With Baby New Year hours from entering the world and Father Time pacing anxiously in the waiting room, mind if I take take a few minutes and look at a couple random items that made 2018 irritating, inspirational and amusing?

Immigration Debacle

First off, I have to thank the Democrats for insisting so contentiously on open borders. It’s done wonders for our book sales. When John Zmirak and I turned in the manuscript for The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration in November 2017, an outline for a comprehensive immigration deal was in place. “Great for the country,” I remember thinking, “But our book will be as out-of-date as The Redskins Guide to Winning Super Bowls.” Alas, Democrats decided they wanted the issue and George Soros’s blessing more than they wanted a solution. Heck, solutions they themselves offered in earlier years.

And so, the issue remains messier than the Jersey Turnpike in an ice storm.

My 2019 wish: Democrats will be honest about the fact that a) They want to deny “The Wall” simply because it would give Trump a victory and/or b) They really no longer believe in American sovereignty. That a protected border is, by definition, immoral. Be straight up about it. If you wanna play games, make it Parcheesi.

My second 2019 wish: We can better get the message out: America is a welcoming land. We do have gates and beyond the gates lies the American Dream. All we ask is you stay on the path. It’s safer for everyone involved.

Trump the Terrible

I get why some people don’t want to give Trump their vote, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why so many of them turn around and give Trump their happiness. You see the sourpusses, you probably interact with them on Twitter. “How can I smile when Donald Trump is in the White House?” “How can I sit in a restaurant with someone who voted for Trump?” “How can I still be friends with someone I’ve known since childhood if they don’t think Trump is Satan incarnate?”

Watch CNN with the sound off for five minutes. Does anybody look happy? Is anybody more aptly named than Don Lemon? These people make Chicken Little look like Dale Carnegie. Gloom and doom? They make goth rockers look like the Partridge Family. You know why CNN’s ratings stink? Well, sure, their programming is stale. And sure, you’re going to lose viewers when you smugly insist half the public is racist, homophobic, xenophobic and dumb as rocks. But you’ll lose the other half when you’re always depressed and hysterical.

It’s a creepy negativity. That’s great, for something like American Horror Story. But for 24/7 news? It just ain’t healthy.

Then there’s MSNBC’s Morning Joe lovebirds, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. They’re newlyweds. And yet I’ve seen more festive duos on Divorce Court. They look like the couples at the beginning of Hallmark Christmas movies. And Joe and Mika used to party with Trump.

But Look at Rachel Maddow

Not every figure on those networks is a Debbie Downer. Look at MSNBC’s chipper Rachel Maddow. Sure, she’s progressive. Sure, she’s no fan of Trump. Sure, she wants his tax returns the way Ralphie wants a Red Ryder Range Model Air Rifle BB Gun. But those are her political beliefs. Those aren’t her being. She is not basing her mood, her happiness, on whatever Trump may be up to on a given day.

Look at CNN’s Van Jones. Like Trump with The Apprentice, prime time TV is just a pastime for Jones. In his “day job” he has been working with Trump to get stuff done for the American people. Jones is in on the secret: “Work with Trump and you get a lot of what you’re looking for. Fight him and misery follows.” And pity the person who wants to be miserable.

My wish for 2019: Liberals will follow Jones’ lead. Stop seeing Trump as an enemy and the source of all sorrow. You say you want no part of Trump yet you give him power over your mood, your friendships and your family relationships. Resolve to recognize the folly of this.

My second wish for 2019: Trump officials and supporters can eat in peace. And people can wear a MAGA hat without sending strangers into apoplectic fits of fury. (Your year is not complete until you see the video of a vape store clerk going bonkers over a customer in a MAGA hat. He’s acting like a termite in those old ads spotting a can of Raid.)

Where We Go One We Go All

Here it is, the dawn of 2019, and I am still not sure whether the QAnon phenomenon is legit or an elaborate lark. (Check here for The Stream‘s look at QAnon.)

Is Q the work of top officials close to Trump, laying out his moves and countermoves against the Deep State, corrupt politicians and conniving globalists? Will we see, as Q followers believe, an earth-shaking set of arrests and prosecutions of major American figures for crimes ranging from treason to human trafficking? I do not know.

However, Q is my most fascinating happening of 2018: QAnon’s urging of citizens to dig deep to understand for themselves the games of those who aim to lord over “We, the People.” To reclaim, as the Declaration insists, that power divinely derives from the consent of the governed, not the whims of an elite few. To recognize the fundamental American truth of “One nation, under God, indivisible” — or as QAnon puts it, “Where We Go One, We Go All.”

Because regardless of all the rancor and divisions, dissents and dire predictions, that must be our approach as the chime strikes midnight and we leap into the new year. Every one of us is jumping from 2018 to 2019. Every one of us is facing unknown challenges and opportunities, blessings and disappointments when we get there. Every last one of us.

My final wish for 2019: We will truly understand we’re in this thing together. And “Where We Go One We Go All.”

All blessings for a glorious New Year.