I am a lifelong news junkie. What does that mean? I have spent most of my life trying to understand what is going on. What has resulted from my efforts? I decided to be a player, albeit a bit player. I joined the Republican Party, and I started working in my own small way to get the candidates I support elected.
Have I always happily supported the Republican Party? No. The Republican Party’s candidates are just flawed human beings. We know that because their electoral opponents and the news media tell us all things they can find wrong with our candidates, and, if that is not enough, they invent more scandals they can tell us all about. Their libel and slander has become transparent and grown absurd. Can you imagine what our posterity will think about what Liberal Democrats and their news media allies have said about President Donald Trump?
So why bother participating in such a charade? Consider these words from SOTU: Dems prove they want to ‘Make America Weak Again’ (The Democratic pot calls the Trump kettle black) (washingtontimes.com) by Everett Piper.
Finally, as to your concerns about Donald Trump’s temperament and tweets, don’t you realize that in the United States we vote for principles and not personalities. Our politics should be about ideas and not ideologues.
In America, we cast our ballot for a U.S. Constitution and not a king. As my mentor, Os Guinness, once told me, “If you want freedom, always vote for the covenant. Never vote for the hierarchy. Covenants always lend themselves to liberty. Hierarchies always result in bondage and control. Always vote for the covenant!” (from here)
When Republicans support a candidate, we know we are not electing a perfect human being, someone who can solve all our problems. We just hope the person we support will make our constitutional republic work.
What is the alternative? What is the purpose of our constitutional republic? Read our nation’s founding document, The Declaration of Independence. The founders of our nation invented a government designed to protect our God-given rights. They looked at King George III’s efforts to subjugate them, and they were horrified. Since then, however, the world has seen far worse. How long will the world remember the bloody-mad Nazi and Communist regimes and the tens of millions their leaders sacrificed for the sake of power?
Yet the Bible hints of far worse regimes and times. Didn’t our Maker flood the earth in Noah’s day? Didn’t He rain fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah in Abraham’s day? God tolerated the Nazis and the Communists, but He destroyed the people of Noah’s day and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah utterly and completely. So it is that now God only knows the ghastly nature societies He destroyed.
Do you understand the nature of today’s political conflicts? Can you distinguish between principles and personality? Can you distinguish between reasoned debate and endless ad hominem attacks?
- Reasoned debate involves calmly evaluating alterative beliefs, solutions, and plans.
- Ad hominem involves characterizing the guy who opposes your beliefs, solutions, and plans as a bad person.
Are you willing to stand with political candidates who stand for principled government, or do you prefer leaders who use the ends justify the means? If you believe in principled government, then it is time for you to get off the sidelines and do something.
- Fight for an issue you care about: abortion, the deficit, election fraud,….
- Become an election officer and help keep elections honest (see pwcvotes.com).
- Write letters to the editor or blog in support of your candidate.
- Contribute money to your preferred candidates.
- Volunteer your time to participate in campaign events, knock on doors, call voters,….
- Join a political party and help nominate candidates for public office.
- And so forth.
Have we lived through our Great Depression? Is today our WWII? Could be. Because they grew up during the Great Depression and fought fiercely during WWII, Baby Boomers remember their parents as the Greatest Generation. How will the generations coming of age in these times be remembered? That depends upon whether they have the wisdom and courage to meet the challenge. It also depends upon today’s elders. Do we have the wisdom and the courage to set the right example. Will we fight for our constitutional republic, or will we continue to greedily demand that our government give us things we have not earned?
Citizen Tom 
Tom,
Have you heard the news? Trump just appointed an openly gay same sex marriage advocate as the new “acting” Director of National Intelligence. Before that, he was the Ambassador to Germany. His most important qualification for both these positions seems to be that he was on TV a lot. His predecessor, a former Navy Admiral, had to be fired because he told Congress the truth, that the Russians are actively trying to rig the election in favor of Trump.
@tsalmon
Sigh! The New Testament does not require Christians to stone homosexuals. It also doesn’t require you to believe every idiot lie the crony capitalist news news media reports about Trump.
So you only stone gays that aren’t Republican? Strange bedfellows indeed!
A habitual liar leads your party. Apparently, belief in lies must be requisite to participation on your team. It’s the truth Republicans appear to hate to deal with these days.
What part of what I just wrote above do you think a media conspiracy? That Richard Grenell is the new “acting” DNI? He is. That Grenell is gay? He’s not keeping it a secret. He has a male partner. He signed on to an amicus curiae brief supporting gay marriage for the case that legalized it. That Grenell is unqualified? Well, it’s not like even the B team wants to work in the constitutionally toxic Trump administration these days, but this guy is weak even by Trump’s corrupt standards. Look up his resume.
Which truths do you find most inconvenient? How flexible can you make your moral outrage? Great pep talk for “this generation” by the way. 😏
@tsalmon
We live among Pagans. Jesus tasked us to convert them, not kill them. So, why should I be upset? I disagree with you about same-sex marriage. Have I stoned you or disowned you?
Trump never made a secret of the fact he is tolerant of homosexuality. He just did not make an issue of it. So, I am surprised Trump had not already appointed a homosexual to his cabinet. My guess is he was afraid of offending any of the people in his base, Now he has the political capital, and he is spending it.
I don’t want Grenell as my pastor. I don’t want him as a role model (in particular, one of their teachers) for my grandchildren. DNI? These days being a homosexual is not a security risk. Not properly understanding the birds and the bees seems to have become a badge of honor. Dumb, but the 1st Century Roman Empire was worse. Anyway, I suppose there are worse choices for a DNI. He could be a Liberal Democrat.
What about your opinion of Trump? One would think a lawyer would understand something about the rules of evidence. Apparently, bias easily outweighs such training. Bias is a big problem. Unless you start with the correct facts and assumptions and use proper logic, your opinion is worthless.
You want Trump impeached again? Have at it.
With Trump we don’t just have to deal with one constitutional crisis at a time; it appears that this would be despot can generate multiple simultaneous ongoing asymmetric threats to undermine Rule of Law. It’s like playing whack-a-mole with impeachable offenses. Unfortunately, the likely radical swing in the other direction may be just the beginning to increasing pendulum swings of radicalism that lays waste to all sense of moderation. Or maybe Douthat is right (I bought his book), and all the unbridled sound and fury will signify nothing.
External existential threats aren’t what they used to be when it was Fascism and then Stalinism. Now we have invited our worst enemy into our house and he’s helping us build a wall against the least of these and Republicans cheer Trump on while he pick’s our pockets.
Surrounded by Pagans? That would seem to give true Pagans an undeserved bad rap. No, the culture war is not between the rare pagan a the humble follower of Christ. Personally, I think Jesus has more in common with the Pagans of yore than with most of us that have claimed to be Christians for the past two thousand years. Remember brother, it’s was not really Pagans that were a threat to Jesus nor was it nonbelievers that earned Jesus’s greatest criticism.
According to Gallop, less that 50 percent of Americans attend church regularly while more than 80 percent say they believe in God. That tells me that the culture war is more interestingly complex than the dualism of Christians verses the scarce atheists or the scarcer still Pagans (or the most scarce of all – actual followers of the sacrificial love Jesus taught and exemplified). But you think Trump will save you from the Pagans and we Boomers are supposed to get behind him on that. That’s very amusing. Thanks for the laugh brother.
@tsalmon
Maybe I ought to do a comedy blog. Political comedy, I suppose, but It seems to me Democrats have already cornered the market.
1. Trump is causing constitutional crises?Democrats are now worried about the Constitution? No. Democrats are worried about who appoints the judges, whether judges will continue to protect all their new “rights”.
2. Democrats are worried about the rule of law? No. Democrats just want to make certain they can get away with sending Republicans to jail when they project their own crimes upon the innocent.
3. Democrats are not worried about existential threats? No. Instead of overseas enemies, they worry more about Conservative Christians. To a Democrat, a Conservative Christian is some kind of monster. And, no, I don’t feel like a victim. Jesus has already overcome the world. I have already been saved.
4. Democrats think Pagans get a bad rap? Since such people form the party’s rank and file, that’s true. Every Democrat either competes for victim status or signals his virtue by showing how much he cares (by his willingness to spend other people’s money). Except to the people who take it seriously, Intersectionality is insanely funny.
5. Democrats think the Pagans were not a threat to Jesus Christ? True. Most people don’t read the Bible these days. Still, the people who beat up, flogged, crowned with thorns, and crucified Jesus were Pagans. The members of the Jewish Sanhedrin were instigators.
6. Democrats think the deplorables worship Trump. True. After voting twice for Obama and pleading for his wife to save them from Trump, Democrats do think that. If the Democrat presidential primaries don’t have a clear winner, the convention could be very interesting. Can’t you imagine the pleas to the Great One?Save us Obama!
So all Democrats do and believe all of that? How diabolical? They must be in thrall to some populist demagogue who keeps their consciences sublimated by the fear of being primaried and thrown out of their corrupt political party. No wait, that would be the Trumpuplicans.
I wish indeed that the loyal opposition were half that organized. The last person I campaigned for was a local Republican in the primary. She lost to the state machine. Talk about corruption. Remind me and I’ll tell you about it sometime.
Anyway, do you really believe half the nonsense you rage about, or is this your weak attempt at humor. If so, I guess you’re right – there is a good reason why all the best comedians are liberals. Conservatives are too dower and self righteous to know how to be humorously self deprecating. 😆
@tsalmon
I suppose you have never heard of The Squad? That group has actually threaten to primary other Democrats, and for some reason they cowered Pelosi.
I attended an Obama rally. I have only had the opportunity listen to a Trump rally. Trump is funny and sometimes even self deprecating.
Are all Democrats the same? Of course not! People believe propaganda for different reasons.
Are Democrats organized? With their crazy ideological beliefs? No. With TDS? No.
With their stupid ideas were the Nazis and the Communists brilliant and organized? No. They were just mad with hatred? So why should we expect a bunch of self righteous and covetous Democrats to be organized? Mobs are not organized. They are dangerous.
You seriously don’t think Trump is a mob inspiring populist? I mean you are definitely an ideologue brother, but Trump will say and do anything if it works for him. He’ll anything you want him to say. He is an unabashed preening, self inflating, greedy con artist and scoundrel who has spent his whole life cheating to get ahead. He’s managed to normalize cheating and scandal and daily degrades the office of the presidency and the Rule of Law. It may take years, if ever, to overcome the damage Trump has done. You’ve hung all you supposedly Christian idealistic dreams on a gold plated narcissistic demagogue who made all his money on vice and swindling – what could possibly go wrong with that? If we remain a democracy, I don’t think history will be kind to Trump or his bedazzled supporters.
You think your fellow citizens are your existential enemies because you have unrealistic and Utopian fantasies of government. Since the fall of Stalinist totalitarianism, the real enemy of the hard work of building and maintaining institutional democracy is corruption and oligarchy in the form of Putinism. Putin loves Trump and he loves Sanders. Did you ever wonder why? With all this hate fueled divisiveness, no one is really winning here, no one except our real enemy, and he is laughing at us every day.
@tsalmon
You say all these awful things about Trump, and I just scratch my head. How deluded do you have to be to believe all that? Don’t you research anything the crony capitalist news media tells you?
Look at yourself. Because I am a Conservative Christian, you have no trouble believing I am a bigot, and I am your brother.
What I believe is that all people are sinners in need of salvation — all people. Me too! Trump included. All of us are equal at the foot of the cross.
Because all of us are sinners, that’s why I think it is foolish to give the government more power than it needs to protect our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Meanwhile, you want to give politicians all kinds of power, and you howl nonsense about about Trump. If you don’t trust Trump, why would you give our leaders more power than necessary? The fact is you don’t know. Because you don’t adhere to any principles, you cannot point to any principles.
Looking back over that, it may reflect more harshly than intended. I’m actual pretty sanguine about it all for a number of reasons.
First of all, I don’t think everything is as dire as we each tend to think from our fortunate perch in time and place in history. Yesterday while walking the dog, I watched a black man crawl out from under an historic house that is now a law office. He was concerned that I might call the cops and therefore was quick to dump his garbage bag out on the ground so that I could see that it was just his clothes. He told me the he was homeless and that’s the best place that he had found to store his few belongings. I told him that he need not fear me. It got down to below 30F degrees here last night.
Second and most important of all, I love you brother. I don’t think you mean or are really capable of much real harm. I just think, like all of us, you are compelled by unconscious impulses that you don’t understand or recognize. This is always easier to see in others than in ourselves.
In any event, I enjoy the impossible challenge of inciting a few epiphanies here (and perhaps discovering a few in myself). Thanks for putting up with me.
Putin loves Trump and he loves Sanders. Did you ever wonder why?
Because they are the least warmongering options on the table.
Gee, that was easy.
That’s assuming “Putin loves” either one of them. Which is…kinda the type of embellishment you’re accusing Trump of.
One might think Putin has a lot to do but no. He spends hours studying US swing state data.
Bonus question: Why doesn’t anyone ever seem to worry about China’s “election interference”?
@Liz
Good point about the Chinese. They certainly have had some success in penetrating whatever computer systems we connect to the Internet, and they have a record of trying to buy our politicians.
Cool post, Tom. Inspiring.
Great words my friend!!!! We pray for the Nation and for those who are entrusted to lead— now if we could get a good swarth of our citizens to understand the concept of ‘entrusted to lead’!
Doug,
Read my comment about the National Debt.
Who should I vote for in 2020?
Or, in other words, which party has a lesser possibility of speeding up the end of trust in the value of the dollar?
Reard
Tom,
Inspirational post. If I may add, Trump needs support from both the House and Senate to support him.
And if the National Debt continues to grow, in the forceable future, it won’t make any difference what politician or political personality is in power, the consequences will be ugly.
And if you discern the actual results of Democrat controlled House winning the majority in the last election, one only has to wonder how much waste of government and citizens time has been wasted on complaining about Trump instead of achieving mutual beneficial accomplishments.
Even more sad that the costs of all the bickering just added to the National Debt.
When will we all wise up and wake up that time is running out and everyone is going to be affected regardless of political party or agendas when hyperinflation results to the US dollar as a result of the National Debt especially when we know from history that every nation that tried to use printing more dollars only sped up inflation and loss of trust in their currency.
Sad to consider that the Democrats promises being made to add to the debt is not be challenged by either responsible political party or the media.
Some reading my comment may consider my warning to be foolish. One sign that the smart money thinks otherwise is when we read about how much they may value the dollar is considered when the super rich start buying paintings for 100 million US dollars.
As for those buying gold, stocks, or paintings, with their US dollars, they might want to consider if gold value will be of any value in an economy consisting of a population of 350 million people, all unable to trade limited amounts of gold available to pay for the essentials they need to survive such as food, clothing, and roofs over their heads.
In other word, it is going to be ugly for both rich and poor when the dollar value is hyperinflated.
Regards and goodwill blogging.
@Scatterwisdom
The main problem with the deficit and the huge amount of wealth going to government is that it increases the fragility of our economy. A combination of factors can suddenly come together and set off a depression. The Great Depression began when the stock market collapsed because too many people were borrowing money to buy stocks. When the market crashed, people couldn’t pay off their loans and demand for stock went kaput. So, corporations could not sell stock to raise money. Meanwhile, Congress was setting up tariff barriers, decreasing demand for our products and raising taxes, further stifling business activity.
Our Constitution requires Congress to pay our nation’s creditors. If the economy colapses, then Congress have to print money to pay off the people we owe money (leading to hyperinflation), or divert all spending to pay off the debt. Not a pretty picture.
One small, insignificant correction there, Tom. If the economy collapses none of us will be talking on the Internet, and you’ll be fighting off looters. The printing of money after a collapse might be a bit tough given the pressmen at printing and engraving won’t be coming to work.
@Doug
I think you have the movies and reality a bit confused. Could everything go bonkers as you suggest? Yes, but history does not suggest that. An economic collapse is a relative thing.
Hyperinflation in Germany did not result in the sort of chaos you are talking about. The Great Depression resulted in about 25 percent unemployment.
What happens depends upon the moral character of a people, how much they trust their leaders, and how much their leaders deserve their trust.
Generally, when a disaster occurs, people start working together to get through it. If nobody trusts the currency, then people start looking for something to use in it place. If nothing else, people barter and use the currency for wallpaper.
You try and survive on the barter system… you can’t build an economy on it… nor re-build one either. Even during the Depression… and in Europe… there was still an economy. For how long it would have lasted without going to war will remain a mystery known only to history.
@Doug
Warfare is actually bad for an economy. Everyone may have job, but the standard of living is awful, especially in the areas where combat takes place.
Prosperity returned when the war ended, and the socialist toolbox was largely set aside.
Geez, Tom… I half thought this would have been a post about some passing of the baton to the next generation of voters to encourage them to become involved in what their government does.. even to the point of becoming activists in worthwhile causes, or even running for public office… all in the effort to make the country stronger and a better place to live for their future generations.
Instead… well… “you should vote for your imperfect candidate, realizing they are imperfect, but make absolutely sure they are not those Liberal/Socialist candidates.”
Great cheerleading, old buddy. 🙂
@Doug
Well, I guess that is as close as you are going to get to a compliment. Thank you.