There were a lot of smart things that could be done "about China" and then there are a lot of dumb things...we chose the dumb things.
We could...oh...increase are R&D on automation, AI, green energy, electric vehicles dramatically, we could focus on better education and better infrastructure for our cities (like lightrail in Seattle to where I live that doesn't take $200 billion and 2 decades to build). We could have just fought China with a better product. We could lean into our chip advantage that will only last at most a decade anyways. And many of those fit in with Conservative philosophy even (who doesn't want less regulation and cheaper/quicker construction, well, at least moderates like me would).
But no, we doubled down on culture wars and going back in time to when America was more self sufficient but less rich.
We could...oh...increase are R&D on automation, AI, green energy, electric vehicles dramatically, we could focus on better education and better infrastructure for our cities (like lightrail in Seattle to where I live that doesn't take $200 billion and 2 decades to build). We could have just fought China with a better product. We could lean into our chip advantage that will only last at most a decade anyways. And many of those fit in with Conservative philosophy even (who doesn't want less regulation and cheaper/quicker construction, well, at least moderates like me would).
But no, we doubled down on culture wars and going back in time to when America was more self sufficient but less rich.