of diagnosing and addressing the problem of corporatism because the party was founded on it as an ideal.
Liberal economic policy is even more duplicitous. The left wing of the Democratic party complains about capitalism, but their reforms serve the interests of big business in the end. Corporate lobbyists write the byzantine regulatory code[2], so it predictably does nothing to prevent bad behavior by corporations. It does, however, create massive barriers to entry that small, family business struggle to navigate. The Left promises to "tax the rich" and make "greedy corporations pay their fair share," but they rarely deliver because of those pesky Republicans. When taxes do increase, they tend to disproportionately affect the middle class because complex tax loopholes are only available to those who can hire the accounting firms that specialize in exploiting them. Republicans help to perpetuate this corrupt system when a free-market argument is needed as a foil. The inevitable result of this system is the centralization of economic power in ever-fewer hands, which is further exacerbated by global online commerce.
Globalism is inherently at odds with nationalism. The corporatist globalism now emerging is a pale, technocratic culture of rootless elites who trumpet their altruism but pursue policies that make life for common people more difficult. Globalism would create a race of overmedicated working-class debt slaves, whereas economic nationalism would create strong, independent families across the economic spectrum. Ideally, every man should have meaningful work that provides sufficient income to own property and raise a family with a wife whose time is free to raise the next generation. Of course, women also may pursue careers, but they should not be forced to out of economic necessity.
Economic freedom and free-market competition should be encouraged to the considerable extent to which they benefit the average person. Consumers benefit from price competition and diversity of choice, and stricter enforcement of anti-monopoly laws would help to create such an environment. Laws that create so-called "natural monopolies," de facto monopolies, duopolies, or cartelized systems must be reformed. Although nationalism takes up the cause of the American worker, labor unions have been detrimental on the whole. The worker is most empowered when demand for his labor is high, and that requires a strong national economy. Rather than empowering corrupt and overwhelmingly leftwing labor unions, a nationalist economy would support the rights and interests of workers by creating an economic environment in which his labor is in high demand. Employment laws should be reformed, as should every other policy that harms small, family-owned businesses to the benefit of multinational firms.
The state of corporate rights and regulations in America allows significant foreign interference in the marketplace and disproportionately empowers publicly traded companies. Significant corporate reform should be implemented gradually and only after careful economic analysis to prevent shocks to the market. Specific reforms should review limited liability law, which undermine the core American value of personal responsibility, as well as court rulings that afford the rights of personhood to companies, which is dehumanizing. The most abusive cartel of all exists in the financial system. It is covered in more detail in the Monetary System section.
All policies on taxation and regulation should be reassessed for their effect on middle class families. Taxes on income should be reduced and eventually eliminated in proportion to reduced defense spending, corporate tax loopholes should be closed, and tariffs should be increased in defense of American industry. Regulations should be greatly reduced and streamlined but enforced vigorously to prevent fraud and abuse of individuals by corporations. Following Andrew Jackson's example as president, governments at all levels should pay down sovereign debt to reduce the tax burden and gain independence from creditors.
[1] Murray N. Rothbard, Government, Business, and Economic History, 1990
