We Hold These Truths…

By Charlie Johnston

In America we settle disputes with ballots, not bullets.

Fascists use bullets and violence to get their way. Communists use coercion and force to achieve their aims. Authoritarians rig elections to make their depredations look genuine.

In America, we settle disputes with ballots, not bullets. But we have the biggest fascist, communist, and authoritarian problem we have ever had in this country. They are anti-American to their core.

Oh, how I miss the Democrats of my youth and middle years! We would argue, laugh together, go to sporting and community events together, argue some more and then forge some alliance during times of crisis. Our arguments always centered around how best to make our communities and families safer and stronger, how to protect America, and how to make people more prosperous. Each side would come up with a clunker at times – and each side would, even if grudgingly, eventually acknowledge it when they did. Jimmy Carter was a terrible president, but he did not pretend his dysfunctional economy was “the best economy ever.” His foreign policy inspired terrorism around the globe. He did not pretend it was the world peace he wanted.

We have an invasion of the pod people, hijacking the once honorable Democrat Party, causing them to protect criminals, making communities and families weaker and more vulnerable, intentionally trying to torpedo all economic success, and literally cheering would-be assassins and violent activists…not to mention cheering on foreign enemies shouting, “Death to America!” This really was not the Democrat Party I dealt with for most of my life. How do you deal with the new Bizarro Democrat Party which pushes for the destruction of American communities and family life?

You don’t. Normal people must defeat it – or it will get what it wants.

This is why I say that, contrary to silly pundits working from conventional metrics of analysis, the question is not whether the Democrats will win the midterms, but whether they will survive the midterms. I think the midterms will be the visual beginning of the extinction of the Democrat Party. Perhaps that is wishful thinking on MY part. If so, we have a very long, dark period of American history ahead of us – perhaps even the final chapter in the story of the great American experiment. But I have to believe ordinary Americans’ survival instinct, dulled though it may be, is stronger than to voluntarily choose its own destruction.

Yes, I know Democrats insist all their depredations are for “fairness” and “tolerance” and for all things bright and beautiful. But even the lowest of low-information voters must surely have noted by now that all the violence, most of the ugliness, and all of the war on ordinary people and their pocketbooks is coming from Democrats. These are NOT your Father’s Democrats.

Once the pod people who have hijacked the Democrat Party are permanently and decisively banished from American life, a rational new liberal party will rise and we will once again argue about how to make America, Americans, and American communities stronger, then kick back with a beverage and some laughs. No longer will the argument be whether to protect and defend America and Americans – only on how best to do it. And young people will see what patriotism truly is – and how we can work together for the common good even amid disagreements on how best to achieve it.

If not, we have called forth the destruction that will ravage this country and the world for the next few decades. In 2008 I declined the opportunity to go counsel the Republican National Committee on communications, telling my recruiter that I feared the stupids had become the majority in this country – and if that was the case we would just have to crash and burn spectacularly and then hope to rebuild from the ashes. How I pray I was wrong! This year’s midterms will answer that fear, for better or for worse.

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Rudy Giuliani is in the fight of his life at 81 years old, fighting FOR his life in the hospital due to the fallout from his heroic behavior in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 as New York’s Mayor. He rushed into danger to support and hearten the first responders who risked (and, in some cases, gave) their lives to protect the people they served. Giuliani did not “lead from behind;” he was right up front calming and reassuring his city after it suffered the worst attack in US history. Perhaps my favorite moment then was when an Arab prince gave a big check to the city to help rebuild. During the time the prince spoke at the ceremony, he spoke of Muslim complaints and tried to justify the attacks. Giuliani’s expression curdled – and he refused the check.

In crisis and under pressure, Giuliani was revealed to be a genuine hero. One of the things that made my contempt for modern Democrats complete was when they launched ferocious lawfare attacks against this hero – and even got him disbarred – solely because Giuliani supported Donald Trump and, specifically, because he vigorously contested the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

Long live “America’s Mayor”!

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In 2008 I was courted by four presidential campaigns to be run as part of their delegate slate – including both John McCain and Rudy Giuliani.

It was a conundrum. Though flattering, there was no way I would publicly align myself with McCain. Though he gave lip service to the pro-life cause, he was working at that moment with then-Congressman Mark Kirk to make Chicago the national center for embryonic stem cell research – which was always a dry hole that was only used as justification for abortion. That was typical McCain. I often told friends at the time that McCain would toss his grandmother under the bus for 15 minutes on Meet the Press or a favorable nod from the New York Times.

Giuliani was a moderately pro-choice candidate, so he seemed a non-starter. But at a closed-door meeting with some officials and political movers, Giuliani said that, though he was personally pro-choice, he would only nominate pro-life judges. Suddenly, I had a candidate who could advance the pro-life agenda, even if the optics were not good. If McCain’s public word was unreliable window-dressing,  Giuliani was a courageous man of his word. I took counsel from many serious people, including three Priests I trust and a Bishop. In the end, I became a Giuliani delegate.

My Parish Priest at the time was the late Fr. Ernie Pizzamiglio, pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Galesburg, Illinois. Alas, though I took delight in him, Fr. Ernie was not one of the Priests I had consulted on the matter.

Fr. Ernie was amazingly unique. He wore his heart on his sleeve – and his love for his parishioners was obvious. He was front and center when anyone had a need or was hurt. And his parishioners returned his affection with interest. But he was also no nonsense. Once, as spring advanced, as Mass ended, he upbraided the congregation because too many were dressing like they were going to a night club or the beach. He did not go into detail, noting that everyone knew what he was talking about. He simply said that this was the last Mass where he would tolerate it. Henceforth, anyone who came dressed inappropriately would be refused entry and sent home. There were no complaints – and no further infractions. Another time, when the announcements after Mass droned on for nearly 10 minutes, Fr. Ernie got up and pointedly said that, from now on, there would be no more than three items announced after Mass. If it wasn’t important enough to make the three, the bulletin would just have to suffice. Fr. Ernie had the weird power of being able to publicly rebuke you and have you love him even more for it – even bragging about it.

He was a good friend. We often went to breakfast or lunch together, talking about faith, theology, and life in general. He was a lively conversational partner.

At Daily Mass one morning, he just ripped me up one side and down the other because I had gone with the Giuliani campaign. Oh, he didn’t mention my name, but he lambasted me and most of the people at Mass knew exactly who he was talking about. It was bracing. After Mass, he caught up with me in a corridor. He was despondently apologetic, saying he didn’t know what came over him to make him so intense on the matter. He insisted on taking me to breakfast at our favorite place.

I had already explained why I had chosen this route to him before this happened. He was the only one who just could not accept me supporting someone who was publicly pro-choice, even if it would actually help the movement. At breakfast, he reiterated that it was right on the substance – and McCain was a non-starter because of his disingenuousness on the issue. But he pointed out that I was one of the two or three most prominent pro-lifers in the state – and very few of the rank-and-file would know what was actually going on. For them, it would just look like Charlie was going soft on the pro-life issue and would be seen as a betrayal which would dishearten them. As we talked further, he made the distinction that, privately, we should always make the most right decision we can. But when we are highly visible publicly in association with something, we have the duty not just to do the most right thing we can, but to avoid giving public scandal to the people who look to us for leadership and guidance. What I should have done was to try to steer support to who would give us the best result without ever publicly backing a guy who was not on board publicly with our issue. Fr. Ernie was right and I was wrong.

There was never any danger that this was going to affect our friendship. Again, he always wore his heart on his sleeve. But I did note the irony that he had publicly whacked me and here I was consoling him and telling him it was okay. He just reiterated how sorry he was. We enjoyed our breakfast, had a few laughs, and came away a little (or in my case, a lot) wiser than we went in. After breakfast, I hugged him and we went our separate ways. We had many meals together afterwards, but we never broached that subject in any detailed way again. Why would we? We had covered it.

Fr. Ernie was a wonderful man – and I am grateful for his wisdom and his long friendship. I pray that we will eventually be reunited in heaven, both wiser than we are here. And I kind of hope Giuliani might eventually join us for a rollicking cup of heavenly coffee and a few laughs.

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RINO Republicans in the Indiana State Senate refused to redistrict the state, even though they have a supermajority. Trump endorsed the challengers of every incumbent who had voted against the redistricting. Well, it was a bloodbath for those RINO Republicans on Tuesday. Five of the seven up for election were defeated – and by large margins, at that. One of the races remains uncertain and only one of the incumbents clearly won.

The establishment media has, predictably, reached the wrong conclusions about what this means. They think it means Donald Trump has a mysterious, Svengali-like hold over the Republican Party and that, whatever he says, we will follow, cultlike.

To the contrary, for decades we have been plagued by Republican leaders who say one thing and do another. We have been plagued by supposedly elite sophisticates pompously explaining to us why we must not be so gauche as to act in our own interest. Well, most ordinary people do support Trump – and the media is constantly surprised that real-world results keep contradicting their dummied up polls and conventional “wisdom.” One of the major reasons for the current moral hysteria and violence is that the elite sophisticates who have been telling us how wrong we are on everything – while delivering only failure and depredation – are losing THEIR Svengali-like power to convince ordinary people to bend the knee to them.

Most ordinary people do support Trump, but not out of some blind deception. We are just very enthused to have someone at the top who says that not only is it okay to take our own side in a fight, but that it is the right thing to do. So long as that is his message, we will be fine. If it ever changes (God forbid) we would find a new champion.

The power of evil is broken. And evil absolutely hates that.

If communication goes out for any length of time, meet outside your local Church at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Tell friends at Church now in case you can’t then. CORAC teams will be out looking for people to gather in and work with.

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