By Ray Cardello for June 15, 2025, Season 31 / Post 27

For someone like me who loves this country and has a sense of patriotism nurtured from birth, this article is challenging to write and even more difficult to fathom. We have become a nation not just divided by two vastly different ideologies with a common goal, but we are a people divided by what is right and wrong. Growing up and starting to pay attention to politics, I believed we had two parties that looked at things through different prisms but still had the good of the people in mind and created a better America for everyone’s future. I may have been a bit naive, but I long for the days of Tip O’Neil and Ronald Reagan. You would be hard-pressed to find two more different people, but they made it work. Despite significant ideological differences, President Ronald Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill offer a model of friendship in and through difference. Rich Gorecki writes that such friendship includes “prayer and support in tough decisions. It relies on each other’s strengths to fill in gaps and speak the truth whenever there’s a shortcoming.” If they were alive today, they may not speak and would refer to each other as Hitler and a Fascist. We have come so far and fallen so hard.

Yesterday, our country celebrated the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, which will also kick off our country’s 250th birthday in 2026. June 14 should have been a day of jubilation for all Americans to celebrate and thank the men and women who have fought so many battles on foreign and domestic turf so each of us can sleep safely and freely. Unfortunately, that is wishful thinking, as Republicans were aglow in pride and patriotism while the Left chose to use the event to attack Donald Trump. The man who is rebuilding this country after the Joe Biden debacle is coined a dictator, and thousands of “No King” protests happened simultaneously across this land. Dissing the President is your right, but disrespecting the brave men and women of the Army is un-American.

The other protests happening across America are against ICE and the deportation of illegal immigrants. We are getting a clearer picture of what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did by opening our southern border. An estimated 20 million unvetted illegal immigrants from every corner of the world crossed into America, and we know that among them were 500,000 criminals who are now living amongst us. These are not people who committed petty crimes but rather heinous individuals who committed assault, rape, human/sex trafficking, and murder. We do not want these people in our neighborhoods or anywhere near our families. Still, the Left chooses to support the “right” of these people to stay in our country and refer to ICE agents as the Gestapo. You cannot debate these radical leftists as there is no sense to their thinking and only confusion in their thoughts. It is clear now that the open borders were a power play for Democrats, as the 40M people equate to about 26 additional Representatives after the next census. These people were let in without vetting or due process, but Democrats say these “undocumented citizens” are entitled to due process before deportation. Sorry, not in this world.

We used to look at veterans and active personnel with respect, and now we think of them as pawns of a dictator or king. We used to be concerned about crime and providing safe neighborhoods for our families to grow and prosper. Now we look at neighborhoods as voting districts we can bulk up with illegals who will create more seats in the House, presumable for Democrats. It is a plot that, if successful, would guarantee them every election going forward. The Left has sacrificed your future for theirs. Does this sound like the America we grew up in when we all gathered on Main Street for a parade, not of gay pride, but American pride? We are a young country at a quarter century, but oh my, we do have some growing pains created by selfish individuals who saw America not as a country of opportunity for all, but as a personal launching pad for themselves. I’m sorry, but I cannot break bread with these people at our backyard cookout for fear they are there to steal the entire loaf. It appears the only thing that will put these people back on track is a total breakdown of America. I am glad there are still young patriots who willingly don the uniform to guarantee this never happens.