Is the world better off than it was three years ago?
The answer is an obvious “yes” because of one great truth: The world has much greater clarity about the actors within it than it did on Oct. 6, 2023.
“Clarity before agreement!” was the admonition used often by my longtime broadcast colleague Dennis Prager.
This was Dennis’s formula for getting any individual or audience to focus first on facts and not on dispute. Once a fact set, however small or large, is agreed to, discussion has a firm foundation upon which to proceed.
Three years ago, the world had, by and large, dismissed the threat of radical Islamist terrorism. The barbarity of Oct. 7, 2023, made the world aware again that the evil unveiled in full on Sept. 11, 2001, was still a force in the world. Approximately 6,000 Gazans invaded Israel that day and went on a killing and raping spree that very few people imagined could happen after 9/11’s lessons had been absorbed and defenses were constructed against wild-eyed fanaticism.
But we saw and heard what Hamas did. And in the three years since, we have seen what the Islamic Republic of Iran is capable of and what it will do to achieve its feverish dreams. The regime in Tehran — before the first shot was fired in Operation Epic Fury — killed tens of thousands of its own citizens. Iran’s proxies also opened fire on Israel, the United States, and our allies in the Gulf from every direction. If anyone had any doubt about the nature of the Khomeiniest vision for the future, that doubt is gone — even if for political reasons they won’t admit it.
The world had reached a consensus on Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin, before Oct. 7 because he had ordered the second invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The long years of butchery and terrorist attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure since then have, however, provided bright-as-summer-sunshine-clarity about the willingness of Putin to sacrifice everything for his twisted plans.
We also have clarity about the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping. He continues to lock dissident Jimmy Lai away in solitary confinement despite repeated attempts by President Donald Trump to persuade the Chinese tyrant to let this one man go into exile before he dies. Xi could have easily chosen a path that would allow useful idiots in the West to think there was a shred of common decency in the man. But we now know there just isn’t. He and the party he leads are Marxist-Leninist true believers.
That bit of clarity provides even more illumination when it comes to the debate over artificial intelligence/“super intelligence,” or whatever you want to call the world we are entering. Even occasional readers of news know that AI threatens to become the skeleton key to every computer system in the world. We have crystal-clear clarity about how powerful AI has become and how it will continue to develop new and potentially society-crippling applications.
That is why clarity about Xi and the CCP leads to clarity about AI: America cannot settle for the silver medal in this race for ever stronger models because we cannot accept dominance by Xi and the CCP he leads.
Finally, we have clarity about the major parties in the U.S. At this juncture in 2026, we know that Democrats have gone over the left edge of the political map and have plunged into an abyss of radical and indeed insane ideas.
Three years ago, we had no idea that an American border could purposefully be left open for all the world to cross. We had no idea that every part of our justice system was infected with a virulent antipathy to half of America and that no rules would apply to prosecutions of political enemies if those prosecutions were thought to be effective in providing a political advantage to the Democrats.
Three years ago, we had no idea that Democrats could actually nominate radicals for the U.S. Senate, including Abdul el Sayed in Michigan, James Talarico in Texas, Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, and Troy Jackson in Maine. We know as well that every deep blue congressional district is targeted by the Marxist antisemites in the Democratic Socialists of America. We now grasp how far to the left the Democrats have lurched.
RESTORING AMERICA: OCT. 7 IS AMONG HISTORY’S GREATEST MILITARY BLUNDERS
Three years ago, we did not know how deeply and pervasively American “higher education” had been infected by the ancient evil of antisemitism. We know now. We also know that public education in America has face-planted in its ability to produce widespread literacy and numeracy.
All of these things and many more are clear now, three years after the horror of Oct. 7. What we have learned doesn’t mean the trajectory of the country has changed. But there is a much better chance that it will when we make a list like this one and vote accordingly.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
