The following column is not an endorsement for a political party or candidate on the part of Newsmax.
The 2024 Republican presidential primary has the potential to be the most significant Republican presidential primary since 1952.
In 1951, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower told Sen. Robert Taft that he wouldn’t run for president if Taft endorsed NATO. After Senator Taft refused, General Eisenhower won the Republican nomination and the presidency.
If Taft was the nominee, there were some polls that showed Taft could have won in 1952. However, all the polls showed that Eisenhower would have won by a much wider margin.
It was Eisenhower’s credibility on national security that helped him win the Republican nomination and continue President Harry Truman’s containment policy.
In 1961, President Eisenhower famously warned the country about the “military-industrial complex” in his farewell address. At first, President Eisenhower explained that a large peacetime defense establishment was necessary against the Soviet threat:
“Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions.”
As the old saying goes, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Later in the farewell speech, President Eisenhower essentially argues this point:
“We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
President Eisenhower was able to stand up to the military-industrial complex because of his distinguished service to our country.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the only candidate in this race who has served in our military. He has the best chance to mobilize Democrats and Republicans against the corruption of the military-industrial complex.
While President Trump refers to this threat as the “Deep State,” I believe President Eisenhower’s term of a military-industrial complex is more accurate. The “Deep State” implies a corrupt bipartisan national security establishment trying to subvert a legitimately elected president for ideological reasons.
While it is true that there is a permanent national security establishment, and they did try to sabotage Trump’s presidency with the Russia collusion nonsense, these people have many financial reasons to stop Trump.
From 2001 to 2021, defense contractors made $7.35 trillion dollars in revenue. Even people who are not employed in the military-industrial complex have made a decent fortune investing in defense stocks.
For example, from 1977 to 2001, Lockheed Martin stock never hit more than $31 dollars a share. By the end of the Bush years, their stock had doubled.
From 2013 to 2023, Lockheed Martin stock had quadrupled from $100 dollars to over $400 dollars. In April 2023, Lockheed Martin stock closed at $498.04 a share.
We will never drain the swamp unless we ban Congressional stock trading, crack down on the relatives of powerful officials, who are cashing in on their connections, reform the military, and end the war in Ukraine.
There are currently no financial incentives for the American defense industry, and their benefactors, to win wars quickly and decisively.
The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Ukraine remind me of what John Adams once said about the French during the American Revolution. Adams wrote that French aid was designed to keep the French government’s hands “under our chin to prevent us from drowning, but not to lift our heads out of water.”
The financial incentive to prolong these wars is so overwhelming that the Biden administration is fighting a proxy war with Russia over Ukraine. It is not in America’s interests to risk a nuclear war for Crimea.
In the movie Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, Superman was appalled that Lex Luthor was willing to risk nuclear war to make a fortune in the defense industry.
Lex Luthor responds, “Nobody wants war. I just want to keep the threat alive.”
Ron DeSantis is our best chance to mobilize the American people to rein in the military-industrial complex and prevent nuclear war. Gov. DeSantis has a better chance to unite the Republican Party and win independents and Democrats.
DeSantis also has a very good story to tell about Florida and its economy. If Trump wins the Republican nomination, I will support him in part because his survival requires him to fight the military-industrial complex.
The problem is that there is a large NeverTrump movement. There is no NeverDeSantis movement.
I hope Republican voters will give Gov. DeSantis a second chance. Outside of Trump, DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy, most Republican politicians are establishment conservatives on national security.
Robert Zapesochny is a researcher and writer whose work focuses on foreign affairs, national security and presidential history. He has been published in numerous outlets, including The American Spectator, the Washington Times, and The American Conservative. When he's not writing, Robert works for a medical research company in New York. Read Robert Zapesochny's Reports — More Here.