As President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration approaches, people in this country and throughout the rest of the world are celebrating. To those who voted for him (as well as those cheering for him abroad), his victory in the 2024 presidential election signifies a revolution by Americans who have long felt compromised, betrayed and sold out by their own government.

For decades, we have watched in dismay as the institutions upon which our society depends were undermined by leftist ideologies masked by anodyne words like “compassion,” “inclusion” and “dignity.” The result has been utter chaos. And yet Americans realize that the responsibility for that chaos lies not only with those who espoused and promoted those ideologies but also with those who enabled their rise to power via ignorance, apathy, weakness or greed.

That is one of the primary reasons why the coalition Trump was able to assemble in his march to victory was so diverse and unprecedented.

In truth, none of it should have been surprising. More than anything else, what a significant majority of Americans are demanding is a return to the common-sense standards that formed the backbone of this country; standards which have been deliberately attacked and allowed to be eroded for decades.

Americans are demanding a return to standards in our military, including recruiting the very best, the elimination of “woke” nonsense (like announcing that the biggest threat to national security is “white supremacy”), training that emphasizes preparedness for battles, and strict requirements of a threat to legitimate U.S. interests prior to the involvement of our armed forces anywhere.

We are demanding a return to standards in our educational systems. Violence is practically a daily occurrence. New Jersey just announced that it is joining the state of New York in eliminating basic literacy and math competency requirements for K-12 teachers. This follows Oregon’s announcement that it was eliminating proof of mastery in reading, writing and math to graduate from high school in that state. A comprehensive list of policies like these would fill a large book. The reason these standards are being eliminated is because so many candidates cannot meet them. That is an indictment of both our schools and the colleges allegedly preparing teachers to instruct our children there.

Americans are demanding the enforcement of our constitutional rights of free speech, the end of government-corporate-media censorship cabals, and a truly independent press that sees itself as something other than justified liars and paid mouthpieces for corruptocrats and discredited ideologies.

We are demanding a return to standards in law enforcement and criminal justice, including policies ensuring election integrity, enforcement of our immigration laws, the protection of individuals and businesses from trespassing, theft and vandalism, the prosecution and punishment of criminals, and an end to political persecution of pro-life grandmothers, concerned parents, evangelical Christians, Latin Mass Catholics, the Amish and kindhearted individuals who rescue orphaned squirrels and raccoons.

Americans are demanding a return to standards in the practice of medicine and other health professions, including and especially the pharmaceutical industry. The government’s role should be to ensure safety, accuracy, transparency and accountability, instead of mandating the use of untested products or medical procedures and looking for opportunities for “insider trading” investments and lobbying kickbacks.

Many — perhaps most — of the individual and government standards we are clamoring to restore derive from this country’s Judeo-Christian heritage — the source of the values and principles the nation’s foundational documents expressly acknowledge. Christians — as well as others who simply appreciate the quality of life provided by those values and principles — are tired of being forced to hide or apologize for their beliefs.

They are even more fed up with having those principles co-opted under the guise of “compassion” or “inclusion” to implement policies that are completely antithetical to Christianity, human nature, science, ordered liberty or civilized society; policies like allowing males in women’s prisons, locker rooms, bathrooms and sports teams; chemically castrating and surgically mutilating children who have been led to believe they were “born in the wrong bodies”; allowing the mentally ill and addicted to subsist in public streets, creating health and safety hazards for the homeless as well as the general public; and the toleration of violence and theft to remediate “systemic racism” or “the patriarchy.”

Watching the international news, it’s clear that similar revolutions are brewing elsewhere. In England, for example, the country is enraged about the government’s soft treatment of rape gangs in multiple cities that preyed on thousands of young British girls. The rapists were almost exclusively Muslim men, and evidence (including vicfims’ accounts and the testimony of their families) has exposed the ugly truth that the government was more afraid of being called “racist” than they were concerned about protecting vulnerable girls from sexual violence and exploitation.

The “grooming gangs” scandal in England (as well as the other social upheaval caused by unfettered immigration without assimilation throughout Europe) is proof of what happens when a warped definition of “diversity” takes precedence over the Christianity upon which western civilization was founded.

Back here in the States, it’s equally clear that we can no longer trust our societal institutions — schools, law enforcement, government, the medical profession, the media — to police themselves or hold themselves accountable. No, we must do that — with our votes and our voices and our hard-earned money.

This means holding government officials — local, state and federal — accountable. It means withdrawing our financial support from private businesses that operate in a manner inconsistent with our principles, refusing to patronize or invest in them. That goes double for our colleges and universities; faculty that promote pernicious and societally destructive ideologies may have tenure, but that will mean little if their pet programs aren’t funded or enrollment at their schools drops off a cliff.

An anonymous statement often (and, apparently, incorrectly) attributed to Thomas Jefferson is: “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” Regardless of who originally said it, it is true. If 2025 is to signify a return to standards, We the People must be the ones who ensure it.

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Laura Hollis is a nationally syndicated columnist.