Breathless in America

posted by Deana Chadwell at American Thinker 

I am breathless, humbled and excited -- Christmas morning excited. I’ve been around for a long time, and I’ve paid attention to politics ever since Eisenhower, but I’ve never seen anything like Trump’s opening gambit. I had no idea any human being could maintain the pace The Donald is sustaining and still look like he’s having fun. And I didn’t know how much fun it would be to watch the leftists whine -- is there such a thing as too much schadenfreude?

I’m in a state of delighted, yet humbled shock, humbled because I had become accustomed to the turtle-like lumbering of government that I gave no thought to the possibility such a blitzkrieg could ever happen. This is the first lesson I’ve learned from Trump:

Lesson #1: One can be both realistic and optimistic at the same time. There’s nothing pie-in-the-sky about our president; he isn’t a dreamer absently wishing for success. He’s doing the work -- he’s been doing the work for eight years. It’s obvious now that he wasn’t sulking while Old Joe was napping in the Oval Office. Trump’s been planning. He’s been rehearsing. Those EOs were all ready and waiting. He’d already chosen his cabinet -- and a better lot could only have been assembled with much effort and divine guidance. Trump is loaded for bear, but he’s confident he can charm that bear into submission.

Lesson #2:  There is no box. It’s not that we must look outside the box -- that implies that the limitations are real. Evidently, they aren’t. Greenland?! What? Gaza? Where did that come from? Panama had scarcely been mentioned, and Rubio has already made progress. And I thought we had so many problems here that I never would have thought to take on yet more. I must swear off the negativity. Canada too?! Wow.

Lesson #3: Have no fear. I realize that I had been nervous about the Left’s reaction to the deportations. Yes, they’ve done a little marching around, but they merely look puny and silly. Their congressmen look stuttery and scared. As they should. Terrible things have happened on their watch -- things that have enriched them and lined the pockets of their friends and relatives and hurt millions. So why were Republicans worried about offending the Left? Why were we scared? Homan has just reported that crossings of illegals at the southern border is down 93%. South American governments have agreed to absorb many of those we’re deporting. Gitmo is opening to house the worst of the illegals. We’re only two weeks in. The Bible tells us hundreds of times not to be afraid. Look what can be accomplished when one refuses to fall into that pit. Trump has every right to be afraid; they’ve tried to do such evil things to him, yet he doesn’t even flinch. When will I learn?

Lesson #4 augments #3:  Courage saves energy and mental space for actual accomplishment. Courage is not failing to recognize danger. It is responding to danger with positive efforts to defang the threats. Our burgeoning national debt is just such a monster. It keeps growing and growing. Enter Elon and his band of merry hackers. It’s no wonder our debt has ballooned -- we’re being burgled with every breath we take. We’re also paying millions of people who “work” from home doing jobs that don’t need doing and often doing those poorly. Already, with a single ultimatum from the Oval Office, tens of thousands have decided to seek other employment. Pardon me while I dance a little jig. I can already feel the burden of that debt lifting.

Not only that, but we’ve been coaxed into fearing AI and yet here’s Elon & Co. using AI to find and eradicate the thievery that has nearly killed this country. Allow me to restate Lesson #3 -- no fear.

Lesson #5 just amazes me: If you have faith, you can have fun.  Things have looked grim for America ever since 9/11 and I grew up thinking that cleaning up a mess was miserable work -- even though it isn’t, necessarily. I have, regardless of that attitude, often found joy in cleaning out a closet or vacuuming my car. I do realize the nonstop effort going into all the fumigating, sanitizing, and renovating that’s happening in Washington must be exhausting, but those doing it are evincing such joy that it’s energizing and contagious. Trump gathering all those young girls around him to celebrate giving their sports back to them. What fun he was having (and he didn’t sniff any of them). Bondi issuing her edicts and warnings -- grinning all the time. Rubio and Hegseth and Homan jetting around merrily checking things off their lists as if they were just daily chores. Noem wearing her cowboy hat and riding her horse along the border, surveying her domain.  May the Lord protect them all and bless them mightily.

This entire Arthurian round table believe in what they are doing, believe in the man who leads them, and believe in the purpose and power of God -- however they perceive Him. Of course they’re having fun -- they are winning. They know the American people stand behind them and Trump himself has said often that he knows he has God behind him -- he has that ear to remind him.

Lesson #6 has to do with truth: Truth first. Let pleasantness and honesty replace diplomatic groveling. It’s not that I never valued truth before. I have, as a high school and college instructor, often found myself in situations where I had to tell a student, or his horrified parents, a difficult truth, but in the last couple of decades truth has had to take a back seat to leftist illusions (We each have our own truth, we’re told.) Truth just got tucked away in the attic along with grandma’s doilies and old Boy Scout uniforms. We got accustomed to being lied to by people who knew that we knew that they knew that they were lying that we’ve gone numb. Suddenly we’re dealing with a new Washington that values truth (and therefore efficiency) far more than tact, more than power. We have a president who doesn’t need a teleprompter to answer press questions because often his answer is a simple and cheerful “Yes,” or “No.” No frills. No fuss. Time is short. Let’s git 'er done. Besides, God is truth, so let’s find it and abide by it. And here we are with a government that believes that. Wow.

Lastly -- Lesson #7. God answers prayer -- in ways we rarely expect or imagine. I’ve spent the last 50 years of my life enjoying the surprise of His responses to my petitions. These responses have often been funny (God has quite a sense of humor.) or astonishing and always wonderful, but I’ve never seen anything as amazing as these last few weeks. I know that millions and millions of us have been on our knees praying for our country, knowing that divine intervention is necessary. We have been praying for God to raise up leaders who can fix all this -- enter Trump -- not quite what everyone envisioned, but here he is and he’s doing it. We’ve been praying to reach our fellow Americans with the truth. Enter the social media and the dissolution of fake news. We have prayed for Israel and now America can stand boldly beside her. I have never been more thrilled with God’s answers than I am now.

Sometimes it seems like God is not answering, but His timing is always perfect. Trump needed those four years of the empty Biden “presidency’ to get prepared to swoop in and rescue this great nation. I know I needed those four awful years to learn to choose not to fear, not to be angry, to leave it all up to God. What wonderful fun it is to see Him fulfill our faith in Him. I’m breathless.