Trump can help America open a new frontier right here in the US

Americans person ever been defined by their frontier. 

It began with the vast, unexplored West, which historiographer Frederick Jackson Turner described in an influential 1893 effort arsenic "a caller tract of opportunity, a gross of flight from the bondage of the past."  

By the clip Turner enactment pen to paper, the frontier was already closing. Space, the "final frontier" successful "Star Trek," animated American imaginations for a time, but aft the archetypal excitement of putting a antheral connected the moon, the task seemed to peter out. 

HUD IS A 'MISSION-MINDED PLACE,' 'NOT POLITICAL,' SECRETARY SCOTT TURNER SAYS

President Donald Trump promised successful his second inaugural address to revive that dream, telling the assemblage that "we volition prosecute our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to works the Stars and Stripes connected the satellite Mars." Elon Musk, whose innovations astatine SpaceX volition assistance marque this imagination a reality, cheered wildly. 

America has tons of wide unfastened spaces. But lone 13% of national onshore is successful nationalist parks. FILE: Sky Valley, Georgia, Blue Valley Overlook, Nantahala National Forest, panoramic view, Appalachian Blue Ridge Mountains. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

But abstraction cannot beryllium a frontier the mode the American West was. In the 19th century, immoderate sturdy lad from the East Coast oregon Midwest could battalion a wagon and airy retired for the territories. The Homestead Act of 1862 handed out 1.6 million parcels of national onshore successful the West. Space holds nary specified committedness for the everyman. Astronauts are highly trained specialists, not regular guys with communal consciousness and a bully enactment ethic. The benignant of large-scale abstraction colonization that would marque the star strategy a existent frontier mightiness beryllium a period oregon much successful the future. 

There are, however, different ways to revive the pioneer spirit. Acquiring Greenland would unfastened up a harsh caller situation for hardy would-be homesteaders, but adjacent if the Danes garbage to play ball, Trump inactive has options.  

The U.S. authorities owns about 620 cardinal acres of land, which comes retired to astir 27% of the country. More than a 3rd of that onshore is successful Alaska, with the remainder mostly concentrated successful a fewer Western states similar Arizona (38% national land), Colorado (36%), Idaho (62%) and Nevada (80%). National Parks marque up only around 13% of national land, leaving plentifulness of opportunities for development.  

Two of Trump’s furniture secretaries are already connected the case. 

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner published a Wall Street Journal op-ed March 16, proposing a associated effort to lick America’s lodging crisis. 

"Under this agreement, HUD volition pinpoint wherever lodging needs are astir pressing and usher the process by moving with authorities and section leaders who cognize their communities best. Interior volition place locations that tin enactment homes portion cautiously considering biology interaction and land-use restrictions," they wrote. "Working together, our agencies tin instrumentality inventory of underused national properties, transportation oregon lease them to states oregon localities to code lodging needs, and enactment the infrastructure required to marque improvement viable—all portion ensuring affordability remains astatine the halfway of the mission." 

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It’s the benignant of bold enactment America needs aft 4 years of Biden-Harris lodging policy, which saw rents skyrocket and the outgo of a median-price home more than double. Other than a fewer vague noises astir gathering much houses, the lone large solutions they offered were throwing payer dollars astatine first-time homebuyers (which would person made lodging ostentation adjacent worse) and caller race-based regularisation preferring 1 radical radical implicit different and yet aiding neither.  

They besides sued RealPage, a institution that makes rental pricing bundle (which volition person nary effect connected prices, since the bundle simply reflects existing marketplace conditions and adjacent suggests little prices erstwhile request dips). Americans for Tax Reform and implicit 30 blimpish groups sent a letter opposing this Biden Department of Justice suit for this precise reason. 

The national authorities owns much than 200 cardinal acres successful Alaska alone. FILE: A presumption of downtown Juneau successful the Tongass National Forest successful Juneau, Alaska, Tuesday, July 6, 2021.  (Photo by Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Unlike the hackneyed ideas of the past that we saw during the Biden administration, the possibilities of Burgum and Turner’s lodging program are endless — and enticing. Libertarians could recovered hyper-innovative charter cities governed by CEOs. Devout Catholics could physique intentional communities centered connected monasteries. Crunchy homesteaders could turn everything they devour connected a fewer acres (and get that onshore astatine a discount if they hold to big students from a caller national sustainable agriculture grooming program). 

Ambitious young men (and women) who’ve flooded into the cities would abruptly person options different than exorbitant rent and small-town stagnation. In a start-up metropolis connected antecedently undeveloped national land, they could go founding fathers (or mothers) and assistance signifier vibrant caller communities successful the midst of unstained earthy beauty. They mightiness adjacent beryllium capable to support their aged telecommuting jobs portion they bash it. 

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And for the poor, the desperate, the ex-con, the denizen of a atrocious vicinity oregon dying municipality facing precocious likelihood of an aboriginal decease from a gangland shooting oregon fentanyl overdose, these caller developments clasp retired the committedness of adventure. Anyone consenting to enactment hard and brave capable to permission down the acquainted tin airy retired for the territories and marque a amended life. Go West, young man, and beryllium reborn! 

It’s existent that overmuch of this onshore is inhospitable, but truthful was Las Vegas, which grew from 800 radical successful 1910 to astir 600,000 a period later. Imagine it: successful a fewer abbreviated decades, determination could beryllium a large caller American metropolis springing up from the godforsaken oregon prairie, boasting its ain industries, arts scene, signature dishes and iconic landmarks — its ain unsocial taste "brand." It volition beryllium a challenge, but we’re the federation destined to colonize Mars. Surely, we tin grip agrarian Idaho. 

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