It’s morning again in America.
That’s the sentiment shared by me and Republicans on campus, as well as across the country, following the Republican Party’s and Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the 2024 election. The course of the ship will be righted, bringing with it an unbridled sense of hope and optimism for a prosperous future for our country..
The day after the election, the sunrise looked more beautiful, the air smelled sweeter, the food tasted better. The future is bright, but before Trump reenters the White House and the real work begins, let us take a moment to capture the zeitgeist of the moment from my perspective as a Vanderbilt Republican.
On Trump
Donald Trump’s victory brings me enormous personal satisfaction. He has completed one of the greatest comeback stories in world history. Since being a contender for the Republican nomination in the 2016 election cycle, he and those around him have faced every imaginable obstacle.
He has endured and withstood nearly a decade of media vilification, two impeachments, various legal and criminal investigations and indictments, threats to seize his wealth and assets, 34 felony convictions, and two assassination attempts—one of which came within millimeters of taking his life.
Regardless of where you stand politically and whether you believe the actions against Trump were justified, it’s absolutely undeniable that the President has demonstrated unique virtue in overcoming these challenges. It’s easy to gloss over a public figure’s humanity, particularly for Donald Trump, but it truly does take strong character to handle the stress of perpetually fighting a media apparatus that despises you and publically runs negative stories against you and your family. It takes resilience to fight a legal war on all fronts that drain you of time, energy, and over $100 million. Faced with the threat of a tarnished legacy, financial ruin, and even potential incarceration, most would retreat, hoping to be left in peace and acknowledging they had poked a bear they should have avoided.
But not Trump. He has kept going, kept fighting. That fighting spirit was embodied in the now-legendary photograph of him pumping his fist in the air, with blood trickling down his face, yelling “Fight! Fight! Fight!” It took serious personal bravery to spontaneously do that after being shot at. That is the embodiment of American resilience—what Trump represents.
So, on a personal level, good for Donald Trump. I have to admit, I was against Trump and for Ron DeSantis in the Republican primaries. Frustrated by Republican losses in the 2018, 2020, and 2022 elections, I believed Trump’s polarizing personality made him unelectable. But he has proven me—and every one of his doubters—wrong. He has completed one of the greatest political comeback stories in history.
On Harris
In the end, reality prevailed in this election, and the reality is that Kamala Harris was a bad candidate. There is a reason why she dropped out of the Democratic primaries even before reaching her home state of California in 2020. There is a reason why she is an unpopular Vice President. There is a reason why she needed multiple image “resets” during her term. People don’t like her, and perhaps if there had been a proper primary process and thorough vetting of candidates after Biden dropped out, the Democrats would have learned that lesson sooner.
Instead, in one fell and organized swoop, Biden was pushed out because of his senility and how poorly he was polling, despite the public being told he was “sharp as a tack” prior. Everyone boarded the Kamala train, trying to rebrand her as “brat,” energetic and offering a “new way forward.” Then, Democrats doubled down on their attacks on Trump, using pie in the sky arguments that labeled him “unfit,” a “fascist” and a grave “threat to democracy.”
The American people did not buy it, seeing right through the wool being pulled over their eyes. Why?
The policies pursued by the Biden-Harris administration, and the Democratic Party more broadly, have been catastrophic and malaise-inducing for America. The American economy has been poor, with prices up 21.4% since 2020, the private sector receding, and “job growth” being fueled by record part-time and government employment. This administration has been a disaster on the border, allowing millions of people to illegally cross into the United States. And of course, the world remains a geopolitical mess, beginning with the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, which signaled to America’s adversaries a lack of respect and emboldened them ever since.
When policies undercut people’s standard of living, making them poorer, while weak leadership fosters a sense of global chaos, backlash is inevitable. So, while she was a poor candidate, I don’t think any other Democrat could have done much better. This was a referendum not mainly on Kamala Harris but on the policies of the left more broadly.
In the first debate of the 2024 fall semester between the Vanderbilt College Democrats and Republicans, representing the Vanderbilt College Republicans, I opened by posing a question to the audience—and to Americans more broadly: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” That is what this election came down to. Americans have suffered under the policies of the Biden-Harris Administration, and that is why they voted decisively for Trump and Republicans.
It turns out people could care less for Trump’s cartoonish cadence, occasionally silly actions, and Democrat’s rhetorical sophistry about him being a “dictator” when their quality of life objectively declines due to the poor policy decisions of the current administration.
The Future
With Trump’s election, I believe there is a tremendous amount of opportunity and potential for this country in the years to come, so here are my predictions for this administration.
Let me begin by addressing a chief argument against Trump this election. Democracy will be fine. American democracy will remain intact. In a mere two years, Americans will return to the polls for the midterm elections, and then for the 2028 presidential election thereafter. Those who claimed democracy was in grave danger will be left looking foolish.
There will be a renaissance of American private enterprise, innovation, and ingenuity over the course of the next few years. The power of the American economy will be unleashed through deregulation, the permanent extension of the Trump tax cuts, lower energy prices fueled by increased drilling, and the dismantling of the sprawling, suffocating federal bureaucracy, led by Elon Musk and the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The world will be a more safe, peaceful, and quiet place. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East will conclude, and our enemies will regain their respect for us. Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea will retreat as we uphold the principle of peace through strength.”
On immigration, while I have doubts about the practical feasibility of Trump’s mass deportation plan, the southern border will be secured. The “Remain in Mexico” policy will be reinstated, and the rest of the southern border wall will be completed. American national sovereignty will return.
America will be made healthy again, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leading the fight against big agriculture, the food industry, and big pharma. He will work to eliminate the toxic chemicals that are poisoning Americans and causing chronic illnesses, removing them from our food, water, and consumer products.
As Trump said in his victory speech “this will truly be the golden age of America.” These are all things that give me a tremendous amount of hope for the future. That the next four years will be full of wealth and prosperity. The second roaring twenties. We’ll have strong economic growth, a more efficient government, a safer world, a secure border, and a healthier society. It will be an era of good vibes with the World Cup, Olympics, and Semiquincentennial of the U.S. We all have a glorious horizon ahead of us to look forward to.
