2024 Will Be Fraught with Challenges, But the American People have the Resolve to Defend Our Liberty Against the Enemies for Freedom
Welcome to 2024, a year that undoubtedly will be enormously consequential for America and the world – a world that has become far more dangerous over the past year.
The Iranians have orchestrated a three-pronged attack by directing Hamas to wage war on Israel, the Houthis in Yemen to attack commercial shipping in the Red Sea, and Iranian militias to attack American bases. The Chinese Communist Party is ramping up their threats against Taiwan, a free and sovereign nation vital to America’s economic and national security. Vladimir Putin is continuing to wage a war of aggression against Ukraine. And on America’s southern border, we are seeing unprecedented lawlessness and overwhelming illegal immigration. That these crises are happening together is not a coincidence; it is clear evidence that President Biden’s weakness is emboldening our adversaries and reinforcing the idea that America is on the decline. In the year ahead, we need to make one thing clear: This decline is not inevitable. It will require American leaders from across the political spectrum who believe in the fundamental goodness and greatness of America, being ready to commit themselves to reestablishing American strength and resolve on the world stage. I am confident America can do this.
Restoring American strength must begin with restoring law and order on our southern border, where we have a full-blown national security crisis of the Biden Administration’s making. On Monday, December 20, federal law enforcement encountered nearly 15,000 immigrants, the highest-ever number of recorded crossings in a single day. Before this past year, illegal immigrant crossings had only reached 200,000 in a single month twice, both in 2001 when it was assumed that amnesty for illegal immigrants was going to happen. Yet this past year, illegal crossings in a month exceeded 200,000 seven times, and nearly 1 million illegal immigrants apprehended at the border were simply cut loose. These astonishing figures become even more concerning when we consider that since the Hamas attacks on October 7, more and more individuals on the terror watch list are being caught trying to cross our border illegally. For these reasons, we must secure the U.S. border in 2024. We must elect leaders who are committed to enforcing the same policies that worked in the Trump Administration: building the wall and enforcing agreements that keep asylum seekers in Mexico while their claims are processed, rather than allowing them to cross our border unfettered.
Beyond our borders, restoring our strength and resolve is crucial to ensuring that Americans live with security, freedom, and prosperity. Unfortunately, the Biden Administration has done the opposite. Instead of deterring the malign Iranian regime with hard power and sanctions, it has made ransom payments, begged for negotiations, and relaxed sanctions even while Iran’s militia proxies attack American military bases. President Biden removed the Houthis – an Iranian proxy – from our list of designated terrorist organizations, and now the Houthis have launched over 100 attacks on commercial and shipping vessels in the Red Sea over the past month. Instead of standing by our ally, Israel, in its fight to eliminate Hamas, it has undermined it every step of the way and caved to antisemitic progressives here at home. Eight days before the brutal Hamas attacks on October 7, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan remarked that, “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades now.” This Administration is utterly disconnected from reality; its understanding of the world is fundamentally flawed, and its leaders – starting with President Biden – lack both the vision and ability necessary to keep America and our allies secure.
Restoring our strength and resolve also means continuing to support Ukraine in its efforts to defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s invasion. Let’s be clear: We shouldn’t support Ukraine because we are gullible “nice guys” or because we are looking for a fight against Putin. We should support Ukraine because it helps the American people. Allowing the world to become a place where actors like Putin can violate the sovereignty of their neighbors at will makes it more dangerous for all Americans, as well as our partners and allies. It makes the world less stable and less prosperous, hurting business owners here at home. Supporting Ukraine lessens the likelihood that America will eventually get dragged into a conflict against Russia. Simply put, the cost of a Russian victory – to America and our allies and partners – would be far greater than what we have provided to Ukraine.
The Biden Administration’s appeasement of Russia and Iran has resulted in war, first in Europe and now in the Middle East. Failing to restore American strength and resolve in our competition with China will almost certainly yield the same, but with far more devastating results. Indeed, Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping feels so emboldened right now that he flat-out told President Biden at their recent summit that Beijing would reunify Taiwan with mainland China, but that the timing has not yet been decided – a move that would be disastrous for the American people and the entire world. Perhaps Chairman Xi was implying that there is nothing President Biden or America can do about it. Chairman Xi is incorrect: By working alongside partners and allies in the Indo-Pacific, we can absolutely deter China from crushing Taiwan’s freedom.
American decline is not inevitable. There are some in our country who embrace this fatalism because they already despise America and everything we stand for; these are not the people we should entrust with the leadership of our country. Instead, in 2024, we should support and elect leaders who love our country, believe in our Founding principles, and are confident that a strong and secure America can lead the free world to victory against the forces that oppose it.
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