I looked to the skies this first chilly morning of 2026, the 250th anniversary of the birth of the greatest nation the world has ever known, and I saw a Bald Eagle slowly circling my house. It made its way to a large oak tree in my backyard, surveying everything within sight, not giving a shit what any living creature thought of it. After it had had its fill, it took flight to parts unknown.
“That”, I remarked to my son sitting on the back porch with me as I sipped my coffee, “is America.”
The majesty, the beauty, the strong confidence bordering on arrogance, it was all there.
This was no coincidence; never in all my years living in Florida had I seen a Bald Eagle in the wild. No, my friends, this was a message. Sent by what universal power, I cannot be certain, but of one thing I am sure: to me, on this first day of a new year, it meant “America is back.”
We Are Not Suffering a Crisis of Capacity. It Is a Crisis of Nerve.
America did not fall apart because we ran out of strength, money, talent, or courage. We fell apart because we tolerated bullshit. We allowed unserious people to take control of serious institutions. We let activists replace adults. We handed the wheel to the loudest, most fragile voices in the room and then acted surprised when the proverbial car veered into a ditch.
Wake up, fellow citizens! This is not a nation in decline. This is a nation that took its hands off the controls and stared at its phone for a second too long.
Somewhere between common sense and cowardice, we forgot who we were supposed to be. We traded grit for grievance. We swapped accountability for excuses and self-pity. We replaced citizenship with identity cosplay and called it progress.
That rot did not come from nowhere. It came from letting stupid ideas pass unchallenged because pushing back felt impolite.
I fancy myself a polite person in the right situations. But, as any warrior will tell you, sometimes we are forced to be impolite to meet our objectives.
Because politeness, when elevated beyond truth, becomes a muzzle.
We Let the Inmates Run the Asylum
Let us stop pretending this was subtle. We’re all adults here. At some point, we know exactly what was happening, but kind of hoped it would just go away or someone else would fix it.
We watched people insist that biology is optional and were told to clap or else. We watched criminals get treated like victims while families locked their doors and prayed the police still showed up. We watched our schools shut down, our children fall behind, and bureaucrats shrug as, behind the scenes, they lined their pockets. We watched trillions get printed, prices skyrocket, and officials tell us inflation was a vibe shift. Shame on us for letting this go on for so long.
We watched history get sandblasted into something unrecognizable, venerable statues torn down like trophies for leftist ideologues, and the American founding narrative treated like a crime scene. We were told borders are immoral, effort is unfair, excellence is offensive, and the only people who deserve consequences are the ones who follow the rules.
This is anathema to my America. The great nation I raised my right hand for. And, of course, it is not just “my” America. It is our America. “We, the people…” It is the land and ideals our forefathers fought and died for. It is the land they fled to for liberation from oppression.
Our failure was not compassion. It was indulgence. It was weakness wearing a virtue badge.
A country cannot function when reality is treated as negotiable and authority is terrified of doing its job.
We went through a time of weakness, but it can be fixed.
The Country Still Works. The Culture Went Off the Rails.
Here is what drives the professional cynics insane. Despite everything, America still works when responsible adults are allowed to run things.
The trucks still roll. The lights still turn on. The military still produces disciplined professionals. Parents still fight for their kids. Workers still show up before dawn and carry the load while being mocked by people who have never built, fixed, or defended anything in their lives.
Our strength never left. It was drowned out.
Strip away the social media garbage, the corporate virtue sermons, and the endless grievance economy, and you find a population that, by and large, still believes in fairness, law, responsibility, and the radical idea that you should earn what you get.
The greatness is not gone. It is still there, buried under layers of cowardice and institutional decay.
This Is About Reclaiming Reality
Getting back on track does not require a revolution. It requires a spine.
We must teach history without flinching or apologizing for existing. We must enforce laws consistently or stop pretending they matter. We must protect free speech instead of trying to manage it like a controlled burn. We must stop confusing feelings with facts and intentions with outcomes.
We defend the integrity of the family because stable societies do not grow out of chaos. We must reward competence instead of victimhood. We must demand accountability from leaders who spent years lecturing while everything fell apart on their watch.
This is not left versus right. That framing is lazy. This is adults versus children. Men versus boys. Builders versus arsonists. Reality versus fantasy.
A nation that refuses to say no eventually loses the ability to say yes to anything that matters.
Thank God we are not to that point yet.
Enough Waiting. Enough Excuses.
The potential greatness of 2026 is not a suggestion. It is a reckoning.
Either we keep drifting and let unserious people continue dismantling the foundations, or we decide to take the country back from the clowns, cowards, and career activists who mistake noise for leadership.
This means showing up. Speaking plainly. Voting with intention. Raising kids who can think, argue, and stand their ground. Refusing to be bullied into silence by people who collapse the moment they are challenged.
America does not need to be reinvented. It needs to be reclaimed. It’s still there if only we have the intestinal fortitude to speak up and begin anew.
So, stand up. Shake off the apathy. Stop waiting for permission.
The country that we built, fought for, and won is still here.
Dig it out, put it back to work, and let’s all move forward together like we mean it.
