Frankly, I tend to be a bit of a pessimist and a cynic, and I’m not sure I’m alone in that. We humans, as a species, are inclined too often to overlook the good and focus on the bad. As we look at recent events, we are disappointed that results didn’t match our hopes and expectations, and there is plenty that remains to be accomplished to improve, and probably save, the country. But I’m going to go against my nature in this article and point to some things that we can actually count as “good” in America. Let’s accentuate the positive for a moment. Here’s a list. There are more if we look hard enough.
1. Trump is running again. Now, is this good or bad? For the moment, I’m going to call it a positive until he utterly destroys himself, if he hasn’t already done so. If we do get the good Trump of 2016 rather than the annoying Trump of more recent times, he certainly could do a lot of positive things to Make America Great Again. He WAS a great president. Regardless, he is in the race, and it isn’t impossible he will be the Republican nominee in 2024. If nothing else—and I do think this is a plus—he could help sharpen the focus of what the GOP needs to stand for in the next election. Or he could make it all about himself. We are getting to where we don’t know about Trump any more, but let’s hope for the best. And prepare for the worst, just in case.
2. Republicans have the House. This is indeed wonderful news. Regardless of whether they do anything worthwhile, they can at least keep the Democrats from passing any more inflation-busting, middle-class-destroying bills. Hopefully, Mr. McCarthy will be a strong Speaker; we won’t know for sure until he bangs the gavel. But I’m a whole lot happier with a Republican House than any Democratic one.
Corollary to point 2. We won’t have to look at Nancy Pelosi’s face on the news every day or listen to her incoherent babblings. You can’t get much better news than that.
3. We have a 6-3 majority in the Supreme Court. So, the Democrats have the Presidency and the Senate, and Republicans have the House and (in effect) the Supreme Courts. That’s democracy. We’d rather have it all, of course, but it rarely works that way in American history, and 2-2 is better than 0-4.
4. Roe v. Wade was overturned. That might be the best thing that happened in 2022. And even Biden is admitting the Dems won’t get a federal law codifying Roe any time soon. Hopefully, the country will slowly start moving away from this horrifying nightmare called abortion as it gradually moved away from slavery in the 19th century. Let’s pray it doesn’t require a civil war this time to free the unborn babies. It will take time, but Roe is gone and that’s a start.
5. Elon Musk has Twitter. It remains to be seen whether Musk will restore true free speech to Twitter or not. He hasn’t done it yet and he easily could have, so I’m a bit disappointed in him so far. But Elon isn’t a right-winger by any means. Let’s give him a chance. I guess we could say he couldn’t make Twitter any worse than what it was before he took over. That’s my positive spin on this point.
6. The Republicans won the popular vote in the midterm elections. This is unusual and hasn’t happened in a presidential election in a long time. Why this 5+ million popular vote edge didn’t translate into greater Congressional gains is subject to debate, though I think most of us are suspicious. Still, if Republicans can finally figure out how to stop Democratic cheating, or play the hand they're dealt, maybe this popular vote majority will continue and create better results in the future. There does appear to be a small, but growing Hispanic and black voter movement towards the GOP.
7. Florida is as red as it can be. If Republicans are wise (no comments about that statement, please, we are tying to be positive in this post), they will study what is happening in Florida very closely and emulate it. Now, California will never be Florida, at least not in your or my lifetime, but there are some purple states where Republicans could learn from the Sunshine State, and solid red states could further solidify their redness by understanding what Mr. DeSantis is doing. Look at Florida, Republicans, and learn.
8. Parents are fighting back. Ooh, the Democrats hate this, but there were indeed many disgusting school boards that went the way of the dodo in this election. Not enough, but the message is getting out and parents all around the country are becoming outraged at what the public school system has become. You know that this worries Biden and the Democrats because they have started threatening parents and trying to find stupid excuses to say fathers and mothers should have no say in their children’s education. That bit of radicalism won Glenn Youngkin the Virginia governor’s chair last year and will win the Republicans a lot more such seats if they will stand firmly on the side of parents. If.
So, it’s not all bad in America. There are a lot of things that still need changing, but let’s be happy that there is some good news around the country. And be wary lest we lose what we have gained. We must guard our territory while continuing our effort to take more of the enemy’s.
On to 2024.
Christmas is coming! My 2nd Rob Conners western novel, River Bend, is now available. Honestly, I think it is much better than my first book, Whitewater. Both are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Eliva.com. Get a 10% discount on the paperback at info@elivapress.com. And read some different posts on my blog at thailandlewis.blogspot.com.