America is Resetting its National Compass

If you’re seeing the same stuff I am these days, you likely sense our country is heading for a major course correction. In most parts of our nation and in many of our neighborhoods, folks of virtually all persuasions are sending clear signals that what we’ve been doing for the last decade is the wrong stuff. It was crystal clear in the recent elections during which a majority of American voters ordered a hard turn to starboard. Count me among the cheerleaders for this clear-eyed reality check.

Along with a lot of other folks in fly-over country, I’m watching what appears to be a revolution in the way we think about ourselves and the way we want our society to function. It’s about damn time. We’ve allowed our American arteries to become clogged with bureaucratic nonsense. We’ve allowed ourselves to be bullied and cowed into submission by self-serving politicians who insist they know better than the rest of us simpletons what’s good for us. What Americans seem to be saying in loud, clear terms to our political and societal policy makers is this: We call the plays and you carry the ball as directed. Not the other way around.

This sea change has all sorts of national and international implications that reach beyond whatever the new administration and a reordered Congress has in mind. It’s a populist assertion that we believe Abe Lincoln was right on target when he talked about a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. On the world stage, we’ve just about had enough from pissant tyrants who think America is too weak or befuddled to meet their challenges or check their power grabs. Hopefully, we’ll pull up short of another forever war and rather restore American sea, air, and land power sufficient to provide credible deterrence the way we did in the past. That will require a hard kick-start among American defense manufacturers but there’s a way, and now I think there’s also a will.

Domestically, the signs of course correction are even more obvious in some areas. Americans have just about had it up to their eyeballs with failed social programs. Professional race baiters and DEI scam artists are being shown the door or ignored. That’s as it should be in America. A good way to end all this identity fascination and frustration is to simply ignore it, stop talking about it, and it eventually fades then disappears. We’ve come far enough down a rough road at this point to disregard color and focus on character. Just take a deep breath and look around. We’ve got people of every shade, sex, and orientation doing just fine in politics, industry, and practically every other pursuit.

There remain some reinforced and time resistant roadblocks ahead of us. We’re making our course correction slowly like a big heavy ship in a broad turn rather than like a speedboat ripping through the waves. That’s understandable and even to be expected. Sometimes making substantive changes in a huge, diverse population like ours can be like trying to control a blob of mercury or corral a gaggle of independent cats. But signs are there even in liberal enclaves like Los Angeles and New York where citizens are stomping the brake pedal on wimpy anti-crime measures. Out on our liberal left coast, voters in LA ejected an ultra-liberal DA and passed a tough slate of anti-crime measures. And north of them in Oregon, a disgusted legislature reversed the state’s experiment in decriminalizing drug offenses. When something doesn’t work, when a law or policy doesn’t yield the desired result, change it. That’s the message and the method. It’s called course correction and it means there are new and rational hands on the steering wheel.

To avoid being remiss, I’m forced to send a salute along to citizens of The Big Apple who delighted me recently by returning a verdict of not guilty on manslaughter charges against Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny. Semper Fi, Brother. He did what a good citizen—especially a good Marine citizen—should do when encountering a threatening madman. The victim in this case died but that’s on him or the city that allowed him to roam its streets despite past episodes of dangerous, anti-social behavior. Solid course correction, New York. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. Stay tuned.

Click for Books by Dale A. Dye