Corbin is professor emeritus of marketing at the University of Northern Iowa.
Before we get too far into the new year, let’s review the immediate past, present and future of America’s political, economic and social fabric.
Despite predictions of a recession in 2023, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the Wall Street Journal: 1) Federal Reserve actions brought inflation down from 9.1 percent in 2022 to 3.1 percent, 2) 2023 annualized growth averaged around 3 percent, 3) new business startups came at a record pace, 4) the unemployment rate fell below 4 percent and 5) the typical middle-income households had higher earnings, more wealth and more purchasing power than before the pandemic.
Research reveals four economic measures paid off handsomely for Americans: the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the $1.75 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the $1.2 trillion Inflation Reduction Act and the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act. The economic reward includes the American economy producing more goods and services (up 2.6 percent); wage gains outpaced inflation and will be even more significant in 2024.
Last year also witnessed: a declining crime rate, U.S. carbon emissions falling below 2007 numbers and all three major stock indexes soared dramatically, boosting the retirement savings of more than 150 million Americans. For the first time in decades, people could earn around 5 percent from their savings and money market accounts, which increased the financial well-being of tens of millions of people. (Wall Street Journal, Dec. 30-31, 2023)
We’re witnessing a boom in cleaner energy, and the cost of metals used to make batteries will continue to remain low in 2024. Additionally, strong oil production growth in North America and increasing global refining capacity will keep gasoline prices down in 2024.
While the U.S. debt ceiling was raised by Congress on June 3, 2023, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives has only passed seven of the 12 appropriation bills they promised to approve in the fall. National debt remains a critical problem; it grew $8.2 trillion (40.43 percent increase) during Donald Trump’s presidency and $1.8 trillion (6.33 percent) since Joe Biden has been in the White House.
CRINK is the new acronym patriotic and democracy-loving Americans should remember: China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. CRINK shows no signs of easing up on cyberattacks or inundating Americans with disinformation, misinformation, social media propaganda, artificial intelligence interference and fake political ads in 2024, similar to the 2016 presidential election. CRINK’s implicit and explicit war against Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel and the United States – to name a few targets – will continue. A strong president who opposes CRINK dictators versus honoring their autocratic leaders is paramount.
As the Supreme Court goes back into session, 5, all Americans hope the justices will decide: 1) what presidential immunity means, 2) what defines interfering with the counting of electoral votes, 3) whether states control the election process, 4) if a president is an “official” of the government (Section 3 of the 14th Amendment), 5) whether Trump engaged in reelection activities or presidential duties when he did nothing for 187 minutes during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and 6) if the Jan. 6 attack was a normal tourist visit or an insurrection.
While the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Pew Research Center polling shows 62 percent of Americans support pro-choice rights. Along with women’s right to reproductive health decisions, immigration reform will also – implicitly – be on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Bipartisan deals on immigration have eluded lawmakers and presidents for three decades. Knowing Congress is so divided and the asylum law is complicated, politicians will most likely kick the can down the road and claim the 300,000/month migrant issue will be settled on Nov. 5. Common sense tells us otherwise. For the record: Trump only had 517 immigration judges on the bench in 2020 and Biden increased that total by 42 percent (734 judges).
There are 8.75 million indigenous Native Americans and Alaska Natives in the United. Since the remaining 98 percent of Americans are descendants of an immigrant family, it is ironic – and a sad state of affairs – when the benefits of immigration are questioned and our elected delegates can’t resolve the issue.
Finally, after Nov. 5, Americans will know whether they remain in a democracy or have reverted to living in a populist authoritarian dictatorship.
Issues to be resolved – a multitude were not identified in this op-ed -- are plentiful. Ready or not, 2024, here we are.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.