For years, we’ve been told that science made God unnecessary.
Atheism had won. God was for the weak-minded. Rational people read Richard Dawkins and watched Neil deGrasse Tyson and Alex O’Connor. Religion, they said, was just a fairy tale.
But as science progresses, that story is beginning to unravel.
Far from removing the need for a Creator, modern physics increasingly points toward one.
Why? Because the deeper scientists dig into the universe’s fundamental laws, the more they encounter a startling truth: the universe appears to be fine-tuned. Not vaguely-tuned, but astonishingly, exquisitely, fine-tuned.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. To understand what fine-tuning actually means, let’s first look at how this discovery came about.
At the foundations of our universe, physicists discovered about 25 physical constants — unchanging numbers that define the structure of reality. You might not have heard of numbers like the fine-structure constant or the cosmological constant, but they are crucial. They determine how atoms hold together, how stars form, and how fast the universe expands.
The big question was, how can physicists explain these strange numbers? Before the discovery of fine-tuning, physicists had two unsatisfying possibilities: either the constants are just brute facts with no explanation, or some deeper law might eventually explain all their seemingly random values.
Since these solutions were neither satisfying nor plausible, Richard Feynman — one of the most celebrated physicists of his time — called explaining the constants “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics.”
Then came fine-tuning.
Scientists slowly realized that if some of these constants were even slightly different, the universe would be completely chaotic, lacking all complexity and structure. No galaxies, no chemistry, no life. It’s almost like the values of the constants have a purpose in producing our complex universe.
Take the cosmological constant. Its value is about 10 to the power of negative 122. That’s a decimal point followed by 121 zeros and then a 1. If it were even a bit lower or higher, the universe would either collapse back on itself or expand so rapidly that no structures would ever form.
Does that seem like a cosmic accident? No one — not even atheist physicists — thinks that. It’s a bit like finding a safe with a trillion-digit combination already set perfectly. That’s not something anyone can reasonably attribute to blind chance.
Once fine-tuning was discovered, the two earlier explanations — that the constants are brute, necessary facts or the result of an unknown deeper law — became nearly impossible to defend. These ideas were only somewhat plausible back when the constants seemed arbitrary, and the challenge was simply to explain their mysterious values. But neither pure necessity nor blind mathematical inevitability accounts for why the constants fall exactly where they do. To continue placing faith in those explanations, despite what fine-tuning reveals, is to ignore the weight of the new evidence.
So, what’s the alternative?
One explanation is <a href="https://www.physicstogod.com/fine-tuning-argument-for-god" target="_blank" rel="noopener">straightforward</a>: the universe is fine-tuned because it has a fine-tuner. An intelligent Creator set the parameters needed for generating a complex and ordered universe that’s full of atoms, molecules, planets, stars, galaxies, and life.
At this point, critics often respond: “You’re just using God to fill in the gaps! That’s the old ‘God of the gaps’ fallacy.”
But that misses the point. This isn’t about ignorance. It isn’t a case of “We don’t know, so it must be God.” This is all about what we do know. We know the values of the constants. We know they are fine-tuned. And we know that when a system is exquisitely calibrated, it suggests an intelligent calibrator. That’s not filling a gap in our knowledge — it’s drawing a clear inference from established scientific evidence.
Yet, for many in the scientific community, the idea of God isn’t seen as a legitimate option — not because science rules it out, but because of prior philosophical prejudices. So, instead, they turn to an alternative: the multiverse.
The multiverse hypothesis posits an infinite number of unobservable universes, each with different physical laws and constants. In such a scenario, anything that can happen does happen — somewhere. Of course, in an infinite multiverse, there would be at least one universe with just the right conditions for life — and that’s the one we happen to observe. After all, we couldn’t exist in any of the countless, lifeless universes where complexity never forms.
This is sometimes presented as a clever way to explain fine-tuning without God. But that impression fades once you consider what an infinite multiverse actually implies.
Physicist Alan Guth said it best: “Anything that can happen will happen; in fact, it will happen an infinite number of times.” So, in an infinite multiverse, there are universes where George Washington is still alive. Where you’re president. Where unicorns are real. Where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs exist.
We’re not joking. That’s what the theory implies.
After all, in an infinite collection of universes, every possible arrangement of atoms must exist somewhere. With infinite universes, science begins to blur into science fiction.
The trouble is, no one has ever observed another universe. By definition, an infinite multiverse is untestable, unfalsifiable, and unobservable. It’s not a scientific theory in the usual sense — it’s philosophical speculation dressed up as science, aimed at avoiding the clear implications of fine-tuning. And that’s just the beginning. From here, the <a href="https://www.physicstogod.com/is-the-multiverse-real" target="_blank" rel="noopener">problems with the multiverse</a> only get worse.
So, let’s consider where this leaves us.
On one side, theists point to the measurable, precise fine-tuning of nature’s constants. We observe one universe — ours — and it appears finely set up for atoms, planets, stars, and life. On the other side, atheists propose an infinite number of unobservable universes to avoid the possibility that ours was fine-tuned.
Now, ask yourself: which seems more rational?
Science has brought us to a turning point. The fine-tuning argument is no relic of ancient theology. It’s a modern, scientifically-grounded case for an intelligent cause of the universe. The resistance it provokes stems not from a lack of evidence, but from discomfort with what the evidence implies.
In the end, modern physics offers us a glimpse into the deep structure of reality. And what we find is not chaos, but extraordinary order and purpose. The universe is fine-tuned. Fine-tuning points to a Fine-Tuner. If we’re serious about science, we must be equally serious about following the evidence wherever it leads — even if it <a href="https://www.physicstogod.com/3-proofs-of-god-from-science" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leads us directly to God</a>.
Rabbi Elie Feder, PhD, and Rabbi Aaron Zimmer, host the “Physics to God” podcast.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Low Angle View Of Silhouette Man Against Star Field

Why Modern Physics Points To God

Outer Space

Physics

Science

The following excerpt is from Andrew Klavan’s Amazon best-selling book, The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness, (Zondervan/HarperCollins, May 6, 2025) which you can <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Cain-Finding-Literature-Darkness/dp/0310368340/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ODLLWRUYFQLX&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.-asrk-u7s-sDyhCZt2HswSh97P9UrU8fIOFQ6ixtmpKTB1DBbhizDhTlIu-UqaLkK7N0nbUSyzC-7AF7vHD1eKuT-zxV0AKvUdyGQtz3PVdxbQPtExJGPweEKI5A7u8oRKT8qGQ_emtFCVDLrzEIdR6Q4n645BIOoF3oQHLkrRF52UD0dBOnHAasIM3LWhrGXj8CZhnLqvGlRuqStS9pQrKn7rhqrcGVNFJZaH1Spuw.fvQZ5IniKW9xjinwdGzONrUwsBlcMLwjXhbqgG1ldB4&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=kingdom+of+cain&amp;qid=1746467024&amp;sprefix=kingdom+of+cain%2Caps%2C174&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">order now</a>.
REJOICE EVERMORE!
So Scripture commands us. But how can you rejoice in a world of so much darkness? At a time like twilight when darkness gathers, ready to fall? The comforting bromides of belief can seem pat and complacent in the shadow of very present wickedness. Everything happens for a reason. There must be evil so there can be free will. God is in charge and will make things right in the end. No doubt. And it is some comfort too. But here we are today, and faith in the things unseen, and hope in the far-off country of our salvation don’t have the tangible immediacy of our suffering and distress.
More than this, and deeper. From our first cry to our last one, life is little more than letting go, a long goodbye. The pain, the grief, the traumas physical and emotional that scar our minds: sorrow is so woven into the very fabric of material existence that to turn our faces from it is to turn away from life itself. In the face of our mourning mortality, even Jesus wept.
In part 1, I write about the three murders and the works of art that reveal the nature of their evil. In part 2, I reflect on creative practices of truth and beauty that allow one to confront this evil with love and, through love, with joy. By joy, of course, I don’t mean smiley-faced complacency or quietism. I’m talking about preserving the gusto of living, even when you are living honestly, which means acknowledging grief and pain.
The first murder is the 1834 killing of the French con man Jean-François Chardon and his mother by the violent but elegant and eloquent thief Pierre François Lacenaire. This murder was the beginning of a startling century-long dance between art and reality. Lacenaire’s philosophical musings inspired the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky to create the classic novel Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky’s work predicted and inspired the atheistic philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche, in turn, inspired the famous American murderers of the 1920s, Leopold and Loeb. They then became the subjects of any number of books and movies, including Alfred Hitchcock’s innovative film, Rope. Throughout this bizarre and deadly story cycle, the theme in play is the death of Christian faith and the attempt to rewrite and rise above the Christian moral order—an attempt still being made today.
Next, I deal—as delicately as I can—with the monstrous crimes committed in the American Midwest of the 1950s by the psychopath Ed Gein. Gein murdered women and wore their bodies as costumes. These grotesque horrors inspired the novel Psycho by Robert Bloch, which was the basis of the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name, now regarded as one of the greatest works of American cinema. Psycho gave birth to an entire genre, the slasher film, which includes everything from disastrous trash and reprehensible torture porn to serious-minded horror like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and ultimately the insightful novel and Oscar-winning film The Silence of the Lambs, also based on the Gein murders. The theme of this cycle is, of course, the confusion of sexual identity, but it is also the role of psychiatric theory in creating and confronting that confusion.
The last murder I write about is the first: the killing of Abel by Cain. The theme here is the failure of theodicy, the inability to accept the goodness of a God who presides over a world full of so much cruelty and injustice. I can’t write about the works of art inspired by Cain’s actions, because in some sense all art is inspired by his actions. He is the first man born after the fall, and all history flows out of him. This is Cain’s kingdom; we’re just living in it. Instead, I trace Cain’s continued presence throughout the Old and New Testaments because I believe the Bible contains, in microcosm, all history and all art.
The second part of the book is more personal. I don’t hold myself up as a role model of anything. I am not a pastor or a theologian. You should get your religious rule book from a better source. But because each inner life is different, each act of spiritual creation is unique. Whether a rainbow looks the same to me as it does to you, it is always only our own.
In light of this, I’ve chosen to write three brief reflections on practices that have deepened my relationship with Jesus Christ. My reason for this is that in Christ, I find I experience both the cross and the resurrection—that is, a heightened awareness of evil, injustice, and suffering accompanied by a seemingly absurd increase in serenity and joy.
The first of these reflections is on the ritual of communion—my answer to Lacenaire and to the intellectual collapse of the Christian moral order.
The second is a reflection on the atheistic psychotherapy that miraculously restored me to sanity in my youth and freed me to accept the grace of God. This is my answer to Ed Gein and, through him, the misbegotten nature of today’s therapeutic culture and the gender confusion that has arisen along with it.
The closing chapter is on art and beauty, and how it suggests to me a theodicy no mere philosophy can provide, a faithful response to suffering. This is my answer to Cain.
INTRODUCTION
To sum it up then:
My subject is murder and the imagination. My premise is that murder is evil. My belief is that God is love, and love is the source of joy.
If, then, I enter the literature of darkness, I do it with a sure and certain faith in the reality of light, not light in a future heaven but light in this world of sin and suffering, not light in the world to come but light in this world of present darkness, including the darkness of murder.
Light. Love. Joy. Beauty. 
 Here. Now. In the kingdom of Cain.
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Cain-Finding-Literature-Darkness/dp/0310368340/ref=sr_1_1?crid=22ZEPHR0XQANA&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.-asrk-u7s-sDyhCZt2HswSh97P9UrU8fIOFQ6ixtmpKTB1DBbhizDhTlIu-UqaLkK7N0nbUSyzC-7AF7vHD1eKuT-zxV0AKvUdyGQtz3PVdxbQPtExJGPweEKI5A7u8oRKT8qGQ_emtFCVDLrzEIdR6Q4n645BIOoF3oQHLkrRF52UD0dBOnHAasIM3LWhrGXj8CZhnLqvGlRuqStS9pQrKn7rhqrcGVNFJZaH1Spuw.fvQZ5IniKW9xjinwdGzONrUwsBlcMLwjXhbqgG1ldB4&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=Kingdom+of+Cain&amp;qid=1746466335&amp;sprefix=kingdom+of+cain%2Caps%2C139&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ORDER ON AMAZON TODAY</a>
<a href="https://store.dailywire.com/products/the-kingdom-of-cain?_pos=1&amp;_sid=016ece02b&amp;_ss=r" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-916081 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/MixCollage-05-May-2025-01-45-PM-1591-576x576.jpg" alt="" width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/MixCollage-05-May-2025-01-45-PM-1591-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/MixCollage-05-May-2025-01-45-PM-1591-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/MixCollage-05-May-2025-01-45-PM-1591-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/MixCollage-05-May-2025-01-45-PM-1591-768x768.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/MixCollage-05-May-2025-01-45-PM-1591.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" /></a>
<a href="https://store.dailywire.com/products/the-kingdom-of-cain?_pos=1&amp;_sid=016ece02b&amp;_ss=r" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ORDER SIGNED COPIES TODAY</a>

Murder

Murder, Madness, Meaning: How Can We ‘Rejoice Always’ When The World Often Seems So Broken?

Andrew Klavan

Books

Jesus Christ

Each Passover, Jews across the world recount the miraculous exodus of their ancestors from servitude under the Egyptian pharaoh, in pursuit of a life of ordered liberty in the Land promised to Abraham. This pharaoh enslaved the Jewish people, forcing them into hard labor doubly tortuous, as their taskmasters imposed assignments with labor itself as the ultimate end. The pharaoh even ordered the infanticide of Hebrew male infants in an attempt to cement his power over the Hebrews. The Passover dinner retells the story of our enslavement, the Ten Plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians, and Hebrews’ miraculous deliverance. The ancient Hebrews left a tyranny that subjugated their spiritual and physical freedom to the dictates of a human regime at odds with the Divine.
Importantly, escape from tyranny wasn’t their ultimate aim. The ancient Hebrews embarked at this moment on a journey to their Promised Land. These tribes became the People of the Book — striving to form a civil society under the rule of law, complete with education of the young, the establishment of courts, protection of property, and concern for innocent life.
The American Founders certainly recognized that this “Season of Our Freedom” is relevant for the United States of America. The national motto proposed by Benjamin Franklin of “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God” accompanied an image of Moses leading the Children of Israel across the miraculously parted Red Sea as they escaped the tyrant of their times. The Israelites desired to worship God freely, raise families, and enjoy the fruits of their own labor. The protections of our Bill of Rights guarantee us similar rights.
The Israelites and the Pilgrims both journeyed to a new land not just in pursuit of generic freedom — but freedom of a far deeper type. The foremost concern of the Pilgrims arriving on the shores of Cape Cod in 1620 indeed was freedom of religion and conscience. Like the Israelites, these early settlers forfeited many of the comforts of their prior home as they endured a harsh climate in unfamiliar territory surrounded by hazards. Those Pilgrims entered a covenant to “combine ourselves together into a civil body politick” — one with the family as society’s foundation, with national traditions and core values transmitted in the home.
<div id="attachment_906725" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-906725" class="size-large wp-image-906725" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1217401397-864x576.jpg" alt="Passover matzoh jewish holiday bread with kipah table background. " width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1217401397-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1217401397-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1217401397-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1217401397-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1217401397-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1217401397-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1217401397-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Cavan images. Getty Images.</div>
The Passover seder recognizes that the story of the Jewish people neither began nor ended with the Exodus story. In its recount, we recognize also that we must be active participants in maintaining our freedom. We recognize also that, in a sense, this deliverance happened to us personally. Through the long dinner, children at the table play a large role in reading the story, asking questions, and contributing to the conversation.
As the quarter-millennial celebration of our independence from King George III approaches, let’s take some lessons from the Passover celebration. Instilling an understanding of and respect for our founding in the next generation ensures they too will seek to protect our nation from corrosive influence. Yet, far too many children are apathetic or ignorant of the fundamental rights enshrined in our Constitution or even the basic functioning of our republic. Too few are taught of the sacrifices made by the Founders and the freedoms they sought to protect. Even worse, some educators attempt to poison young minds against the nation’s foundation. Parents possess the responsibility and an opportunity to instill this love of country. Honoring the flag, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, respecting the national anthem, commemorating Independence Day all instill pride in country—in addition to academic studies.
Let’s remember too that our freedom is not secure forever simply by virtue of our winning our own War for Independence. As we stray from the guarantors of our freedom — rule of law, the Bill of Rights, the separation of powers, strong families — the great promise of this nation “conceived in liberty” becomes threatened. At the Passover seder, we recall audibly and collectively that, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt.” Remembering life prior to liberty, celebrating our victory over tyranny, savoring our freedom, reflecting on what a life of liberty should mean, and involving the next generation in all of this will protect our freedom — both as Jews and as Americans.
* * *
Joel Griffith and Paul Teller, both Jewish Americans, are Senior Fellow and Executive Vice President, respectively, of Advancing American Freedom, the issue advocacy organization founded by former Vice President Mike Pence.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Metal plate with matzah or matza and Passover Haggadah on a vintage wood background presented as a Passover seder feast or meal with copy space. Translation: Passover Haggadah

The Season Of Our Freedom: Lessons From Passover For Americans

Bible

Egypt

Founding Fathers

Israel

Jewish

Jews

Opinion

Red Sea

A transgender-identifying punk rocker performing at a recent Bernie Sanders rally in Wisconsin brought cheers from the crowd while jeering at God with obscene lyrics.
Laura Jane Grace, Thomas James Gabel, of the punk band Against Me! sang a song titled “Your God (God&#8217;s D***).” In it, Grace chortled the following lyrics: “Does your God have a big fat d***? Cause it feels like he&#8217;s f***ing me. Are his b***s filled with lightning do they dangle like heaven’s keys?”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Bernie Sanders had transgender singer Laura Jane Grace perform at his rally singing “Does your God have a big fat d***” <a href="https://t.co/Lc0jEIVBFK">pic.twitter.com/Lc0jEIVBFK</a>
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1898895797837549607?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14480485/Trans-punk-rocker-Laure-Jane-Grace-ungodly-lyrics-Bernie-Sanders-rally.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> the singer followed with these anti-God lyrics: “Does he shoot wads of honey and c** twice on Easter Sunday? Can he c** a shotgun blast and shoot salvation up your a**? Does he chew c*** like bubblegum and give b******* like a vacuum?”
Sanders, who is a non-religious Jew, has been a foe of the Jewish state of Israel as well as a foe of religious Christianity.
In October 2019, speaking at the national conference of the notoriously anti-Israel J Street organization and interviewed by former Obama officials Ben Rhodes and Tommy Vietor, both of whom supported the Iran nuclear deal that represented an existential threat to Israel, Sanders curried favor by suggesting that Israel did not respect human rights, snapping, “I would use the leverage of $3.8 billion. It is a lot of money, and we cannot give it carte blanche to the Israeli government, or for that matter to any government at all. We have a right to demand respect for human rights and democracy.” He threatened, “My solution is, to Israel, if you want military aid you’re going to have to fundamentally change your relationship to the people of Gaza. I would say that some of the $3.8 billion should go right now to humanitarian aid in Gaza.”
<a href="https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/israel-zionism/2019/04/catering-to-the-democratic-fringe-bernie-sanders-defames-israel-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mosaic Magazine</a> noted:
<blockquote>
When Sanders wanted to win the Democratic nomination in 2016, he claimed that Israel had killed over 10,000 innocent Palestinians, launched indiscriminate attacks in the Gaza Strip, and shelled hospitals in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. The senator not only inflated the numbers by several orders of magnitude, he even outdid the Hamas spokespersons in creating a false narrative that the IDF was intentionally attacking the civilian population.
</blockquote>
In 2017, Sanders <a href="https://erlc.com/press/russell-moore-criticizes-senator-bernie-sanders-comments-calling-them-a-religious-test-for-office/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">badgered</a> Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, about his evangelical Christian beliefs at a Senate confirmation hearing.  Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention stated, “Even if one were to excuse Senator Sanders for not realizing that all Christians of every age have insisted that faith in Jesus Christ is the only pathway to salvation, it is inconceivable that Senator Sanders would cite religious beliefs as disqualifying an individual for public office.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders Speaks In Wisconsin On His “Fighting Oligarchy Tour”

Trans-Identifying Singer Jeers At God With Obscene Lyrics, Brings Cheers At Bernie Sanders Rally

Bernie Sanders

Christianity

Congress

Obscenity

Politics

Transgender

Wisconsin

This is the second part of an edited <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/michael-knowles-live-at-yaf-ordo-amoris-the-hierarchy-of-political-love" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a>, titled “‘Ordo Amoris’: The Hierarchy of Political Love,” delivered by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Knowles</a> at the YAF Freedom Conference in San Diego, California.
* * *
Saint Thomas’ reasoning is, as always, clear and persuasive in his discussions of the order of charity. In the “Summa Theologiae,” Secunda Secundae, Question 26, he writes, “There must needs be some order in things loved out of charity, which order is in reference to the first principle of that love, which is God.” This expression alone proves editor of The Yale Review James Surowiecki had no idea what he was talking about when he <a href="https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1885302779058557080" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that the ordo amoris is not in the Gospels.
Not only is the ordo amoris in the Gospels, but it is also the principle articulated in the most famous line of the Gospels, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2022%3A37-39&amp;version=ESV" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matthew 22:37-39</a>: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
There is, in other words, an order of charity — a hierarchy of love — and this order is the very foundation of Christian morality. We must love God first, and only then and upon that basis do we love everything else. And this order does not just comprise two categories. It isn’t just “God” and “everyone else.”
We find further scriptural evidence of the order of charity in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%205%3A8&amp;version=RSV" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1 Timothy 5:8</a>: “If any one does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” A man does not necessarily disown the faith — he is not necessarily worse than an unbeliever — if he does not care for some random guy on the other side of the world. We have greater obligations to those who are closest to us.
This moral insight is attested to both by philosophy and religion — reason and revelation — and yet many liberals deny it. And we know they deny, not just because of their snarky tweets about JD Vance, but also from social science. Shortly after the ordo amoris debate kicked off, a graph went viral on social media.
<div id="attachment_886629" style="width: 678px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-886629" class="wp-image-886629 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/41467_2019_12227_Fig5_HTML.jpg" alt="Heatmaps indicating highest moral allocation by ideology, Study 3a. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. Note. The highest value on the heatmap scale is 20 units for liberals, and 12 units for conservatives. Moral circle rings, from inner to outer, are described as follows: (1) all of your immediate family, (2) all of your extended family, (3) all of your closest friends, (4) all of your friends (including distant ones), (5) all of your acquaintances, (6) all people you have ever met, (7) all people in your country, (8) all people on your continent, (9) all people on all continents, (10) all mammals, (11) all amphibians, reptiles, mammals, fish, and birds, (12) all animals on earth including paramecia and amoebae, (13) all animals in the universe, including alien lifeforms, (14) all living things in the universe including plants and trees, (15) all natural things in the universe including inert entities such as rocks, (16) all things in existence. SOURCE: “Ideological differences in the expanse of the moral circle.” Adam Waytz, Ravi Iyer, Liane Young, Jonathan Haidt, Jesse Graham. National Center for Biotechnology Information. National Library of Medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31558713/" width="668" height="281" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/41467_2019_12227_Fig5_HTML.jpg 668w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/41467_2019_12227_Fig5_HTML-300x126.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 668px) 100vw, 668px" />SOURCE: “Ideological differences in the expanse of the moral circle.” Adam Waytz, Ravi Iyer, Liane Young, Jonathan Haidt, Jesse Graham. National Center for Biotechnology Information. National Library of Medicine.</div>
It’s from a 2019 <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31558713/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> titled, “Ideological Differences in the Expanse of the Moral Circle.” The graph depicts heat maps “indicating highest moral allocation by ideology.” The “moral circle rings” extend from the center outward. Care for “your immediate family” is in the center, followed by “all of your extended family,” then “all of your closest friends,” then “all of your friends (including distant ones),” then your acquaintances, people you’ve ever met, your countrymen, people on your continent, all people, all mammals, all other animals, all living creatures (including amoebae), all potential life in the universe (including aliens), all living things (including plants and trees), all non-living things (including rocks), and finally all things in existence.
The study found that conservatives, being normal, tend to care more about the things closest to them; they tend to care more about their immediate families than they care about rocks. Liberals, being the sort of people who hug trees and hate their dads, tend not to care more about things closer to them. The study found that “the more liberal people were, the more they allocated equally to humans and non-humans.” A distinguishing feature of Right-wingers is that they are more likely “to morally prioritize humans over nonhumans.”
Some libs have attempted to argue that conservatives simply misunderstand the study. They argue the study shows that conservatives don’t care more about their families than liberals do; it’s just that liberals care more generally. Now, even if that were true — and it’s a perfectly plausible hypothesis given liberals’ frequent inability to control their emotions — it would still be extremely disordered to care more about strangers than about one’s own parents. Even if they cared more overall — which, it turns out, they don’t.
Liberals really do care more about rocks and trees than they do about their own families. We don’t need a chart or study to show us that. Just ask a liberal about climate change and abortion. Liberals will rend their garments over environmental threats to the coral reef, but they’ll dance in the streets to celebrate the murder of their own children through abortion.
And, it turns out, the study shows as much. Because the study “constrained the number of units that participants could assign to each group, forcing participants to distribute moral concern in a zero-sum fashion” (i.e., the more concern they allocate to one circle, the less they can allocate to another circle). And the researchers did this because research suggests that’s how people really do distribute “empathy and moral concern.” Of course: It’s a finite world. We only have so many hours to worry. We only have so many tears to shed.
But just to prove how deep this moral perversion runs on the political Left, the researchers conducted another study to test what would happen if they did not constrain people to zero-sum moral thinking. And what they discovered was that “even when participants’ allocations were not constrained, the same pattern replicated.” Conservatives, the researchers showed, exhibit “greater concern and preference for family relative to friends, the nation relative to the world … and humans relative to non-humans.”
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h3>
So what conclusion are we to draw from this? Is it just a matter of preference? “Conservatives love their family and friends; liberals love trees and rocks” — de gustibus non disputandum est! No accounting for taste! I don’t think so. Any reasonable person knows that one should care more for his children than for rocks and trees. If liberals do not, it is because they have made a moral error.
And the liberals didn’t even necessarily fall into this moral error because they’re wicked. More likely, I think, they fall into it because they’re trying (and failing) to be good. I suspect most of the time it actually comes from a place of love. But that love is misplaced. It’s out of order. And disordered love tends to evil, just as the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
G.K. Chesterton explains the phenomenon with regard to his friend, the socialist atheist George Bernard Shaw.
“Bernard Shaw,” Chesterton <a href="https://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/courses/439/orthodoxy2-3.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writes</a>, “has a heroically large and generous heart; but not a heart in the right place. And this is so of the typical society of our time. The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues.”
“When a religious scheme is shattered,” he concludes, “it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad.”
Our nation’s — our whole civilization’s — religious scheme has obviously been shattered. The vice president invoked Thomas Aquinas, and our political elites were left drooling and scratching their heads.
The scheme has been shattered, the virtues have wandered, and these wandering virtues — these errant loves — have caused our present political ills. The only remedy is to restore order — not just to our streets and our communities but to our loves — if for no other reason than that without order, without caring for ourselves and our own, we can’t properly care for anyone else either.

MixCollage-04-Mar-2025-09-54-AM-7123

Restoring The Order Of Love: The Remedy To Political Ills

Catholics

Conservatives

Environmentalism

JD Vance

Liberals

Michael Knowles

U.S. Politics

Young America's Foundation

Sometimes history turns on a phrase. Patrick Henry had, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Ronald Reagan gave us, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” And now Vice President JD Vance has given us “I don’t really care, Margaret.”
If you missed it, this new rallying cry emerged <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jd-vance-blasts-margaret-brennan-over-claim-afghan-refugees-let-into-u-s-are-vetted" target="_blank" rel="noopener">during an interview</a> between CBS’s Margaret Brennan and Vance about illegal immigrants who weren’t vetted for terrorist connections. 
When Brennan insisted, “Yes, they were,” Vance cited an illegal immigrant who had planned a terrorist attack in Oklahoma on Election Day last November. 
Brennan, perhaps believing this was a gotcha moment, asked, “Was he radicalized here or before he came here?” 
To which Vance delivered the line of the year: “I don’t really care, Margaret.”
At last, a spine. At last, an end to the abusive empathy that has held our country hostage for far too long.
<h3>The Tyranny Of The Appeal To Pity</h3>
For decades, the Left has operated on two primary emotional threats that happen to also be logical fallacies:
<ol>
<li>The appeal to pity — the idea that any demand for order, justice, or security must be discarded if someone, somewhere, might feel bad about it.</li>
<li>The appeal to fear, fear of being called racist — a charge wielded so indiscriminately that it has lost all meaning, save as a tool of manipulation.</li>
</ol>
Both of these threats are failing. And Vance’s blunt response encapsulates why.
Brennan’s question was an exercise in obfuscation. Well, sure, he was planning a terrorist attack, but was he radicalized before he came here, or was America to blame? The correct response to such nonsense isn’t a 15-minute forensic analysis of his ideological formation — it’s “I don’t really care, Margaret.” Because the problem isn’t when he was radicalized. The problem is that he was here in the first place, and he shouldn’t have been.
Moving to the United States is not a universal human right. Universal human rights are things that all humans always have. Most humans lived before the United States came into existence and yet they had human rights, meaning it&#8217;s not possible for them to have had that right — therefore it is not universal. Those who live today have the right to improve their own living conditions but there is no obligation on the part of the United States to move the population of the world here because they haven’t straightened out their own countries.
The usual leftist retort is, “their countries are in ruins because of us!” There comes a time to grow up and face your own problems. “Take responsibility for yourself” is a kindergarten lesson. Many of these places have been this way for centuries and some even before there was a United States. Passing the blame won’t make your life better. 
The Left has long weaponized compassion against the very people tasked with upholding the rule of law. The formula is simple: Ignore or downplay the crime, then shift attention to how the criminal (and family) feels about facing consequences, and then insist that enforcing the law is cruelty.
Brennan’s entire exchange with Vance was built on this faulty foundation. In the modern leftist mind, it’s not enough to ask, Did this man illegally enter the country and plan an act of mass murder? One must also consider, How would he feel if we deported him? Or What would I feel like if I lived in that country instead of the United States? 
Sorry, Margaret, we don’t really care. Write about it in your diary. 
<h3>Selective Mercy</h3>
Of course, the “be merciful” crowd has its limits. Mercy, as it turns out, only flows in one direction.
Consider Bishop Budde, who recently took it upon herself to lecture President Trump on being merciful. According to the good bishop, mercy demands that we not consider how or why someone broke the law to enter this country, not consider who they harmed, but only how they might feel when they are held accountable.
Funny — where was this mercy when the unborn needed it? Bishop Buddy has encouraged the murder of untold thousands of unborn babies, their silent cries drowned out by the very same “compassion” industry that tells us terrorists deserve our understanding. The “bishop” is not alone. The “Christian” philosophy professors are coming out in droves to post on social media that one cannot be a Christian and support Trump. These same professors smile approvingly as abortions occur and God is mocked at their universities. The same voices that insist we extend boundless mercy to criminals and lawbreakers have no interest in mercy when it comes to the most vulnerable.
It’s almost as if this isn’t about mercy at all. Newsflash: it isn’t. It’s about manipulation.
<h3>The Way Forward</h3>
Thankfully, conservatives are finally refusing to play this game. The age of emotional manipulation is coming to an end. Vance’s “I don’t really care, Margaret” is more than a quip — it’s a declaration that we will no longer be ruled by guilt trips and crocodile tears.
Let’s put that together with what I consider to be the classic Trump quote about reforming higher education: Let’s get the Marxists, maniacs, and lunatics out of our universities by no longer offering free government money for God-haters. “But how will that make them feel?” Do we care? They have opposed the truth and will face worse consequences if they don’t repent than losing a federal grant.
Too much is at stake. We have a country to defend and rebuild. We have a Christian faith to proclaim and protect. We have families to raise who will love God and love the truth. And we will not be bullied into submission by those who would trade the hard work of justice for the cheap grace of emotional blackmail.
The Left wanted a national conversation. They got one. And now, every time an activist reporter or radical professor tries to steer the discussion away from reality and into an emotional cul-de-sac by using their standard appeal to fear or appeal to pity, Americans have a ready response: “I don’t really care, Margaret.”
* * *
Dr. Owen Anderson is a professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. He is an internationally known scholar, theologian, and a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu instructor. With a Ph.D. in Philosophy, he has authored numerous books, including “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Arguments-Showing-eternal-revelation/dp/057826384X/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_w=E8EGL&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_p=bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_r=133-8344803-2786917&amp;pd_rd_wg=jqvhK&amp;pd_rd_r=a47f545b-2e79-448f-9f6d-366fdd467528&amp;ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Twelve Arguments</a>” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Declaration-Independence-God-Self-Evident-American/dp/1107088186" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Declaration of Independence and God</a>.”
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

MixCollage-30-Jan-2025-02-34-PM-7556

‘I Don’t Really Care, Margaret’: The End Of Abusive Empathy

'I Don’t Really Care, Margaret': The End of Abusive Empathy

CBS News

illegal immigrants

Leftists

Legacy Media

Terrorists

Three key Ohio State football players in the team’s 34-23 national championship victory over Notre Dame publicly thanked God after the game Monday night.
Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, who was named offensive MVP of the game after passing for 231 yards and 2 TDs while rushing for 57 yards, stated, “First and foremost, I gotta give the glory and the praise to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, man. I wouldn’t be here without him. I wouldn’t be here without my teammates, without my family, without everyone that bet on me back in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, man, I’m at a loss for words right now.”
While receiving the Offensive MVP Award, he added, “Before I say anything, I gotta give my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all the glory, all the praise. Amen,” adding he was “so glad God gave me a chance to be a Buckeye.’
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Ohio State QB Will Howard following an MVP performance: “First and foremost, I gotta give the glory and the praise to my lord and savior Jesus Christ.” <a href="https://t.co/X9brwU8Hzw">pic.twitter.com/X9brwU8Hzw</a>
— OutKick (@Outkick) <a href="https://twitter.com/Outkick/status/1881568227341619534?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Linebacker Cody Simon, named Defensive MVP, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/ohio-state-stars-praise-god-after-winning-college-football-national-title?intcmp=tw_fnc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">echoed</a>, &#8220;The Lord did something special on this team and we’re just so thankful. Everyone on this team, we all bought in. I love every guy out here – put the work in this whole year.&#8221;
Defensive end Jack Sawyer, who made three tackles, added, “This is the best feeling I’ve ever felt in my life. This is exactly what we had envisioned when we all decided to come back – to go out and do it this way and end on this note. We just thank God for giving us the ability to go out and here and do it, through the ups and the downs. He was with us on our side and we knew that. Overcame the adversity and, man, this just feels so good.”
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl=1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl%3D1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA..&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1737508169354000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2kzWyXhoaSEyTmSbtOQHVU">CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT</a>
It wasn’t just Ohio State players who publicly acknowledged God on Monday night; after he scored the first touchdown of the game, Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard pointed to his armband that had &#8220;Matthew 23:12&#8221; written on it: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
– Matthew 23:12 <a href="https://t.co/gSTkG4isSp">pic.twitter.com/gSTkG4isSp</a>
— David Pollack (@davidpollack47) <a href="https://twitter.com/davidpollack47/status/1881508147321606493?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Even before the game, Leonard told Sports Michiana, “I truly think things happen for a reason. Not only us, but Ohio State as well. I think we’re the two main teams to just publicly display our faith the most. I don’t know if this is some divine teaching, you know, who put us here. I truly believe that Jesus was looking over both our shoulders throughout the whole season and put these two teams on a pedestal for a reason.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Riley Leonard feels Notre Dame &amp; Ohio St are the 2 teams to publicly display their faith the most.
“I don’t know if this is some divine teaching that put us here but I truly believe Jesus was looking over both of our shoulders… and put these 2 teams on a pedestal for a reason.” <a href="https://t.co/gxcKMByPb0">pic.twitter.com/gxcKMByPb0</a>
— Angelo Di Carlo (@angdicarlo) <a href="https://twitter.com/angdicarlo/status/1879675689437393386?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

2025 CFP National Championship Presented by AT&T- Ohio State v Notre Dame

Ohio State Players Publicly Thank God After National Championship Win

NCAA football

Notre Dame University

Ohio State University

Religion

Sports

U.S.

Outgoing president and vice president Joe Biden and Kamala Harris stayed in their seats and did not clap when newly sworn-in President Donald Trump said he was saved by God from multiple assassination attempts for a reason.
Biden and Harris remained stone-faced and in their seats during much of Trump&#8217;s speech after the new president took his oath, most notably when Trump spoke of God sparing his life.
&#8220;Biden and Harris staying seated during a standing ovation after President Trump says he was saved from an assassination attempt ‘by God to make America great again,'&#8221;Global News investigative journalist Ashleigh Stewart reported on X.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Biden and Harris staying seated during a standing ovation after President Trump says he was saved from an assassination attempt ‘by God to make America great again’ <a href="https://t.co/o5fUxZl7Ec">pic.twitter.com/o5fUxZl7Ec</a>
— Ashleigh Stewart (@Ash_Stewart_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ash_Stewart_/status/1881390913005707677?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl=1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl%3D1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA..&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1737044212122000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3mp2MZNwEXBk00lKmCtOss">CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT</a>
Trump&#8217;s speech focused on the Biden-Harris administration&#8217;s controversial actions, including on issues like immigration, in stark terms, though Biden and Harris were not directly named. The 45th and 47th president also looked ahead to what he&#8217;s calling the coming &#8220;golden age&#8221; of America. 
<a href="https://store.dailywire.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqndn5W5hXuxOh4Dnzj3NrHSVayyLGsEShWj2n2EVNnohFOnXKd"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-861629" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-2-1024x391.png" alt="" width="1024" height="391" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-2-1024x391.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-2-300x115.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-2-768x293.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-2-1536x587.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-2-2048x782.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH inauguration coverage from The Daily Wire HERE.</a>

The Inauguration Of Donald J. Trump As The 47th President

Biden, Harris Stay Seated As Trump Gets Standing Ovation Talking About God Saving His Life

Harris, Biden Stay Seated As Trump Gets Standing Ovation Talking About God Saving His Life

Donald Trump

Executive

Inauguration

Joe Biden

Kamala Harris

The following essay was originally published on Andrew Klavan&#8217;s Substack, &#8220;<a href="https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/essay-12-weve-won-what-now">The New Jerusalem</a>.&#8221;
The night Donald Trump won re-election, a sense of sweet peace settled over me. It had little to do with politics, little even to do with Trump himself. Trump is, to be sure, a titanic figure, a living avatar of our age, for good and sometimes ill. No other man I know of could have manifested the inner iron required to defy the entrenched powers and withstand their tidal onslaught of abuse and deceit.
But his fight was not my fight, and his victory was just a symbol of my victory. I have only ever been a novelist, a storytelling artist. I drifted into political commentary when, after seven years as an expatriate, I returned to an America whose foundational ideas had been gutted by a corrupted culture. Our universities were infested with leftist theorists who worked to smother the voices of the sages they were meant to teach. Our news media was biased to the point of corruption. And our entertainment media was using every pop icon from Superman to Snow White as a propagandist for perversion, racialism, and Western self-hatred.
When, barely a year after my return, a group of Islamist murderers attacked the city of my birth, slaughtering three thousand civilians in the name of their hateful god — and when, in response, our professors and journalists and entertainers quivered with philosophical nuance, wondering aloud what the naughty U.S. had done to bring this atrocity upon itself — and when the film industry in which I worked began churning out movies about evil G.I.’s and CIA agents tormenting and oppressing innocent Muslims in their cherubic multicultural piety — I saw no other honorable course but to write and speak about these moral distortions.
I believe, though I can’t prove, that this decision cost me my multi-million dollar career as a screenwriter and my place of respect in the literary world I love. All I know for sure is that the phone calls from Hollywood and the awards and raves from New York vanished in a startling flash.
Nevertheless, I persisted. And over the next twenty years or so, I watched as entrepreneurs like Andrew Breitbart, Jeremy Boreing, Bari Weiss and Elon Musk organized scattered and lonesome rebels like myself into an internet militia which, like our revolutionary forefathers, could pop out of cover and take potshots at the goose-stepping legions of the empire of lies.
To me, Trump’s victory meant simply this: we beat them. Skirmish by skirmish, we exposed their oppressive philosophies, their abuses of power, and their ceaselessly dishonest mangling of history, news and national mythology. When they slandered Trump as Hitler, when they indicted him on wholly bogus charges, when they created movies and TV shows and novels singing the praises of government power and idiot utopianism, we shot them down one by one until half the electorate felt bold enough to reject them.
The day was ours.
So … What now?
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1213-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Andrew Klavan Show on DailyWire+</a></h3>
The losers, of course, must pass through the seven stages of grief: anger, whining, blaming everyone but themselves, more whining, denial, denial, denial. Who knows if they will ever face the facts? Their philosophy was false; their policies failed; they lied and censored in an effort to maintain their power and prestige; the rotten structure collapsed on their heads. End of story.
The victorious entrepreneurs, having done the negative work of debunking the opposition’s lies, must now build the structures for the positive business of truth-telling: unbiased journalism, the creation of high and popular art, and the infrastructure of commentary, appreciation, reviews and awards.
But I remain what I always was: a barefoot teller of tales. For me, there is only one question. What do I want to write about next?
The answer is this: I want to explore the nature of God.
Over these past twenty years or so, it has become increasingly clear to me that our worst problems have their sources in unbelief. Our centuries-long drift away from Christian faith — what Nietzsche called the death of God — is, as Nietzsche predicted it would be, at the heart of our catastrophe.
Most often, it manifests itself in one of three forms. Materialism, the idea that spiritual problems can be solved by physical means. Misogyny, devaluing women as women — as wives, homemakers and mothers who excel outside masculine power structures. And antisemitism, the hatred of Jews, which as I explained in a previous essay, is really a disguised hatred of one Jew, namely Jesus Christ. Examine our most entrenched dysfunctions — the dearth of children, degrading promiscuity and perversion, government redistribution of wealth, censorship and authoritarianism, drug abuse both lay and medical, the sexual butchering of the young, the atrocity of abortion, the snarling cruelty and ignorance of our debates — and you can trace them back to one of these three manifestations of our faithlessness.
But the truth is, just as we have won the political argument, this argument too is already over.
“Something profound is happening,” writes Peter Savodnik in the Free Press. “Instead of smirking at religion, some of our most important philosophers, novelists, and public intellectuals are now reassessing their contempt for it.” Sales of Bibles Are Booming, Fueled by First-Time Buyers, reads the Wall Street Journal headline. The sales spiked 22% in a year.
The revival of the intelligentsia — which I’ve predicted for over a decade — has begun.
As in the political sphere, our job is no longer to debunk the non-believers, it is to rediscover what it means to believe. The ancient and medieval wisdoms and orthodoxies are important, but there are more basic questions that have to be answered before thinking non-believers can even put their toe in those deep waters. Plus, old language may not always suffice in our new scientific and technological world.
As <a href="https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New Jerusalem</a> enters a new year and, I hope, a new era, I would like to propose some topics for open discussion.
<h3>Heart vs. Mind</h3>
Science, technology and capitalism are so responsive to the work of intellection that they have lifted reason above its station. GK Chesterton was right when he said, “The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.”
Conversely, prophets, artists, and mystics are frequently not the most intellectual of men. They possess a wholeness of perception that reveals the world to them with an immediacy that can only be communicated by parable, art, and praxis.
When we look at Jesus honestly, we find he too is vastly bigger than our theologies. His presence cannot be reduced to rules and philosophies. We must renew the rituals and practices that can re-open our eyes to a love beyond reason.
<h3>Inside vs. Out</h3>
For centuries, materialist thinkers have sought to find the source of spiritual reality within the mind of man. Whether it was a Freudian understanding of God as a psychic projection of our fathers, the Jungian dodge of a “collective unconscious,” or an image of the evolved brain as a generator of false perceptions, the basic idea was that spiritual truth is a psychic creation rather than an outward reality.
Not so. We see God through a glass darkly, but his incarnation in Christ is proof that what we see is really there. What should we believe, then, about God’s actions on earth? The reality of angels and demons? The efficacy of prayer? How can we discuss this without descending into either superstition or rationalism?
<h3>Symbol vs. Reality</h3>
The thesis of all religion is that there is an invisible reality that our world reveals and symbolizes. Transcendental values like love, justice and mercy must be made manifest in human word and deed. But what are the limits? It’s lovely to say a husband and wife represent Christ and the church, but is that what he’s thinking when he’s chasing her around the bedroom? (I hope not!)
While living into transcendentals can elevate our behavior, inhuman restrictions based on metaphor can be immiserating, inflame doctrinal hatred and give fuel to the arguments of unbelievers. Can we discuss ecumenicism, interfaith cooperation, and various other species of tolerance and deviance without either moral surrender or bullying self-certainty?
<h3>Orthodoxy vs. Individuality</h3>
A church without orthodoxy is Satan’s sandbox. Orthodoxy creates the image of the spiritual kingdom to which we are responsible. But each person’s journey to that kingdom is unique and may take them through territory of which church orthodoxy disapproves. Can we allow the beauty of the single soul to thrive in a church of true faith?
I’ve given up much to speak my mind. Money and prestige and career dreams. All things of value, make no mistake. My peaceful sense of victory now is gratifying. But the destruction of lies is not the triumph of the truth, and it’s on the truth that the reclamation of our culture depends. Our enemy counts on us to defend our faith with rigidity, belligerence and cruelty. Give us vision, open minds and loving hearts, and we will watch him fall like lightning.
* * *
Read the full post on Andrew Klavan’s new Substack “<a href="https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/essay-12-weve-won-what-now" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New Jerusalem</a>,” where he and son Spencer Klavan chart an alternative path toward life in the 21st century and beyond.
* * *
Andrew Klavan is the host of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>” at The Daily Wire. He is the bestselling author of the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fourth installment, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1613165536?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_thcv_3&amp;storeType=ebooks">A WOMAN UNDERGROUND</a>,” is now available. Follow him on X: @andrewklavan
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Klavan_10-scaled (1)4

We’ve Won. Now What?

We've Won. Now What?

2024 Election

Debate

Spencer Klavan

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/golden-globes">Golden Globes</a> host Nikki Glaser made a joke halfway through the show on Sunday, pointing out that none of the night’s winners had thanked <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/god">God</a> for their award.
“So much has already happened in the first half, and the acceptance speeches have been on fire. Who got shouted out the most? Let&#8217;s look at the numbers,&#8221; she said as the screen in the venue changed into a scoreboard.
The comedian gestured to a visual representation of who had been thanked and who hadn’t.
“All right, cast and crew are leading the way with 11 mentions,” Glaser told the assembled celebrities. “Moms are holding strong with three shoutouts. God, creator of the universe, with zero mentions.”
The audience started laughing, and the show’s host went on, saying, “Mario Lopez, host of ‘Access Hollywood,’ one.”
“No surprise in this godless town,” Glaser deadpanned.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZRWeZzN9nmQ?si=iBgOol9SGiaKSaBC" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
The 40-year-old stand-up comedian is being praised for her performance, particularly for the way she poked fun at some of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hollywood">Hollywood</a> A-listers in the audience. 
“I am not here to roast you tonight,” Glaser told the crowd during her opening monologue. “I want you to know that. How could I, really? You are all so famous. So talented.”
“So powerful,” she went on. “I mean you could really do anything. I mean except tell the country who to vote for. But it’s okay, you will get them next time. If there is one. I’m scared.”
Glaser also made jokes about Ozempic and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was recently charged with sexual assault and is currently in a federal jail awaiting his trial. 
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JOIN THE MOVEMENT IN ’25 WITH 25% OFF DAILYWIRE+ ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS WITH CODE DW25</a>
“[‘Challengers’] was more sexually charged than Diddy’s credit card,” the comedian said during her monologue. “I know… I’m upset, too. The after-party isn’t going to be as good this year, but we have to move on.” Glaser then joked, “Stanley Tucci freak-off doesn’t have the same ring to it,” adding, “No baby oil this year, just lots of olive oil.”
While the elites ignored God during their speeches, actor Colin Farrell is being praised for thanking a member of craft services by name.
The actor began his acceptance speech for Best Actor in a Mini Series or Motion Picture for TV by joking, “No one to thank on this one; I did it all by myself.”
He went on to name many people he worked with on “The Penguin.” Farrell seemed to wrap up his speech after thanking the Golden Globes and anyone else he forgot, before he piped up, “Oh! Craft service, our great dame!”
The crowd started laughing at him for thanking the team that provides food and drink to the crew, but Farrell made it clear he was being serious. 
“No, no, Carolina, on those cold winter nights in New York when I was the only one overheating,” he said. “She’d be there with a coconut water every half hour. Carolina, God bless you — she kept the whole crew going; she’s craft service.”
The actor got a lot of positive reactions on social media for the speech.
&#8220;Colin Farrell thanking Carolina in crafts services and her thoughtfulness in his #GoldenGlobes acceptance speech is your wholesome moment of the evening,” one popular tweet <a href="https://x.com/Lulamaybelle/status/1876091673840898217">says</a>.
“I don’t think I’ve heard an actor thank craft services in a speech EVER what a man,” another person <a href="https://x.com/emblergh/status/1876241091579576708">wrote</a>. 
A third viewer <a href="https://x.com/latchkeyforever/status/1876116878361596151">agreed</a>, “Carolina is somewhere absolutely floating tonight.”

Nikki Glaser

Golden Globes Host Jokes That None Of The Winners Thank God

Celebrities

Entertainment

Golden Globes

Hollywood

The following is a selected excerpt from Dr. Jordan B. Peterson’s new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-Who-Wrestle-God-Perceptions/dp/0593542533/ref=sr_1_1?crid=372JQ7ZR3ZS7G&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Yumo-_7_B9jRl_Z9sqYc15kVR52vCNBhGSGnY_jL2kmWcM4BHWrv1cogxRndBk25rmRAt-WU5QUmen7EQXbOoDvEI8nHxR0nJkA8IuBia3bAh_jQHtbUM_v5BUdR3Py69WBEBY_QcoGkNRq1AxZYZ72zF29luKmG1sF7Xiom4TroVGj9qhnYAvmE2qPaqh362mEbAGCpEp7S2QBd3v16RwPWp29ZlJsw4n1MRdC7QEQ.HuQw4_9-OwpooNu-ZyXma37-4OMfG1sU2RXZ1qETgEE&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=we+who+wrestle+with+god+jordan+peterson+book&amp;qid=1732029780&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=we+who+%2Cstripbooks%2C108&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">We Who Wrestle With God: Perceptions Of The Divine,</a>” (November 19, 2024. Portfolio/Penguin Random House).
<h3>Foreshadowing: The Still, Small Voice</h3>
If we do and must see the world through a story; if the world reveals itself to us in the form of a story — what is that story? How do we properly characterize our aims, our most profound temptations, our most admirable upward strivings? What is relevant and what can and should be ignored? To what should we devote our costly attention? To what ends should we aim our action? What uncomfortable truth is our conscience eternally attempting to reveal? What is the appropriate hierarchy of value through which the world most productively, generously, and sustainably reveals itself? What, in other words, is the story, the true story of our lives — what is it, and what should it be? It is an account of our highest aspirations, our most fundamental relationship, and, simultaneously, of the true ground under our feet. It is therefore and must be the characterization of the divine itself, of God, just as the biblical accounts insist. And what is this?
<div id="attachment_830895" style="width: 391px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-Who-Wrestle-God-Perceptions/dp/0593542533/ref=sr_1_1?crid=372JQ7ZR3ZS7G&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Yumo-_7_B9jRl_Z9sqYc15kVR52vCNBhGSGnY_jL2kmWcM4BHWrv1cogxRndBk25rmRAt-WU5QUmen7EQXbOoDvEI8nHxR0nJkA8IuBia3bAh_jQHtbUM_v5BUdR3Py69WBEBY_QcoGkNRq1AxZYZ72zF29luKmG1sF7Xiom4TroVGj9qhnYAvmE2qPaqh362mEbAGCpEp7S2QBd3v16RwPWp29ZlJsw4n1MRdC7QEQ.HuQw4_9-OwpooNu-ZyXma37-4OMfG1sU2RXZ1qETgEE&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=we+who+wrestle+with+god+jordan+peterson+book&amp;qid=1732029780&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=we+who+%2Cstripbooks%2C108&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-830895" class="wp-image-830895 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/71B18dU7xnL._AC_UF10001000_QL80_-381x576.jpg" alt="Book design by Chris Welch. Portfolio/Penguin Random House" width="381" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/71B18dU7xnL._AC_UF10001000_QL80_-381x576.jpg 381w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/71B18dU7xnL._AC_UF10001000_QL80_-199x300.jpg 199w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/71B18dU7xnL._AC_UF10001000_QL80_.jpg 662w" sizes="(max-width: 381px) 100vw, 381px" /></a>Book design by Chris Welch. Portfolio/Penguin Random House</div>
Conscience, important as it is — the conscience that makes itself manifest to Elijah — is not the only manifestation of God; not His only dramatic persona. He appears also, as we shall see, as a calling — inspiration, adventure, enthusiasm, curiosity, even temptation — in another of His primary guises, and as much more. We most profoundly wish to meet, and if possible to become, the hero, for example (another guise) — and not just the hero but the hero of all heroes. We want to take on the mien not just of the king, master of his domain, but of the king of kings. We are constituted so that we admire the divine principle of sovereignty itself. We want that so we can take on the perspective of the spirit properly put in the highest of places and experience the world through his eyes. We want to do this so we can ourselves adopt that stance of heroism and responsible kingship toward the problems that beset us and offer us opportunity in our own lives. We want to understand, as profoundly as we are able, the nature of the Good that stands behind all proximal goods — the Good who brings about the compelling life more abundant than is the true garden of eternal desire. We want to identify, likewise, the Villain who stands behind all acts of villainy — the nature of the spirit who wishes to produce all the suffering of the world for the sake of nothing but all that suffering. We want to understand Good so that we can be good and understand Evil so that we can avoid being evil. In this way we can bring about the salvation and redemption of the world, in small ways and great. We can constrain the hell that evil produces, and not just for ourselves but for everyone we care for and love, for the stability and continuance of the societies that we inhabit, and for the love of the world itself.
For better or worse, the story is the thing — and for better or worse, the story on which our western psyches and cultures are now somewhat fragilely founded — however fragile they’ve become — is most fundamentally the story told in the library that makes up the biblical corpus, the compilation of drama that sits at the base of our culture and through which we look at the world. This is the story on which Western civilization is predicated. It is a collection of characterizations not only of God, whose imitation, worship, or, indeed, embodiment is held to be the highest of all possible aims, but of man and of woman, whose characters are held to exist in relationship to that God, and of society, in relation to the individual and the divine. It is, as well, the revelation of the sacrifice that makes such aim possible, and an examination in dramatic form of the transcendent target that is held to unite all things in the best possible manner. The biblical story, in its totality, is the frame through which the world of facts reveals itself, insofar as the West itself is concerned: it is the description of the hierarchy of value within which even science itself (that is, the science that ultimately pursues the good) is made possible. The Bible is the library of stories on which the most productive, freest, and most stable and peaceful societies the world has even known are predicated — the foundation of the West, plain and simple.
* * *
From WE WHO WRESTLE WITH GOD: Perceptions of the Divine by Jordan B. Peterson, to be published on November 19, 2024, by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright (c) 2024 by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson.
* * *
<a href="https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Jordan B. Peterson</a> is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. From 1993 to 1998 he served as assistant and then associate professor of psychology at Harvard. He is the international bestselling author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Maps-Meaning-Architecture-Jordan-Peterson/dp/0415922216/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maps of Meaning</a>,” “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/12-Rules-Life-Antidote-Chaos/dp/0345816021/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">12 Rules For Life,</a>” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Order-More-Rules-Life/dp/0593084640/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;dib_tag=AUTHOR&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.nbV0WtVit9busCddbjMST-Oe7hjueQrxfqnQ4L3HXXUFdIaqlEBr0sp9HQWIq9ut9NlHDAFA0YQoDWVZfDtKNJI7VvlzWv2rMhs2KcAAIIppPRMWq4GIiFerkrssvBABAjeKlg3OFs3H8IHs5D8ktJ5uBg3K-SZ4hpKltaKkrhY6j-RKn-tTkBz29JZXP3Rhm9SB14rHUX1nol5d4z4Fi6f8fwhxXWCVGgkvOHSqG6E.iVF1NljuBEwrpumO9rQBh9FotnzaIo4K7K8HvNnC46k&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Beyond Order.</a>” You can now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listen to</a> or <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/watch/jordan-peterson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">watch</a> his popular lectures on DailyWire+.
Be sure to order his newest book, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Who-Wrestle-God-Jordan-Peterson/dp/0593542533/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_w=38kcw&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.f911c8db-3a2b-4b3e-952f-b80fdcee83f4&amp;pf_rd_p=f911c8db-3a2b-4b3e-952f-b80fdcee83f4&amp;pf_rd_r=133-1833056-3520340&amp;pd_rd_wg=3zvBk&amp;pd_rd_r=93a1419a-853b-4c49-a764-cbaa90d3073a&amp;ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">We Who Wrestle with God</a>” (Portfolio/Penguin. November 19, 2024.)

MixCollage-19-Nov-2024-10-27-AM-3296

On Wrestling With God

Jordan B. Peterson

Psychology

Baruch Hashem — thank God. Truly, thank God.
Here’s the thing: God spared Donald Trump’s life during this election cycle.
I know you may not believe in God. But I have to say, it’s pretty damned difficult sometimes not to see His hand moving in history. God’s hand was clearly on Donald Trump when he turned his head 20 degrees and avoided having his brains blown out live on national television. And God spared Donald Trump for a reason. We don’t know God’s reasons. But He’s making His hand pretty damned apparent to anyone who is willing to watch.
I’ll admit it: I’ve questioned some of God’s writing decisions on this season of Trump. Not one, but two assassination attempts? The feeble and elderly president actually going defunct live on national television? The replacement candidate being a word salad chef? Her picking, not the popular Democratic governor of a swing state, but a nutjob who has a clear relationship to Gumby? Tony Hinchcliffe, &#8220;eating the dogs,&#8221; P-nut?
Seriously, God?
But wow, can God stick the landing. The season finale: absolutely unbelievable. So good. 10 out of 10. Would watch again. Will download for the plane. 
Best. Season. Of. Trump. Evah.
Let’s actually talk seriously about the meaning of this election. And let’s begin with the man who won it: Donald Trump.
Last night on the air, I got into an interesting discussion with Skeletor-impersonator Andrew Klavan. The conversation was about Trump and what made him different. Donald Trump, I pointed out, has run this race as a moderate Republican. He’s Left of Mitt Romney positionally on a wide variety of issues. So it wasn’t that Trump is some sort of throwback to rock-ribbed conservatism. That isn’t it.
What makes Trump different is that he was built for this moment.
There have been a lot of Biblical comparisons for Donald Trump. Many people point out that King David had some pretty serious personal flaws, but he was beloved of God. But I have one: Noah.
When the flood was coming, God found a man who could build an ark. A man who was, as God puts it in the Bible, “ish Tzadik, tamim haya b’dorotav.” A righteous man, complete in his generation. The commentators argue over what this means: Was he particularly good because he was righteous in a bad generation? Many commentators say no: Noah was built for his time. He was complete — a man in full — in his time.
Donald Trump is built for this time.
He has absorbed more punishment than any politician in modern history. That is no exaggeration. Twice impeached. Four times indicted. Fined tens of millions of dollars. Almost shot in the head. Then almost shot again.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/election-wire-live-michael-knowles-ben-shapiro" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: Election Wire LIVE: Michael Knowles &amp; Ben Shapiro</a></h3>
And we all know what the iconic image of Donald Trump is, the one that will go in the history books. It’s not going to be him at McDonalds or him driving a garbage truck or the mug shot or even him coming down the golden escalator.
It is the photo of him rising to his feet after being shot, blood coming from his ear, raising his fist in the air, exhorting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
<div id="attachment_825261" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-825261" class="wp-image-825261 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/001c_Trump-Iconic-Butler-Photo-864x576.jpg" alt="Donald Trump in Butler, PA. Evan Vucci/AP Photo." width="864" height="576" />Evan Vucci/AP Photo</div>
Look again at the photo. It’s everything. It’s why Donald Trump is the most important man of our age. It is courage in the face of danger. It is defiance in the face of assault. And it is the American flag floating in the background — the unironic, patriotic symbol of the world’s most kickass country.
That’s Donald Trump. He is ish tamim b’dorotav. He was built for this time.
He was built for a time when America has to stare down its enemies abroad and tell them that, as Trump said to me, we might bomb the s*** out of them — but also a time when hard-nosed business negotiations can yield international peace. He was built for a time when America must choose between a future of economic dynamism and innovation, or one of stagnation and decline. He was built for a time in which America had to choose between the power of treating each other as individuals — and no one on earth treats people as individuals more than Donald Trump does, I’ve seen him do it — and treating people as members of oppressor or oppressed classes.
Yes, Donald Trump has plenty of flaws. So did Noah. Check out the chapters after the flood.
But when the flood is coming, you need a man who bucks the strictures of a corrupt generation and builds a boat.
Trump builds the boat. And America is not only going to survive the storms, America is going to rebuild once the waters recede. And the waters are now beginning to recede.
These times require a middle finger. Trump is that middle finger. He has compared himself to Washington, Lincoln, and McKinley. But the man he most represents is another New Yorker, a garrulous, self-confident-bordering-on-pompous, audacious president: Teddy Roosevelt. It was Roosevelt who said this in 1910:
<blockquote>It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.</blockquote>
Now, let’s turn to the person who lost this race: Kamala Harris.
Here’s the thing about Kamala Harris: nothing.
Literally nothing. She was not “joy.” She was not “brat.” She was nothing. She’s always been nothing. She has never won a single vote outside of the state of California. She has never been subjected to the rigors of a serious public examination. She is a creation of a party machinery. She is an empty vessel. That was apparent every time she opened her mouth, and no amount of celebrity glitter could cover up that innate emptiness.
Which means that Kamala Harris’ loss isn’t about Kamala. And no, it’s not about Joe Biden, either.
It’s about the entire corrupt machine to which Donald Trump and the American people just threw out a double-barrelled f*** you.
Let’s talk about the machine.
The machine that says, at root, America is inherently racist, sexist, homophobic, and Islamophobic. That cities burning is just part of the bargain of coming to grips with our innate evil. That what America needs is an “intifada revolution.” That the story of America is one of a corrupt and evil nation requiring the harsh hand of elites at the top of government to correct them into the harness of equity.
The machine that says American innovation is a problem because it’s exploitative and that the job of the government is to create equality of outcome, to relieve people of burden of responsibility and virtue and hand them government checks instead. That families are little torture chambers filled with nasty, hackneyed values, and that churches are repositories of cruelty rather than community. That every human being is just a set of free-floating feelings and that it is the job of a cloistered elite to legitimize those feelings, such that boys can even be girls through the grace of government.
The machine that says American power on the world stage is somehow bad for the world and that our enemies have basically got it right. The machine that touts the virtue of spoiled brats on college campuses who shout about the evils of America while living off its spoils.
The machine that manufactures narratives that are overtly false, through the most powerful media mechanisms in human history — and then, unsatisfied, tries to crack down on those who disagree. The machine that lies to you: about the economy, about foreign policy, about social policy, about America, about the nature of reality itself. Because if you’ll buy the lie, then perhaps you’ll go along with their program.
That was the machine that lost last night.
That machine is ugly. It is hideous. And it deserves to die. And last night, it died.
That’s what Election 2024 was about, in the end. It was about a return to normalcy.
A couple of weeks ago, I did a debate with Sam Harris about Trump versus Kamala. And Sam kept saying Trump wasn’t normal, and somehow, Kamala was. And I’m sure Sam meant it; Trump says weird things, exaggerates, bloviates, and bulls***s.
But I pointed something out to Sam: When people say they want a return to normal, they don’t mean politics as usual. Because for most people, politics as usual is SNAFU: Situation Normal, All F***ed Up. What Americans are looking for is true normalcy: They want to take care of their families; they want to build wealth; they want to go to church; they want to get along with their fellow Americans, and they want to dream of big things together. They like Elon Musk’s rockets and they like truckers and they like church bake-offs and they like marriage and they like children.
They. Want. Normal.
And this is a flood generation. Nothing Is Normal. The only thing that has come to seem normal is that when the water levels rise slowly enough, it feels as though you’ve always been in water up to your neck.
But it isn’t normal.
We want normal. This was the revenge of normal.
Donald Trump is the instrument of that revenge. So is JD Vance. So is Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, and yes, us here at the Daily Wire. We want normal. Because normal is the American Dream.
And sometimes, it takes a man with a golden escalator, a wild hairdo, and a cartoonish speaking cadence — and more personal courage, toughness, and yes, patriotism, than any of his enemies — to make normal great again.

TOPSHOT-US-VOTE-POLITICS-TRUMP

Trump Wins! Thanks To God And Overall Meaning

Ben Shapiro

Menu

God