I’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year.

And while I can wish it, I’ve got to admit I’m not all that optimistic it will be.

They are going to say that 2026 is the 250th anniversary of America. And on paper, I guess that’s true. But to my way of thinking, 2026 is really the second anniversary of the new America. The country we live in now is not what we had just a year ago. This is not the more perfect union our founding fathers envisioned.

Perhaps nothing capsulizes it more than CBS killing the story about the immigrants who came to this country seeking asylum, being sent to CECOT, a concentration camp in El Salvador.

And while CBS tried to block Americans from seeing it, it aired in Canada, and now there are bootlegged copies of the report all over the internet. CBS hasn’t been able to take them all down. So if you haven’t seen it, search YouTube or other sources and check it out.

I never thought I’d see the day Americans had to get information about our government from other countries.

We used to have the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe to get news into communist countries. Countries that had government-controlled media. Are we going to have to get our news from the Voice of Canada now? Will Radio Free England get us the truth?

They called CECOT a prison. If you saw the 60 Minutes story, you know it is more of a concentration camp than a prison. A concentration camp where many of those who are detained did nothing more than enter our country without the proper paperwork.

James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were the architects of the First Amendment. They knew that in order for a democracy to work, a free and fair press was vital to the checks and balances they put in the Constitution. They knew that you had to be able to speak truth to power without fear or retribution to make things work.

There was a time when the publishers of newspapers and the owners of TV networks weren’t afraid to speak truth to power. But that was before these companies got swallowed up by billionaires who wanted a good table when they visit Mar-a-Lago.

The Founding Fathers knew that what they established all those years ago was fragile. As he was leaving the Constitutional Convention on June 21, 1788, it’s reported that someone asked Benjamin Franklin what they had come up with.

He stated, “A Republic if you can keep it.” I fear history will show that 2025 was the year the Republic started slipping away.

I have no doubt that next year we’ll see plenty of patriotic images of the country. But what good is an image of the Statue of Liberty, if our policies are sending immigrants away to foreign prisons without due process?

Will they use stock footage of spacious skies and purple mountains majesties, or more recent images of our environmental laws being gutted, putting pollutants in the air and chemicals in our water?

Will the videos show amber waves of grain in our fruited plains, or distraught farmers unable to sell their crops due to the current tariff policies?

When they talk about our Constitution, will they mention all the amendments or just the second one?

I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer and rain on the patriotic parade that we’re about to see next year, but I must wonder how George Washington would feel today if he saw masked ICE agents rounding up people and hauling them off. How would Thomas Jefferson feel about the attacks on the free press from the Oval Office? James Madison was president when Britain tried to burn down the White House. Would he approve of the current destruction that is coming from within?

Next year will be the year that America loses it all, or we begin to get back on track.

Will more Republican Congressmen and Senators stand up to the President, or will they just leave office quietly and collect their pension? Will there be enough votes for the Democrats to take control of the House and maybe the Senate? And if they are, will the votes be accurately counted, and the winners peacefully sworn in?

If we can stop our government from going down this current chaotic and reckless path, and bring some sanity and normalcy back to Washington, maybe 2026 can be a Happy New Year after all. I certainly hope so.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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