Do You Really Love Your Country?

By John Kass

Wednesday Nov. 6, 2024

In a close election as this 2024 presidential election between former President Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, I’d undergo a crazy unnecessary ritual.

I’d write three columns on deadline for “the paper” I once loved.

One of the day-after election columns was that my favored candidate would win, another if that candidate would lose, and a third if was just too close to call.

But screw that. That’s crazy.

I’m going to meet some friends for drinks, maybe something to eat, and watch the Tuesday night election coverage like a real American human being.

I’m too old to write three on deadline. I’ve already given a lot at the office. Too much.

My ritual this election evening involves olives.

Jalapeno and anchovy olives, shaken not stirred, on the rocks.

Perhaps you’d like rum and cokes or a good highball like our family’s old Peoria Street Highballs:

Whiskey, ginger ale, and maraschino cherries. Hell, I’ll even have an old lady eggnog if Trump wins.

But what if things don’t go my way? What if Trump doesn’t win?

I’ll call all the old white guys I know, and we’ll head to downtown Chicago, put on hoodies and riot, looting large TV sets and smash mob the jewelry stores to make us feel better.

We’d scream that America sucks just like the Democrat Bolsheviks did during the summer of love in 2020 when cities burned, and the lefties of legacy media insisted it was all just “fiery but mostly peaceful protests.”

But I really don’t know if riots and violence are such a good idea. Probably not. And unless you’re a prominent Democrat, public thieving is against the law.

Besides, I’m sure that the Soros prosecutors would love to keep me in jail, so I’d get my brains beat out.

I’ve got a different idea that involves healing.

Because we need it.

After Tuesday’s elections there will be some “healing talk.” But I also remember that Joe Biden stood before that blood-red wall denouncing half of America as potential terrorists,” and just called us “garbage.”

So, in this stressful time, I turn to a man long dead. A great talent, a cultured and most civilized man who won great world-wide fame portraying a common vicious criminal who taught other gangsters how to behave from the giant silver screen:

Edward G Robinson.

After close, contested, and contentious elections I’d call on Robinson to speak the words of gangster thug Johnny Rocco from “Key Largo.”

He was invaluable in the matter of the hanging chads.

He’s a political expert, see? With roots along the Chicago Way but wise in the way of Florida vote recounts too, see?

“I take a nobody, see? Teach ’em what to say, get his name in the papers,” Rocco says while getting a straight razor shave down in Key Largo. “Yeah, pay for his campaign expenses. Dish out a lot of groceries, and coal, get my boys to bring the voters out, and then count the votes over and over until they added up right and he was elected … yeah.”

But not this day.

Today I’m thinking of a different kind of story. Robinson read it aloud without the “sees” and the urban nasal snarling.

He read it perfectly, reverently, speaking perfect English and I link to it here

It is the classic short story “A Man Without a Country.”

When I was a boy, that story simply terrified me. It still does.

A young man who stupidly denounced America after being naively caught up in the treasonous schemes of Aaron Burr was sentenced to a life of never hearing about America again.

Not one word. Not one scrap of news. He was well treated. He was fed. But his stupid youngling’s wish to never hear about America was granted.

In the fictional story written by Edward Everett Hale, first published in December 1863.

Note that the United States was being ripped apart by Civil War—not by some Jim Acosta Rachel Maddow fantasy but the real thing–when the story was published.

Soldiers were being slaughtered. The hogs were eating them even as they died at night.

Not even rats, and there were many in our neighborhood given our proximity to the Union Stockyards, were as terrifying as the sentence imposed:

Living a polite life at sea, unable to ever hear his country’s name or news of her.

It would have devastated me. Our immigrant family loved being Americans. We loved the promise of America, our parents and our entire family loved America, where every child could grow up to be president.

And to be cut off from that—as was Lt. Phillip Nolan in the story—was worse than being marooned alone.

But my election anxieties or yours will not change a thing now.

“Honestly, people have already made up their minds,” said Tom Bevan, co-founder, and president of Real Clear Politics on the current Chicago Way podcast. Hope you listen and give us a great review. Make it a good one and Jeff Carlin and I will forever be in your debt. Make it a bad one, and well, the Chicago Way is not a one-way street.

“If you’re Kamala Harris supporter you were voting for her no matter what and if you’re a Trump supporter you were voting for him no matter what. The cake is usually baked on perceptions of the campaign and the economy months before the vote takes place,” said Bevan.

This one could take some time. Or be decided in a snap.

My brother Nicholas, whose opinion I value above all others says it like this:

So many wounds have been inflicted on America, from fake charges of treason and Hitlerism to leftist efforts encouraging a military putsch, as media and Deep State rats simper, manipulate and maneuver without honor, to protect their post-retirement and other perks.

And on this Election Night, first I’m going to fall to my knees and say a prayer to God for my country, a Kyrie Eleison for America, a “Lord, have mercy” for the United States.

But I’m also going to have that drink or three. I just hope the bartender has good olives to go with the salty leftist tears.

Let’s see what happens.

“Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle dandy! Mind the music and the step, and with the girls be handy!”

-30-

About the author: John Kass spent decades as a political writer and news columnist in Chicago working at a major metropolitan newspaper. He is co-host of The Chicago Way podcast. And he just loves his “No Chumbolone” hat, because johnkassnews.com is a “No Chumbolone” Zone where you can always get a cup of common sense.

Comments 74

  1. WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank God, now the hard part begins. I have to say, it’ll be a pleasure to watch the Left collapse into near suicidal tantrums. May they and the party of treason be sent into the throes of hell where they now belong.

    1. In the 70s I worked at Eastman Kodak in Oak Brook. Kodak was behind the movie A Man Without A Country, starting Beau Bridges.
      It was an excellent production that everyone should see. Not sure how to do that though?

    1. He does. He taught us a valuable lesson. And for today, we need to light all the votive candles in the rack, sing His praises in thanksgiving, then get some of those olives with blue cheese for our Tito’s (I can’t stand gin, even that Bombay Sapphire stuff the late hubz used to stock). It’s that, or the finest cab the US has to offer.

      Tomorrow, it’s back to MAGAing. The enemy is still there.

  5. Apparently the Vice President is going to try to speak later today. Predicted gist of her remarks:

    “An election can be a setback, but the children who are America’s future must not be set back but instead move progressively forward. For despite a step backward toward fascism today, those children and their future children must be told that they will one day progress forward again, not be set back again. Tomorrow America will never set back its children for good. (hysterical laughter)”

      1. Yeah good point. Two women candidates, two losses. But that has nothing to do with women. We have so many women in line now for the Executive on our side, its unfair

  6. The real loser in this election is the corporate media hydra. It cannot go bankrupt fast enough. The odious Jake Tapper acting surprised that the appointed one underperformed in every county in America was such a tell. There were so many others.

    This was a win for the regular folks. The ‘garbage’ and the ‘fascists’, according to the leftist acolytes.

    The bureaucrats and partisans at the alphabet agencies are, no doubt, even more mobilized than eight years ago, when they treasonously conspired on behalf of the Democrats. With notorious liar and traitor Adam Schiff now rewarded with a Senate seat, we can expect another attempted coup.

    1. So Schiff will be a Senator…guess it’s good to keep a reminder of what evil looks like around to remind us of what has just been defeated, at great expense to our nation.

      1. I have been predicting that development for several
        Weeks. She gets to be the first female president (sorry Hillary) and really be in the history books. Rather than the footnote also ran she deserves.

        1. Plus, Trump would have to re-do all that “47” swag. Of course, that means the “47” swag would immediately become collectors’ items – sort of like getting your hands on a losing team’s “Super Bowl Champs” hat or shirt…

  10. Trump has beat the odds, won the election and won the popular vote. It seems many Americans now understand the threat of the Deep or Administrative State and its corrupt legacy media. I voted for Trump in 2016 but was generally unaware of the Deep State. Soon after that election, I learned that 7 of the 9 wealthiest counties are in the DC Metro area. Then I really understood the problem, that the country began to resemble the dystopian Hunger Games. DC had become the exactly what the founders did not want, a too powerful centralized government, with its taxes and tentacles having a profound impact on all of our lives.

    No riots. Yet.

  11. Indeed, “Let’s see what happens.” Let’s see if the GOP can effectively use the power delegated to it by the electorate. The Party must remember that though it “won,” it only won the latest battle and there will be another one in two years. There is a LOT of Progressive damage that must be remedied and a lot of normalcy to be reestablished in America. Don’t blow it!

    1. So much needs to be accomplished or “fixed” in the next two years, and I feel confident that Trump et al will get to work on day 1. Seems crazy that the current occupants let our country go to Hell in such a short time, and hopefully things can turn around quickly. Trump needs to be kept safe at all costs. Don’t trust the radical left in the least. I won’t feel comfortable until he is inaugurated and in the White House.

      Thank you Jesus for this victory and continue to protect Donald J Trump!

  12. One more comment. Chicagoland has really gone blue. Chicago has always been blue, but now Lake County, DuPage County, and Will county all voted for Kamala. It wasn’t always thus. The Machine and its pensions pushed out the greedy (sarcasm) capitalists. They’ve moved to Indiana, Florida, or elsewhere.

    1. Blame that on Pat Quinn and Mike Madigan. Quinn led a successful campaign to change the provision in the 1970 state constitution that required each legislative district to have three representatives, with two from one party and one from the other party. That ensured that neither party could have a stranglehold over state government, because if one party (say, the GOP) lost EVERY district, they’d still have a third of the house seats. Quinn said three reps were too expensive, paving the way for his party to become a super-majority. THAT allowed Madigan to redraw the district maps so his party could win in areas that previously were pro-Republican. Look at the district map; it looks like it was drawn by a schizophrenic person. That’s Madigan designing lines to cut the GOP here and move them over there where their votes would be diluted. I hope that asshat goes to prison for the rest of his life, but this being the People’s Republik of Killinois, he’ll get off scot-free.

  13. There is a quiet satisfaction that President Trump got re-elected. Despite all the roadblocks, lawsuits etc…a candidate not only won the popular vote but the electoral vote as well. However, even that won’t deter the Jacobins and Socialists. I am bracing for 4 years of another set of BLM protests, “resist” movement and general idiocy. The very people (progressives) that talk so lofty about saving Democracy will set about to earnestly destroy it even more so; so now is the time to be more vigilant than ever. The damage done in the last four years will take a lot of work to reverse. We must keep the momentum going.

    1. Exactly right John Maier. You can’t trust these people, and why should we after the last 4 years? If I hear one more lie out of these politicians or media, I’m not sure what I will do! I’ve been telling all the Dems around me in DuPage that they are being lied to. They are all so worried about what Trump is going to do. It’s all I can do not to shout out “praise God! We are finally on the path to salvation.”

    2. I agree John. However, the “Swamp” still has to be drained & the “Swamp” will put up resistance. The disgraceful Merrick Garland has to go as soon as possible. Mr. Magoo AKA the slippery Christopher Wray must go too…he is more interested in protecting the “deep state” status quo than fighting crime & rooting out political corruption

  16. To all – let this correct decision settle as many on the other side are very upset. That is a normal reaction when emotion comes into play on decisions. What we need to do now is to get as many out there settled down and work to try to make their lives better.

    When one party hasn’t had an accomplishment to fall back on in 4 years, attacking the opponent with every thing imaginable is the game plan. In the end, two things mattered:
    1. The Economy
    2. Safety for all here in the U.S. and abroad.

    I feel that the group that will be put in will have this at the top of their agenda. Hopefully, we can all take this time to educate the future kids to understand all of this and to keep the baiters who depend on crisis for their living, to depart or change.

    One can only hope.

  17. Great column! We are so JOYFUL that he won. More importantly, Barack Obama has been denied his 4th term. I’d like to be a fly on Barry’s DC office, watching the steam come out of his ears. Ditto demented Joe, who is probably screaming about how he could have beat Trump. Finally, why is Kamala waiting until 6 tonight to concede? What is she and her lawyers cooking up?

  18. I cannot tell you how much I appreciated this column. For very different reasons, however. I loved reading A Man Without A Country in high school. It stimulated my thinking and understanding of what it means to lose your country. Also, I loved Edward G. Robinson. Not as the gangster, but as the father in Our Vines Have Tender Grapes. He had a gentle, understanding side, which is something I hope we all can nurture now. Also, thanks soooooooo much for talking about Highballs. It was my mother’s favorite drink. My most treasured picture of her is with a highball in her hand. Thanks for your contributions, John, in a country that has used “smoke and mirrors” for years now. Clear the air and see the reality. The American people did just that!

  20. I stayed up and waited as the election was called for Trump. As I waited for him to come to the stage, I teared up, crossed myself and prayed, “Thanks be to God.”

    Amen.

  22. Good column John. Thank you God for this good news.

    But the other side is not going away. So our work at keeping America free is not done and never will be.

  23. Yianni,
    Thanks God. DT won handily, in spite of all those “close knit races!” Propaganda by the media tried to sway the voters, but failed miserably, as we all suspected…fortunately. Working class American revolted and told the socialistas to go pound salt and go back to Venezuela or Argentina, or any other “progressive” experiment that went down the tubes! We will not become a second class country!!! We have kept the faith, as you have, and will continue our support of your wisdom and prose! Eis anotera!!!

  24. I am suffering from mixed emotions this morning, happy with the results of the election, but terrified of what this country is going to become if any of these (sic) “famous” people actually leave the USA as they have threatened to do: Robert Deniro, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Michael Moore, Miley Cyrus, George Lopez, Amy Schumer (whoever that is), Cher, Barbra Streisand, etc., etc.

    I am devastated, and am considering starting a “Go Fund Me” page to pay for their Uber rides to the airport. Does anyone want to contribute?

  25. Good Morning America how are you?
    Cue Lee Greenwood music. It is a dawn of a new day. We must be vigilant and vigorous. To preserve protect and really defend the Constitution. Will be interesting to hear what Kackles has to say to the ‘merican people. Thank you God and everyone who prayed fir salvation from this mess. .

  26. I watch the WGN midday news every day, even though they’re as biased as the rest of the media. Today’s “top story” was the election, which they finished by 11:05. I said to my liberal wife, “I bet that story would have been a LOT longer if the results were reversed.” She got mad. LOL

  28. My first X post after hearing we won was a simple:
    “Thank you God. America survives. That is all.”
    And yes, I thought of you suffering away in a hotel with only MSNBC. But considering the outcome watching all those fools meltdown on live television must have been sweet!

  30. FYI, the expected Antifa/BLM rioting in Seattle/Portland is now being called “First Amendment Events”.
    So. I suppose that means that “Insurrection” is no longer a thing. Funny the timing of that, eh?

  31. Martini! Great idea. Mine stirred, never shaken – I don’t want to bruise the gin. Up. And I use an atomizer for my Vermouth. I will pass my father’s bottle of Vermouth down to my sons 🙂

  32. The irony for me was the Democrats talking about “democracy dies in darkness” while they actively sought to destroy the foundations of our democracy: namely their attacks upon the Supreme Court thereby undermining our foundational structure of “separation of powers” and “checks and balances”. With that said two justices are likely to retire within the next four years: Justice Alito and Justice Thomas. If Harris had won, her nominees no doubt would have been far left leaning judges thereby turning a conservative 6 – 3 majority into a liberal 5 – 4 majority. Now with Trump as POTUS, that will not happen. And this says nothing about the possibility – if Harris won and the Democrats captured both houses of Congress – of a packed Court; which is now thankfully moot.

  33. The time for healing is now….. Just kidding. This Nazi fascist piece of garbage would instead prefer to bathe in the salty tears of leftist progressive democrats and their ilk to wash away the stank of the cackling communist Kamala. I finally feel unburdened by what has been. What a glorious night. The time for us to do what we’ve been doing is now, and that time is everyday. Thanks for always putting up the good, honest, common sense fight John.

    1. Daniel: Well the fact that his “‘white liberal suburban woman” did not deliver as he promised (“you can put it on the board …yes”) and now rather than the Orange Man being “put out to pasture” he now has to address the Orange Man as Mr. President … so yeah, a “well being” check would be highly appropriate.

  36. John, as I think further about all that has happened in these last 100 days, there are some things that I seem pretty obvious….things that became more obvious as the results started rolling in yesterday.

    It seems like about everyone understands that there was a “someone” (or several “someones”) who orchestrated the process of moving Biden off of center stage. It had obviously been in the works for a long time. The play they had to consider first? When to do it? If they pushed him out too soon, there would have definitely have to be a primary of one sort or another, and especially on a tight time frame that would have been a bit too difficult to control, and particulary the outcome. The ‘behind the curtain’ folks would have had to be more visible to a degree they likely weren’t comfortable with.

    As the process was advancing toward a time of inevitability one way or the other, Kamala was being neatly boxed in by those who clearly understood that she doesn’t have the credentials nor the skills to actually run a good race of any length. But, she was useful to them, if in no other way than to continue the line that “Joe is fine!” and “Joe runs rings around his staff!” and “Joe is totally competent!” and all the other drivel that Kamala and the others belched out to anyone who would dare ask. After all, she was with him every day, in the Situation Room, making decisions, etc.

    When Joe’s performance in the debate with Trump blew up in their faces, they knew they had to move, and on a schedule they hadn’t exactly planned for. They would have liked any one of a number of other candidates, but the question loomed: What to do with Kamala and all of her attributes that positioned her as a magnificent roadblock? How do they move her aside so that the “new person” can be launched, and quickly?

    This is where her beloved “Dougie” enters the picture. He’s been portrayed through this whole process as just this rather benign, smiling guy who follows her around, kind of a look of docile detachment about him. I’m not buying it.

    Consider Mr. Emhoff’s background: He was Managing Director of Venable. Largest law firm in Maryland (850 professionals). Then he moved to the storied DLA Piper (80 offices in 40 countries around the world) as a full partner. Their annual revenue $3.68Billion, and yes, a major donor to the campaigns of Barack Obama. Mr. Emhoff’s specialties: Media, Entertainment, and Intellectual Property. Are we all going to sit here and pretend he would just let his wife get forced into a smaller and smaller political box?? Yeah, I don’t think so.

    The public statements being made were all pretty much acknowledging that “someone” has to replace Joe as a candidate, but the general consensus was ‘not her’….but things started moving fast. Those who thought they held all of the cards and could just oomph Joe out the back door failed to remember what he said; you know, that part about not “F-ing” with a Biden? Hardly likely that Joe signed that Sunday morning letter of resignation from the campaign (have you seen the signature compared to a known one of his?) Those players forgot that Joe knows as much about them as they know about him!! Joe immediately announced that Kamala was the ‘perfect and logical’ replacement for him on the ticket….which was his perfect end-run around those pulling the strings and wielding the knife. They couldn’t say “no” and they knew they couldn’t dump her for someone else after the sitting President so publicly endorsed her as the replacement candidate.

    In the background? Mr. Emhoff, negotiating the various outcomes for his wife. Surely there was some contingency in place to “compensate” the Vice President willing to put herself out in public like that, with literally no preparation and no time for any. “OK, if this doesn’t work out, what’s in it for her?” Her goal all along has been to be the First Female President, the First Black Female President, the First Indian Female President…the first, the first, the first……and so what’s the deal Dougie made? Even if she doesn’t win the election, she can be catapulted from a smudge on the page of history all the way up to those lofty historic spots – – – – no one says it has to be for a full term!

    Chances are far better than 50/50 (which Dougie would have engineered) that she will still be the 47th President of the United States, with all of those historic asterisks behind her name – IF ONLY FOR A MONTH OR SO! Doesn’t matter!!!! There are two months and two weeks before Inauguration Day. Who would like to engage in a small wager that at least part of those 74 days she will spend as President of the United States!

    The fun part? All of the current merch Mr. Trump has out there with the 45 – 47 indicia on it? Collectors’ items!!!! He will then become 45 – 48!!! and it will all just be smooth as butter. Who acted as Joe’s ‘agent’ through all of this? Why, Dr. Jill, of course!

    2. Very nice letter. I said a while back here that Biden would resign and she would run as 47 and as the Incumbent. Perhaps Joe’s ego, and Jill’s, have served the Republic well by not allowing it. But it would not have mattered. Americans have been thru this before, only they were Confederates and Democrats – especially Democrats, languishing in Republican run political death camps, thrown in jail during the election cycle during the Civil War, who refused to sign an agreement admitting guilt, and gaining freedom. From ALL WALKS OF LIFE – they chose prison.

      What I mean is, the spirit of our very young Nation, can survive anything. Because it is universal, and as my ancestors said at the start of it all – Self Evident

  38. Would it be magnanimous (if Pres. Biden doesn’t act first) for Pres. Trump to pardon Hunter Biden for his federal crimes? Pres. Trump also ran on reviewing the convictions of the Jan. 6 rioters (not insurrectionists, in my opinion). I’d like to see him commute the sentences of the those few who did some damage and pardon those whose “crime” was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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