The killing heart                      

The last decade or so has witnessed a heartwarming resurgence of American pride. Tens of millions of common men -- laborers, policemen, honest journalists, and regular Joes from numerous walks of life -- have hefted high the glorious stars and stripes to which generations pledged allegiance.

But recent years also brought into distinct aspect this horrible truth: Millions of our lesser national brethren hunger so mightily for governmental and cultural dominance, they've seized up ugliness with relish.

Their smiley-face, peace sign masks lie on the floor. Visible now are the grotesque visages of those who exalt lawbreaking, treasonous ambitions, and sundry immoralities.

Badness is the ideal. Consider foul phenomena presently poisoning our great nation, at the calculation of Democrat leaders and other sinsister actors:

Openly socialist and communistic notions and candidates populate national conversation. Illegal immigrant crimes -- including murders, rapes, and child predations -- occur alongside celebrations of Christian conservative Charlie Kirk's broad daylight murder, as well as that of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the attempts to assassinate President Trump. 

Furthermore, backroom-plotted, barely legal lawfare machinations to sabotage democracy and foil the people's will have seen animation. Cashless bail allows offenders with numerous criminal convictions to lurk anew in American neighborhoods and perpetrate additional offenses, while state and local officials ensure area police are barred from cooperating with federal law enforcement. 

City streets teem with (possibly bankrolled) protesters, assaulting law enforcement with concrete chunks, explosives, and bricks from pallet-stacks mysteriously situated for comfortable access.

Sadly, that list-- to which other vile efforts could easily be appended -- has been joined by a large-scale and despicable outpouring of sympathy for three-time toddler-strangler Lyndsay Clancy.

A sickening push to allow baby-murdering mothers to dance free -- citing mental dishevelment, resulting from the God-given wonder of childbirth -- has begun. Iowa retired columnist Rekha Basu, of the Gannett Corporation-owned, obdurately liberal Des Moines Register, penned an entire missive endorsing such wicked crackpottery.

New 'progressive' exhortations to grant mothers child-killing rights are a logical, albeit horrendous, extension of the dire philosophy undergirding the abortion of millions of babies each year. (Perhaps garroting disquieting husbands will soon also become a woke cause.)

Do not doubt that the same reprobates who promote the above will continue bannering themselves the 'good guys,' virtuous believers in love, peace, and tolerance. 

Of course, no intelligent observer will be fooled, and honest ones will raise the finger of contempt.

Immoral is not moral, nor wrong right, or unfair fair, any more than down is up. 

November's election results will show whether the America of noble tradition will endure as its founders intended, or if moral rot and ideological pestilence settle behind the wheel.

God help us all.

Rally aboard America's Trump Express - or be ground beneath greatness wheels

President Trump told attendees of August's Garden City, New York police rally: " "The golden age of America is now on us!"

And how.

“Together we’re showing what is possible when you finally have a president in the White House who supports our police, who lets you do your jobs, and who always backs the blue!,” he thundered.

Nationwide, the MAGA upswell has engendered renewed support for law and order. That, as well as popular backing of courageous men and women who uphold laws and mete out deserved punishment to grubby caitiffs, signals a much-needed advancement beyond Biden's one term and Democrats' still-harbored ugly faiths.

A related Catholic Vote article listed specifics: "According to a fact sheet posted by the White House’s Rapid Response X account, violent crime fell 9.3% from 2024, including an 18.1% decline in murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, a 7.6% decline in rape, an 18.5% decline in robbery, and a 7.2% decline in aggravated assault."

That's encouraging news for all good people. But hardly for those who wish America ill.

Catholic Vote continued: "Property crime fell 12.4%, with burglary down 15.8%, larceny-theft down 9.8%, and motor vehicle theft down 22.7%, according to the figures."

Those are heartening statistics. And future days do look bright.

“We will never abolish the police,” Trump pledged to rally-goers. “Instead, we will abolish the sanctuary cities. We will abolish them. We will destroy them. We will take them out.”

He then leveled richly merited criticisms at Democrat "Sanctuary" office-occupants, who allow illegal immigrants' rapes, murders, and other brutal crimes to befoul American neighborhoods.

"We will make America powerful again," the president vowed. "We've already done that! We will make America wealthy again. We've already done that!"

He was on a roll. "We will make America strong again. We've done that! We will make America proud again. We've done that! We will make America safe again -- we've largely done that!

"And above all, we will make America great again!"

'No Kings' wasn't no thing                  

During one episode of AMC's Mad Men, advertising savant Don Draper reassured a client worried about anti-construction protests and press naysayers. The client's project had proceeded on schedule despite loud critics, Don pointed out. Fret not. Because as annoying as the clatter seemed, it had zero practical consequence.

That TV moment was brought to thought by nationwide No Kings protests. They, too, were ear and eye abrasive, but ultimately impotent. All the corporate-churned placards, robotic call-and-response chantings, and subversive spectacles were as nothing.

President Trump remains in the White House; America is (and will always be) the world's leading superpower; domestic and international policies will still be determined by wise heads, rather than noisome brats of all ages and silly descriptions; law enforcement officers (including ICE) continue to enforce duly-passed statutes and safeguard the citizenry; and common sense yet prevails.

Most importantly, God's authority remains America's North Star.

No Kings lackwits would have observers believe our nation's founders were wicked, our culture and legal system irredeemably stained by long-passed and eternally dead injustices, and that President Trump is deceitful and ruinous to American interests.

(Ronald Reagan was a noble chief executive, but he did err in deinstitutionalizing the mad.)

A March 14 Economist report noted "GDP grew at 0.7% in the fourth quarter." Inflation was 3.0%, unemployment just 4.4%. The S&P 500 has risen to 9.6%. And a February CAPS/Harris poll reported 51% of respondents were confident our economy is strong.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recently cited new IRS and Treasury Department data, that showed the average refund for 2026 tax-filers will be higher than in 2025. Newsweek cited "3, 700.00."

In February, the White House stated "President Donald J. Trump is delivering real, immediate relief to American families struggling with high housing costs as the national median rent falls to its lowest level since 2022."

Also: "This welcome news for renters comes as President Trump's agenda delivers falling mortgage rates (NBC News), record-breaking tax refunds (USA Today, CBS News, the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, and CNBC), wage increases, and more - with much more relief on the way to make sure all Americans benefit."

Vehicle costs have also declined, giving auto manufacturers their best sales year since 2019 (Bloomberg).

Again, the White House: "Overall, goods-producing workers - the backbone of American industry - are on track to see their real annual earnings rise by $1,300 in President Trump's first full year in office. Mining and logging workers are on track for an increase of $2,000, construction workers are on track for an extra $1,400, and manufacturing workers are on track to gain $1,300."

The Redfin real estate brokerage firm reported mortgage rates dropped down to 6% in February and early March, the lowest rate in three and a half years.

Last December, the Trump administration announced agreements with nine major pharmaceutical companies. Drug companies will now charge U.S. purchasers the same low prices they have charged in foreign nations.

Iranian efforts to cultivate nuclear arms, with which to destroy entire lands of innocents, begged for scorched-earth demolishment. Commander Trump had the sand. And then some.

Of course, the new, grand bloom of patriotism in men's hearts cannot be mechanically gauged. The American mood, though, is now one of bristling pride in our Constitution, ideals, traditions, culture, and global preeminence.

Indications included the roaring throngs that packed candidate Trump's stadium rallies way past overflow, as well as his overwhelming victories in both electoral and popular votes.

Too, our commander in chief maintains impressive support, as verified by CNN and others' polling.

CAPS/Harris turned up 58% of respondents who endorse the principle of requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Other polling companies that registered support for voter ID include The Center Square (71%), Rasmussen (75%), McLaughlin and Associates (77%), Napolitan News Service (81%), Pew (83%), and Gallup (84%).

And reflect upon the return to sanity of President Trump's slamming tight the border and launching long-needed mass-deportations. Benefiting greatly are national security, safe neighborhoods, and efforts to crush drug and sex trafficking into America.

Cultural cohesivness, crucial for the survival of all nations, is again prized in our epic land.

So, ignore the circusy oddballs that milled through boulevards. Organizers claimed 8 million participants - a figure that might impress, except that some 77 million patriots made Trump's victory possible. 

The world still turns, and America will be just fine. Take it from Don Draper.

Springsteen 2026: Burn Down the USA                    

Anyone who's heard Bruce Springsteen in recent years knows the corporate cash-box-in-denims no longer has the grit evident in 1984 hit "Born In the USA."

Once bannered a working class hero, he now postures as subversive squawkbox, one whose loyalties seem located anywhere but between Canada and Mexico.

Springsteen now trudges in the ranks of yesteryear's celebrities, who've thrown arms about evil in desperate hopes of rekindling flames from expiring embers.

(Of course, it is possible that Springsteen's present B. Arnold stance is as counterfeit as the earlier blue-collar one, and contrived from cold, dollar sign obsession. For all we regular folks know, Springsteen may change from a hoity toity Italian three-piece into proletariat drag of t-shirt, jeans, and work boots, before treading stage boards. You know - character costume.) 

Per Gateway Pundit, Springsteen told one recent audience:  "If you stand against heavily armed masked federal troops invading an American city, using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens…If you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this president — and as the mayor of that city has said, ICE should get the f*** out of Minneapolis.”

Further emphasizing look-at-me positioning, he released the overly-long "Streets of Minneapolis," a call to graffitied riot barricades. Again, one is confronted by the ebbing of the man's creative abilities.

In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Trump concerns himself with establishing political cooperation to rid America of illegals, "not random songs with irrelevant opinions and inaccurate information.”

Erstwhile Jerseyite Springsteen grew massively wealthy by posturing as patriotic; now that his bank vault is jam-packed, he effectively blows snot on Old Glory. (A stomach-turning spectacle not seen by Hollywood's Tom Hanks, who is busy on his South-of-France yacht entertaining Barack Hussein Obama.)

The catalog of for-profit play-actors who hiss at America's Constitution while singing songs of Karl is unfortunately lengthy. It includes not only Springsteen and Forrest Gump, but a treason-hearted horde, whose Walk of Hollywood stars are daily trod over by actual, working taxpayers that truly love this Land of Lincoln.

Iowan DC Larson is the author of That a Man Can Again Stand Up and Ideas Afoot.  He counts among freelance credits Daily Caller, The Iowa Standard, and American Thinker.  His political blog is American Scene Magazine.

Democrats reveal true colors

The hush that followed President Kennedy's 1963 Dallas murder was a matter of universally shared basic decency. But today, if a conservative figure fell to a lunatic's bullets, progressive Democrats would freestyle on the coffin lid.

Recall that following the attempted assassinations of Donald Trump, ghoulish miscreants in political, entertainment, and media spheres immediately sprang, grinning maws a-drip.

Rather than accepting ballot-box defeats and cultivating better messages and candidates, many Democrats reflect Marxist Che Guevara's odious rantings, as recalled by historians:

"This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate!"

Online video coverage of anti-Trump/Musk events sometimes portrays participants expressly desirous of their opponents' deaths. It's terrible but true that Guevara's wretched spirit lives, in morally squalid pockets of 2025 America.

Open-borders and sanctuary state and city Democrat officials actively obstruct ICE efforts to safeguard citizens by deporting illegals, including ones guilty of violent crimes against children. The welfare of American citizens is without significance to Democrats whose only lodestar is sick ideology.

California news discloses a health care ballot measure there named for assassin Luigi Mangioni. Months ago, Mangioni stalked United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and shot him from behind, killing the husband and father of two. The dastardly killer is frequently celebrated by leftists - not despite, but because of his depravity.

In recent months, America has seen a tsunami of politically prompted malicious acts that targeted Tesla owners and dealerships. Among these are vandalism, physical assaults, and large-scale arson. They are terroristic crimes that have as their implicit targets Elon Musk, President Trump, and the over 70 million Americans who buoyed Trump to his proper station at the Resolute Desk.

Upon hearing during a March 11 broadcast that President Trump rightly condemned demolishment and arson of Tesla dealerships as domestic terrorism, MSNBC host Alicia Menendez grabbed up the propagandist's bullhorn: "So, just to be clear, you protest a private company, you are labeled by this administration a domestic terrorist."

Only mentally disheveled subversives and press charlatans would rank purposeful violence and destructiveness as legitimate protest actions. They are not speech manifestations that enjoy constitutional protection. You can express disagreement with others, but you cannot firebomb their businesses from within nightime's cloak.

(Yes, the Boston Tea Party included property destruction. But it challenged oppression by an unelected foreign sovereign; that pivotal circumstance does not exist in contemporary America. Throwing over the checkerboard and traducing laws are not civilized reactions to electoral thumping.)

During the often-savage George Floyd street riots of 2020, police were assaulted, cars were overturned and destroyed by fire, and innocent passersby fell victim to screamed epithets and physical attacks. Some 163 structures, including at least one law enforcement precinct, were destroyed by Molotov Cocktail-hurling thugs. 

Estimates of the cost of those nationwide left-wing rampages ranged from one to two billion tax-payer dollars. Regardless, official Democrat sanction of that lawlessness was illustrated by then-Vice President/presidential candidate Kamala Harris's organization of a donation page for vicious arrestees.

Harris is not the only elected Democrat guilty of countenancing evil. This writer is not aware of any prominent Democrat office-holder who has publicly condemned left-wing violence. As goes the axiom: Silence is complicity.

And that wicked body is again swelled obscenely, when one factors in partisans who do not perpetrate crimes themselves, but are cheered by news of others' violent rioting.

Left-wing agitators, many surely goaded by garbage-hearted professors enamored of Guevara's filth, feel that perpetrating destruction is a justifiable means for ideological promotion.

Hopefully, respect for law and order will return in this Trump era. A good start would be understanding that violence is not legitimate protest.

Trump resistance redux                                                                   

An unintended and negative consequence of President Trump's landslide victory is the emergence of a subversive element, one which seeks to defy American immigration laws. Perhaps they wrongly believe their illicit misdoings are justified by fantasized moral superiority.

One national example is New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, who implied to a recent interviewer that he and his wife were considering harboring an illegal in their home: "Let's have her live at our house above our garage, and good luck to the feds coming in to try and get her."

Sadly, this canker has also been exemplified here in Iowa.

In January, Waterloo Superintendent of Schools Jared Smith issued an official advisory (in numerous foreign languages) to illegal students. He advised them how to impede American legal authorities. 

Dr. Jared Smith

Can a more anti-American attitude be displayed than one evincing contempt for our nation's legal champions, and for statutes enacted by democratically-elected legislative representatives?

After he'd shoehorned into the letter boilerplate language with which he professed respect for law, Smith boasted: "We will not share student information or grant law enforcement building access unless legally required to do so."

(Last February, accompanied by a Christian pastor friend, this writer braved Waterloo's dangerously frigid temperatures to support Trump in the Iowa caucus; Iowa did favor the Republican candidate. The event was convened in a school. At each desk was a fresh copy of far-left radical Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States," which is fine. Students should consider ideas across the political spectrum. But I wondered whether opposing philosophies enjoyed equal schoolroom visibility.)

"Lastly, get the history books out," counseled former U.S. Representative Dave Nagle (D-IA), in a February 1 essay printed by the Waterloo Courier. (Full disclosure: The Courier has also published numerous pieces by this writer.)

Former U.S. Rep. Dave Nagle (D-IA)

"Study the Underground Railroad," Nagle continued. "For all those who, if given the time, could produce proper papers, pack them in your basement, give them the garage, hide them in your churches so we can organize a proper presentation of their right to be here...That will be your call when the federal government shows up."

Like Murphy, Nagle blatantly advocates challenging law enforcement. He skirts borderline criminality, broadly winking his scofflaw intent.

And that the former U.S. Representative would liken present-day, reprehensible Democrat anarchy to historic moral opposition to slavery is a howling offense deserving of the description 'surfboarding to status atop others' suffering.'

Most recently, Winneshiek County, Iowa Sheriff Dan Marx boasted in a February 4 Facebook post of his intention to do all he could to "block, interfere, and interrupt" ICE agents in the performance of their lawful duties regarding illegal immigration. 

Sheriff Dan Marx

Marx characterized U.S. citizenship laws as "unconstitutional." (Isn't that for the Supreme Court to determine -- and not the lowly "Sanctuary Sheriff" of Winneshiek County?)

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds directed the accessory-to-crime county official to acquaint himself with a relevant 2018-adopted state law. 

"Specifically, Iowa law provides a sheriff shall not adopt or enforce a policy or take any other action under which the sheriff prohibits or discourages the enforcement of immigration laws," she wrote.

"Iowa law further requires that a sheriff shall not prohibit or discourage a law enforcement officer from assisting or cooperating with a federal immigration officer as reasonable or necessary," the governor continued. "Including providing enforcement assistance."

Gov. Reynolds also spoke of pulling state funding from Winneshiek County. And Iowa Attorney General Brenna Byrd opened an investigation.

Each above-cited wrong recalls former Alabama Governor George Wallace, a Democrat, 'standing in the schoolhouse door' to prevent federal authorities from entering to racially integrate public schools. 

Former Alabama Governor George Wallace, Democrat

The fabrication called Kamala

Joe Biden received some 14 million 2024 primary votes, but that mattered not to Democrat elites. They shoved the warhorse party loyalist into oncoming traffic and installed identity box-checker Kamala Harris. 

If party bosses reasoned grassroots donkeys would acquiesce, they were proven correct. 'Vote blue, no matter who' sorts immediately hefted Harris and her radical running-mate "Tampon Tim" atop shoulders.

As the adage holds: If you want loyalty, buy a dog.

Kamala Harris is the most laboratory concocted presidential aspirant that has ever clambered onto a stump. A maniken, albeit an ever-giggling one.

Not that she doesn't have beliefs and ideals. She does. Those include abolishing private heath-insurance in favor of government-run care, defunding police, abolishing ICE, granting citizenship to millions of illegal aliens (whose votes would dilute those of legitimate citizens), letting males invade females' sports-teams and privacy, limiting Americans' red-meat consumption, legislating chemical and surgical "gender-affirming care" for children, and mandating that every American driver must operate an electric vehicle.

Should Harris ascend to White House occupancy, the real subversive would leap into the spotlight. But for now, those orchestrating her effort hide her extremist ideology, calculating that a false image is more viable. 

1 - As noted above, she was not chosen in a democratic primary where participants had the opportunity to consider her against competitors and their ideas. Harris was installed by Washington powerbrokers who underscore irrelevant characteristics. 

2 - Her campaign coordinators had her scripted and staged phone-calls to the Obamas and Walz filmed for public release. Of course Harris giggled throughout. Some people do laugh at their own jokes.

3 - The cynical game-players manipulating Harris apparently insist that the candidate avoid press conferences, only read contrived remarks (written by others) from teleprompters, and allow her name to be put on calculated, staff-drafted statements.

4 - She has flip-flopped on numerous issues, claiming more palatable positions than she is on record as having previously enunciated. (But to her handlers' certain dismay, damning video evidence abounds online.) As of this writing, she has stolen two Trump proposals: No tax on tips and a child tax credit. Additional thefts and flip-flops by her will surely follow, should those choreographing her effort deem them situationally advantageous

5 - Just days ago, the Harris/Walz campaign mounted an event at Primanti Bros sandwich shop in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. Prior to filming, actual patrons were reportedly  booted from the premises and replaced with actors who pretended to be sandwich shop customers and who hailed artificial Harris.

(One recalls that the vice-president once sat for filming while telling several 'schoolchildren' about space. The kids were subsequently revealed to be actors hired for the stunt.)

6 - To date, zero policy proposals appear on Harris's website. No issues are even mentioned. That amorphousness allows her to evade definition. Sympathetic media voices urge her to avoid specifics that might prove damaging.

She is a woke action-figure that can be postured however best advances the interests of the left-wing machine that puts her forward and that would calculate policies, should she prevail.

Some contrary commentators opine that small Harris campaign-event crowds mean equally few will vote for her in November. But while liberal voters may find her uninspirational and so stay away, their irrational hatred of Trump will likely engender large election turnout. Remember, Biden's 2020 events also drew smatterings, but his eventual poll endorsements were far greater in amount. 

In November, people will vote for Harris despite being unimpressed with her. They despise Trump and MAGA Americans with so strong and irrational a passion that they would sooner endorse America's continued ruination than see our country improved by Trump.

And if that means devoting precious ballots to a fabrication, so be it.