It’s the most wonderful (but amusing) time of the year!
It anticipates a better season ahead.
And for me personally it’s been hard not to notice little winks and nods to such even in the last few days. Let me at least try to explain…
After the election did you notice that reaction of a very tiny group of people became thrice unhinged, breaking down and sputtering before the cameras at CNN, The View and MSNBC? Same.
But I’ve noticed something else. A much larger group of the population have moved from being solidly against Trump and the coming realignment to at minimum neutral in their outlook with a “wait and see,” approach. Yet another group have moved into a state of genuine optimism.
All of the people I’m describing were against President Elect Trump and voted against him. Yet when you add those demographic shifts to a minimum neutral or best case optimistic another observation jumps out: America is in a net positive mindset now.
Mathematically it breaks down easily - all of the 80 million who voted proactively for Trump already felt optimistic. But when you add to those numbers those who voted against him but are at minimum hopeful for positive change this season does feel different.
In the political world: Alexandra Ocasio Cortez lost her bid to chair a Congressional committee (or at minimum be the ranking member.) Speaker Johnson just got Congress to cut 1400 pages from the newest spending bill — due in part because of the cover of Elon Musk & Vivek Ramaswamy exposing the waste. President Elect Trump is now being embraced publicly by corporate leaders and heads of state. And he’s continually put America’s interests into the spotlight and signaling that America will not be mistreated.
The leadership, even before being sworn back into office, is speaking volumes even to newsroom editors at the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN and NBC.
This is encouraging Americans to feel less jittery about big things like speaking out for their daughters’ safety in school locker rooms, and even small things like University of Texas’ quarterback Quinn Ewers quietly wearing a Trump tie pin in public to his college football playoff game.
The wishing of a “Merry Christmas” seems to come faster and with less worry.
Heck even Saturday Night LIVE invoked repeatedly positive (and funny) punch lines in its monologue sketch with Martin Short in the 2024 Christmas special.
This is the way it should be.
The hard left that kidnapped American public life since basically CoVid robbed us of that. The AOC’s, the long fingers of Obama, and Susan Rice, the utterly disreputable emptiness of Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz added continual insult onto the economic and cultural suffering they were imposing on us.
Neither Trump nor anyone else has “fixed” the nation. Not yet. (Though passing a spending bill that was 118 pages vs 1500+ feels a little like we did.) That is coming.
But the pressure upon everyone to have to look over one’s shoulder in order to don a red cap, pledge allegiance to the flag, or admit an open desire to worship the God of scripture has had the steam valve released.
America is exhaling again, hopeful that in this season of hope we find that redemptive day dawning soon.
Joy is the subject of much of this season’s celebrations.
The joy Christians sing of is rooted in the eternal redemption Christ brings those who follow and believe in him.
Christians also hold that if society returns to truth that a cultural revival can sometimes follow. I have no idea if we are about to experience anything like that. But I am hopeful.
And in reflecting on the realignment taking place that hope is a reason for at minimum a small amount of joy this year.