Summary of Superpower in Peril By David McCormick: A Battle Plan to Renew America

By Willie M. Joseph

DISCLAIMER

This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of Superpower in Peril By David McCormick: A Battle Plan to Renew America

 

IN THIS SUMMARIZED BOOK, YOU WILL GET:

• Chapter astute outline of the main contents.
• Fast & simple understanding of the content analysis.
• Exceptionally summarized content that you may skip in the original book

David McCormick, the former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, outlines a conservative agenda for American renewal that would expand access to the American Dream, ensure U.S. technological supremacy, confront China, and revive the restless, courageous, and indefatigable spirit. This book is a must read for those who care deeply about the future of America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Willie M. Joseph
• Release date: Mar 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215869109

Willie M. Joseph

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INTRODUCTION

On a rainy Friday in May 2022, Pennsylvanians went to the polls to pick their Republican nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat. The race was tight, and Donald Trump also came to Westmoreland County to hold a rally for his opponent, Mehmet Oz, whom he had endorsed a few weeks earlier. My campaign was surging, and I flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump. When I arrived, I was escorted into President Trump's office and sat across from him.

The most important details in this text are the events leading up to Donald Trump's endorsement of Mehmet Oz in the race for president of the United States. Dr. Oz was asked about the political divisiveness in America, and the former president warned him that he couldn't win unless he said the election was stolen. The former president then attacked Dr. Oz, calling him Wall Street, not Main Street, soft on China, not tough on China, a globalist, not America First, and saying he'd get to Washington and fold like all the establishment Republicans. This attack was unexpected, as President Trump had previously attacked incumbents with whom he had disagreements, but never attacked other Republicans running for office, particularly a candidate who knew him as well as Dina and I did and who was campaigning on many of his policies. The speaker was born in Washington, Pennsylvania and grew up in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, a small industrial town.

He was accepted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and learned the three words that become the rallying points for every cadet: Duty, Honor, Country. He studied to be an engineer, trained to be an Army officer, and worked religiously in the weight room and on the wrestling mat. He was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in 1987 and fought in Desert Storm as part of the 82nd Airborne Division. After completing his doctoral dissertation, he returned home to Pennsylvania and joined and eventually became CEO of a cutting-edge software and services company, FreeMarkets.

He created six hundred jobs in Pittsburgh and was called back to public service. I have seen the country from many angles, from Main Street to Wall Street to the proving grounds of the 82nd Airborne. After leaving government, I went to work at Bridgewater Associates, where I became co-CEO, was fired, and eventually became CEO again. President Trump interviewed me to be Treasury secretary, asked me to be his deputy secretary of defense, and appointed me to his Defense Policy Board. I was surprised to hear the president attack me, but realized that his words reflected the tension at the heart of the conservative movement: the forces of traditional, big business pulling against the populist wave.

The most important details in this text are that the old Republican Party and the traditional understanding of what it means to be a Republican are dead, and that the new Republican Party is more at home in the values of exceptionalism and free enterprise. The author's family were Democrats in the early 20th century, but the times and the political landscape have changed, and they now hold the same values as the Republican Party. The author also reflects on the limitations of the orthodoxy of the Republican Party, and how it needs to change. President Trump's nationalist argument was economically pragmatic, devoid of the ideological language of the trench warfare that had stalemated presidential politics. He recognized the wave of legitimate anger and disillusionment that cut across traditional party lines, and rode it to victory in 2016.

He reset our relationship with China and explicitly put the needs of Americans first in our foreign and economic policies. To save our republic, we need a vision for how we will address the immense problems before us, and leaders who can unite our country around that vision. The Biden administration's abandoning of Afghanistan in August of 2021 was a shocking and deeply troubling symbol of America's decline. It left thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans who had fought alongside us exposed to the depredations of the radical, evil Taliban. Dina, who had served in senior roles in the White House under both President Bush and President Trump, stayed up night after night trying to get Afghan women and American citizens out of the country, but there was no balm.

Six months later, Russia invaded Ukraine and tanks and missiles bombarded and murdered innocent civilians. The most important details in this text are that America has faced grave threats at home and abroad and defeated them, and that the ultimate test of a great power is its ability to renew its power. This nation has an unparalleled ability to overcome its own circumstances, thanks in no small