2015 has been quite a year, and in many respects, a disappointing one. Aside from the rise of ISIS and their attacks on the west, we have a dysfunctional Leftist ideologue as president, the economy is nothing like as rosy as it's being painted, many people justifiably feel that the Republican majority they thought they elected to stop President Obama's agenda has betrayed them and it seems like our deepest and most long held traditions, institutions and beliefs are being assaulted on every side. It literally seems like we're living in Yeats's 'Second Coming':
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
That lack of conviction is expressed by a lot of people who describe themselves as 'disillusioned.' Strange word that, disillusioned. It has a thoroughly negative context, symbolizing the loss of hope and ideals. No doubt some of you might be surprised to know that I consider it one of the most positive words in the English language.
To be disillusioned is a state of dropping illusions, the false sense of the state of affairs and seeing the truth for what it is. Is there anything that can be more positive and empowering than that? If I had to characterize 2015, I'd say it's been a year when more and more Americans - by no means all, but a steadily increasing amount - became disillusioned in the best sense of that word. We have had three bad presidents in a row, two of them abysmal and one merely overcome by his background and the force of events but nevertheless almost as destructive in his own way as the other two. We've become disillusioned, we increasingly realize how deep the rot has gone and we know we can no longer ignore it, as we have for the past quarter century. People sense the climate of the times. The success of Donald Trump that cuts across partisan lines is proof of that. In a very real sense, having suffered through the Left's Obama, Trump's supporters want Donald Trump to be their Obama, and to take revenge for our latest's president's not insignificant role in the plundering and degradation of our America. And the howls of dismay from the GOP establishment only enhances that emotion.
How that works out remains to be seen, but there is this to consider, for the disappointed and disillusioned. With everything that's happened, 2016 is still a year of hope. We still have a fighting chance to reclaim our beloved Republic from our enemies within and without who seek to twist, plunder and destroy it, especially in an election year. One of the blessings America enjoys from the Almighty is that having faced even darker times than we do today, America and the American Spirit have always revitalized themselves and prevailed. And somehow, the right leaders have always come along to lead the way through the darkness.
It can happen again if we want it to, because it is our innate nature as a country unique in the annals of history. The one thing that can stop it is to wallow our own despair and to surrender. That gives the victory to the Enemy, and serves us not at all.
Instead, take your cue from the two delightful little party animals above. Rise to the New Year with the happiness, the hope and the vigor that is our birthright. Let those who hate what America is and what it stands for, those who wish us ill, let them lament and despair as they are defeated and fade back into the woodwork and the crevices of history like the self-aggrandized cockroaches they are.
We have the chance to answer Benjamin Franklin's famous words after Philadelphia, when he told one of his fellow Americans that we had a Republic if we could keep it. Our answer, echoing back across the ages to our Founders and our forefathers should be a resounding 'Yes, we can.'
They risked everything for that Republic, quite literally their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. We must be prepared to do likewise. If we, their heirs are unwilling to do less than that for ourselves and our posterity, we will no longer worthy of what they sacrificed so much to pass down to us. We will have meekly given up our birthright to be slaves unworthy of our freedom. So let us embrace disillusionment in its best sense. Let us resolve to rise and shine, and to do whatever is necessary.
This is our opportunity to write a new chapter in America's history, to reclaim what it is and what it stands for, to take back what is ours. Welcome that struggle along with the New Year and don't place bets on America's failure and decline. The history of our Republic is littered with the failure of those whom have.
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