Friday, November 29, 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.

Thursday, November 28, 2024

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

Thursday, November 21, 2024

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

Thursday, November 14, 2024

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