The Republican Candidate America Needs?
As someone who’s always resisted registering with a political party, a campaign rally was the last place I ever expected to be. Least of all for a Republican. But the event in Baltimore during the spring of 2028 was unique in many ways. For starters, it was enormous. Attendance was well in the hundreds of thousands—a number that would make even the largest of Trump rallies feel like a modest church picnic. When the candidate walked on stage, a shockwave of applause surged through the crowd. His name was James Sampson-Aguilar, or J.S.A. for short. He was a former Army Ranger who’d later started a successful law practice and was now running for President. I’d been following his meteoric rise from the start. Buoyed by an electric charisma and bold vision, J.S.A. had appeared from “out of nowhere” to become the only challenger of true significance in the Republican primary.
You’d be forgiven if you don’t recall much coverage of the event. But the symbolism of the venue was impossible to ignore. The stage sat in front of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, whose defense during the War of 1812 inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words of our National Anthem. Behind J.S.A, illuminated by spotlights, waved a replica of the colossal 40-foot-wide “Star-Spangled Banner” that had defied a terrifying onslaught of British warships and troops during the Battle of Baltimore. J.S.A had promised to make that symbolic American flag the centerpiece of his speech.
Predictably, some criticized J.S.A for choosing this site. They argued that, like the American Revolution, the war of 1812 was nothing more than a conflict perpetuated by wealthy, pro-slavery landowners seeking to bolster their privilege. But in an interview before the event, J.S.A had countered with a deftness that had become a trademark of his campaign. He acknowledged the pain of slavery and its legacy of injustice but emphasized that most of the heroes who risked their lives to hold Fort McHenry were working class merchants, tradesmen, sailors, and soldiers. They made a valiant last stand that saved their city, changed the course of the war, and altered the course of history. No doubt, J.S.A hoped for a similar turning point in his own unlikely campaign.
As he took the podium, the air crackled with anticipation. Rather than paraphrase what he said and risk tainting his words with my own more left-leaning bias, I’ve decided to simply include a transcript. This was his speech:
As most of you know, my name is James Samson-Aguilar. I am a retired Army Ranger, and I am seeking the Republican nomination for President of the United States of America. I have always believed we must face our nation’s challenges head-on. And I’ve dedicated my life to that belief. The day after September 11th, 2001, I turned down a full ride at Princeton and applied to West Point. I wanted to serve my country. I wanted to fight for it. And I still do. Today, our challenges are even greater and our rivals more determined. As President, I will never stop fighting to overcome them.
I am not here to tell you we need to “make America great again.” No. I believe America is, was, and will always be the greatest nation on earth. But right now, that greatness is being tested. For too long, Republican leadership in the White House and Congress has been failing our party—and failing our country. We don’t need leaders who govern by loyalty tests and rage against their enemies on social media. We don’t need leaders who weaken our trade, upend our alliances, and sow division with culture war distractions while ignoring the real threats we face. We need Republican leaders who truly understand America’s greatness and take real action to make it stronger.
What makes us so great? Our freedom of course. Our ingenuity, our courage, our values. But for me, the greatest thing has always been our history. Since I was barely two years old my mom would read me stories about George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe, and the other Founding Fathers. Sure, it sounds a little corny now, but when I was a kid, I couldn’t get enough of them. I’d ask her to read them to me over and over and over. Even though she was a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, I think my mom got a little tired of it. But one thing she never tired of is reminding me that my grandfather’s great-grandfather had fought and bled alongside these men. For us, American history was family history. But not just for our family. My mom always believed that every American who does their duty as a citizen shares that same bond. Our ideals and our shared history make our nation a family, whether our ancestors lived here when the Constitution was signed or whether they came later, like my grandad, from places like Ireland, Germany, Mexico, or Cuba, to help build this country.
Of course, our history is a lot more complicated than the storybook version my mom read to me when I was a kid. That hit me when I was in Iraq. As many of you recall, not everything in that conflict went as planned. There were no weapons of mass destruction. And the people we were supposedly there to liberate were attacking us every day. The chaos and uncertainty we faced were a test of leadership on every level. It made me realize that sometimes it’s not so much about having all the answers as it is keeping the team together. Connected. United. Focused on common cause. My experiences in Iraq made me realize a vital truth about our country’s history: people like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln weren’t gods or saints. They were real people who faced real problems in a world that was as messy, dangerous, and morally ambiguous. Just as it is today. They faced overwhelming challenges. And they made mistakes. George Washington nearly lost the continental army at the Battle of Brooklyn. Lincoln resisted freeing the slaves for political reasons—until he no longer could. But the important thing isn’t that they made mistakes. The important thing is that they had the courage to learn from them. And we can too. In every crisis our nation has confronted, from the Revolution to World War II to the Cold War, leaders and ideas have emerged that have made us stronger. Our history contains the secret to our survival. But only if we’re willing to learn from it. And right now, we need that more than ever.
America is at a crossroads. We’re facing new and disruptive technologies that could revolutionize our economy. But those changes also threaten to leave the American middle class even further behind. Our rivals in the world are more powerful and more emboldened than they’ve been since the fall of communism. And as a nation, we are more divided than at any time since the Civil War. But we must remember that when that conflict began, no one could have foreseen that America would not only emerge stronger but transform itself from a farming nation into the world’s mightiest industrial powerhouse. How did we do it? It all began with the first Republican President: Abraham Lincoln.
In 1862, even as the bloodshed of the Civil War was at its height, Lincoln was laying the foundations of America’s rise for the next hundred years. He didn’t do it through costly government programs or handouts, he did it through incentives. Through the Railroad Act, he incentivized railroads—the cutting-edge tech companies of the time—to connect the country, allowing us to build the great cities many of us live in today. His move was a boon for business and manufacturing. It created millions of jobs and previously unimaginable wealth. But Lincoln did not leave ordinary Americans behind. Through the Homestead Act, he gave incentives to people to head West, to farm new lands, to build a unified nation from sea to shining sea. Were these incentives and their outcomes perfect at every step along the way? Of course not. But they set America on a path to win world wars and reshape the world.
Today, America is once again on the cusp of revolutionary change. We are leaving behind the old industrial economy and plunging into the age of information and artificial intelligence. To meet our new challenges, we must ask, what would Lincoln do? What incentives would he put in place to ensure America’s greatness for the next 100 years? How would he ensure opportunity for every citizen?
I’ve talked a lot during this campaign about my five point plan for America: education, innovation, ownership, security, and patriotism. All of them are connected. For example, I believe incentivizing education is our number one priority for national security. Education leads to more opportunity and better jobs. But it’s also the key to spark the innovation we need to stay ahead of our rivals. China’s defense spending has been growing by over 7% every year and they’ve already surpassed us in AI and drone technology. And their GDP, by some measures, has already surpassed our own. Other adversaries like Russia and Iran are well into the 21st century arms race as well. Left unchecked, they could soon develop the weapons and technology to wipe our carrier fleets off the map in a matter of seconds, a Pearl Harbor on a global scale.
We’re not going to make advances in education with the failed tax-and-spend policies the Democrats have been pushing since the Johnson administration. No, we have better ideas to draw from. Take Bill Haslam, the Republican governor of Tennessee. He realized that to attract more businesses to his state, he needed a more skilled workforce. So, he created a program called Tennessee Promise that provides free college and technical training to all Tennesseans, regardless of age or income. Better skilled workers, as it turns out, are a much better, and cheaper, incentive than tax breaks to bring new industries and higher paying jobs to Tennessee. And you know what? I’m going to make that same promise to America. In the years ahead, we will have fewer manufacturing jobs. That’s just a fact. But we will do what America has always done, innovate and create new ones. And we’ll make sure that anyone who’s willing to work hard and study hard can own a piece of the New American Dream, no matter their race or background.
This idea goes to the very core of what the Republican Party has always been about. The socialists and Democrats want to expand the right of the American people to take. I will expand their right to earn.
Smart government incentives coupled with the dynamism of the free market is a powerful force. It’s given us everything from the automobile to Alexander Graham Bell’s lightbulb and telephone to the computer chip. And it’s going to help us tackle our biggest challenge, a threat more dangerous than China, Russia, and Iran combined. Most call it “climate change” or “global warming.” But this is misleading. Warming isn’t the issue. It’s the buildup of excessive energy in the atmosphere. The more energy that’s trapped there, the chaos it unleashes in the form of stronger floods, more devastating tornadoes, monster wildfires, and larger hurricanes. I hear from many Republicans this is all hogwash. Just a bunch of made-up liberal nonsense. But you don’t need to believe in something for it to kill you. For too long, Republicans have let Democrats lead the conversation on this issue. It’s a disgrace. Because the solutions proposed by Democrats are all, frankly, terrible. The so-called “Green New Deal,” failed because it never took into account how markets or the energy sector actually work. It would’ve been economically devastating. And by mandating strict regulation, it would have deprived millions of Americans of their personal freedom. If what you’re doing is asking businesses to not seek profit and asking individuals to not seek freedom is that America? No. Not the America I will lead.
But that’s not even the worst part. The truth is that the Green New Deal, or anything like it, won’t even work in time to save us. It’s simply too little too late. Many scientists say we are already past the “tipping point.” Even if we stopped emitting all greenhouse gasses right now, the melting of polar ice and tundra permafrost is unleashing an ever- increasing amount of warming gases into the atmosphere. It’s a runaway train. We will see the mass-extinction of species as the global food chain quickly collapses. And you know who depends on that food chain to survive? Us. Human beings. I’m not exaggerating. We are talking about total human extinction. Not to mention the war, starvation, and disease that will make our final days on this earth a living hell.
So what do we do? We do what America does best. We will lead. The answer is not emission controls or cap and trade or any of that nonsense. Even if the government forced Americans to give up their cars and businesses to reduce production, there’s no way we could force China and India to do the same. The answer to the climate crisis is actually very simple. The problem is too much carbon in the atmosphere. The solution is to take it out.
The Democrats have shied away from this idea, saying that viable carbon capture technology doesn’t exist yet. They say any attempts to push carbon capture are a form of “greenwashing” because it’s not efficient enough to work at scale. But that’s only because they lack the vision to make it a reality. In 1962, when President Kennedy said we are going to the moon by the end of the decade, the technology to get there did not exist. But in just 7 years, we made it happen. Under my leadership, we will be the first nation on earth to find viable carbon capture technologies. We will do it by 2030. But we won’t do it with big government programs. Like Lincoln, we will do it with incentives.
I am proposing a massive program to innovative companies who can successfully hit the carbon capture benchmarks we need to avert a climate doomsday scenario. Companies like Exxon and Chevron, who already bring invaluable know-how in the energy sector, will team up with our best and brightest minds to compete for tax breaks and cash rebates. We’ll offset these costs in savings from future payouts from FEMA as well as private insurance markets. Nobody has to drive a Prius or an EV if they don’t want to. Americans can rest easier knowing their homes, businesses, and farms are at less risk to devastating floods, droughts, fires and storms. We will ensure that our children will be inheriting a world of peace and stability, not one of mass starvation and violence. We should never forget how another Republican, President Teddy Roosevelt, created our national parks and put in place a conservation plan for millions of acres of resource rich land. He had the foresight to see that conservation would ensure America’s prosperity for future generations. We must follow his lead. And never lose sight of the fact that conservation is a conservative value.
All of this will take hard work, dedication, patriotism, and sacrifice. So, it bears looking back 215 years when America also stood at the brink of annihilation. It seems almost unthinkable now, but barely a generation after we’d won our independence in the Revolution, foreign troops had invaded and burned Washington, DC, while the President of the United States himself narrowly evaded capture on the battlefield. The invaders were far from finished. They set their sights right here, on the city of Baltimore. A fleet of more than 30 mighty British warships assembled in this very bay. Three battalions of battle-hardened redcoats marched up the peninsula you see there across the water. Many on the British side wished to see our upstart nation crushed, erasing the beacon of freedom and democracy that America would become. But we did not back down. A rag-tag group of citizen soldiers and volunteers came together to save their homes and their businesses from flames and destruction. In that moment, the violent political divisions between those who had been in favor of the War of 1812 and those who opposed it vanished. The people of Baltimore took up arms, dug trenches, sank their own boats in the harbor to block the British ships, and manned the cannons of this fort during 25 straight hours of searing bombardment. We all know something of the events from our national anthem, but few realize that the “bombs bursting in air” were 200-pound incendiary explosives that rained fiery death from the skies and that the “rocket’s red glare” referred to one of the world’s first ballistic missiles launched from British Royal Navy ships. The British saw the American defeat as inevitable. Yet, we prevailed. And yes, even now, our flag is still there. Today, America needs leadership that inspires the same spirit of unity, defiance, and sacrifice that won the Battle of Baltimore. As President, I will give our country that leadership and ensure our flag will still be there for many more centuries to come. Thank you. Good night, and God Bless America!
You might have expected wild applause at the end of such a speech. But instead, J.S.A. simply disappeared back from where he came: the recesses of my own imagination. It’s a place where an America that might’ve been grows fainter every day. Could such a candidate ever emerge? I don’t know. If it is possible, though, it must start with imagination. It will require true vision to disrupt the stagnate axes of discourse between right and left that have impeded our ability to see, let alone solve, existential problems. Our ossified media is filled with too many point/counterpoint exchanges that completely miss the point. Sure, culture war flashpoints sell better than complex, multivalent issues like climate or a rapidly militarizing China, but that’s more reason to hold both politicians’ and the press’ feet to the fire.
Would I personally vote for J.S.A.? That’s a tough one. I would guess that his stances on issues like abortion, immigration, and healthcare would be a tough pill for me to swallow. I would question whether J.S.A.’s embrace of an idealism that perpetuates America’s founding myths does more harm than good. And I would have concerns that his proposals for climate change are based on technologies that do not, and may never, exist. But if ever there was a candidate that had the inspiration and the courage to rally us around the issues that truly matter—and not the ones that fuel revenue for CNN and Fox News—then yeah, I might be tempted.
Derek Owen is a writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles.