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Celebrate Our Victories!
It has been an awful couple of years in the United States—culturally, religiously, politically—and it’s difficult to appreciate that some things are actually moving in a positive direction. In contrast to the disasters we’ve witnessed, the Federalist published a piece that focused on how many things we have accomplished, and I wanted to expand on that list. In some cases, my points are less about major victories, but about steps that we have taken to pull us out of the mire and take constructive steps to take back our country.
Let me summarize the points made in this article, and there were ten of them:
Overturning Roe, which has been long overdue; states, courts and parents pushing back on the trans agenda; even the general population beginning to realize that the media is in collusion with the Left; the Supreme Court upholding our second amendment rights; getting rid of Liz Cheney; a federal judge “smacking down” Biden’s federal mask mandate; Top Gun “Maverick” which bucked the Chinese censors, celebrated America and was hugely successful; the fight against Loudon County schools; Elon Musk’s restricting censorship actions of his own employees; and finally, states fighting for election integrity.
In my eyes, this list was impressive but incomplete, so I’m adding my own victories:
Several Attorneys General going after ESG; challenges all over the country continuing against the woke agenda, including Critical Race Theory; the media admitting their collusion with Democrats (in so many words) regarding the Hunter Biden laptop; greater public awareness of the disaster on the border; and states that refused to cave in to the Covid agenda.
But I was especially pleased to see Republicans fighting with each other: some of them are unwilling to act like Democrats and support the Leftist agenda. Although on the surface, the fighting is ugly and concerning. At the same time, we are beginning to witness the Republicans who are willing to strike out against the establishment agenda and take risks. We need to recognize those who are willing to fight back, and acknowledge them at the ballot box.
So our victories show up in our willingness to support those who show courage and determination to resurrect the conservative agenda.
It’s way past time, and I think those accomplishments are worth celebrating.
Please add to these lists of victories to help honor America and its Founders!
* * * *
I think that celebrating our victories is critically important for our personal wellbeing and for the country. In the months and years ahead, it will be easy to become discouraged when we see the state of affairs. These lists are not just intended to be morale boosters, but to provide balance to the negative outcomes and those who will try to discourage us.
[photo courtesy of unsplash.com]
Published in Culture
Sure. But most politicians, regardless of their party affiliation, want to get re-elected.
So, if the people are resistant to the idea of reforming entitlements (this is just one example of tough political cause that I identify with), some politicians like Paul Ryan might propose entitlement reform.
But then you will have people like Newt Gingrich, sensing an opportunity to win some votes in the 2012 Republican primaries, who will appear on the Meet the Press announcing opposition to the idea.
The irony is that back in 1995-1996, Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole were trying to force Bill Clinton to accept reforms for Medicare. The Left accused the Republicans of wanting to kill the elderly to save money.
Pat Buchanan, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, announced his opposition to the Republican Medicare reform plan, again, sensing an easy way to pick up some Republican primary votes.
Donald Trump in the first GOP presidential debate in 2015 pointed to some of his GOP opponents on stage and said, “Unlike these guys, I won’t cut your entitlements.”
Is reforming entitlements the right thing to do? Absolutely. But the politics are very tough. Some conservative ideas are popular. Others aren’t. Nothing wrong with admitting this at least to ourselves.
Flawed logic. The Dems and Hillary were happy that SCOTUS pick was held up, because they were sure Hillary would win and *she* would get the next SCOTUS pick. McConnell gets zero credit for doing something that the Dems wanted. If that weren’t true, McConnell would still be a guy who sold out America for 30 million pieces of silver to China.
This problem will fix itself, when the trust funds are depleted in 2033.
Yet, we were given free will and self-agency for a reason.
Yup. And if we visited a left-wing forum I’m sure we would see people complaining that the Democratic leadership must all be bought off, corrupt, or whatever because if they were doing their jobs, we would already have free college, Medicare For All, a national minimum wage of at least $15, the outlawing of privately-owned firearms, and a dozen other things on their wish list.
The truth is, having the presidency and a majority of a few seats in both houses doesn’t mean that you are going to be able to transform America into Bernie Sanders’ (or Ted Cruz’s) dream overnight.
Amen.
Amen also!
How did a celebration of victories in 2022 turn into a thread complaining about McConnell, GOPe, and RINOs?
Thanks for asking, Steve. I think there might be a few reasons: first, the victories are not numerous, and for some, they are minimized by how much was given up. Second, old habits are hard to break. Third, many people think the post was an invitation to raise their hopes (which was not my intention, but may have seemed so). It was to suggest that the potential is there to try to make things better. But some are afraid to get their hopes up, only to have them smashed.
Or was your question rhetorical? ;-)
If you have some thoughts on it, I’d love to hear them. You might even make it into another post! I’m going off-line for my Sabbath, so if you respond, I’ll see you on the other side. I’ve really appreciated your engagement in this thread.
It was a rhetorical question. I appreciated your focus on celebrating our victories. It was a much-needed reminder (certainly for me as well) to think about all the good things that have happened in politics in 2022.
Have a blessed Sabbath.
I think you could have a post about cooking turkey or choosing a cemetery to be buried in and someone will find a way to mention their distaste for Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Vlodimir Zelensky, central banking, or drag queens.
Really? Hockey, not hokey?
Even the ones who aren’t stroke victims sometimes have a hard time speaking coherently. Even from notes, cue cards, or a teleprompter.
Or, they are lawyers and speak clearly say that hate speech is not a protected right.