2024: What I Want, Expect, and Wish For – Part 2

Here are more things I want to see but likely won’t in American politics and government in 2024; things I expect to see but would rather not; a bit of wishful thinking, because at least that makes me smile for a minute; and a few things Americans can do.

This is the second of two posts. The first focused mostly on presidential candidates. This one takes up other themes, most of which relate to the presidential race somehow. Nearly everything does.

What I Want (continued)

I Want Us Not to Tolerate Violence or Rampant Tyranny in 2024

I’d love to see a mass outbreak of common sense and spirited Americanism when darker forces resume their rampage this year, as they probably will. Here’s what I mean.

And the Devil Laughed

Let’s talk for a few minutes about Israel, Hamas, Iran, what happened on October 7, and how people have responded in the United States and around the world. Ever since that day, I’ve been jotting down and revising my thoughts. But I was in the middle of a concerted campaign at afelection.info and elsewhere to inform and influence a local election. That absorbed all my available time for blogging, among other things. Election Day came two weeks late this year in Utah, but it’s over, and we won. You were probably busy too. Meanwhile, around the world, the devil laughed.

I just now deleted most of the words I’ve written and rewritten about that day and its continuing aftermath — 2,000 words, give or take. We don’t need them for two reasons. First, my essential thoughts here are quite simple.

I’ll be talking about evil — the evil of the original attack and the evil of celebrating it, then and now.

Then I will refer you to a wise, insightful, and urgently necessary speech I watched on YouTube last week. The speaker is Bari Weiss, a prominent American liberal, not a leftist; the difference is large and consequential. Though I am a conservative, and some of her politics and mine (on other subjects) don’t mesh, I beg you to watch it at least once. Then share it with others if you dare.

It is everything I wish I had time to write here and more; that’s the second reason we don’t need more of my words here. And perhaps Ms. Weiss, as a liberal, will reach readers who would tend to dismiss the same thoughts if they came from my mouth or pen, because so many of my stated views are conservative.

After that, I’ll suggest a second video.

Silver Linings and Points of Light

I share many Americans’ gloom in the present political moment. My conservative concerns are legion. But I see points of light in the night sky. I see silver linings to the dark clouds, suggesting the light still burns beyond them.

To be sure, I don’t always write cheerfully.

  • Four posts ago I wrote about not giving ourselves permission to hate people. Hatred is as dark as darkness gets.
  • Three posts ago I wrote about social media censorship and possible measures against it — for a future day when we may have a government which isn’t in bed with Big Tech.
  • Two posts ago I wrote about the rush to reimpeachment and its motives. My thoughts were not sweetness and light.
  • Last time I described a dark and detailed dream about freedom, truth, and their enemies’ raging lust for power. I’ll let you decide, when you read it, whether you think it was really just a dream.

In one or two of those sober posts, and in private conversations with several readers, in person and online, I promised happy thoughts to come — because there are some.

I have three potentially therapeutic things for you. (In some cases I may have to explain the cheering effect.) They are danger signs we don’t see yet, those happy thoughts I promised, and things to do.

Guest Post: Molly Hogan – “We Need Them As Much As They Need Us”

Molly Hogan

Nine years ago, my husband Brady and I were living in a small but cozy apartment in Salt Lake City. We were pregnant with our first child, going to school for our bachelor’s degrees, and working full-time. After crunching the numbers again and again, we realized that I would still need to work once the baby was born.

I’d always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, so I began to look for jobs that would allow me to work from home. After a lot of searching we found an apartment manager position just a couple of blocks away. We went to check it out.