(LifeSiteNews) — Things are happening fast: Donald Trump is elected president of the United States for the second time in a landslide victory after four years of media vilification, legal proceedings, and assassination attempts. He appoints several openly Catholic figures to his administration, one of whom is Vice President J.D. Vance.
Vance is a rare kind of politician – transparent – having described his background in his autobiography Hillbilly Elegy, detailing his upbringing in a “white trash” milieu in Kentucky and his journey to Yale University. He also shared his conversion to Catholicism in an essay titled How I Joined the Resistance. True Catholicism, ever since Jesus was crucified, has been an act of resistance, for, as Jesus says: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them” (Matthew 20:25-26).
In his inauguration speech, Trump pulled the rug out from under woke ideology with a revolutionary declaration: “There are only men and women.” Under the Biden administration, anyone expressing this view faced public ostracization and legal consequences.
In the first days of his presidency, Trump has rolled back the LGBT cultural revolution through executive orders:
- Rainbow flags are banned from U.S. government buildings.
- All employees of diversity programs (DEI: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) have been placed on paid leave immediately after his inauguration.
- The military is undergoing “dewoking”; no more identity-based cultural celebrations like “Pride Month” (a directive Google promptly complied with).
- Parental rights are restored.
- Leftist activist hubs in USAID are being dismantled.
- The U.S. withdraws from the WHO.
- A task force has been established to combat anti-Christian discrimination in federal agencies and society, and much more.
The pace of Trump’s counterrevolution is dizzying.
It would be an illusion to believe that a top-down counterrevolution could eliminate the top-down sexual revolution, which has penetrated even the microstructures of society, overnight. But the tide has turned – history is beginning to tell a new story. The paralysis induced by the suppression of all resistance has been lifted.
On January 23, 2025, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Argentine President Javier Milei ruthlessly exposed gender ideology. He called it “the great epidemic of our time that must be cured, the cancer that we must get rid of.” This ideology, he said, has colonized institutions from political parties to NGOs and universities.
“If we want to save Western civilization, we must remove this ideology from our institutions.” Milei did not hesitate to challenge the global elite sitting before him: “Take responsibility for the role you have played over the past decades and offer society the mea culpa it demands. Freedom, freedom, freedom! May the powers of heaven be with us.”
And now, the thunderclap – Vice President JD Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference! The geopolitical landscape has shifted. The U.S. superpower tells the Europeans: “If you act out of fear of your own voters, America can do nothing for you.” Did Europe’s political leaders hear that? Then America can do nothing for you!
Even before his inauguration, Vance stated in an interview that if Europe wished to rely on U.S. military protection, it must also respect American values – above all, freedom of speech.
A punch in the face for all those who claim to stand for democracy while hollowing it out from within – annulling elections, using so-called firewalls to neutralize voter will, imprisoning people who silently pray near abortion centers. Vance does not speak about NATO or the war in Ukraine. He asserts that the greatest threat to Europe does not come from external actors like Russia or China, but from internal developments that endanger fundamental freedoms. He says this to leaders who justify the slow dismantling of liberty in the name of fighting the right. But where there is only left and no right, there is no democracy.
Tech giants and corporations like BlackRock and Google have already responded, scrapping their DEI programs. Mark Zuckerberg quickly adjusted Meta’s stance to the new political climate, declaring that he wants to return to his roots, protect free speech, and fire fact-checkers. But Europe’s political leaders and their compliant media refuse to acknowledge the shift. Instead, they rage against the “interference” and “assault” of the American vice president.
Those who benefit from the suppression of free speech or have joined the ranks of the conformists – that is the overwhelming majority of the political-media class – have had their masks torn off by J.D. Vance’s speech. They will continue to defend their power with “ugly words from Soviet times like misinformation and disinformation” (Vance) and fuzzy laws on “hate speech,” “discrimination,” or the EU’s “Digital Services Act.”
But gender ideology is on the ropes. Its proponents can no longer triumph. Freedom of speech – the lifeblood of democracy – has found a powerful defender, the United States of America.
The founding impulse of the United States was freedom, and it propelled the nation to become the world’s foremost political and economic power. Under the banner of democracy, American troops landed in Normandy on D-Day in 1944 to liberate Germany from the Nazis. One may doubt whether U.S. wars in recent decades were truly about defending freedom or more about economic interests. But now, the U.S. is serious about its demand to respect freedom of speech and the political will of voters – and about eradicating an ideology that undermines the anthropological and ethical foundations of society.
However, Trump’s declaration in his inaugural address that he intends to “expand U.S. territory,” eyeing Canada and Greenland, is deeply concerning. His MAGA program – Make America Great Again – will make others small and will have little regard for the planet’s finite resources and their fair distribution.
But: A window of free speech has opened – a conditio sine qua non of democracy.