Although optimism might be premature, it seems to me that some healing and sanity is haltingly taking hold in America today.
A national fever might have broken on Election Day in 2024 when, to the dismay of the astonished liberal punditry, Donald Trump swept back into the White House while winning every swing state and the popular vote. To say that the direction of our nation has changed dramatically is a stupendous understatement, but this does not tell the whole story.
It is important to keep in mind both what has happened during this past year and a half—and what has not. The continued efforts of Democrats to kneecap Donald Trump and his policies have delayed but not deterred his agenda. Despite working to their utmost to foment anger—whether regarding the deportations of the estimated 10 million illegal immigrants allowed to cross our borders by the Biden administration, the use of military force to protect our nation’s interests throughout the world, or the repudiation of the transgender madness inflicted on our children—Americans have remained remarkably calm in the face of non-stop fear mongering. Protests proceed, signs are waved for the cameras, the “experts” predict disaster, and the vast majority of Americans simply go about their daily business.
There are, of course, still a great many examples of the negative and the nihilistic everywhere we look today. We are now fighting a hot (but hopefully cooling) war with an Iranian nation whose leadership seems intent on turning their citizens into unwilling martyrs. We are going broke as a country with frightening rapidity, and our elected representatives often seem supremely unconcerned about our mounting national debt. Much of our daily culture and entertainment is sadistic, exploitative, or just plain stupid. Our educational systems are great at creating bureaucracies, handing out paychecks, and writing reports—but typically lousy at teaching our children and young adults.
Their is also the dry tinder of our declining trust in our government bureaucrats, our clueless class of academic experts, and our double-talking elected officials. The many outrageous examples of fraud floating to the surface around our nation have exposed the seamy underbelly of unaccountable and out-of-control government spending that is a honey pot for criminals and cuckoos who simply apply for a grant and watch the checks roll in—with no oversight of their activities. Whether it is fake hospices in California, non-existent daycare centers in Minnesota, or your old-school Medicaid fraud in New York, our leaders have spent years shoveling our money into the pockets of crooks with nary a care. Whether any of this stolen money splashed back in the form of campaign contributions and kickbacks has yet to be determined, but it is difficult to believe the fiscal watchdogs were looking the other way without instructions from above.
There has, nonetheless, been no George Floyd-ish turn toward rioting and looting since the election. Despite the exhortations of excitable insurrectionists braying from the remnants of the legacy liberal media, most of our citizens have reacted to the confusion and stress associated with foreign and domestic challenges with notable equanimity, although to judge by the people attending the periodic “No Kings” demonstrations, there is still an enraged super-minority of Americans who clearly don’t understand that their protected rights to peacefully protest contradict their wailing about tyranny being everywhere they look. Dealing with different judgments, values, and morals is simply the price you pay for living in a free society—which apparently drives some among us insane—but the vast majority of Americans are coping just fine.
Oddly enough, I believe our notable restraint in the face of never ending incitement is directly attributable to the Covid-19 panic of 6 years ago. The blizzard of official lies that crashed down on Americans crushed the ready credulity that fear mongers rely upon to manipulate us and twist us to their will. Having become more wary and willing to ask hard questions after having our lives ruined for over two years because of a bad case of the flu (how many of us still remember being warned that our streets would be plastered with the dead if we dared step outside?), few Americans are still prepared to simply swallow the daily propaganda dump regarding the oppressions supposedly turning our country into a Fascist dystopia. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Americans have grown weary of panic porn. Dogs that yap continuously fray our nerves, so many Americans are now ignoring the daily dose of Democrats and their complicit media pals screeching about whatever is supposed to rile us up this week. The rug has been pulled out from under climate change hucksters, the supply of actual bigotry has been revealed to fall short of what the media outrage machine requires, Americans like the idea of Americans being the only ones allowed to vote in America elections, and it turns out using our armed forces to protect our nation and our interests is pretty popular.
Of course, those jeering on the sidelines routinely point to polls that claim to show Americans still fear the sun, see injustices everywhere, love illegals immigration, and hate winning wars. However, many of these “polls” are actually AI-generated fantasies that skip the step of asking actual living, breathing voters what they think—and can be ignored.
As World War Two was starting and England faced the real threat of invasion by Hitler’s seemingly unstoppable war machine, posters appeared with some simple advice to calm the nerves of those scanning the skies for Stuka dive bombers and the seas for German battleships: Keep Calm And Carry On. It was good advice during those dark days of 1939.
Ignoring the doomsayers and defeatists is a very smart idea, and it seems to be developing into a good habit as well. If we keep our wits, we can better protect ourselves from the nitwits among us who define themselves through their fear and anger.