When the Ada County Lincoln Day Association agreed to allow the Ada County GOP to take over future Lincoln Day dinners, many wondered what would come next. Out of that situation came the Syringa Speaker Series, a new forum for right-of-center commentary and networking. Syringa hosted its inaugural dinner last Saturday, and it was a tremendous success, not only turning out hundreds of people but raising money for the Boise Rescue Mission as well.
I am thankful to Syringa for sponsoring the Gem State Chronicle leading up to this event. Nothing I say here is at the behest of Syringa or its board of directors; these are simply my thoughts on the event and the speaker.
Mollie Hemingway is renowned across the nation not only as an astute commentator but also as a dogged investigator of the truth. Her first full-length book, Justice on Trial, explored how Democratic politicians and the leftist media worked together to destroy Brett Kavanaugh’s reputation during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Her second book, Rigged, detailed how lawyers and political figures put their thumbs on the scale of the 2020 election, subverting the will of the American people.
Hemingway reminded us Saturday night of the gauntlet Donald Trump had to brave to get where he is today. It’s easy to forget how vehemently the left fought against the duly elected President of the United States:
- The Russiagate hoax, conjured up in a Hillary Clinton campaign office, ended with one Trump appointee dismissed and facing trial, another recusing himself, and a two-year-long investigation led by a senile figurehead that produced no evidence of collusion. Robert Mueller’s team made sure to release the report after the 2018 midterms, ensuring Democrats would retake the House of Representatives.
- The first impeachment, driven by deep-state bureaucrats furious that Trump was not taking orders from State Department lackeys, ended with the president’s acquittal.
- COVID-19, unleashed from a Chinese lab funded by American tax dollars, brought about a complete shutdown of the economy and turned local bureaucrats into Stasi agents who persecuted citizens for exercising their rights. The pandemic created an excuse to change how the 2020 election was conducted, playing into the hands of Democratic activists who found millions of ballots for Joe Biden.
- A mostly peaceful protest at the Capitol on January 6, far smaller than the riots of the summer of 2020, was turned into a Reichstag Fire moment, allowing more persecution of conservative Americans and prompting an unprecedented second impeachment.
- New York Attorney General Letitia James indicted Trump over a legal financial contract with a bank. New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump for an unspecified crime that even the jury was not fully made aware of. Private citizen Jack Smith was charged by the Justice Department with prosecuting Trump for possessing classified documents — something every president (and many vice presidents, such as Joe Biden) has done for decades. Finally, a New York jury found Trump liable for… denying that he sexually assaulted a woman in a department store several decades ago.
- Perhaps hoping to ensure there was no chance of Trump winning the election, Democrats attempted to remove his name from the ballot in several states. In Colorado, the secretary of state and the state supreme court ordered his name removed, before the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously restored it.
- On July 13, 2024, a lone gunman shot Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. To date, we are still in the dark about the motive of Matthew Crooks, as well as any contacts he might have had prior to the shooting. A few weeks later, Ryan Routh was prepared to take another shot at Trump at a golf course in Florida. Routh apparently had contacts with Ukraine, yet the full story remains shrouded in mystery.
- When it became clear that President Joe Biden was not going to defeat Trump a second time, Democratic Party insiders essentially forced his resignation from the campaign and elevated Vice President Kamala Harris in his place.
Despite all of these things, the American people sent Donald Trump back to the White House in overwhelming fashion. He won all seven swing states and became the first Republican in more than 35 years to win the popular vote.
As Mollie Hemingway laid out this timeline, I felt even more convinced that we live in a special moment in history. Our great-grandchildren will remember what we do today, so it is up to us to fight the good fight.
Hemingway spoke for the better part of an hour, including a fireside chat with Megan Wold and a Q&A session with the audience. As far as I could tell, she used no notes and very few filler words or nervous tics — the likes of which I am still working to eliminate from my own vocabulary. I was impressed.
I was even more impressed by her demeanor. Anyone involved in politics for more than a few years tends to become jaded and cynical. Mollie Hemingway, despite spending a long time in the swamp, the belly of the beast, remained incredibly positive and optimistic. She is also extremely level-headed. When I had a few moments to speak with her, I told her that I saw Rigged as the voice of sanity during the insane times of 2020–21. While leftists assured us that 2020 was the most secure election ever, and some conservatives went down rabbit trails of secret foreign servers and vote-switching algorithms, Hemingway explained in great detail exactly what happened in that infamous election — and what we might do to keep it from happening again.
I asked Hemingway if she might consider a follow-up to Rigged addressing how Republicans fought back after 2020. Her publication, The Federalist, covered the 2024 election in detail, showing how all attempts to fortify another election were stymied. Yet the lesson, she said, is not that election issues go away just because we win. There is still a lot of work to be done, and the other side will continue innovating ways to get the results they want.
Mollie Hemingway was a great choice for the inaugural Syringa Speaker Series dinner. I hope the other attendees left with the same inspiration I felt, and with a renewed desire to continue the fight as happy warriors. Life is too short to allow politics to devour your joy. I’ve seen it happen to too many people already.
Remember why we fight: it’s more than just “owning the libs” or chasing the dopamine rush of social media validation. We fight to defend and protect the society and culture our ancestors bequeathed to us so that we might bequeath it to our posterity.
Thanks again to the Syringa Speaker Series for sponsoring the Gem State Chronicle this month, and congratulations on a fantastic inaugural event. Mark your calendars for Saturday, February 28, 2025, for the next amazing dinner event.
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About Brian Almon
Brian Almon is the Editor of the Gem State Chronicle. He also serves as Chairman of the District 14 Republican Party and is a trustee of the Eagle Public Library Board. He lives with his wife and five children in Eagle.
