By Ray Cardello for March 30, 2025, Season 31 / Post 24

We use many catchphrases to talk about the America we conservatives want to return to. The America of Old, My Father’s America, and the Trump favorite, Make America Great Again, are a few, but what do they really mean? Before we define our America, let’s distinguish what it is not. America is not a global entity with no boundaries. It is not a country that defines people by labels that align with political identity. It is not a country built on equity. It is not a country that cannot define a woman and that allows the physical mutilation of confused juveniles. It is not a country that denies its history to sterilize its past. It is not a country that has abandoned God and patriotism. It is not a country where people burn businesses and property to protest someone’s political beliefs. No, it is not the country we have become.

The America I yearn for is the one we grew up in during the 50’s and 60’s. Even the ducking under our desks during atomic attack drills seemed minor compared to House Democrats pulling the Capitol fire alarm to allow their Party members more time to vote. In the 60s, there would have been accountability for that individual. Civility and decorum are gone today and replaced with cynicism and brashness. Common decency is gone, which may be the product of the death of the family unit and common sense has been replaced with Left-wing rhetoric. Looking back fifty years is not a desire to go back in time with technology and all we have learned in five decades, but a yearning for the values of years gone by.

Belief in God, love of country, and respect for our history have been severely damaged by an education system hellbent on indoctrination rather than the education of our youth and a media that chooses how to cover and not what to cover in the news. We are barraged with misinformation, and it seems impossible to counteract. The malpractice by the press corps is embarrasing, but also intentional. There is little objectivity and seeking of the truth, but rather a desire to twist the story to support their narrative.

There were signs of a dent in the Left’s armor in the last election. With more demographics than ever moving Right to support Trump and Vance. Along with the spiraling approval polls of Democrats, we can have hope of reason winning out over rhetoric. Still, we need to prepare for the post-Trump Republican Party. Trump has been the leader and architect of the current Party since he and Melania descended the golden escalator in 2015. He will probably keep a hand in the mix, but he will no longer be the candidate that created the excitement we have seen in the MAGA movement.

Some may accuse me of a Pollyanna daydream, but I think there is still room in our lives for God, Patriotism, and traditionalism. That does not downplay progress but a belief that progress and conservatism coexist. We have seen what the world of the Progressives looks like, and it does not look like progress to me.