Pinch Me, I Must Be Dreaming!

It’s always a little scary when I wake up to good news. Maybe it’s an unexpected snowfall during the night or a welcome steady rain after a long dry spell, but I get in the habit of expecting less than ideal news first thing in the morning. I expect normal, the same old same old, the usual.

Sometimes I wake up surrounded by good fortune and the blessings of love, companionship, and a snug homestead. I like to pause, savoring the moment, and thanking my lucky stars that I’m where I am. I put the kettle on for tea and start her coffee. I can forget my regrets of the past for a moment, letting it all go away while I feel the balm of here and now. Then I think to myself that it’s really real and really today and I’m really here. It’s overwhelming sometimes, because the path to the present has been pretty rocky on a few occasions. Not anymore.

Trump was a president who spoke his mind and sparred with his opponents in a worthy way

I’ve been a news watcher and observer of the world for all but the first few years of my life and the world news has often been bad. Certainly in the world of politics there has often been bad news. My dad’s side of the family has been lamenting much of the news since FDR took office in 1933. I picked up on that viewpoint and have shared in the bad news of the growth of the power and influence of the federal government in all our lives. There were jumps in the growth of that power in the 1960s, especially, and in the 1990s and since then, too.

When good news came along like the election of Nixon in 1968, the Reagan victory in 1980, and the Gingrich congressional win in 1994 we hoped for better days and we often got them, but what usually happened was a slowing of the rate of growth of government, never a reversal. Reagan won victories in the traditional way by rallying support from voters and bringing that support to bear on congress. He made things better and we loved him for it.

It always seemed like those trends toward better would be followed by serious swings the other direction. The elections of 1992 and 1996 were good examples. No good could be expected from those, nor from the results of the elections of 2008 and 2012. The election of 2016 was welcome, and turned out better than many of us had feared. Trump was a president who spoke his mind and sparred with his opponents in a worthy way. He was the best we had seen in a long time, and the opposition set to work to destroy him by any and all means.

Trump, he would hit the ground running

He was a shoo-in for re-election, but something happened in the swing states that year and he was denied a second term. In the four years that followed the attacks intensified, but they failed. Bogus convictions on phony charges didn’t carry any weight outside the beltway. For four years we bit our lips and plodded on, hoping that there might be a victory but doubting that it would be possible. But they had chosen to attack somebody who was a street brawler from Queens with deep pockets, and he fought back. I had gone to bed early the night before the 2024 election because I feared a narrow defeat and the end of the republic as we had known it.

On the morning of November 6, 2024, we awoke to news almost too good to be true. Trump had not only won, but he had secured all of the swing states but two, and those fell his way over the next couple of days. Even that morning we knew he had won decisively. It was miraculous, like other events earlier in the campaign. In fact, it was such good news that I feared a setback before the inauguration. There was nervous waiting. Then when Trump and Vance had been sworn in there was a collective sigh of relief across the nation. We had made it. He was in. Our hope began to return.

We figured that, being Trump, he would hit the ground running, and he did. He had been working cabinet appointments and peace in the Middle East even before the inaugural, so no surprise there. We knew Elon Musk would come in and begin to shake things up and turn the lights on. We began to hear about a ‘flood the zone’ strategy. In football terms that’s when multiple players run downfield and turn to present the quarterback with lots of passing targets. 

What we didn’t expect was that the flood the zone strategy

The hope is that the other team will not be expecting it and will not be able to adequately cover the receivers. The chance of success goes way up. And so it did.

What we didn’t expect was that the flood the zone strategy would be so well planned and so well executed. Dozens of executive orders were followed by more dozens, and scores after that. Musk’s DOGE went into full attack mode, singling out offices and bureaucratic fortresses for immediate scrutiny. Alphabet agencies that had been untouchable since their creation in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s received notices to justify themselves and vacate. 

Top brass in agencies like the FBI and CIA were shown the door, sometimes escorted out abruptly. Buyouts were offered to entire layers of bureaucracy, with deadlines for compliance. As of this writing, upwards of 40,000 government employees have opted to take the severance and clear out. They’re the smart ones. Those who choose not to go quietly will face a different situation after this weekend. We will see how that turns out.

Thrilling announcements began to fill the mailbox every morning. The first days were mostly welcome executive orders reversing the decline of the previous four years, and they were fun. After about ten days we heard about the walls of the citadel at USAID being breached. Top brass there went out the doors and had orders not to return. The squealing began amongst the interest groups and congressional supporters of what we discovered was a vast spending operation in the shadows. Reports came out about millions given to this cause and that. Then it got really interesting. The DOGE folks brought out lists of recipients of this taxpayer funded largesse. 

Millions of dollars  going to media organizations that focused on attacking Trump and everyday Americans

Millions of dollars per year have been going to media organizations that have focused on attacking Trump and everyday Americans. Many of these media outlets participated in the legal attacks on the J6 participants. We learned that five thousand FBI personnel had been used to investigate the J6ers. We found out that millions had gone to Soros-supported foundations and activist groups. We learned that the fact checkers who were supposed to be objective were being paid by USAID on behalf of Democrats and leftist groups. All this and more has come to light in less than the first three weeks of Trump’s second term.

It’s still shocking each morning to start the coffee and check the news on the phone and then on the laptop. Have you seen this? Yesterday they booted the top offices at X agency. There’s talk of charges against this one or that one. The border was slammed shut. As cabinet appointees take their new positions after confirmation, they begin handing over records and emails for possible investigation. Military recruitment has already skyrocketed. Obama-era brass appear at the doors of offices they used to run before disappearing into oblivion.

Now each morning I glance over the headlines and think to myself that I never expected a presidential transition this spectacular in my lifetime. Every day there is more and more good news. On the weekends the good news continues. Soon we will pass the three week mile post for the new administration. We haven’t reached the first 21 days yet! Can it be real? Can justice and righteousness really prevail so well and so quickly? I can only shake my head and say, Pinch me, I must be dreaming!

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