In a Wall Street Journal interview a few days ago, President Donald Trump was circumspect regarding his party's prospects in the 2026 congressional elections.

Although no one doubts the president's supreme confidence that he is doing the right things for the country ("I've created the greatest economy in history"), he acknowledged "that he couldn't predict if that would translate into political gains for Republicans next fall."

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The party of the sitting president has picked up congressional seats in midterm elections only twice since World War II: Bill Clinton in 1998 and George W. Bush in 2002. And the case of Bush was far from business as usual. The election followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 9, 2001. Patriotism was surging, with Bush's approval peaking at 90 percent, and by the 2002 elections, it still was above 60 percent.

Trump's latest approval rating by Gallup is down to 36 percent.

But the case of President Ronald Reagan shows that, although sticking to principles may create some early turbulence, eventually the right path pays off.

Reagan's approval rating, per Gallup, was down to 36 percent in the second year of his presidency.

Currently, per Gallup, the percentage expressing "satisfaction with the way things are going" in the country is 23 percent.

In November 1982, at the time of the midterm elections in Reagan's first term, satisfaction stood at 24 percent.

In those 1982 elections, Democrats picked up one Senate seat and 26 seats in the House.

But by the time of the presidential election two years later, November 1984, Reagan's approval was over 60 percent, and he won the presidential election in a landslide, capturing 49 of 50 states.

The state of the economy when Reagan took office in 1981 – double-digit inflation and double-digit interest rates – was decidedly worse than now.

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However, the overall challenges that President Trump faces today are, I believe, greater.

Today, federal debt stands at almost 100 percent of GDP. In 1981, it was less than 25 percent.

In 1980, per Statista, 18.4 percent of our babies were born to unmarried women. By 2008, it hit 40 percent, and it has remained steady since.

Per USAFacts, in 1980, the percentage of U.S. households headed by a married couple was 60.8 percent. In 2022, this was down to 46.8 percent.

In 1980, the main security threat facing the U.S. was the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was a security threat, but not an economic threat. Today, the U.S. faces both Russia under Putin and the enormous economic and security threat from China. In addition, we must deal with the ongoing threat of Islamic terrorism.

Per the World Bank, U.S. defense spending in 1980, at the time of Reagan's election, stood at 5.2 percent of GDP. Reagan got this up to 6.8 percent by 1982. Per Statista, projected defense spending in 2025 stands at 3.2 percent of GDP, hovering around a historic low.

Social Security and Medicare, our two largest entitlement programs, which together account for some 45 percent of the federal budget, are broke. Per their trustees, Social Security will have insufficient funds to pay benefits by 2034, and Medicare Hospital Insurance funding will fall short in 2033.

The world has changed dramatically since Social Security was signed into law in 1935 and Medicare in 1965. What firm does business today as it did 50-plus years ago?

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These programs need thorough modernization. Politicians may not want to talk about it. But citizens know there is something wrong.

Although the road of change was rocky at first, Reagan's unwavering commitment to the USA as "the land of the free and home of the brave" won the day.

Today, we have historically outsized challenges. It's obvious that America's socialists – the Democratic Party – is the wrong address.

If we are going to have a future, we need bold, courageous leadership today.

Republicans are the only address. To our good fortune, we have great leaders like Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Capitol Hill.

Star Parker is the founder of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education.