On the Wall Street Journal op-ed page, Phil Gramm and Michael Solon, building off an Atatürk exhortation to Turkey for economic success in 1923, write about Ukraine and Poland's highly divergent economic paths following the collapse of the USSR, but then segue to their real message --
Atatürk's dictum is a warning that without economic growth and prosperity, political and military victories can be transient and historically inconsequential. President Obama has won historic political victories. ObamaCare, the Dodd-Frank financial reforms, the largest stimulus program in American history and the most pervasive expansion of regulatory authority in three quarters of a century largely fulfilled a progressive agenda that predated the 20th century. While Mr. Obama has transformed American society, his program has failed to produce an economic triumph, a failure that a free society will not long tolerate.
For some conservatives, it's always 1938. For others, it's always 1989.
Atatürk's dictum is a warning that without economic growth and prosperity, political and military victories can be transient and historically inconsequential. President Obama has won historic political victories. ObamaCare, the Dodd-Frank financial reforms, the largest stimulus program in American history and the most pervasive expansion of regulatory authority in three quarters of a century largely fulfilled a progressive agenda that predated the 20th century. While Mr. Obama has transformed American society, his program has failed to produce an economic triumph, a failure that a free society will not long tolerate.
For some conservatives, it's always 1938. For others, it's always 1989.