From Bunker Hill to Normandy, JD Vance Is Wrong About America (w/ Rep. Auchincloss) | How to Fix It

Congressman Auchincloss asserts that patriotism, defined by faith, family, and the flag, should not be exclusively coded as a conservative value. He contrasts this with JD Vance's 'blood and soil populism,' arguing that Americans fight for ideas like freedom and equality, not just homeland. He aims to build a 'patriotic center' to counter cynicism about the country, emphasizing that criticism of policies is distinct from cynicism about the nation's foundational ideals.

Auchincloss describes growing up with portraits of founding fathers, serving in the Marine Corps, and swearing an oath to the Constitution eight times. He directly refutes JD Vance's 2024 speech, citing historical examples from Bunker Hill to Normandy where Americans fought for ideas. He also addresses the 'patriotism gap' among young Democrats, attributing it to a perceived sophistication in cynicism.

The U.S. faces significant challenges in building infrastructure, housing, and energy projects due to excessive regulation and bureaucracy. Auchincloss proposes a 'Build America' agenda to drastically simplify permitting and construction processes, aiming to launch a nuclear renaissance, build 10 million homes, and develop high-speed rail, ensuring economic opportunity and national security.

He cites the example of nuclear power plant construction: three years in 1954 versus four years for paperwork and another decade and a half for construction in the 2000s. He advocates for energy permitting reform, unlocking housing production through incentives for jurisdictions, and building more ships to counter China's naval advantage.

To address the academic and socio-emotional damage from school closures and the pervasive influence of social media on youth, Auchincloss proposes a bold education reform plan. This plan includes surging high-dosage one-on-one tutoring and phonics instruction, to be paid for by a tax on social media corporations' digital advertising revenue, which he views as the monetization of children's cognition.

He recounts the 'catastrophic mistake' of prolonged school closures in 2020 and the resulting academic decline. He specifically mentions a bill to fund tutoring for reading by third grade and algebra by eighth grade. The funding mechanism is a tax on digital ad revenue, citing Utah's 2.5% levy as a precedent, and highlights Instagram's valuation of a teenager's lifetime value at $280.

The current 7,000-page U.S. tax code is deemed unsalvageable due to loopholes favoring the wealthy. Auchincloss advocates for a complete fresh start, centered on fairness. This includes ensuring inherited wealth is taxed similarly to earned income and rebalancing the economic ledger to favor labor over capital, especially in the context of AI's impact on employment.

He highlights the 'buy, borrow, die' playbook of the ultra-wealthy who avoid income tax by borrowing against assets. A specific policy idea is taxing compute at data centers and using that revenue to offset payroll taxes, making it cheaper to hire people and more attractive to have labor on a company's balance sheet.

Auchincloss argues that the U.S. often misunderstands strategic power in the 21st century, focusing too heavily on military operational excellence ('boxing') rather than 'chess.' True strategic influence now lies in exercising 'chokepoint control' over critical global supply chains, a lesson he believes the U.S. has failed to learn from interactions with China and Iran.

He critiques the president's perceived weakness in negotiations with China and the 'compounding failures' in the Iran conflict. He points to China's 'chokepoint control' over critical minerals and Iran's over the Strait of Hormuz (20% of world oil/fertilizer transit) as examples where the U.S. was forced to back off. He contrasts this with the U.S. leveraging ASML (Dutch lithography company) to choke off chips to China, demonstrating effective chokepoint control when 'on our game.'