As we end Anno Domini 2023, we need to ask one another, has it been a good year? Is 2024 going to be better? Do we have a good attitude, with hope for the future? Or are we dour, even depressed, sure that things will get worse?

We here at TPOL are optimistic, fresh from family get-togethers, and with a new family member, we see that what kind of year 2024 will be in large part depends on us. On our attitude, our work, our goals and plans for the next weeks and months.

Our optimism is not based on political or economic matters, but these are important to many people. And they can make a difference. In the last three years, four if we count that “lost year of 2020” courtesy of the Beer Flu, the American people have allowed bad decisions to be made in their name and the result has been growing troubles. And slowly, growing unrest and unwillingness to continue as things are. Education and medical care are rapidly deteriorating. Inflation is wrecking families and people’s ability to survive, much less thrive. Social chaos – instigated by government educational and political institutions – result in expanded crime and tensions across the land.

This is far from the first time for such troubles, in the world’s history. And for that matter, in the States themselves. Worldwide, we’ve seen this not just in ancient history: Greece and Persia, Rome and China, but also Revolutionary France, Great War Germany and Italy, Russia, and more. Stateside, we can see the upheaval – and the pre-shocks – of the Thirteen Colonies before the War for American Independence and of Tejas before the Texas Revolution. But also the events preceding the War between the States, the Panics of 1870 and other times, the hard times of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, and the 1960s-1970s.

Unlike Europe and Asia, the North American experience has been (relatively) minor: losing a half-million dead in 1861-1865 is tiny compared to the bloody butcher’s bill of the Thirty Years’ War in Germany, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution or the Chinese Civil War. In recent years in Europe, Africa, and Asia, the death toll (at least officially) has been much lower. (An example: the Six-Day War of 1967 saw about 1,000 Israeli dead and 18,000 Arab dead, the 1973 Yom Kippur War about 3,000 Israeli dead and 15,000 Egyptian and Syrian dead: the current “Second Yom Kippur” or Gaza War so far about 2,000 Israeli dead and (according to Hamas) 20,000 Gaza dead.)

Many of the recent massive changes in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East have been relatively peaceful. By previous standards, even the 1990s Balkan or Yugoslav Wars were not so bloody: deaths estimated at 100,000 to 150,000 in 10 years. The 16-year (and counting) Narco War in Mexico has seen 40,000 known killed (though overall violence according to some sources includes up to 400,000 homicides.) But again, American experience is far milder. But the various color revolutions in places like Romania, Czechia, Ukraine, Tunisia, and elsewhere have very low death tolls.

All of these conflicts were preceded by increased tension and incivility: more extreme threats and fears, and almost always significant attempts to crack down by governments. As anger, frustration, and fear spiked, a threshold was reached and things happened. The exact timing and reasons are subject to massive arguments among historians and political mavens. But just when you think things are as bad as they can be, something happens and it is often much worse than what was happening.

Are we seeing the same indicators here in the Fifty States? Many believe so: often despite (or even because of) government attempts to calm people and address perceived issues.

The greatest perceived problem with the color revolutions is that most – or all – of them seem to be orchestrated and sponsored by outside sources. Although touted as grassroots and promoting democracy. To put it another way, the people on the streets who seem to be able to force dictators, tyrants, out of office, are shills. And it just just more politicians and even dictators who replace the ousted leaders. They talk better but act no differently.

Which leads TPOL to the conclusion, often repeated, that the basic problem is government. The enemy of freedom, the enemy of liberty, and repeatedly, the enemy of God.