Year-End Round-Up
“I can’t quote the book.
The chapter or the verse.
You can’t tell me it all ends,
In a slow ride in a hearse.
You know I’m more and more convinced,
The longer that I live.
Yeah, this can’t be,
No, this can’t be
No, this can’t be all there is.
When I raise my hands, bow my head.
I’m finding more and more truth in the words written in red.
They tell me that there’s more to life than just what I can see.
I believe.
Oh, I believe.
I believe.
I believe.
I believe.
I believe.”
This is the first missive you have had in a few weeks and the last one you will get this year. I am very busy with life and continue to have a few non-life threatening but annoying health issues which sideline me from time to time. So, I will take a sabbatical until January. When I come back, I am likely to make these monthly rather than weekly blogs. But, I’ll see how things stand in 2026!
Now to a quick round up of some issues right now:
2025 and 2026 Elections: The elections in Virginia, New Jersey, New York, California, Washington and Minnesota were undeniably bad for Republicans. I have told you that in my experience, these “special” elections are an indicator of the mood for the next general election, although the losing side always dismisses them as having “special” characteristics that do not apply to the general election. For example, JD Vance tweeted earlier this month that the elections were all in blue states and we should expect Democrats to win, so nothing to see here. It is true that they were all in blue states.
But Democrats won by greater margins than were expected and than they achieved in 2024. Even blue states have independents and Republicans. Democrats turned out as they are energized by hatred of President Trump. That hatred is unlikely to abate in 2026.
The Senate is basically out of reach for Democrats in 2026 due to the seats that are up, absent a massive blue wave. The House however, is up for grabs.
The gerrymandering wars that are going on now between red and blue states are likely, when all is said and done, to favor Republicans by a seat or two. That is, unless the Supreme Court steps in on the racially drawn districts and voids them. Absent court involvement, I have to give the edge right now to Democrats taking the House back in 2026. Everything Trump is doing is geared towards keeping the economy in good shape for another year as a recession would guarantee a Democratic win. If Democrats take the House in 2026, they will immediately impeach Trump again, and his legislative agenda will be stopped ,because he is NOT a king or a dictator or any of that crap. If he were it wouldn’t matter. He is no more a king than Biden and Obama were and arguably less of one.
The New Underclass: Trump won in 2016 and 2024 (and maybe 2020 as well) by appealing to an underclass that both parties had ignored - the blue collar working family. But there is a new underclass. That is the college indoctrinated (in my opinion they were not actually educated) young person. These people acquired huge debts to attend a four year college and got a degree in something that no employer cars about and they graduated with no marketable skills whatsoever. They aspired to a six-figure cushy job with no accountability at a government funded thought organization where they would be served avocado toast in the afternoons or work from home.
Those jobs are disappearing. So, these people are forced to be baristas at Starbucks where they actually do have accountability, they are making less than six-figures, the person working next to them never attended college and makes just as much or more, and they get free coffee during a 10 minute break but no gluten-free avocado toast.
These are the people the Democratic-Communists are appealing to. And it is working with that group. Trump promised blue collar workers more wage and job opportunities. The Mamdanis of the world are promising this new underclass that they can have what they want without actually working for it. They will get it for free. Even the gluten-free avocado toast will be free in the new government-run grocery stores.
Affordability: This is the new catch phrase for both parties. I find it fascinating. Costs of everything for everybody went up during the Biden inflation period. Democrats in deep blue California announced that dealing with affordability was their primary goal after the 2024 elections.
But the affordability situation is primarily a blue state and blue city issue. I am writing you this from the beautiful Flint Hills of Kansas. Here, the cost of everything is literally half, or in some cases, 20% of the cost of the same thing in California, where I also still spend time. This is entirely due to the leftist policies in those blue states. Electricity costs, for example are five times more in California than in neighboring Arizona.
Having caused the problem, Democrats now propose that the solution is communism. This is akin to the arsonist telling you how to put out a fire.
Not to say that some people in red states aren’t struggling to get by. They are and it will always be like that, unless Dave Ramsey conquers the hearts and minds of everyone.
It is laughable that Gavin newsroom is running around the country telling people that the high cost of living in California is Trump’s fault. But some people, with the help of the media, are buying it.
Democrat-Socialist-Marxist-Islamists - Many Republicans are thrilled with the victories of Communist (I do not use the term lightly) Democrats in New York, Seattle and other places. This is clearly where the energy and power in the Democratic Party is today. The thinking is that it is too far left for most of America, so having Democrats led by communists is a good thing.
I disagree. My friend Hugh Hewitt on Fox News this week compared it to the left lurch that the Democratic Party made in 1972 nominating Senator George McGovern for president who promptly lost 49 states. One of his platforms was “redistribute the wealth.” Sounds like AOC and Mamdani, doesn’t it?
But this is not 1972. Ideas that failed in the past may not fail in the future. As I life-long Republican, I want a strong opposition party. But one that believes in Judeo-Christian and western values, capitalism and the constitution as written. The Democratic-communists do not believe in any of those things.
We also did not have red and blue states as we do now. We did not have illegal aliens voting and vote harvesting and fraud legalized in many blue states. We did not have ubiquitous mail-in ballots which in the past you could only get if you could prove you were going to be out of state on election day.
I fully expect many blue states to tilt fully communist, probably led by the 4 states that touch the Pacific Ocean. As we saw in Russia in 1917 and Germany in 1931, people will turn to any smooth-talking leader who promises them great sounding things and blames their troubles on some one else.
One of the interesting factors here is that traditional atheistic communists who are very pro-LGBT and transgender and such are in alliance with Islamists who want to kill all those people. This is a case currently of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” At some point, the atheists in the party and the Islamists will come to blows over this. But for now, all is fine. And in some states instead of Islamists, the Democratic Party power is held by Hispanic communists in the manner of a Caesar Chavez who aspire to unification with a communistic Mexico. By the way, all three are evil.
So, the Dems will have a reckoning in the next 12 months or so over what the party is going to be in the future. Will old line liberals be able to defeat the unification of these three elements of the far left? I suspect not.
The New Civil War: I hate saying this, but I think that the two sides in the country today are becoming less and less compatible with one another. Assuming the communists win out on the Dem side, and the Jew-haters and Never-Trumpers on the Republican side (which are small groups) are side-lined, there just is no middle ground.
Will the country break up? President Trump doesn’t want that as you see him sending ICE and troops into the deepest of blue cities to rescue them from leftist ruin. He could simply allow them to wallow in their failure and help make red states even better instead. Frankly, that is what I would do.
But are Trump’s efforts working? Is anyone who voted for Kamala in Portland happy that ICE and the National Guard are there? I’m not so sure they are. Their news media tells them daily that Trump and law enforcement are Hitler.
I want to be wrong, but I genuinely fear that this will not be settled at the ballot box. The Democrats are currently following a nearly identical path to South Carolina and what would become the Confederacy in 1861. They are refusing to obey federal orders and are calling on violence against federal troops, officials and speakers. A war or a division of the country is not out of the question.
The one thing of which I am sure is that the political climate will get worse before it gets better.
Ending with the positive: Now that I have fully depressed myself and probably you, let us remember the tremendous bounties for which we must be thankful. We still have more freedom and opportunity than any people who have ever lived.
I picked this week’s song because when all is said and done, God is in charge. The God of David and Abraham. Those of us with faith in Jesus Christ trust him in our lives. That is where we can always find truth, peace, strength and understanding. We will need Him more and more as we navigate through the cultural, political, societal and religious storms that lie ahead. We Christians are united with Jews in sustaining our shared values against the forces that would wrest them from us.
Here is Kansas, there are many people who do not have any of the tangible wealth that I see more frequently in California or Arizona. But they are a happier people. I submit, that is because they have God in their lives. One thing that prospers here are churches. Big, new prosperous churches are everywhere in Wichita. And the small towns like here in Cottonwood Falls, have small but innovative and vibrant places of worship.
Brooks and Dunn did not write a Christmas song. But is is a song about our Savior nonetheless. You should listen to the opening lyrics (which are not printed above) to understand the full context.
When times get tough, I believe. When I don’t know where to turn, I believe. Even when it all goes well, I believe.
I believe. I pray you do, too.
Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and a Joyous Hanukkah to you all!
Until 2026, I remain respectfully,
Congressman John Campbell
Drive fast & Live Free
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