Quote of the Day

“The triumph of American independence was the result of the most extraordinary people in history, the most extraordinary culture in history, and the most extraordinary ideas in history, all creating the most extraordinary republic ever... Liberty has prevailed here because of the culture and character of the people who declared it, defended it and preserved it. The identity of a nation is the destiny of a nation, and America has a destiny like no other because we are a people like no other.”

–U.S. President Donald J. Trump, Address at Mount Rushmore, July 3, 2026

Quote of the Day

"The first right enshrined by the nation’s founders was the right to life, for no one who is deprived of life can enjoy liberty or pursue happiness. A country’s vitality is deeply tied to the value it affords to human life in every form and condition, acknowledging the dignity endowed upon every human person by virtue of their very existence. The inherent worth of every human life has led the noble hearts of generations to praise the marvelous works of the Creator and stand in reverence before so precious a gift. Indeed, it is precisely this reverence that we must continue to cultivate — one that sways the hearts of individuals and inspires laws that recognize and safeguard the gift from the moment of conception to natural death."

--Pope Leo XIV, Liberty Medal Acceptance Speech, July 3, 2026

Prayer for Independence Day and the Semiquincentennial of the United States of America

"We pray thee, O God of might, wisdom, and justice, through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgments decreed, assist, with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude, the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people, over whom he presides, by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our role and government; so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge, and may perpetuate to us the blessings of equal liberty.

"We pray for his [her] Excellency the Governor of this State, for the members of the Assembly, for all Judges, Magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare; that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.

"We recommend likewise to Thy unbounded mercy all our brethren and fellow-citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and, after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal."

--Archbishop John Carroll (1735--1815), Prayer for the Church and Civil Authorities

Reflections on America's Semiquincentennial

by Justin Soutar

This year we celebrate the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of the United States of America, one of the greatest nations in the history of the world and certainly one of the greatest in modern times. Our imposing geographical size and relatively isolated position, our fertile soil and abundant mineral resources, our natural beauty and temperate climate, our vast and diverse population, our productive industry and commerce, our high employment rate and comfortable standard of living, our thriving financial sector, our large and well-trained armed forces, and our prominent influence in world affairs all contribute to our country’s greatness. However, the core of that greatness lies in 1) our appeal to universal and timeless natural law principles as the basis of human rights and liberties, and 2) our traditional character as a religious and moral people.

The concept of natural law formed the philosophical foundation for the American colonists’ rebellion against British tyranny and their eventual momentous decision, after many years of lively discussion and intense debate, to politically separate the thirteen colonies from England. This is clear from the ringing opening text of the Declaration of Independence, which was primarily authored by Thomas Jefferson and finalized by the Second Continental Congress:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

As men of faith and reason, our nation’s Founders unanimously recognized that “unalienable” human rights are gifts from God, and that the purpose of representative government is to protect these rights. In other words, they realized that human beings are given certain rights by God because of their very nature as persons created in his image, and that any government that refuses to respect these rights is not legitimate. It’s obvious that the Founders were not simply stating their subjective personal beliefs or opinions about the colonists’ problem and how it should be resolved. Justifying their course of action based on “the laws of nature and of nature’s God” anchored the Declaration firmly in the objective truth of natural law. Benjamin Franklin implicitly acknowledged this natural law basis for human rights when he wisely stated: “A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.”

This is an important lesson for us today in the difficult battle against radical secularism, a virulent philosophy that directly attacks our traditional identity as a Judeo-Christian nation and the natural law principles of her foundation. In recent years, to cite just two of many examples, innocent healthcare providers and wedding-cake bakers have been dragged into court and threatened with huge fines for refusing to dispense abortifacient drugs or contraceptives or to bake a cake for a homosexual “wedding.” The well-intentioned lawyers representing these good people usually base their defense on their client’s right to act according to his or her personal religious and moral beliefs and conscience, a right indeed protected by the Constitution. While this approach has been fairly successful, its major flaw is its failure to take advantage of the objective truth of natural law, leaving the arguments stuck on the subjective plane of “conscience rights”.

Abortifacient drugs unjustly kill innocent unborn children, violating their unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is a fact and not just someone’s sincerely held belief. No woman has a “right” to kill her unborn child. Contraceptives interfere with the essential love- and life-giving aspects of marriage as designed by the Creator. And natural law defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman; the immoral practice of sodomy is not “marriage”, and no two men or women have a “right” to call it that. Defense attorneys should be arguing their pro-life and pro-marriage cases from the natural law perspective that abortion, contraception for married couples, and sodomy are objectively evil (and thus harmful to society) by their very nature, not just because their clients happen to believe that they are evil and harmful, and that no one should be forced to participate in or to support such immoral activities. In order to effectively defeat the ideology of radical secularism, we should abandon the subjective territory of “conscience rights” and reclaim the unassailable moral high ground—-the objective truth of natural law.

Intimately related to the natural law basis for human rights at the core of America’s greatness is our longstanding identity as a religious and moral people in the Judeo-Christian tradition. This is evident at every turn, from the words and examples of the Founders, to the speeches and writings of our elected representatives and judges down through the decades, to the tens of thousands of churches dotting our landscape, to the prominent Catholic role in the development of our education and healthcare systems, to Congressional sessions opening with prayer, to the display of the Ten Commandments in our Supreme Court building, to our national motto, “In God We Trust.”

George Washington declared: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” John Adams remarked: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” James Madison said: “We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity… to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” Having toured the young United States, French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville concluded: “America is great because America is good; and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

In his Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863, Abraham Lincoln asserted that God’s blessings “should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.” In his famous D-Day Prayer broadcast on national radio in 1944, Franklin Roosevelt said: “With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy.” Ronald Reagan observed in the 1980s: “If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” In 2024, Donald Trump attributed his survival of an assassination attempt to “the grace of Almighty God.” The fourth stanza of our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” includes the words: “Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n-rescued land / Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation… And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’” And in the Pledge of Allegiance, we declare that we are “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Our traditional character as a Christian nation, combined with our traditional natural law basis for human rights and liberties, has allowed us to achieve many remarkable things in the past 250 years in the areas of agriculture, architecture, art, aviation, communication, culture, economics, education, energy, entertainment, finance, foreign aid, geology, health care, immigration, law, literature, medicine, meteorology, music, political philosophy, science and technology, trade, transportation, space exploration, sports, world peace, and many other fields. We should celebrate and give thanks to God for all of these accomplishments.

This is not to say that our nation, comprised of flawed human beings, has perfectly lived up to her own ideals. True American patriots wholeheartedly celebrate all that was and is good in our nation while candidly admitting her past and present failures in certain areas and realistically acknowledging her current state of deep division and crisis. We unwisely tolerated the development of a partisan political system, which is now dominated by two major parties that are diametrically opposed on nearly every issue. We unjustly forced most Native Americans onto reservations, tolerated slavery and racial segregation for decades, and bombed innocent civilians in Japan in 1945. We’ve experienced a general religious and moral decline in recent decades with the spread of alcoholism and drugs, pornography, divorce, out of wedlock pregnancies, tens of millions of abortions, sexual abuse, sodomy, transgenderism, and mass shootings, as well as petty theft, vandalism, and littering. Civics education and prayer have all but vanished from our public schools.

Misguided DEI policies have barred hundreds of thousands of qualified people from good jobs. Inflation continues to depreciate the value of our money. Our $38 trillion dollar national debt is far beyond unsustainable yet continues to rise daily. Political corruption and media bias and censorship continue to threaten the common good and obscure the truth. Power struggles and gridlock have replaced bipartisanship and collaboration in Washington as Republicans and Democrats are now bitter enemies, with Democrats attempting to destroy President Donald Trump and to manipulate election laws to their own advantage. Israeli radical Zionists are systematically eliminating Palestinian Christians from the Holy Land, and we’re doing little if anything to stop it. And Communist China has stolen our computer software intellectual property; purchased large tracts of American farmland near our military bases; planted thousands of spies in our city halls and universities; and is actively working to replace us as the world’s leading superpower.

Worst of all, the rise of toxic radical secularist (aka “woke’) ideology, openly embraced by corrupt Democratic Party elites, has taught a large percentage of ignorant Americans to hate their country; to reject our traditional Christian identity and natural law foundation; to assert various new “rights” that exist only in their deluded minds; to discriminate against innocent white men; to disrespect our immigration authorities and police officers; to tear down statues of our national heroes; to stage violent protests; and to assassinate their political enemies. This dangerous ideology has profoundly divided our nation, seriously threatening its integrity and survival.

However, there are many signs of hope that our nation will survive the present grave crisis and enjoy a brighter future. Young Americans flocked to churches after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and purchases of new Bibles are on the rise. Millions of Americans are taking the free online civics courses offered by Hillsdale College, and Imprimis now has a monthly circulation of nearly eight million copies. Many employers are making color-blind and merit-based hiring decisions. More than 25 percent of American voters are now politically independent. The number of Planned Parenthood abortion clinics continues to dwindle. And the second Trump administration and congressional Republicans have already done much to repair and strengthen our country in many of the above-mentioned fields of endeavor.

America’s first Catholic president and Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus John F. Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” If we who continue to love this great nation are successful in converting and defeating her radically secularist traitors and in retaining the twin core of that greatness—-our appeal to timeless natural law principles as the basis of human rights and liberties, and our traditional character as a religious and moral people—-then she will not only survive, unite, and heal, but will also achieve even greater and more spectacular things in the next two hundred fifty years.

Long live the United States of America!

Copyright © 2026 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote of the Day

"We are Catholics. We are Americans. We are proud to be both, grateful for the gift of faith which is ours as Christian disciples, and grateful for the gift of liberty which is ours as American citizens."

--United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, "Our First, Most Cherished Liberty: A Statement on Religious Liberty", 2012

Quote of the Day

"This year [2015] marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the guardian of liberty, who labored tirelessly that 'this nation, under God, [might] have a new birth of freedom'. Building a future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity.... The challenges facing us today call for a renewal of that spirit of cooperation, which has accomplished so much good throughout the history of the United States. The complexity, the gravity and the urgency of these challenges demand that we pool our resources and talents, and resolve to support one another, with respect for our differences and our convictions of conscience."

--Pope Francis, Address to Joint Session of United States Congress, September 24, 2015

Quote for Thanksgiving Day

"Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks, for His kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of His providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which He hath been pleased to confer upon us."

--George Washington, Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1789

Quote of the Day

Landing of Columbus at the Island of Guanahaní, West Indies by John Vanderlyn (1846)

"The underlying motive of Columbus' historic voyage was the conversion of those who did not know Christ as the living Son of God who became the Son of Mary. His favorite prayer, said in Latin, was 'Jesu cum Maria sit nobis in via', which means 'May Jesus with Mary be with us on the way.' For Columbus this way meant both the voyage through time into eternity and the voyage in time to bring Mary's faith in her divine Son to a still unbelieving world."

--Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., Christopher Columbus: The Catholic Discovery of America (Eternal Life, 2012), p. 15

Quote of the Day

"A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins."

--Benjamin Franklin

Quote of the Day

"I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free.... [S]uch persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States.... And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God."

--Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863

Quote of the Day

"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

--U.S. President Ronald Reagan

Quote of the Day

"The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence will fall under President Trump's second administration. I know from my service on the 1776 Commission, during his first administration, that he will wish to celebrate it with a loud voice and a full throat. May we all go from strength to strength in recovering the meaning of that document and restoring the Constitution that enabled us to make America great in the first place."

--Larry P. Arnn, Imprimis, November 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

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 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

“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

Quote of the Day

"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it."

--U.S. President George Washington (1732--1799), Farewell Address, 1796

Quote of the Day

"As is our custom, Vespers were said in the late afternoon, and a special thanksgiving was offered to God for giving us renewed hope through the many signs of land he has provided. I now believe that the light I saw earlier was a sign from God and that it was truly the first positive indication of land."

--Christopher Columbus, Diary, October 11, 1492

Quote of the Day

"The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators."

--The Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 4