Conservatives Have Earned A Drink This New Year's...

...because the tide has turned in the battle of ideas, for the battle of the hearts and minds of Americans, and we are winning.

On this same date exactly one year ago, I wrote the following:

Some have called 2009 an "Annus horribilis"; I beg to differ. Yes, liberal totalitarianism has taken hold in America, much as many on the right had predicted, with the rise of this nation's first charismatic ideologue. But we need this battle. The arguments against liberalism were lost, defeated by a hateful opposition to George W. Bush and a mainstream media who pounded us every day with leftist propaganda.

What we have gotten, and what we have needed to see firsthand, is how destructive liberalism is in practice. Only with having experienced it, can we be sure of its corrupt and poisonous nature. And thus to save our nation, we must rise up and defeat the Left in a battle that will be virtually unprecedented in American history.

And we have. We have taken to the streets, we have run the bad guys out of Washington with the proverbial pitchfoks and torches, and if we have not-reshaped the media, we have exposed its leftist bias clearly enough that they have been widely discredited, and even their most severe pronouncements are taken with a grain of salt (sorry, Bloomie!). As a side effect of this new view of the mainstream media, is seems as if most of what the president says is also now taken with a healthy dose of skepticism as well. Discrediting the administration's mouthpieces resulted in the discrediting of the administration itself. Unexpected but welcome.

Winning a few early battles does not guarantee winning the war; the heavy lifting may well be ahead of us as the new Congress faces the temptation of big government's incessant appetite for money and power. We are merely soldiers on an unofficial holiday truce, our guns for a moment slug onto our backs, safeties engaged. We sip warming drinks while toasting our good fortune, all while knowing that across the tree-line, the darkness still gathers, and will come blowing out to fight again as soon as the sun rises on a new year.

The struggle continues into 2011, but to date we have done well. But we must press on to ensure that are victories are permanent, and not just the fancies of a season.

I too will continue, for what minimal bit I add to the effort, out of my intellectual version of a wooden roadside shack on the dusty outskirts of the vast internet highway....

But for those who have stopped by in 2010, I offer you many thanks. This year has been this blog's best year ever in terms of links, readership, page views, and all that stuff. Month by month we have been climbing to new heights - if I were to graph it, a global warmist would turn green with envy at the never-ending "spike"...

I appreciate your readership. I appreciate your comments, for good or for ill. I am humbled by your linkage.

And I wish each and every one of you the very happiest and healthiest of New Years. May the year 2011 see your fondest dreams fulfilled. And may we work together to see that our nation - the best in the world at making dreams come to fruition - gets back on track, and returns to being once again healthy, wealthy, and wise...

I will be here to fight for that end. I hope some of you will still be too.

Happy New Year!