The Holy Spirit has acted throughout human history, choosing whatever means He likes. Sometimes it’s a stammering orphan like Moses. Or a brave but vulnerable warrior like Samson. A Machiavellian emperor like Constantine can work His will. So can an illiterate rural virgin like Saint Joan of Arc. It’s a profound test of our humility not to spurn God’s gifts when they come because we don’t approve of His choice of wrapping paper.
The political career of Donald Trump has put Christians to the test, and many have failed it so far. They preferred tidy hypocrites, smooth-tongued merchants of stupid wars, and pious-sounding Sadducees who craved a place in Pilate’s shadow. Such men went from clanging cymbals on behalf of “conservative principles” and “traditional civic norms” to endorsing Kamala Harris. In the form of cash from George Soros, USAID, the Hewlett Foundation, and other Planned Parenthood donors, they already have their reward.
They Want 2020, Forever
What are we to learn from the politics of the present moment? I know what the Left and the pharisees on the Right want to teach us. They hope to imprison us in the world of 2020 eternally: lockdowns, speech bans, debanking, forced experimental vaccines, “mostly peaceful” riots, and murky, computer-managed elections enforced by FBI raids at dawn and solitary confinement. In other words, they want the CDC crushing a masked human face forever.
We are meant to live in fear of political thugs on the streets and in deference to nameless unaccountable authorities. The Establishment that collaborated to illegally remove Donald Trump from office and persecute his supporters has a goal that’s starkly simple: imposing on America’s citizens the state of learned helplessness.
Here’s how Psychology Today explains that tragic condition:
Learned helplessness occurs when an individual continuously faces a negative, uncontrollable situation and stops trying to change their circumstances, even when they have the ability to do so…. The term was coined in 1967 by the American psychologists Martin Seligman and Steven Maier. The pair was conducting research on animal behavior that involved delivering electric shocks to dogs. Dogs who learned they couldn’t escape the shock stopped trying in subsequent experiments, even when it became possible to avoid the shock by jumping over a barrier….
The experience is characterized by three main features: a passive response to trauma, not believing that trauma can be controlled, and stress. [emphasis added]
Why Object to Fighting Crime?
I wrote in this morning’s Brew about President Donald Trump’s decision to use his constitutional authority to take control of law enforcement in our nation’s capital. You can read the details there. But let’s look behind the headlines in search of the deeper reality.
Why are people decrying Trump’s straightforward efforts to curb rape, theft, and murder as “fascist”? Why would politicians and federal employees who must live and work in Washington, D.C., object to a president’s perfectly legal efforts to curb the city’s out-of-control chaos and crime?
How stupid do you have to be to protest cleaning up the crime war zone in your city?!
The Dems reaching new lows never thought possible!! pic.twitter.com/bo7HPw25uJ
— Sean Feucht (@seanfeucht) August 11, 2025
Why are elite New Yorkers eagerly flocking to vote for a radical leftist Muslim who for years campaigned to defund and “dismantle” the New York Police Department? Do they like the smell of urine in the subways, the smell of fear outside ATMs at night? Why, for that matter, are Canadians tamely obeying a government that bans them from the woods and Britons a regime that locks them up for complaining about uncontrolled immigration and Pakistani rape gangs?
The Beagle Has Stopped Flinching Even When Fauci Shocks It
It’s painful to say it, but for hundreds of millions of Westerners, learned helplessness has already set in. They feel deep in their bones that their societies are circling the drain. They see their native cradles empty of newborns and boats arriving daily with brawling Third World replacements. They see the foreign flags, alien temples, and rallies of jihadists who promise conquest. They watch as homegrown customs disappear, historic churches crumble, and statues of heroes topple.
Maybe at some point in the past, these beaten-down people felt revulsion. Perhaps they tried to object. But they learned that such reactions were swiftly punished by the Authorities, rebuked by freelance Karens, and denounced on social media. Their comfortable jobs and cozy social networks would be put in immediate danger at the first sign of “extremism.” There was literally nothing worse such people could imagine than being lumped in with the “far Right” — not even the conquest and destruction of their country. So they learned to wryly tolerate it, maybe even to try to welcome it. “At least these immigrants open exotic restaurants ….”
Go Along to Get Along
A big part of the program of those who wish to rule us is imposing such learned helplessness. Uncontrolled borders, “urban youths” running rampant, economic stagnation, elaborate ethnic quotas, 45 new “genders,” drag queens reading groomer porn to school children … these are just facets of how things are nowadays.
They’re the face of the Future. Resist it, and you’ll face punishment in a futile and failing cause, then end up on the ash heap of history like the heroes whose statues the mobs pulled down. Go along to get along, and you might just eke out the remainder of your three-score and ten in moderate contentment.
And as for your descendants, should you have any? You can just tell yourself that children are resilient.
The alternative to this kind of slow-motion, opiate-soothed suicide is equally stark. You can decide that your present comfort is less important than the hope for a decent future. With God’s grace, you can look back more than five years in your nation’s history and see what past heroes were willing to do for the Common Good. It entailed risking not just their good names and their fortunes, but their actual lives and limbs. Such men made painful choices, took tough-minded action, and laughed in the face of danger. When “lone gunmen” with absolutely no Deep State ties whatsoever shot them in the face, they raised their fists and shouted “Fight, fight, fight!”
No wonder our would-be masters don’t want such heroes standing around, either alive or cast in bronze. Courage can be contagious.
John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of 14 books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First.
