I spent an hour this morning on the radio with Bill Bennett and his producer Seth Leibsohn, talking about the highlights and lowlights of 2009. It was fun as always, and, even though 2009 was not a great year by anyone’s standard, in the end I think it was more positive than negative.
Two overarching and intertwined stories dominated the news this year, one bad and one good. The bad theme was, of course, the Washington Democrats’ attack on our free enterprise system and on our liberties. The attack was broad-based and unremitting, encompassing the stimulus, TARP II, government medicine, cap and trade, card check and much more. But the good news of 2009 was how the American people pushed back: town halls, tea parties, plummeting poll numbers for President Obama and the Congressional Democrats, and unified Republican opposition in Congress. Above all, though, the opposition came from individual Americans who refused to surrender their hard-won independence without a fight. In hindsight, I think 2009 will be remembered as the year when the conservative movement reawakened.
So: Happy New Year to all of our readers. 2010 will bring its own problems and perils, but for now let hope reign.
Some of our readers may wonder why I am posting on New Year’s Eve. Have I nothing better to do? Was I not invited to a New Year’s Eve party? Or are we waiting until close to midnight to depart for some fashionable event?
Actually, tonight my wife and I are chaperoning a kids’ New Year’s Eve party, as we have for just about all of the last eight or nine years. My thirteen-year-old daughter invited 30 or more of her friends–including some boys–and the resulting chaos is taking place a level down from where I’m typing. Thankfully, we had reinforcements for the early stage of the party in the form of my twenty-year-old daughter and her boyfriend, but they have now departed for a party of their own. So far, no serious damage seems to have been done. But I appeal to our adult male readers: which would you rather do, write a few blog posts or supervise a room full of shrieking thirteen-year-old girls?
I rest my case. With luck, I’ll be in bed before the ball drops. Happy New Year to all!
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