Quote of the Day

"The Word of God who unites us is Christ the Lord, the desired of the nations. It is He who rises from the East as the rising sun, He whom America met and embraced five hundred years ago, thanks to the maternal tenderness of Mary who deigned to manifest herself to Juan Diego with the Indian features of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Touched to the heart by the divine mercy revealed in these features, from that moment on, America marches forward in the hope of the God who comes in Christ, in the midst of the hopes and challenges of the present time."

--Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Homily, December 10, 2012

Quote of the Day

"Let us ask ourselves: is my heart weighed down by fear, worries and anxieties about the future? Do I know how to look at daily events and the vicissitudes of history with God’s eyes, in prayer, with a broader horizon? Or do I let myself be overcome by despondency? May this Advent season be a precious opportunity to lift our gaze to Him, who lightens our hearts and sustains us on our way."

--Pope Francis, Angelus, December 1, 2024

Election Watch 2024: Morning in America

by Justin Soutar

Forty-plus years ago, one of our nation’s greatest presidents, Ronald Reagan, famously remarked that it was “morning again in America.” What he meant was that our country was emerging from a dark period of economic stagnation, bloated government, military weakness, and international turmoil, and was entering a new era of prosperity, freedom, security, and peace. This quote from Reagan leaped into my mind as I got out of bed on the morning after the historic Election Day of November 5, 2024 and saw the sun shining brightly. Like tens of millions of other Americans, I had stayed up late the night before watching TV newscasts to see the results of the 2024 presidential, senatorial, and congressional elections—or, at least, the results that would emerge that night. (In this new age of massive voter turnout and mail-in ballots, the results of close election contests are often not determined until a week or two after Election Day.)

To witness the spectacular triple victory of “former” President Donald Trump and his vice-presidential running mate J. D. Vance handily winning the electoral and national popular vote; Republicans winning majority control of the Senate; and Republicans on track to retain their majority control of the House of Representatives, all in a single night, flooded my heart with a sea of joy unlike anything I had experienced with any previous election. It brought to mind that memorable scene in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Lord of the Rings in which the Ring is finally destroyed and Sauron’s mighty fortresses come crashing down. Corrupt and radically secularist Vice President Kamala Harris, her Democratic Party cronies in the Washington swamp, and their Big Media and Big Tech allies had done everything possible to destroy Trump and retain their grip on power, to no avail. After the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him, and from the American people, through massive voter fraud during COVID, and after somehow surviving four years of being mocked, ridiculed, attacked, vilified, censored, accused, arrested, jailed, investigated, sued, charged, sentenced, and even shot at, Trump, a victim of so much injustice, managed to unite and expand the ranks of the Republican Party, and ultimately and decisively emerged victorious in the 2024 presidential election. Without question, this is the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States. 

How did Trump accomplish this astounding feat? It’s really pretty simple. First, he spent his four years in the political wilderness wisely by giving speeches and raising money for his third presidential campaign. He’s a good speaker and communicator (famous for not needing a teleprompter), and as a hard worker and a successful businessman, he knows how to effectively promote his brand (MAGA) and raise money for it. He even turned the unjustified attacks on himself into marketing and fundraising opportunities, with phenomenal success. Second, Trump stayed laser-focused and maintained clear and consistent positions on the issues that mattered most to the largest number of voters: the struggling economy, persistent inflation, high taxes, unsustainable national debt, Social Security going bankrupt, illegal immigration, soaring crime rates, attempts to defund the police, Critical Race Theory and gender ideology in schools, voter fraud, loss of government respect for basic human rights and liberties, the Chinese Communist threat to our national security, and violent conflicts in the Middle East and Europe. Third, he spoke the honest truth about the critical situation our country is in, and the truth is a powerful force which tends to unite people. Fourth, Trump is a man of great courage and determination who persevered with his campaign and continued fighting for the average American despite incessant attacks by his enemies. Fifth and finally, at a time of widespread political corruption, he remained a humble and selfless servant leader of the American people, totally dedicated to public service for the true good of our nation. In short, Trump resonated and connected with voters.

Contrast this authentic grassroots candidate with his radical elitist opponent, Harris, who was anointed (not elected) the Democratic presidential candidate in a back-room maneuver in July, had all of three and a half months to campaign and squandered much of that time with useless celebrity photo ops, ran on “abortion rights” and identity politics, tried to buy the election with a billion dirty dollars from the D.C. swamp, steadfastly avoided media appearances, was teleprompter dependent, failed to articulate clear positions on any of the issues that mattered to voters, told frequent outright lies about herself and Trump, and obviously cared only about money and power. Despite favorable Big Media coverage and fake polls that appeared to give her a real shot at winning the presidency, she proved to be no match for a massive and energized national MAGA movement that was eight years in the making.

Way back in March 2022, I bought a “TRUMP 2024” bumper sticker on eBay and put it on my car. I’ve known deep down all along that Trump could pull off a return from political exile to serve a second term as President of the United States. The uncertainty, and thus the drama, lay in whether any of the unjustified attacks on him might be successful, effectively preventing him from winning the Republican nomination for president, and if not, whether voter fraud might again be successfully employed in swing states to steal another election from Donald Trump. Thankfully, the answer to both questions turned out to be no. Against the odds, Trump survived every single attack and won “bigly,” making the election results “too big to rig.”

History repeats itself. Yes, it is “morning again in America.” With the election of a conservative Republican President, Senate, and House of Representatives, “we the people” have taken our country back. The merciful guiding hand of Divine Providence is clearly evident in all of this. Trump was humiliated by his (our) enemies for four years, but God exalted him and saved his life because it is His will that he serve a second term as our president. During the next four years, he will work with Congress to unite and heal and strengthen our divided and wounded and weakened nation, rescuing us from perilous decline and restoring our former greatness so that we can rise to meet new challenges head-on. Our country is emerging from a dark night of economic recession, Orwellian government, military unpreparedness, and international conflict into a brilliant new day of prosperity, freedom, security, and peace. Thanks be to God!


Copyright © 2024 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote for Thanksgiving Day

Photo by Justin Soutar

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

--Abraham Lincoln, Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1863

Quote of the Day

"Mary is so interwoven in the great mystery of the Church that she and the Church are inseparable, just as she and Christ are inseparable. Mary mirrors the Church, anticipates the Church in her person, and in all the turbulence that affects the suffering, struggling Church she always remains the Star of salvation."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, December 8, 2005

Quote of the Day

"As sailors are guided by star to the port, so are Christians guided to Heaven by Mary."

--Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

Reflection for the Solemnity of All Saints

"We can enter heaven only thanks to the blood of the Lamb, thanks to the blood of Christ. Christ’s own blood has justified us, which has opened for us the gates of heaven. And if today we remember our brothers and sisters who have gone before us in life and are in Heaven, it is because they have been washed in the blood of Christ. This is our hope: the hope of Christ's blood! It is a hope that does not disappoint. If we walk with the Lord in life, he will never disappoint us!....

"The first Christians depicted hope with an anchor, as though life were an anchor cast on Heaven’s shores and all of us journeying to that shore, clinging to the anchor’s rope. This is a beautiful image of hope: to have our hearts anchored there, where our beloved predecessors are, where the Saints are, where Jesus is, where God is. This is the hope that does not disappoint; today and tomorrow are days of hope.

"Hope is a little like leaven that expands our souls. There are difficult moments in life, but with hope the soul goes forward and looks ahead to what awaits us. Today is a day of hope. Our brothers and sisters are in the presence of God and we shall also be there, through the pure grace of the Lord, if we walk along the way of Jesus."

--Pope Francis, Homily, November 1, 2013

Quote of the Day

"The greatest deception, and the deepest source of unhappiness, is the illusion of finding life by excluding God, of finding freedom by excluding moral truths and personal responsibility."

--Pope Saint John Paul II, Homily, July 28, 2002

Election Watch 2024: Good News for Trump

by Justin Soutar

There has been a great deal of encouraging news lately for "former" President Donald Trump's re-election bid. 

First, his campaign continues its now longstanding but still remarkable pattern of setting and breaking new fundraising records on a monthly basis, and this almost entirely with one, two, and three-figure donations from ordinary, working-class Americans. Unlike illegitimate Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, which is being largely underwritten by George Soros, Planned Parenthood, and the Washington, D.C. swamp, Trump's campaign is primarily a grassroots one funded by "we the people," that is, by tens of millions of ordinary, hardworking American citizens who steadfastly support him because of his record and his common-sense positions on the issues that are important to them.

Second, national polls clearly indicate that Trump is slowly but steadily continuing to win over additional new supporters in key demographic groups. For example, his lead over Harris with independent voters, who will decide the election in crucial battleground states such as Pennsylvania and North Carolina, has grown to twenty-five points. Trump is also faring considerably better with Hispanic and Black voters than he did eight years ago; in fact, it appears very likely that he will win a plurality of the Hispanic vote and at least 30 percent of the Black vote. Furthermore, whereas a majority of blue-collar workers in the rust-belt states and nationwide were formerly Democratic, they are now Republican. Perhaps most surprising and encouraging is the news that 25 percent of Democrats have decided to break with their party and vote for Trump instead!

Third, it was just revealed a few days ago that the total number of registered Republican voters in the United States now exceeds the total number of registered Democratic voters for the first time since the 1980s. This, and all of the foregoing good news, is a tribute to the fact that Donald Trump has brought more new people into the Republican party than any other American political figure since Ronald Reagan. He has accomplished this by establishing a successful record on the economy, taxes, Supreme Court appointments, crime, illegal immigration, the military, and foreign policy during his administration; by maintaining clear and consistent positions on these issues; and by his generally strong support for traditional values, including the right to life, religious liberty, marriage, and parental rights in education.

Fourth and finally, last week, the corrupt Biden-Harris Department of Justice sued the Commonwealth of Virginia and our Republican Governor, Glenn Youngkin, for mandating the removal of illegal aliens and foreign nationals from our state's voter rolls as required by state and federal law. How ironic it is that our governor is being sued for acting in accordance with the law, not for breaking it. This is a sign of just how desperate Kamala Harris is to win the most powerful political office in the world by any means necessary, including dark money and election fraud. If there was any doubt whatsoever that Harris can win this presidential election without fraud, it is gone. 

But why has Virginia specifically been targeted, and why is this good news for Trump? Because, although corrupt Democrats have successfully bought out our state for the past twenty years, they realize that the pendulum of momentum is now swinging back to the Republicans. No longer a reliably blue state, Virginia has joined the ranks of the battleground states that are up for grabs. The Biden-Harris cartel is afraid that they may very well lose Virginia to Trump without hundreds of thousands of illegal votes in their favor. In other words, they fear that Trump will win Virginia if the election here is free of fraud. They wouldn't be afraid of something that had no real chance of happening. The prospect of Donald Trump becoming the first presidential candidate to carry the Old Dominion since George W. Bush in 2004 is an exciting one!

Add to this recent good news the important fact that Judicial Watch has forced many states, including Pennsylvania, to clean up their voter rolls in accordance with state and federal election laws in the past four years since Joe Biden fraudulently won the 2020 election. It is reasonable to conclude from all of this that the 2024 presidential election will be an electoral and popular vote landslide for Donald Trump. May God and his angels continue to protect him from harm, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary intercede for his victory in this crucial election, for the good of our country and for a more secure, free, and peaceful world.

Copyright 2024 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote of the Day

"I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, which is the Flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his Blood, which is love incorruptible."

--Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans

Quote of the Day

"Let us pray tirelessly for the conversion of hearts and for the triumph of a culture of life, reconciliation and fraternal love between all men and women, with respect for differences and diverse religious traditions, in the effort to build a future of unity and cooperation between all people of good will."

--Pope Francis, Homily, March 7, 2021

Quote of the Day

"Make yourself familiar with the angels, and behold them frequently in spirit; for without being seen, they are present with you."

--Saint Francis de Sales

Quote of the Day

"For many people today, practical atheism is the normal rule of life. Maybe there is something or someone, they think, who once set the world in motion eons ago, but he does not matter to us at all. If this attitude becomes a general existential position, then freedom no longer has any standards, then everything is possible and permissible. That is why it is so urgent also to bring the question about God back into the center. Of course, this does not mean a God who exists in some way or other, but rather a God who knows us, speaks to us, and approaches us--and who is then our judge also."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times: A Conversation with Peter Seewald (Ignatius Press, 2010), p. 49

Election Watch 2024: Donald Trump v. Kamala Harris

by Justin Soutar

A lot has happened in the two and a half months since I wrote the first essay for this series back in mid-June. On the 27th, "former" U.S. President Donald Trump easily won his first and only televised public debate with Sleepy "President" Joe Biden, and it was embarrassingly obvious to tens of millions of people in our country and around the world that the latter is mentally unfit to serve as President of the United States. Two and a half weeks later, on July 13th, while speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump was shot in the right ear by a would-be assassin after his Secret Service guards inexplicably failed to notice that a gunman was on the roof of a neighboring building, or to act on the nearby crowd's warning to that effect. Photos of a bleeding Trump courageously raising his fist in the air and shouting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" as his security detail prepared to whisk him off to the emergency room were immediately seared into the national consciousness. For many days prior to this assassination attempt, I had a nagging intuition that if all other efforts to prevent Trump from running for president failed, his enemies would resort to trying to kill him. Consequently, I began praying regularly for his safety. The narrowness of Trump's escape from death that summer evening, and the possible consequences for the presidential election and for the nation had he not survived, are frightening to consider. If he had turned his head just half an inch more to the right when the bullet hit, he would have been killed. It was clear to me that God saved Trump's life for a reason: he wants him to be president again to save our country from economic, military, legal, social, moral, and religious disintegration.

Five days after being shot, on July 18th in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Trump formally accepted the Republican Party's nomination for President of the United States. Because of the assassination attempt, he decided not to deliver the address he had originally prepared for the occasion. His actual televised ninety-minute acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention that evening, entirely unaided by notes or teleprompter, will likely go down in history as one of the greatest such addresses ever given. He publicly credited "the grace of Almighty God" for allowing him to be present at the Convention; confidently shared what "we will do" to restore America's stability and greatness; and reminded his listeners that every moment of life is a gift from God. I was deeply struck by the positive change in Trump himself after the incident. He was a remarkably happier, calmer, humbler, more relaxed, and more peaceful man than he was before. The majority of his words were uttered in a calm, conversational tone of voice. What made his speech so powerful and memorable was that it was not about him. He was just the spokesman and representative of a grassroots national movement to Make America Great Again, and he plainly understood that. He used the word "we" much more frequently than "I." Furthermore, to say that Trump's live audience was receptive would be an understatement. He and they were one, perfectly united in an unbreakable bond of fellowship and mission. Trump was aware of this unique atmosphere too, remarking early on about "the love in the room." This has never been the case with any other presidential nominee. It was clear that Trump is not running for president for money or power, but to unite and heal our fractured and wounded nation. It was equally clear that God, family, and patriotism are the driving forces of MAGA, which is a movement of truth and love. Trump's historic address united the country even more solidly around him, and his already favorable poll numbers soared to new heights.

Three days later, Joe Biden publicly announced that he would not seek re-election, and in August, illegitimate "Vice President" Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party's nominee for president. The Democrats obviously believe that her chances of defeating Trump are better than Biden's, even though she has been his accomplice in crime and has historically been even less popular than Crooked Joe due to her flippancy, speech gaffes, and radical socialist politics. Much ado has been made of the fact that her poll numbers have risen above Trump's in key battleground states in recent weeks, but keep in mind that the Washington, D.C. swamp has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into advertising for her presidential campaign to shore up her image and get more voters on her side. They and their corrupt media allies are not above manipulating survey results and using fake polls to try to discourage Trump supporters. Bear in mind also that polls continue to show Trump maintaining a clear lead with independent voters, a growing demographic that will tip the vote balance his way in key battleground states. Seemingly favorable overall numbers can easily hide the fact that Harris' support is considerably less secure than Trump's, who has firmly won over tens of millions of Americans based on his clear and consistent positions on major national issues and his refusal to back down despite endless attacks by his powerful enemies. At a time of unprecedented national crisis, Harris brings nothing positive to the table; offers the prospect of four more years of Biden's corrupt and radically secularist regime but on steroids; and is morally unqualified to serve as president of a Christian nation.

Voters will cast their ballots in the eerily decisive 2024 presidential election based on whom they trust to govern our country. For the majority of voters, this will be an easy decision. Trump represents them, has gone through Orwellian junk and nonsense for them, and has even taken a bullet for them. Harris is a money- and power-hungry politician who represents the abortion cartel (Planned Parenthood) and the Chinese Communist Party, not the American people. As Crooked Joe did four years ago, she will use every dirty trick at her disposal to try to seize the presidency, but it won't work this time. God has brought Trump through many dangers to save America from total destruction, and he will. Please join me in praying for his safety and his victory this November.

Copyright 2024 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote of the Day

"'The times are bad! The times are troublesome!' This is what humans say. But we are our times. Let us live well and our times will be good. Such as we are, such are our times."

--Saint Augustine of Hippo

Radical Zionism Is the Greatest Threat to Peace in the Holy Land

by Justin Soutar

It's hard to believe that I've been writing about this topic for almost twenty years now. As a young and idealistic new freelance writer way back in 2005, I undertook a broad and intense study of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict and related Middle Eastern history and culture in order to arrive at the objective truth of the situation. Two years prior, in 2003, Pope John Paul II's strong opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq had cracked and broken the glass dome of my neat and tidy view of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that had been shaped by President Bush, Republican politicians, and conservative political commentators, alerting me that something was drastically wrong with that view. So I decided to re-examine the subject with an open mind to determine the root causes of this historic conflict and how it could be resolved. I read almost everything I could get my hands on by a wide variety of authors on all sides of the issue, including historians, journalists, diplomats, and conservative and liberal political commentators, interpreting it all from the perspective of Catholic doctrine and the stated positions of recent popes, especially John Paul II and Benedict XVI. As a result, the realities of the conflict and the necessary steps to a peaceful resolution emerged with crystal clarity. It did not matter one bit that my resulting position on the issue was nearly identical with that of liberal Democratic commentators. What mattered was that I had discovered vital truths about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that few people in the U.S. seemed to be aware of, as they were getting lost in partisan political squabbles, and that the dominant conservative Republican view of the conflict was so ideologically biased and riddled with factual errors that it was an obstacle to peace in and of itself. So, in an attempt to remedy this situation, I wrote and published the book America's Back-Door Enemy: Unmasking the Unknown Terrorists (Tate Publishing, 2009), which is now out of print. (If you would like a used copy, please contact me.)

One of the most important things I learned about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has long been and continues to be ignored and dismissed by ideologically blind conservative commentators in the U.S., was the existence and activity of the radical Zionist movement. This small but vicious group of pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian, European Jewish terrorists and settlers has been around since well before the modern state of Israel was established in 1948, and has grown larger, bolder, more powerful, more cunning, more sophisticated, and more violent in recent years. It has infiltrated and influenced the Israeli military, government, courts, economy, and society through the decades and is currently in control of the Israeli government. It has committed murderous terrorist attacks against tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians and has unjustly evicted tens of thousands more, including many Christians, from their ancestral homes in the Holy Land and surrounding Palestinian territories. Radical Zionist operatives from Israel's intelligence agency Mossad orchestrated the dramatic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States, which was a "false flag" operation carefully designed to appear carried out by Arab "Islamic" terrorists. The aim of these attacks was to get American policy, and specifically American military involvement, in the Middle East unequivocally on Israel's side. The radical Zionists were successful in getting the U.S. to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power, although there was insufficient moral justification for doing so. Pope John Paul's prediction that the resulting power vacuum would be filled by Islamic fundamentalists came true as ISIS unleashed a devastating reign of terror across Iraq from 2014 until 2021.

The goal of the radical Zionist movement, which is one of the most dangerous international terrorist organizations on the planet, is to restore the biblical Greater Israel (Eretz Yisrael) that will stretch eastward to the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq and include Jordan and part of Syria as well. This demonic movement will not hesitate to use any and all means necessary, up to and including the forced displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people, in order to achieve its utopian dream. 

There is extensive media coverage and conservative commentary in the U.S. of terrorist attacks by the radical fringe of Hamas against innocent Israeli civilians and allegedly justified Israeli military responses to these crimes, but we hear precious little about the radical Zionist terrorism and land theft being committed against innocent Palestinian Jewish, Christian, and Muslim civilians with impunity, and when we do, it is not identified as radical Zionist. While the latter crimes provoke the former and the former crimes are used to justify the latter in a perpetual vicious cycle of violence, the radical Zionist movement is the fundamental root cause of the entire conflict. Its utterly godless members refuse to recognize that the Palestinian people have any rights whatsoever, seeing them merely as an obstacle to be eliminated in order to create their own paradise on earth. And they view the surrounding Arab countries as evil enemies of Israel because they acknowledge and uphold the basic human rights of the Palestinian people, their fellow Arabs.

As all recent popes have stated, there can be no peace without justice. Radical Zionism is the greatest threat to justice and peace in the Holy Land and surrounding Israel and Palestine. Therefore, this evil movement must be defeated by prayer, fasting, and the arrest and prosecution of its members. Both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples have the right to a state within clearly defined borders established by international law. The Israelis have had one for 76 years, but despite their relatively low population, at the urging of radical Zionists, they have been illegally and unjustly attempting to expand their state's territory at the expense of the Palestinians. The Palestinians, despite their much higher population, still don't have a state. The following steps are absolutely necessary for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: 

1. Both sides must renounce the use of violence in any form as a means to achieve their goals. 

2. Israel must withdraw within and officially accept its borders established by the U.N. in 1948. 

3. The long overdue state of Palestine must be established and officially recognized by Israel.

4. The Old City of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount which is sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, must be placed in the international zone established by the U.N. in 1948. 

 

Copyright © 2024 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote of the Day

"As Christ, the new Adam, must be called a King not merely because He is Son of God, but also because He is our Redeemer, so, analogously, the Most Blessed Virgin is queen not only because she is Mother of God, but also because, as the new Eve, she was associated with the new Adam....For from her union with Christ she attains a radiant eminence transcending that of any other creature; from her union with Christ she receives the royal right to dispose of the treasures of the Divine Redeemer's Kingdom; from her union with Christ finally is derived the inexhaustible efficacy of her maternal intercession before the Son and His Father."

--Venerable Pope Pius XII, Ad Caeli Reginam, #38--39

Quote of the Day

"Grace cannot be deserved, let alone bought, it can only be received as a gift. As such, it is also totally unpredictable, just like a midsummer snowfall in Rome. Indeed, grace arouses marvel and amazement. Let us not forget these two words. We cannot lose the ability to marvel and the ability to be amazed, as they are part of our experience of faith."

--Pope Francis, Homily, August 5, 2024

Quote of the Day

“He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands.”

--Saint Benedict

Quote of the Day

Photo by Justin Soutar

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?"

--Thomas Jefferson

Quote of the Day

“Remind us of Your gentle goodwill, O Lord. May we never be severe or harsh. May we see in everyone, a child whom You have created and redeemed with the most precious blood of Your Son. Teach us to know that You value kindness, that love is the best way to attract people to You. May we always help others to taste and see the sweetness and gentleness of Your love."

--Saint Junipero Serra

Quote of the Day

"In times of trial, can I remember the times when I have experienced, in my life, the presence and help of the Lord?...When a storm arrives, do I let myself be overwhelmed by the turmoil or do I cling to Him...to find calm and peace, in prayer, silence, listening to the Word, adoration and fraternal sharing of faith?"

--Pope Francis, Angelus Address, June 23, 2024

Election Watch 2024: Donald Trump Takes Center Stage

by Justin Soutar

Fourteen years ago, in the middle of President Barack Obama’s first term, I wrote and published a series of essays on this blog entitled “ElectionWatch 2010” about that year’s senatorial, congressional, and gubernatorial elections here in the United States. In 2009, the Tea Party movement had emerged within the Republican Party as a national popular reaction to the big-government corruption of the Obama administration and Democratic politicians controlling the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as to their establishment Republican accomplices. This grassroots movement sought to peacefully overthrow the immoral, pork-barrel, debt-ridden, bureaucratic monstrosity of the wayward federal government; to return political authority to the people to whom it rightfully belonged; and to restore legitimate government in accordance with the Constitution of the United States based on the nation’s Judeo-Christian founding principles of individual liberty, respect for human life, marriage, and family, small government, low taxes, a balanced budget, a free market economy, patriotic education, secure borders, and a strong national defense. With massive public support, dozens of Tea Party Republican candidates across the nation easily won election to the House, taking majority control of that chamber, and several were elected to the Senate that year as well. The ElectionWatch series concluded with “America’s Pro-Life Elect—2010,” an accurate and comprehensive list of pro-life candidates and incumbents elected and re-elected.

I ran another, more extensive ElectionWatch series in the middle of Obama’s second term in 2014, which saw an even more spectacular Tea Party wave election in which Republicans further expanded their House majority and took over the Senate. Finally, I wrote and published one ElectionWatch essay each in 2012 (when Obama fraudulently won a second term), in 2018 (when Democrats narrowly won majority control of the House), and in 2022 (when Republicans narrowly regained a House majority). Now, the popular essay series is back for 2024 with Election Watch as two words and a brand new logo.

Unfortunately, while the Tea Party movement’s strength has grown to the point that it is now the dominant force within the Republican Party, it has enjoyed very minimal success in achieving its goals. This is partly because many Tea Party candidates, after serving just a few months in public office, began to gradually compromise their ideals and principles, becoming part of the corrupt establishment they had initially set out to reform and replace, and partly because increasingly radical Democratic politicians have perfected the arts of intimidation, slander, bribery, blackmail, and vote fraud to maintain the big-government status quo and retain their grip on power. Having conspicuously failed to knock down the corrupt, unconstitutional bureaucracy and replace it with sound constitutional
government, faithful Tea Party Republicans have been limited to realizing an occasional minor victory for human life or religious liberty here or fiscal responsibility or national security there; restricting the damage being done to the country by self-serving establishment (mainly Democratic) politicians; and striving to hold these politicians accountable for their outrageous corruption and seemingly endless abuses of power.

The Tea Party movement secured a major victory in 2016 when wealthy New York businessman and political outsider Donald Trump was elected president, defeating Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College while narrowly losing the national popular vote. With his character flaws and apparent lack of conservative credentials, he was an unlikely Tea Party leader, and many observers and voters, including this one, did not trust him to fulfill his campaign promises. (I wrote Ben Carson in that year.) Thankfully, we were proven wrong. Although Trump did not fully succeed in draining the Washington, D.C. swamp and restoring federal sovereignty to the people in accordance with the Constitution and our traditional Judeo-Christian values, he made some significant progress in that direction during his four years in the White House, establishing his credibility as a conservative by implementing 67 percent of the recommendations of the Heritage Foundation. Thus Trump earned the support and trust of the American people, who took notice of the many positive changes in their country from the Obama era and prepared to re-elect him handily. In retaliation, corrupt Democratic (and some Republican) politicians and their Big Government, Big Media and Big Tech allies relentlessly attacked him, banned him from Twitter, and employed massive voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election to evict him from the White House and replace him with their puppet, former Senator Joe Biden, in direct violation of the will of the voting majority. (Trump won Ohio by eight points in 2020, and the Buckeye State is generally representative of the nation as a whole, so I suspect that in the absence of fraud in Democratic-controlled states, Trump would have won the national popular vote by a similar margin, resulting in an electoral landslide in his favor.)

Illegitimate President Joe Biden and his establishment cronies have wreaked far more havoc on the United States in three and a half years than Barack Obama did in eight: greatly accelerating expansion of the federal bureaucracy, spending, and the national debt, contributing to record high inflation; weakening our economy with excessive social welfare programs and dependence on the Middle East and Communist China; abusing the FBI to spy on and harass traditional Catholics, God-fearing parents, and political dissidents as “domestic terrorists”; abusing the FDA to approve chemical abortion pills for sale in big pharmacy chains in all fifty states; encouraging the proliferation of radically secularist gender ideology, Black Lives Matter, and Critical Race Theory propaganda in public and private schools alike; promoting dangerous gender transition surgeries for minors; approving enormous amounts of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood; attempting to cancel college student loan debt by executive order; attempting to abolish state election laws and the Electoral College, further increasing the existing potential for vote fraud; seeking to destroy the reputation, financial assets, and electability of his leading political opponent while evading accountability for his own corruption; underfunding our police and military, resulting in soaring crime rates in major cities and lack of preparedness for war; allowing Communist China to spy on us and continue stealing our intellectual property; opening our borders to a flood of illegal immigrants, including dangerous criminals and drugs; and unfortunately, the list goes on. This national nightmare would have been totally unthinkable just twenty years ago. Thankfully, the American people have awakened to the grim reality that the D.C. establishment has set their country on a path to certain destruction: Sleepy Joe now has the lowest approval rating of any first-term president in recent memory.

This brings us to 2024, a presidential election year like none other. At this time in previous years, at least a dozen different candidates would be vying for the nomination of the political party out of power. This year, the Republicans have only one viable candidate for president: Donald J. Trump, our rightful president in exile. In fact, Trump is now unquestionably the leading political figure in the United States. There are three primary reasons for this unique state of affairs. The first is the unprecedented nightmare situation of our country as partially described in the above paragraph. The second is Trump’s proven leadership record during his four years in the White House, which speaks for itself. And the third is that Trump was busily laying the groundwork for his presidential comeback long before any of the other contenders had even begun to organize a sound campaign strategy.

For many months now, Trump’s arrogant and hate-filled establishment enemies have been desperately trying to eliminate him as a 2024 presidential candidate at any cost. They’ve used psychological warfare, incessantly promoting their own establishment-friendly candidates and negatively portraying Trump and his chances through Big Media; used the FBI to raid his home at Mar-a-Lago; arrested him, taken his mugshot, jailed him, dragged him into court on fake charges, and convicted him of crimes he did not commit; and attempted to remove him from the ballot in multiple states. So far, all of these efforts have failed miserably, and many of them have backfired spectacularly: Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee for president, is raising more money than ever before for his presidential campaign, and is clearly leading Biden in nearly all of the key battleground states that will decide the election. Even more surprisingly, this month, Trump and Biden were tied in several voter polls in Virginia and Trump was one point ahead of Biden in a poll in Maine—both states previously deemed to be securely in Biden’s column. Furthermore, polls now indicate that a plurality of Hispanic voters and about 30 percent of black voters nationwide side with Trump against Biden, both significant increases from four years ago.

Trump’s remarkable staying power and political success thus far, despite having the deck overtly stacked against him, have not been merely accidental or the result of chance. His unwavering focus, courage, determination, and persistence, as well as the steady support and prayers of tens of millions of Americans, have contributed significantly to his resilience. In addition, history teaches us that in times of social chaos, economic uncertainty, and moral decline, a nation’s people will unite behind a strong leader who offers clear solutions to their problems. In the America of 2024, which is a nation in grave crisis, Donald Trump is that strong leader with a clear vision of how to rescue the country from annihilation and restore some measure of her former greatness. This largely explains his enduring and growing appeal. Voters are flocking to Trump’s camp because they understand that he represents them, not the D.C. swamp, and because they know that he will keep his campaign promises a second time.

The other crucial and often overlooked factor in Trump’s political return has been his campaign strategy. As explained in detail in Karl Rove’s autobiography, Courage and Consequence, the elements of a successful political campaign include early fundraising and communication with voters at the grassroots level; clear and consistent stances on the handful of issues most important to voters; and targeting specific groups of voters that will be essential to victory on election night. Trump has been hard at work doing all of this and more since he was thrust into the political wilderness in January 2021, giving him a tremendous advantage over his challengers for the Republican presidential nomination. Tens of millions of Americans of all ages, races, and education levels have attended his MAGA rallies, heard and cheered his speeches in person and on TV, and donated to his campaign. Trump’s business savvy has certainly served him well in this regard.

Finally, we cannot ignore the fundamental role of Divine Providence in Trump’s comeback. He has taken center stage in American politics because God, who “governs in the affairs of men” (Benjamin Franklin), has thus far delivered him from the evil conspiracies of his—and our—enemies and exalted him for His own purposes. History offers innumerable examples of how God can use a flawed human being to accomplish his designs. In his wisdom and love for us, God is unwilling to simply abandon our profoundly troubled nation to ruin. He wants to rescue us from evil and give us another chance to return to our founding principles. Many signs indicate that restoring Donald J. Trump to the White House is an essential part of that plan. May God continue to guide and protect him in his noble quest to defeat Crooked Joe and the other traitors to our country, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary intercede for him and help him to stay the course in the difficult weeks and months ahead.


Copyright © 2024 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote of the Day

“The saints are like the stars…They are always ready to exchange the quiet of contemplation for the works of mercy as soon as they perceive in their heart the invitation of Christ.”

--Saint Anthony of Padua

Quote of the Day

"All battles are first won or lost in the mind."

--Saint Joan of Arc

Quote for Memorial Day

 

 

"The real heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who didn't come back."

--John Henry Bradley, quoted in Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley with Ron Powers (New York: Bantam Books, 2000), p. 4

Quote of the Day

"Humility doesn't mean that you can't have an opinion or advocate a position, but it does mean you are willing to consider the opinions and positions of others in a serious way and then move forward to a meaningful compromise. If the politicians can just drop some of the hubris and once again serve humbly for the good of the people, solutions will rapidly follow."

--Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, M.D., with Candy Carson, One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future (New York: Sentinel/Penguin, 2014), p. 122

Quote of the Day

"The gift of the temperate person is therefore balance, a quality as precious as it is rare. Indeed, everything in our world pushes to excess. Instead, temperance combines well with Gospel values such as smallness, discretion, modesty, meekness. The temperate person appreciates the respect of others but does not make it the sole criterion for every action and every word. He is sensitive, he is able to weep and is not ashamed, but he does not weep over himself. In defeat, he rises up again; in victory, he is capable of returning to his former reserved life. He does not seek applause but knows that he needs others."

--Pope Francis, General Audience, April 17, 2024

Quote of the Day

“Don’t tell me about no separation of church and state. State is the body. Church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies... When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools.”

--Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City, February 28, 2023

Reflection for the Octave of Easter

"Indeed, matter itself is remolded into a new type of reality. The man Jesus, complete with his body, now belongs totally to the sphere of the divine and eternal. From now on, as Tertullian once said, 'spirit and blood' have a place within God. Even if man by his nature is created for immortality, it is only now that the place exists in which his immortal soul can find its 'space', its 'bodiliness', in which immortality takes on its meaning as communion with God and with the whole of reconciled mankind. This is what is meant by those passages in Saint Paul's prison letters that speak of the cosmic body of Christ, indicating thereby that Christ's transformed body is also the place where men enter into communion with God and with one another and are thus able to live definitively in the fullness of indestructible life. Since we ourselves have no experience of such a renewed and transformed kind of life, it is not surprising that it oversteps the boundaries of what we are able to conceive."

--Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth--Part Two: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (Ignatius Press, 2011), p. 274

Reflection for the Paschal Triduum

"Here is where another kind of shouting comes from, the fierce cry of those who shout out: 'Crucify him!' It is not spontaneous but already armed with disparagement, slander and false witness. It is the voice of those who twist reality and invent stories for their own benefit, without concern for the good name of others. The cry of those who have no problem in seeking ways to gain power and to silence dissonant voices. The cry that comes from “spinning” facts and painting them such that they disfigure the face of Jesus and turn him into a “criminal”. It is the voice of those who want to defend their own position, especially by discrediting the defenseless. It is the cry born of the show of self-sufficiency, pride and arrogance, which sees no problem in shouting: 'Crucify him, crucify him.'

"Faced with such people, the best remedy is to look at Christ’s cross and let ourselves be challenged by his final cry. He died crying out his love for each of us: young and old, saints and sinners, the people of his times and of our own. We have been saved by his cross, and no one can repress the joy of the Gospel; no one, in any situation whatsoever, is far from the Father’s merciful gaze. Looking at the cross means allowing our priorities, choices and actions to be challenged. It means questioning ourselves about our sensitivity to those experiencing difficulty. Where is our heart focused? Does Jesus Christ continue to be a source of joy and praise in our heart, or does its priorities and concerns make us ashamed to look at sinners, the least and forgotten?"

--Pope Francis, Homily, March 25, 2018

Quote of the Day

"During these weeks of Lent, let us make space for the prayer of silent adoration, in which we experience the presence of the Lord, like Moses, like Elijah, like Mary, like Jesus. Have we noticed that we have lost the sense of worship? Let us return to worship. Let us lend the ear of our hearts to the One who, in silence, wants to say to us: 'I am your God – the God of mercy and compassion, the God of pardon and love, the God of tenderness and care… Do not judge yourself. Do not condemn yourself. Do not reject yourself. Let my love touch the deepest, most hidden corners of your heart and reveal to you your own beauty, a beauty that you have lost sight of, but will become visible to you again in the light of my mercy.'"

--Pope Francis, Homily, February 14, 2024

Quote of the Day

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

--Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

Reflection for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

“'A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel'” (Luke 2:32). With these words Simeon describes the Messiah of the Lord, at the end of his hymn of blessing. The topic of light, that reechoes the first and second songs of the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah (cf. Is 42:6; 49:6), is vividly present in this liturgy. It was in fact opened by an evocative procession, in which the Superiors and General Superiors of the Institutes of consecrated life represented here took part and carried lit candles. This sign, specific to the liturgical tradition of this Feast, is deeply expressive. It shows the beauty and value of the consecrated life as a reflection of Christ’s light; a sign that recalls Mary’s entry into the Temple. The Virgin Mary, the Consecrated Woman par excellence, carried in her arms the Light himself, the Incarnate Word who came to dispel the darkness of the world with God’s love."

--Benedict XVI, Homily, February 2, 2013

Quote of the Day

"The word of God unleashes the power of the Holy Spirit, a power that draws people to God, like those young fisherman who were struck by Jesus’ words, and sends others, like Jonah, towards those distant from the Lord. The word draws us to God and sends us to others. It draws us to God and sends us to others: that is how it works. It does not leave us self-absorbed, but expands hearts, changes courses, overturns habits, opens up new scenarios and discloses unthought-of horizons."

--Pope Francis, Homily, January 21, 2024

Quote of the Day

“A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: ‘This is not just.’”

--Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929--1968)