Going forward, America can do without Trump or Biden. America, however, can't do without American ingenuity (i.e. craving for invention). Neither Trump nor Biden, in my judgement, can truly answer the call for American ingenuity the way Ronald Reagan did. In the face of stagflation, Reagan boldly cut capital gains tax to release an explosive entrepreneurial energy among the Americans. As if on cue, microchip came along and the rest is history. 

But Reaganomics also sowed the seeds of globalization. As Chicago’s oral historian Studs Terkel documented, the Great Lakes-based heavy industries were sacrificed for the altar of Wall Street. The succeeding administrations only made it worse. Even Trump, a populist, had not been able to reverse the misfortune of the working classes particularly during the pandemic. His Reaganite tax cut was good, but not good enough to be a Reaganite game changer.

Biden? Don’t hold your breath.

As a nation of invention, America needs world-shaking technological breakthrough every generation. Microchip, however advanced, was the answer for the past generation’s call. This generation—our generation—calls for a different stroke of technological genius. Quantum computing? A medical-biological revolution induced by this pandemic? Every great prize is up for grabs.

In the next presidential election cycle, would someone pick up the idea of American ingenuity and run with it?

—— by Lingyang Jiang