Republican Party leaders have lost touch with their base, with Independents, and with the general electorate’s craving for equitable prosperity.  That’s odd. The economy consistently polls at the top of voter concerns.

The single most important factor in the 2016 presidential election pithily was described by the New York Post’s John Crudele in a column headlined Americans haven’t gotten a raise in 16 years:

One last statistic, from Sentier Research. Median annual household income in the US reached $57,263 this past March, which was 4.5% higher than in March 2015.

But — and here’s where the anger comes in — this March’s figure is still slightly below the $57,342 median annual income in January 2000.

January 2000!

Americans haven’t gotten a raise in more than 16 years.

Both Republicans and Democrats alternately have been in control of or possessed shared influence over the federal government for a long, dreary, Little Dark Age. Both Republicans and Democrats have come up short in resolving this slow motion crisis. No wonder we voters are dissatisfied. No wonder the appeal of outsiders and party mavericks.

The incumbents have failed us. Comes now Donald Trump as a wake up call.

[…]

Trump surely wishes, if elected, to become “the greatest jobs president that God ever created” rather than the next Depression-inducing Herbert Hoover. Is Donald Trump able to offer up the kind of mechanisms that propelled America to create nearly 40 million new jobs under Presidents Reagan and Clinton?

Trump shows some promise in his unequivocal praise of the gold standard as a crucial element in restoring equitable prosperity. Trump: “Bringing back the gold standard would be very hard to do, but boy, would it be wonderful. We’d have a standard on which to base our money.”

There is plenty of evidence that the gold standard would let the djinn of equitable prosperity out of the bottle. Restoring it would be far less difficult than Trump suggests.

Trump’s propensity for tax rate cuts also shows promise.

Going into the general election, Trump need only double down on the gold standard and cutting marginal tax rates to unite the party and excite America. Will he?

[…]

Read the full article at Forbes.com.

Ralph Benko, internationally published weekly columnist, co-author of The 21st Century Gold Standard, lead co-editor of the Gerald Malsbary translation from Latin to English of Copernicus’s Essay on Money, is American Principles Project’s Senior Advisor, Economics.