We’ve wished each other a “Merry Christmas,” we’ve gathered with family to exchange gifts, we’ve enjoyed the fellowship of our Christmas church services, and maybe we’ve even enjoyed a White Christmas, with chestnuts roasting on an open fire and jack frost nipping at noses. But Christmas has come and gone, and now, for the next few days, we’re wishing each other a “Happy New Year.” Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions, and for optimistic hopes for the coming year. But looking back over seven decades, I struggle to remember a time when a bright future in the coming year seemed less assured. Instead, I believe that we’re in for a very rough ride in 2024.

Hints of global recession are in the air, and, while the U.S. has done relatively well of late, there’s weakness to be found in our economic forecasts, and the current administration has at least a year available to pursue “Bidenomics,” spending on silly and useless initiatives while stifling real growth with ridiculous regulations. While the fundamental illogic of mandating electric cars and prohibiting gas stoves has become increasingly obvious, these and similar measures are being driven by the religion of climate change, a religion that brooks no heresy, and one enforced with a fanaticism worthy of the Spanish Inquisition. (READ MORE from James H. McGee: ‘If Only in My Dreams’: The Poignant Context of a Christmas Classic)

The catastrophe at the southern border only grows worse, and, for all the wrangling about border security versus Ukraine, there’s little indication that 2024 will witness meaningful action to staunch the flood of illegal immigration. In the end, and in spite of much chest puffing by a certain category of Republican politician, the only measurable result will be a prolongation of the suffering of the Ukrainians and the further entrenchment of the Putin regime, all accompanied by much meaningless posturing in the West as the situation deteriorates.

The same mix of loud talk and little accomplishment seems likely in the Middle East. Israel, commendably, has resisted pressures to give up on its mission to destroy Hamas, but those pressures will only increase in the months to come. One can already see how support for the prosecution of the war is fading, both in Europe and here in the U.S. But a job half-done means that sometime, and perhaps too soon, the job will have to be done over again. The next time, the attackers may strike around the globe, and, yes, they may strike us directly.

Radical Islamism has not been deterred, nor been given any evidence that they might pay a price for doing so. While our warships have repeatedly swatted away Houthi missile attacks at the entrance to the Red Sea, global shipping has been egregiously disrupted, and we’ve done nothing to make the Houthis — or their Iranian backers — pay a real price for their actions. “Actions have consequences,” as the saying goes, but so does inaction, and in this case our inaction speaks volumes. It has already become clear that a major element within the Democrat coalition supports Hamas and can be placated only by kowtowing to the anti-Semites of the left. Keeping this faction on-side has already emerged as a political priority for the administration, even as it continues to utter words of support for Israel in the ongoing crisis. And, all the while, China watches, encouraged by our weakness of will. (READ MORE: ‘Holocaust Envy’ and the New Anti-Semitism)

To be sure, we’ve seen some scattered victories this past year, and some have even seen in this a turning of the tide. Having Roe overturned was monumental, even though Republican politicians have been notably clumsy in translating the opportunity created into effective action against the abortion juggernaut. Parents across the country have begun to stand up against the woke excesses of their public school systems, even in the face of relentless mischaracterization in the mainstream media. The deployment of the FBI against parents and against traditionalist Catholics encountered a furious response, and occasioned much waffling and embarrassed backpedaling by high-level FBI bureaucrats. The Supreme Court ruled, monumentally, against affirmative action in college admissions. Some state legislatures have started to choke off funding for DEI indoctrination programs in their universities.

These are all good things, but, at best, they only mark a beginning. The abortion industry has deployed its massive resources against reasonable regulation wherever it has been proposed, working with their allies in the media to promote propagandistic “big lies.” Sadly, these scare tactics have worked, even in otherwise conservative states. Parents still must fight an uphill, lonely fight against the woke agendas firmly ensconced in the education system. Those Catholics who adhere to the long-established teachings of the Church may have enjoyed some success against the FBI, but have an even greater battle to fight against hierarchy dominated by so-called “progressives,” up to and very much including the Pope himself — and the situation in the mainstream Protestant churches may be even worse. And university administrators have already made it clear that needed reform will be met with either evasion or outright defiance.

The battles, then, will continue, and the outcome, in most cases, is very much in doubt. All of this, then, would make for tough sledding in the year ahead. But what really fuels my pessimism is the coming presidential election. The first election I actively followed was in 1964, and the first I voted in was 1968. The 1968 election has long been regarded as the ugliest in the modern era, but I suspect that 2024 will make it seem merely a walk in the park. It’s obvious that if Donald Trump is the Republican candidate, as seems overwhelmingly likely, then the campaign will be accompanied by “mostly peaceful protests,” at every stop along the way. But this would also be the result with a DeSantis or a Haley, or any other conceivable candidate, and they would be greeted with nothing but unreasoned hostility. The Republican Party could nominate Santa Claus and then watch as the reindeer were attacked by rioters.

The year 2024, then, is one in which we should expect the worst. We should expect an incumbent administration that does nothing to address the domestic and global crisis that will undoubtedly arise, for fear of offending one or the other elements in the increasingly fractious Democrat coalition. A year in which that coalition will only find unity by stoking hatred for the Republican candidate, regardless of who that might be. A year in which good people will fight an uphill and often lonely struggle against the entrenched forces of the left, winning some battles, losing others, rewarded only by more battles to fight, more suffering to endure. (READ MORE: There Is No ‘Moral Equivalence’ Now)

Gloomy? You bet, and I think with good reason. A world in flames and so, too, our cities, is nothing to look forward to. Where, then, to find the strength to carry on, to fight the good fight, for fight we surely must. Look around you as the holiday season winds down. Look at your wives and husbands, parents and grandparents, children and grandchildren. Find courage from looking at the older generation, knowing that they, too, have endured and overcome. Find resolution in looking at the younger generation, knowing that they deserve your best efforts if they are to enjoy the bright future they deserve. Look to your friends, to your fellow parents and churchgoers. Remind yourselves, and each other, that we’re all in this together, and that, together represents our only hope to prevail.

God bless you all, and Happy New Year!

James H. McGee retired in 2018 after nearly four decades as a national security and counter-terrorism professional, working primarily in the nuclear security field. His doctoral dissertation on the early history of the Gestapo can be accessed online by searching “James H. McGee, III” and “The Political Police in Bavaria, 1919-1936.” Since retiring, he’s begun a second career as a thriller writer. His 2022 novel, Letter of Reprisal, tells the tale of a desperate mission to destroy a Chinese bioweapon facility hidden in the heart of the central African conflict region. You can find it on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback editions, and on Kindle Unlimited.