It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
Epictetus
I don’t remember making New Year’s resolutions. Maybe my reminisces have just been lost in the metaphorical sands of time. After all, I don’t remember phone numbers like I used to. I blame this on my iPhone, which has made me lazy in this respect. I still remember important things like family birthdays and anniversaries. So I’m not worried.
Not surprisingly, memorization is becoming a lost art. Ancient cultures were largely aural instead of written because most people could not read or write. Storytelling was therefore a necessity. There were even professional raconteurs (storytellers) capable of prodigious feats of memorization.
This year on Christmas Eve, I made it all the way through “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” without a mistake. This was a first. Usually, my recitation of Clement Moore’s magical poem necessitates help from my family and friends. This produces a comedic shtick with lots of laughter as they watch the pseudo-raconteur struggle.
I also memorize scripture. Billy Graham once lamented not memorizing more scripture when he was younger because, as he grew old and his eyesight failed, it became difficult to read the Bible. Too bad he didn’t have modern tech. I have an app on my iPhone that can read scripture to me.
With a new year dawning, it’s reasonable to think about new directions, especially as we recover from a Biden administration hangover. America’s malaise is not from a nighttime of carousing, but the sickness of the auto-pen presidency which produced terrible inflation, a struggling economy, open borders that overwhelmed our resources and flooded the country with criminals, drugs and crime. And Biden’s foreign policy disasters, like Afghanistan, made America less safe and encouraged China and “mad Vlad.”
Ordinarily, I don’t care for the year in review stories, but how do you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been? That was the Cheshire Cat’s question to Alice in Wonderland. I won’t bore you with an extensive 2025 retrospective, but consider the following facts of the last year:
2025 was a good year for America because we now have a competent president. You may disagree with Trump, but I pray that you’re not suffering from the delusional hatred of TDS and can be fair-minded. Trump was elected in a landslide, and we now see what a competent leader can do in just one year.
We now have a secure border. The millions of aliens allowed into the country have strained our resources, and in places like Minnesota, have led to wholesale fraud. Criminal illegals are now being arrested, imprisoned or deported.
The decades-long war on drugs finally has a champion who is action-oriented. Instead of vacuous campaign slogans, President Trump is attacking the narco-terrorists, the drug cartels and narco-states which support the illicit drug industry that kill 100,000 Americans every year.
It may anger some, but I think a lot of Americans are fickle and have the attitude, “What have you done for me today?” We are a drive-through culture of fast food and fast information from sound bites, which are easily manipulated by corrupt major media and perverse social media.
Pontius Pilate once asked Jesus, “What is truth?” I don’t think the Roman proconsul was honestly seeking the facts, nor had he read the Stoic Greek philosopher Epictetus. But the question is relevant today because it is difficult to find non-manipulated facts, let alone discern the truth.
James Carville, the “Ragin’ Cajun,” still rants in the media. His claim to fame is that he was the principal strategist in Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and coined the term, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
But is that still true? It is a fact that President Trump and his policies have cut inflation from 9% to 2.6%. It is a fact that the US trade deficit has been cut by 60%, and the GDP (gross domestic product) is up to a “blistering” 4.3% from Biden’s anemic 2.4%. It is a fact that the stock market is soaring, helping millions of Americans instead of just the wealthy. It is a fact that wages are up, gas prices are down, and billions of dollars are flowing into the Treasury through tariffs. It is a fact that there is an unprecedented influx of investments into our country, helping to reindustrialize the US. President Trump is a peace advocate; the job the worthless UN should be doing.
Returning to the above question, the Democrats can’t deny the fact that the economy is vastly improved and on track to blossom in 2026. So they resort to euphemism (choosing a more appealing if not manipulative term). Instead of talking about the economy, their theme has become “affordability.”
Democratic policies made things more expensive, but Trump is methodically fixing the mess. My Dad was a naval aviator on an aircraft carrier during WWII. He said it takes miles to turn a huge ship in the ocean. It will take more than a year to fix the four-year mess that Biden and his handlers orchestrated.
Democrats can’t deal with the facts, so they resort to emotion and push the affordability talking point. Their corrupt stooges in the lefty media are happy to manipulate people. Why anyone would listen to these proven liars is beyond me.
So, I will make a New Year’s resolution to “fight, fight, fight” against the anti-American Democrat Socialist party elites who now control the Democrat party. Before you can fix a problem, there must first be recognition that a problem exists. We have all heard this axiomatic truth. I will dedicate this column to educating those who have not closed their minds.
It is time for Americans to wise up and step up to help President Trump save the country. There’s so much to be thankful for at the beginning of 2026: life, wife and Jesus Christ are my big three.
But there is more. Our country will celebrate 250 years of freedom in 2026. Patriots who won America’s freedom in the Revolutionary War endured terrible privation. It is now our duty to save the country for our kids and grandkids. Becky and I are on the march and already have our T-shirts!
