A Bright and Brand New Day… Mostly

Okay, okay.  I was wrong.  Well... sort of.  

If you are reading this article, you are probably one of the many people I looked in the eye over the last four years and said something to the effect of: “Trump win in 2024? Ha!”  I publicly and emphatically doubted his ability to win this election dozens and dozens of times over.

But considering what happened in the 2020 election, and again (at least in our state) in 2022, can you honestly say you never had your own doubts?  The bad guys got away with so much when they stole the 2020 election.  It was as if they wanted to make it look as blatant as possible just to demoralize us.  I earnestly believed they would go full CCP and deliberately make the cheating look even worse this time around, just to stick it to us and further extinguish our will to fight back.  

Welp, never mind!

We are less headed toward communism today than we were several weeks ago.  We really dodged a bullet.  We can now look back on all the idiotic word salads from Kamala and finally laugh comfortably about them.  Hey Kamala, the coconut tree called…

Though, maybe it’s not really as simple as all that.  In fact, in some ways, it’s almost suspicious how hopeless things felt for the last 4 years, just for all the dark clouds to now suddenly lift.  We went from hapless "conspiracy theorist" sore losers to happy vindicated winners while our enemies have descended to memeworthy youtube meltdown compilation video characters.

For goodness sake, the Biden administration managed to bungle the Afghanistan pull out, they let inflation soar above 9%, gave Ukraine the green light to launch long range missiles at Russia, insisted that we to fund Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars every month, raised our debt another several trillion dollars, appointed a woman who couldn’t say what a woman is to supreme court, earned the lowest presidential approval ratings in history, then ran the vice president with the lowest vice president approval ratings in history, and it still looked probable that the Venn-diagram and school bus loving woman who fell out of a coconut tree was going to get shoved down our throats, chased by a hefty dose of straight up communism.  

Crisis averted?  Clearly!  Somehow.  But today I want to examine how good it realistically is now that the election is over and we have our preferred party running the White House, the Senate, and the House.  How thrilled should we actually be?  Sure, I could critique a few Trump cabinet picks if I wanted to, but that’s not my interest here.  Overall, I’m happy with how things went.  It has felt like early Christmas for the last few weeks, and I am not going to let a few little overall concerns about where the Republican party, the faithful, and my family are now situated ruin that peaceful feeling.  

Nevertheless, there are a few concerns that are worth talking about.  Not because we want to disparage and stay miserable forever, but because it’s the Church militant’s job to always be awake and sober, watch out for the devil in all of his forms (large and small), and then release ourselves from his grip as far as we can.  In both bad times, and in good…


A Sigh of Relief.  

We have all been sharing our stories about how and when we knew that Trump had won the election.  There is a common theme I have noticed: a lot of us, the present author included, determined not to obsess over election coverage on November 5th.  Many of us took occasional glances at our phones or work computers throughout the day, but we went to bed willing to just find out the results later.

And by later, I mean perhaps weeks later!  I for one was not about to stay up until 1 am just to watch several states pause their counting, as they did in 2020.  For most of us, we were convinced that there was a high chance of not only the bad news of a Kamala victory, but a dagger in our hearts in the form of confirmation that election integrity was truly dead forever.  For those of us still suffering from 2020 PTSD, we were resolved to get a quality night’s sleep instead of getting teased into the twilight hours and beyond.  

What a relief it was to not only sweep the House, Senate, and Presidency, but to find out that we still have a Republic.  Whoa, we aren’t quite China after all.  

However, that seems to be the watchword thus far for traditional conservatives describing how the results felt: “relief”.  Not “elation” or “exuberance”, but “relief”.  We aren’t really celebrating over-enthusiastically, rather we are sighing as we offer up a sober prayer to God in thanksgiving for so many dark clouds having been lifted.

On its face, that seems rather morose, but I find it quite encouraging.  Why?  Because the results of this election are particularly complex for real conservatives.  The results of the overall election cycle signal that there is plenty of work we as conservatives must do now. It is refreshing to see that most of us are defaulting to a blend of cautious optimism with sights set on the new battles ahead.


We aren’t out of the Woods. 


Trump won, and I don’t wish anyone who is feeling an early Christmas glow from this period to feel otherwise, but we still have some major problems that aren’t going away anytime soon.  We woke up happier on November 6th, but Republican victories didn’t erase the fact that we live in an America that is still addicted to internet porn, abortion, weed, alcohol, SSRI’s, and sports gambling.  All of our deep moral problems are still here. I’m not sure if any candidate could fix these problems either, I’m just saying that it’s foolish to think that now is the time for us to sit on our laurels just because we will have a competent President in office who will probably do a good job of applying remedies to many of America’s current physical and material problems.

Fixing the border is good for our physical protection.  A healing economy will make it easier for us to provide for our loved ones, and that’s an obvious good.  Even outside of our nation, if Trump can execute the kind of negotiating skills we expect him to, there could be quick resolution to the current conflicts in Ukraine/Russia, and in the Middle East. When the net human killing to days elapsed ratio on planet earth improves, it’s a win for humanity, granted.  

Still, I can’t stop thinking about this analogy: Prior to November 5th, it’s like America was severely sick on a hospital bed, while also in the state of mortal sin.  November 5th came, and America took it’s physical medicine.  At the moment, it feels like America is physically on the mend and in good spirits.  Heck, maybe America is even laughing and telling jokes and doing some push ups with a smile on its face.  Yay!

The problem, though, is America still needs to go to confession.  And if America doesn’t ultimately convert from the baby murder, mass global porn distribution, drag story hours, industrial war complex-worship, and all the like, then we are still doomed eventually, even on a physical level.

We can hold back utter destruction and collapse into communism, for now, with some of the great physical remedies that are probably coming, but unless we all fight for the souls of ourselves, our families, and our neighbors, America is still, ultimately, doomed.  


The Ugliness of Everything that was 139

How did this happen?  How did we really go from abortion being legal in Arizona up to 15 weeks to minors can have an abortion up to the day of birth?  Easy answer: money.  The situation is the same in every state which broadened abortion access by ballot initiatives; the abortion industry has deep deep pockets, and there is no financial incentive for those defending the unborn.  

That sounds bleak and jaded, but look at the facts on the ground: to get this initiative on the ballot, signature gatherers were paid $26 and over per hour.  None of the ones I talked to were particularly passionate about abortion, either.  “A job is a job”.  One figure I have heard is that backers of 139 outspent opponents of 139 eight to one.  

I love that everyone on our side is so passionate about this cause, and I still see merit that came with the efforts against this measure, but you can’t win getting outspent like that. Not when your opponents blatantly lie when gathering signatures and in their never ending television and YouTube commercials.  They relentlessly implied to the low information voters (which are most voters) that abortion has been totally banned in this state.  I wish it was, but advertisements that stated “We can end the ban!” suggest that abortion has been completely outlawed in this state since the Dobbs decision, which is false.  Without the money to counter that implication, and without the same volume of messaging across the same platforms, we never had a chance to stop 139.  

Aside from the money, the fact that it passed so overwhelmingly should teach us much! Heck, if you really wanted an early education on this one, you should have been at the state capitol the weekend of the Dobbs decision.  I will never forget that late Friday evening as I stood outside of a Catholic Church while thousands of roaring pro-aborts, aged 5 to 75 slew obscene insults at the priest standing next to me while we stood by a church named after Our Lady.  The next day, maybe 100 Catholics made it to the capitol to prayerfully celebrate the Dobbs decision.  Ouch!

For years our side has been high on an optimism that America was becoming increasingly pro-life.  Additionally, the majority of Americans indeed oppose late term abortion.  Well, apparently the passion and the money from the other side has been enough to cancel any of those gains we may have made.  It has now been proven several times in multiple states, including Missouri.  Seriously, Missouri?  

I commend all of my valiant friends who did their utmost to contest 139.  Hundreds of Arizonans, across denominations, rallied to put up signs, hand out literature, and even volunteered hours standing next to signature gatherers in attempt to dissuade potential signers in the early stages.  For all of those commendable friends, thank you.  God is watching!

But if we can’t figure out a way to financially incentivize contributing to the pro-life cause, then we will keep losing on the political front of this in the here and now.  And with as many Republican politicians who turned their backs on the pro-life cause this election, there are no signs of recovery on this issue anytime soon.  As happy as we all were for the overall outcome of the election, this really spoiled the experience for most of us, because we now feel like this contest is officially over.  That’s a desperate and dark feeling.  

So how do we pivot?  Well, as the results indicate, America clearly loves abortion.  Period. Consequence free sex in this country for 70 years and the evolution of planned parenthood as a multi-billion dollar tax subsidized murder for hire corporation have established that reality.  As much as we may have had reason, before Dobbs, to believe that our nation was becoming more pro-life, what about our nation should have actually suggested that at this time?  Really?

It’s an only fans nation, folks.  The statistics on porn consumption in America continue to grow more and more staggering.  More than half of marriages end in divorce, gay marriage is legal everywhere, and people are terrified of contesting drag queen story hours at public libraries.  One third of women in this country have had abortions.  

A nation addicted to sexual perversions is a nation that will fight tooth and nail to keep the ultimate symbol of supposed “sexual liberation”; that you are so free, against the natural law, God, or any form of government, to do whatever you want to sexually express yourself that not even the sacredness of an innocent human baby can stop you.  Tens of millions of Americans are so adamant about their twisted sense of freedom on this issue that they are okay with violently attacking the most defenseless in society to protect it.  Those are deep roots in sin and perversion there, friends.  

This issue cannot be fixed politically until this nation’s sexual perversions are fixed culturally.  Our ultimate fate as a nation will not be corrected until that happens either.  Thus has always been the case for nations with a strong Moloch following: only total moral conversion can save a nation that kills its own.  Either total moral conversion, or it’s just a matter of time.  It doesn’t matter who your nation’s leader is.  

Where does this start?  If we are still looking to directly fight for the pro-life cause, we can start by furthering our support for the women’s care centers.  If we can’t win politically anymore, then we need to take advantage of the means we still do have to protect the unborn.  Our women’s care centers need money and manpower.  Even men can help to run diaper drives and to counsel other men to accept their role as father to the babies they and the mother decide to keep.  There is where we can directly make a difference.  

Indirectly speaking, if total moral conversion is a must, then it starts at the most micro-level: with oneself.  This is our biggest and most worthy challenge at present.


Call to Action and Conclusion

On a more macro-level, it’s time to convert our party and people all around us to Catholicism.  We used to have power, as Catholics, in this country.  We used to stop Hollywood from making filthy movies by the force of the Decency League.  We have traditionally brought hundreds of thousands of witnesses to the annual march for life in Washington DC, and Republicans had to take notice.  They had to at least placate Catholics and appeal to our principles for decades.  Losing the vote of practicing (that is to say, authentic) Catholics was not an option for Republicans who wanted to win and to hold office.  

After this past election, it feels like the Republicans have more highly prioritized the gay vote than the Catholic vote.  We already knew that the “squishy middle” was unfairly wined and dined to levels of absurdity, at times, by politicians.  But the repetitive insistence that Trump would veto a national abortion ban and the new Republican trend to accept abortion up to 15 weeks has made the message very clear to conservative Catholics: “We don’ need to appeal to your values anymore.  We are here to represent ‘the big tent’.”

If we don’t inject ourselves and our influence more into our own party and into the public forum, our voices aren’t going to be heard when policies are made.  Therefore, we will ultimately lose our ability to advance and keep laws in our country that align with Catholic teaching, especially on morals.    

But I don’t necessarily mean that we use our influence specifically by way of running for and holding political office.  If you are called to do that, please do, but we can influence policy simply by developing and maintaining a Catholic identity in our culture that is so proud and evangelically vocal, that it can’t be ignored.  The good news is, we are already on pace to do that in a variety of ways.  We are building churches and reproducing in great numbers.  Let’s keep it up.  But if 6 members of the Church are leaving to every one that enters, then we have to convert others too.  

I noticed that many people have recently brought up the voting future of conservatives in this country versus that of the liberals.  The near consensus among conservatives, at least the conservatives that run in our circles, is that we are out-populating the left by a large margin.  This is true, but what guarantees that just because we project our children to be reliable voters for our causes in the future that they will actually keep their heads on straight?  This is the time to double down on your kid’s spiritual needs just as much as your own.  Teach your children the faith and form them in virtue!  

Your children need to know all of their basic prayers, feel comfortable leading the rosary, and be able to answer basic questions about their faith asked of them by either Protestants or Atheists.  Catholic Apologetics has always been a time honored tradition, but if you can’t picture your teenage children defending their faith adequately now, then how will they do it when they are out in the world, being shaken violently of it?  You hold the key to their formative years, so that they resist the blowing winds that come when they grow up and are in a position to actively opt out of the faith.  You have influence over them now, not later.

Double down on the sacraments, morning and evening prayer, the rosary, and fasting as we go forward.

If you aren’t optimistic that America will totally convert both spiritually and morally, then at least find great consolation in beginning that conversion with yourself.

Maybe it will be a generation or two down the road.  Maybe an overwhelmingly represented segment of society, the offspring of today’s conservative Catholics, will overturn things politically someday and defend the unborn.  Until then, let’s morally turn things around for ourselves and work our way out from there.

Enjoy the win today friends, for tomorrow we are called to fight even harder than before. We need it, America needs it, and we have the grace available to answer that call.

God bless,

Gadfly