An oldie but oldie

 (In which the Blob again strays from the friendly confines of Sportsball World. You know the drill.)

I knew it was December again when I waded into the social media muck Monday, and there was President Donald John "Legbreaker" Trump standing in front of a Christmas tree in the White House. He was declaring victory in the War on Christmas.

OK, so that's not what he actually said. What he actually said was, "We're saying Merry Christmas again!"

This came as something of a surprise to normal humans (and also to me) who were unaware we'd ever stopped saying Merry Christmas. Or that a War on Christmas was being waged right under our noses amid all those public displays of Christmas trees and Christmas wreaths and lighted Nativity scenes, and Christmas carols playing softly over the sound system at your local Malls-R-Us.

Nonetheless, it's with an admirable bullheadedness that those of a certain ideological bent insist there is a War on Christmas in America, and by extension a war on Christianity. This is because somewhere in America someone won't let them put a Nativity scene on the courthouse lawn. Or that somewhere else in America someone is saying "Happy holidays!' at this very moment, recognizing that there are more religious observances this time of year than just Christmas.

This amounts to religious persecution, as far as those folks are concerned. It's the encroachment on American society (going on for years now!) of evil diversity -- even though the founders baked such diversity into our national tradition with a little something called the First Amendment.

It guarantees freedom of religion. It guarantees no particular religion will be instituted as the official religion of the state. It means, yes, Catholics and Protestants and Jews and Muslims and Sikhs and Buddhists have the same access to the same right.

Recognizing that is not persecution, no matter how badly a certain species of Christian wishes it were. And no matter how silly (and tiresome) the overwhelming dominance of Christianity in America renders their imagined War on Christmas.

It's an oldie but oldie, that stuff. Makes you want to ask the Certain Species when it's going to get some new material.

The Certain Species does, however, make up a sizeable chunk of Fearless Leader's base, and he's smart enough to pander to it. And so there he was, saying it was OK for a President to say Merry Christmas again -- the implication being his heathen Democratic predecessors refused to do so.

Well. Except for the dozens and dozens of times Barack and Michelle Obama, both Christians, said it every year at this time.

And except for the dozens and dozens of times Fearless Leader's predecessor Joe Biden -- a practicing Roman Catholic -- said it, too.

The stubborn notion that both routinely snubbed what Fearless Leader bravely does not was exposed years ago, when Slate magazine put out a one-minute video compilation of Obama saying "Merry Christmas" 17 times. Alas, this was offset by Joe Biden opening his remarks at last year's White House Christmas tree lighting by saying, "Happy holidays, everyone!"

Just kidding.

What he actually said was, "Merry Christmas, everyone! Merry Christmas."

Wow. Not once, but twice.

The War on Christmas never sounded more fanciful.