I must admit, nearly two weeks later I’m still in a bit of disbelief over the election results. After last time around, I hadn’t dared hope for much. I’ve grown cautious. And in the long view, I still see this as hope of a temporary slowdown at best, in the seemingly inexorable growth of the state and corresponding diminishment of individual agency. Nonetheless, the evident possibility that things can turn around, at least in the short term, has been a welcome ray of sunshine. I do feel the burden of gloom slightly lifted … for the moment, at least.

I say this with full awareness that there are no guarantees about what’s to come next. We have merely the potential to address problems in better ways now — ways that are consistent with the foundational values of the freedom-loving culture I grew up in and have always felt a grateful devotion to. We have put people in office who campaigned on a return to Constitutional principles, and it’s going to take vigilance and holding their proverbial feet to the fire to see that those notoriously fragile campaign-trail promises are kept.

The battle ahead will not be pretty, nor easily won. We are dealing with people who feel completely justified in deceiving the public when necessary to achieve their ends. The stakes are high, and nothing less than this precious free Civilization of ours hangs in the balance. But the alternative — not to put everything we have into preserving and defending what matters most — is unthinkable.