"Times are difficult globally; awakening is no longer a luxury or an ideal. It's becoming critical. We don't need to add more depression, more discouragement, or more anger to what's already here. It's becoming essential that we learn how to relate sanely with difficult times. The earth seems to be beseeching us to connect with joy and discover our innermost essence. This is the best way that we can benefit others." — Pema Chodron

2026 is the 250th anniversary of our country's conception. A few years later when the Constitution was ratified, we became a republic — "if you can keep it," Ben Franklin cracked to anxious citizens waiting outside the great hall in Philadelphia. Our country was predicated on the resolve of virtuous men operating under the rule of law. We are lately under an astounding siege of villains without principle seeking to wreck the republic.

The big question facing the USA is whether our political life can become even more deranged than it has been in the past ten years, or can we possibly sober up. How is it we're still arguing about men in women's locker rooms? The self-evident has gone missing. A lot has gone very wrong.

The Woke-Jacobin war against our country continues, led by a Democratic Party made even more vicious, depraved, and insane by the 2024 election victory of Mr. Trump, who was left a broken polity after the four-year tableau vivant of "Joe Biden." Can our nation recover its balance, its sense of purpose, its traction in history? Can we reconstruct a coherent common culture that will afford us some means to carry on as an upright people? I will try to answer without wasting pixels.

Hijacking the Law

Nothing is more urgent than cleaning up the machinery of our elections. It is overloaded now with deliberately devious complexities that invite fraud. We must put an end to mail-in ballots with the sole exception of traditional absentee ballots for citizens out of the country on election day, with proof. We must eliminate all electronic interfaces between the vote and the tally, including all ballot-counting hardware, and return to paper ballots tallied by human beings. We must require voter ID, proof of citizenship, and proof of local voting-district residence. Automatic motor-voter registration must end. Ballots must be cast on election day only (absentee ballots must be received by election day) and the results reported out in twenty-four hours.