Texas — rolling green hills awash with poppies and bluebonnets, lowing cows, and thousands of acres of farmland punctuated by four of America’s largest metroplexes — has never been more beautiful. In all my years here, the rain that has come in this spring has made an often drought-plagued place look more pastoral and verdant than ever before. Texas has been described as a distillation of America — her independence, ruggedness, cowboys, resources, and grit set the world’s imagination on fire. She is all those things, and people are right to envy what is here.
This article is from The American Spectator’s summer 2026 print magazine. Subscribe to The American Spectator to receive the magazine.
As I crested the landscape and passed over the Colorado River, only to see a more glorious vista bursting with trees, I imagined the hard work of the farmers and ranchers who make this place productive and magnificent. I could only think that the people here who have received God’s blessings and made something more do not deserve the leadership they’re receiving. Texas is indeed a microcosm of America.
On this trip, I stopped at Buc-ee’s, the quintessentially American rest stop. If you want sparkling bathrooms, brisket, fudge, deer stands, smokers, branded spatulas, and every kind of snack, you’re in the right place. Gas was $4.29 for regular unleaded. In Texas.
Subscribe to The American Spectator to receive our summer 2026 print magazine.
Farmers are already struggling to get enough fertilizer to nourish their crops. Thousands of cars from the past three years are sitting in car lots, unsold. A new law now monitors drivers and will decide if they are worthy of driving. Flock cameras surveil everyone, everywhere, all the time — instances of cops perving on children at a gymnastics center and a playground via cameras have recently come out.
And America is at war with Iran. No explanation has been given outside of vague proclamations that Iran killed 32,000 of its own people. The United States has made draft registration for men ages 18–25 automatic. Germany won’t even allow its young men, if you consider men up until the age of 45 young, out of the country for more than three months without permission. American troops are being called up and prepared. For what? A ground invasion of Iran?
Meanwhile, deportations have nearly halted and, as of this writing, President Trump is discussing naturalizing the remaining illegal immigrants.
Is this what Americans voted for? Because what they’ve been given is gas at $4.53 a gallon (the national average at this writing), another endless war in the Middle East, more inflation, and universal surveillance.
Still, many of our writers, Jeffrey Lord in particular, are optimistic about the direction the nation is heading under President Donald Trump’s leadership. They’re excited for the midterms. Others are more pessimistic, like Scott McKay, who blames Oprah for the cultural state of America at 250 years. This magazine contains the gamut.
Our front cover makes a nod to the Roman Empire. In Rome, the institutions rotted from the inside. Whether it’s our corporate leadership (citizens-of-the-world types uninterested in the well-being of their fellow citizens), educational institutions (filling our children with woke, communist slop), media institutions (facile propagandists), or on and on, America’s innards are rotten.
Trump’s infectious enthusiasm has been bogged down by groups interested in maintaining the status quo by waiting him out. And they’re exceedingly effective. America’s congressional leadership seems inclined to wait, too. It’s pathetic.
Will the corruption in voter rolls, mail-in ballots, and the rest be solved by John Thune? Doubtful. Will Gavin Newsom bring his brand of losing from California to Washington? That’s a definite possibility. California resident Jon Fleischman writes about how that would look.
Next to this piece, you’ll see a satire of Bart Simpson. If you’re culturally hip, you know that The Simpsons has predicted an alarming number of world events — from pandemics to Trump’s trip down the escalator. Most recently, they predicted the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. There has been talk that time travel is a real thing and the writers have hidden knowledge. I don’t know about all of that, but one thing that is known is that if the tinfoil-hat alarmists are correct, getting right with God is always a wise move.
Art by Yogi Love
Then there’s the specter of Jeffrey Epstein. The Iran war booted that story off the front pages — that and the fact that Epstein’s favorite people were Democrat college professors, politicians, and movie stars. But his story reveals a deeply unsettling truth: world leaders, including American leaders, are likely blackmailed, and a few key people pull the strings, and they are not the voters. How does one trust elected leaders, or in the case of Saudi Arabia and Britain, princes, who have been compromised by underage sex, sex trafficking, and, if the stories are to be believed, worse?
How is it that Les Wexner, Bill Gates, and Ellen DeGeneres are still regarded as decent people? Guilt by association is verboten. What about birds of a feather?
Sleuths are still digging through the Epstein files and finding disgusting information. Will anyone pay? Or is this just the way the world is? If you are rich and powerful enough, you can hunt children for sport and eat “jerky” (inferred to be the meat of human children) and never pay the price. You can blackmail leaders and manipulate outcomes, and voters are never the wiser.
Finding justice with the Epstein files is nigh to impossible, but finding you — tracked in your self-driving surveillance vehicle and with every penny you spend accounted for — is easy.
The American people are an optimistic, trusting sort, but they have their limits. At 250 years, America is at a turning point. What will the future look like? The prediction? Cloudy. Undetermined. But like R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., I have hope that Americans will fight for and keep their freedom.
Subscribe to The American Spectator to receive our summer 2026 print magazine.
