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The Important Quality of Loyalty
Trump Cabinet Picks
This last week President Trump started announcing his cabinet picks and what appears to be their most significant quality is loyalty. The average Trump voter, I would assess, agrees with the strategy. Choose loyal people. Definitely don’t select disloyal ones.
What about Abraham Lincoln? Didn’t he pick a team of rivals? Loyalty doesn’t mean pushover or doormat. It does mean among other things keeping the questions and challenges inside the room. Someone working for Trump knows his position. He should not join to undermine or cause factions.
Factiousness and Heresy
The Apostle Paul in his epistles deals harshly with factiousness. The word in the King James Version is “heretic,” which transliterates a Greek term, that speaks of a factious or divisive person. For a church, heresy diverts off the path of truth as established by the congregation; its doctrine. The New Testament warns against division again and again. This doesn’t mean challenges can’t be made, but loyalty is necessary.
When someone defects in the Bible, that defector left the group. The group coalesced around a particular belief and practice and a person ejects from the group. 1 John 2:19 describes someone who goes out from the assembly, because he was not of the assembly. He would have continued with the assembly if he was of it. By going out, he showed he never was of it.
The usages of heretic or heresy in the New Testament indicate a divisive person. He breaks with leadership just to break with leadership. The person is a trouble maker. He never joined with the idea that he would try to get along.
Whose Agenda
People are drawn in magnetic fashion to the power of the federal government. Booker T. Washington talked about this from his first visit to Washington, DC from Tuskegee, recorded in his biography, Up From Slavery. The White House is a blazing hot center of the political power of the United States of America. People want to burrow their way into this honey pot like ants at a picnic. They aren’t necessarily and probably there to serve the President and with him. They want to use this as an opportunity for their own agenda. That is not the idea of a team of rivals.
Donald Trump was clear about his agenda. He ran on it. The people saying they want to join him know good-well what he said and what he’s trying to accomplish. He is right to pick only those who will be loyal to him and his agenda.
For instance, Trump will bring up ideas that maybe have little merit. He suggests them and perhaps they are stupid ideas or thoughts. But he wants the freedom to talk about those, what sometimes people call “brainstorming.” Those around him tell him what they think. They say they don’t like it and it won’t work, giving their best arguments. Trump wants that. What he doesn’t want is to read about that episode in the paper or hear it in the national news on television that night or the next day.
Trump employees join especially in this present administration with full knowledge of what and who he is. None should expect to leave and write a tell all book for bookoo bucks. They are serving at his pleasure. If they join and find out that they don’t like it, that doesn’t mean leaving to undermine his agenda.
Disloyalty
In the recent campaign, the media and the Democrats used the statements of former Trump team members. They spoke against Trump themselves. John Kelly gave a personal story in which he claimed that Trump said that Hitler’s generals would have obeyed him. Kelly used that to harm his former boss. Mike Pence did the same on different occasions. In order to justify themselves, these men hit Trump. Maybe their feelings were hurt. They should have stayed loyal. If they were not going to remain loyal, then they shouldn’t have joined Trump in the first place.
When I use Kelly and Pence, as examples, and I don’ think they are equal (Kelly was worse), this is not saying they couldn’t disagree. Pence said he couldn’t employ a particular application of the U. S. Constitution. Fine. Do what you’ve got to do. But leave it there at least. I’m living 20 minutes from Columbus, Indiana, Pence’s hometown. Most are not happy with Pence there. It is the issue of loyalty.
Just as a related topic, what about the loyalty of Donald Trump? Maybe Trump himself isn’t loyal either. It’s not something I’ve seen, based on what I’m writing here. Trump follows his own principles of loyalty. He isn’t loyal to those who are disloyal to and remain disloyal to him. For his business and his goals, I understand it. How can you give a presidential job to a disloyal person? The disloyal people are poison to the administration. I get it.
The Same Thing for Church and Friends
As I did a search on my blog here, I didn’t find one post on loyalty. Someone couldn’t say that it is a pet subject for me. However, I believe in it. It’s a good trait for someone to have.
What I’m talking about with the new Trump administration, I would say the same of a church and those who are your friends. True friends will show loyalty. I can say that I’ve had several who called themselves my friend through my life who were disloyal to a great magnitude. Again, I’m not talking about remaining silent without saying anything. That’s not loyalty. What I do mean is someone who treats someone like a friend. That person will not then trash his “friend” to others, even many others. He won’t join in with others who will do the same.
A real friend, a loyal one, is someone who will be there for you when you’re down. What I’m describing goes along with what I’m saying about Donald Trump. I’ve had a few loyal friends through the years. Not many, but I have some and I’m thankful for them. I’m planting that flag of loyalty in the ground too. Above all of course, I want to be loyal to God and His Word.
A Gender Gap In the United States, Perhaps the World
Gender Gap In Polls
Some of you are reading about the “gender gap” in the 2024 United States Presidential Election. One side gets the women’s vote and the other side get’s the men’s vote. The gap between those two is bigger than ever. This itself is a scriptural issue. The gender gap manifests itself in a greater way right now than I’ve ever seen it in the United States. It’s big enough that I believe it is the biggest issue right now in the election. I don’t think it’s the biggest issue in the country itself, but in this election it is.
One report says that the gender gap is thirty points. That is a mammoth gap. Today, the Wall Street Journal wrote:
Trump’s 5-point advantage among men in the 2020 election has widened to 10 points in The Wall Street Journal’s most recent national poll, in late August. President Biden’s 12-point edge among women in 2020 has become a 13-point lead for Harris.
In a recent Marist poll, women supported Harris by 55% to 43% for Trump, while men supported Harris by 44% and Trump by 54%. Donald Trump loses the women’s vote by a gigantic margin, and the reason he still possibly wins is that he wins the men’s vote by a similar gigantic margin to offset the women’s vote. Women right now know that they have the power to put who they want into office. Will they do it? Maybe not. Enough women do not think that way that they will not go along with it.
Abortion
Those talking about the gender gap the most say that abortion is the leading issue related to the gap. I understand that women have more than one reason to vote for someone. However, the polls say that the biggest differentiating factor for women is they want the right to abort their offspring. I’m not talking for reasons of rape, incest, and the health of the mother, because even the anti-abortion states have those exceptions.
The most recent Gallup poll on abortion in May 2024, Gallup asked women if they in general were pro-choice or pro-abortion. The poll said 63% pro-choice and 33% pro-life. Gallup asked men too and that poll said 49% pro-life to 45% pro-choice. In a recent Wall Street Journal poll of the seven battleground states, 27% of women and only 8% of men listed abortion as the defining issue of the presidency. The election is about women and about women who want legalization of murdering babies.
I’ve asked my wife about this and her understanding is that women feel way more inconvenienced than men over a pregnancy. That last statement is not scientific, but it was a woman explaining, not a man (me). It does seem rather obvious.
Historical Gap
As huge as the gap as there is this year, women have determined the presidential election winner for awhile in the United States. Democrat candidates win because they get the women’s vote. Since 1980, women have voted for every Democrat candidate by at least 4%. The 4% occurred in 1992 only because of Ross Perot running as an Independent. One difference for Donald Trump, compared to all other times, is that he gets an even larger percentage of the male vote than any other Republican candidate since 1980.
Has the gender gap changed in a substantial way through history? Yes. The vote was about even until the late 1960s and early 70s. There was no gender gap in the voting. The men and women voted in almost identical fashion. It was not a concern for a campaign. Candidates didn’t run on “women’s issues.” The modern Democrat Party runs especially on gender identity. Trump may be the first candidate to run such an obvious campaign for men, even though they have a large minority of voters.
You should understand this male readers. Men are voting for Donald Trump by a large majority. The campaign for male voters for the Harris ticket looks like a campaign for soft men. They see their number one male attraction as a new definition of masculinity.
Reassuring Weakness
I saw a recent campaign speech by the Hollywood actress, Jennifer Garner. The Denver Gazette recorded her words:
Listen, I know you’ve knocked and knocked, and I know you’ve called and called. I know you’ve given and given, and you’re worn out. But the truth is, you are, you are the front lines. This is it. I mean, I’m looking at these beautiful faces, these women and these strong men. G**, is there anything sexier than a man who is like, “Men for Kamala?” Woo!
Men for Kamala apparently need the reassurance that they are “strong men.” Do strong men really need this kind of endorsement from a woman? At this point, do they even care if a female celebrity tells them they’re “strong.” Here is a Hollywood starlet also bolstering the sex appeal of supporting Kamala. She testifies that voting for Trump will diminish male sexual allure. Yet, men might get some if they vote for the woman. Imagine someone seriously saying this to a female audience. Is there anything more demeaning to manhood than a woman speaking like Gardner did? Yet, this is the norm today for Democrat politics.
Abdication and Emasculation
Men are abdicating their position or office in the world. They don’t have to do it. Men still have the ability in this world to take male headship. They don’t need to relinquish it. Men are choosing to do so, as if they’ll be better off. What’s going on in the world that men are doing this to themselves? They are agreeing that they shouldn’t have rule or leadership in society, that women should have it or take it from them. I would guess that many men reading here themselves think it’s right for men to give women charge. They prefer or want to emasculate themselves. What’s going on?
More to Come
The Truth and the Trump Assassination Attempt
Hello reader. Just a note before you and I begin this post. I’m right now in the middle of several series at one time. Who knows which one I’ll continue next? I’m writing this to tell you that I am preparing, Lord-willing, to keep working until I finish all those. Here they are, part one of each, hopefully in reverse order.
Zero Social Gospel in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Part One), If You Want to Lose Men in and from a Church (Part One), and The Greek Text Underlying the NKJV Is Different Than the KJV (Part One). Part two of these series will come in the next few months. I’ve started these series and I want to finish them. Stay tuned.
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The Assassination Attempt
At 6:11pm on July 13, 2024 in Butler County, Pennsylvania, a twenty year old young man, Thomas Matthew Crooks, attempted to assassinate the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Corey Comperatore, a firefighter, died that night from a head wound sustained during the same shooting, attempting to shield his daughters and wife from the attack. Others received injuries. Crooks missed Trump and the bullets flew into the crowd behind him.
The events of July 13, 2024 kept moving. The circumstances began to manifest themselves. Now we know a lot of detail. The young man, this assassin, climbed the building with his rifle on to the closest building (outside the perimeter) to the stage where the former President would give his speech. Several people saw him. They even reported it more than once.
The building used by this wannabe sniper stood 160 yards from his target. He laid down on a slightly sloped roof top and alone there pointed that rifle toward the former President and began pulling the trigger. He fired eight rounds before counter-snipers shot back and killed him.
The Oddities
Apparently the Secret Service, who the nation charges to protect Presidents and former Presidents, sets up a perimeter. This idea of a perimeter sounds familiar. They don’t allow any weapons inside it. On the outside, they look for favorable places for a shooter with a long gun. They occupy those or shut them down. Several questions arise.
Why wasn’t the roof of the building cleared or kept clear?
Why was there no drone to watch the high points outside of the perimeter, ones preferred by snipers?
Shouldn’t the police officer who confronted the shooter have relayed that information to the counter snipers?
With a clear vantage point to the roof top, why didn’t the counter snipers right away shoot a man with a rifle upon seeing him?
Many, many more questions exist. I think it is odd what happened. Others I’ve read said that it was either extreme negligence or malice. Malice means these weren’t mistakes made. Someone on the inside wanted him shot. People purposefully allowed or caused this event to occur. It’s so odd, that I would call it at least, very fishy. The circumstances around this shooting are so strange, that they beg the kind of questions I and others are asking.
A Question of Negligence or Malice
To be clear, I’m not saying it was malice. I don’t mind holding off with mere negligence. It is very suspicious though. Very. It is highly implausible that the Secret Service could allow this to occur, considering all the circumstances.
In the past, I’ve concealed my own bad behavior. In many, many cases through my life, I’ve seen others hide or obscure something they did wrong. Decades ago, our church treasurer stole money for months without detection. I’ve too witnessed many covertly hide an evil act to evade apprehension. This all happens very often. Many crimes are committed across the country every day. These are motivated in many different ways. The assailant is dead, so we can’t ask him.
The Discussion
I was watching a panel discussion in which the moderator or host said that the circumstances of the assassination attempt were very odd. When he did, two very vocal leftist panelists both called him a “conspiracy theorist.” They also took three standard, different directions with name calling. One, the host was a crazy loon. Two, he was divisive and slanderous. These two contradict one another, but they’re both still used in a scorched earth method. This serves to deter further questions or investigation.
Finally, third, the two leftist panelists admonished that no one really knows what happened. If you weren’t there, you can’t speculate. All speculation counts as misinformation. Only a caste of experts, and there are experts, can tell you.
All three varied protestations came with the appropriate condemnatory tone. They attempt to shame the interrogator. This corresponds to an identical spirit that permeates everything and every institution. Anything declared by anyone other than an elite person in an approved position is misinformation or disinformation.
One segment of our country expects us not to see anything unusual with the assassination attempt. Someone might say, “Don’t believe your lying eyes.” What they mean is, “Disregard the obvious truth.”
Detecting False Prophets by Fruit
In Matthew 7:15, Jesus commanded, “Beware of false prophets.” These are the people directing victims down the broad road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). Jesus explains how that you know if someone is a false teacher. You know him by his fruits.
I point out to you an orange tree. You see it, and it’s an orange tree. This you know by its fruit. Yet, I call it an apple tree. You know that’s not true. Someone can surely judge that. It’s obvious. You would say, “No, it’s not an apple tree; those are oranges on that tree.”
So many oddities exist in the assassination attempt of former President Trump, that I don’t know how someone could not think something malicious occurred. By the fruits of this event, you can know this. It rises above the level of merely negligence. If it is negligence, that’s scary or frightening too. But this seems like something different.
Disregard the Obvious
Our present world expects people to disregard the obviousness like that of fruit on a tree. This is seen in the acceptance of many different false teachings. Even if teaching or preaching contradicts, this contradiction is to be disregarded. Move along, nothing there. Doctrine just doesn’t matter. Many obvious false teachings are accepted today. The ones in trouble are those who notice and point out the contradiction or error.
The requirement to believe everything is fine in the face of obvious evidence otherwise is the new normal. This is everywhere now. Good is called evil and evil is called good, just like prophecy of Isaiah 5:20. A famous metaphor for this is “the emperor wearing no clothes.” Apparently his subjects walk around like and say that he is wearing clothes, when in fact he isn’t.
The Requirement to Judge the Obvious
I know as a pastor that people expect me to ignore many things people in the church do that violate scripture. No one needs to be too serious about what scripture says. It really doesn’t matter if someone actually does what is preached.
Why would Jesus need to tell someone to inspect and judge fruit? Don’t people just do that? Probably not any more, speaking of Jesus’ day. False prophets abound because people stopped doing that. They don’t make obvious judgments. People let them go, perhaps because they don’t want to face the reaction of making those kinds of judgments.
Upholding the truth requires judging fruit. The illustration of Jesus says, judge the obvious. Fruit is obvious. It’s right there in front of your face. Don’t let people stop you from judging fruit.
My Take on the Complicated World Scene That Includes Ukraine, Russia, and Israel
Division Over Israel
What’s going on in foreign policy in the world is one of the most interesting variations of division that I’ve seen in my lifetime. Positions divide normal allies and unify former enemies. It’s a challenge even in theological circles with diverse interpretations of biblical prophecy. The event of October 7, 2023 with the brutal attack by Hamas on Israel also ratchets up emotions, making it more difficult to discuss.
When someone becomes settled, what I like to call “concrete,” in his position, he might take disagreement personally. Maybe very personally. It’s tough to talk issues when emotions run so high. Maybe you’ve seen various podcasts with arguments between an Israeli and a Palestinian. Heated doesn’t represent how hot the temperature gets. I’ve noticed very often, between school yard taunts and name calls, the same repeated accusations from both sides.
Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and the Democrat Party
Perhaps you heard about the skirmish now between Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens. The co-founder of Daily Wire called his employee an “absolute disgrace,” caught on video in a private meeting and went viral. She then sits down to comment to Tucker Carlson in an explosive interview. Shapiro has done very angry high energy rants about the expressed position of Carlson. I couldn’t possibly list every prominent ongoing debate, there are so many.
One can witness the variated division between the remaining Republican presidential candidates. A divide also exists among Democrats between university-type leftists, Pro-Palestinian, and traditional Democrat Pro-Israel stances, especially represented by Senator Chuck Schumer and others.
The Animosity Toward Israel
Hatred of Israel across the world validates biblical prophecy. Despite propaganda-like support from Hollywood and in the mainstream media for the Jews and against genocidal treatment, hatred reaches a recent high everywhere. Based on its mere size, Israel would not deserve or receive this animosity, yet it does. Why and how? Two reasons.
One, Satan opposes Israel still. He wants to throw a wrench into the ongoing plan of God in the world. He has strong influence on the easily manipulated lost nations and their leaders. Two, God still fulfills prophecy with chastisement of Israel. Israel does not have a statute of limitations on God’s reprimands. I wish for open eyes for Israel, although I don’t expect it. Yet, God still isn’t done with Israel; hence the continued discipline.
As an example of division, many reading this nod “no” in strong opposition to what I write here. Many both amillennialists and postmillennialists see God done with Israel, replaced by the church. When I say “church,” I mean their version of God’s kingdom on earth, made up of Christendom. They see Israel as an unbelieving, rebellious people, who deserves no special favor against the Arabs in Palestine.
Candace Owens, who professes Christianity, married a Roman Catholic. Maybe she leans that way now. She can find support from Reformed evangelicals with a similar view of the world. You look at the history of Roman Catholicism and even the European Protestant state churches, and you see historical anti-semitism. Tucker Carlson grew up Episcopalian and he seems right now to return to some version of Christian nationalism, as seen in his interviews of foreign Christian nationalists. I see Vladimir Putin himself a kind of Christian nationalist, more interested in the survival of his nation and culture.
Jewish Anger toward Hamas and Palestine
What I’m writing in this post would require book or dissertation level analysis. I’m not going to write that, even though it’s an interest.
I understand Shapiro’s anger. Hamas killed 1,500 Israelites and took 240 hostages. The United States is 33 times the population of Israel and had 3,000 killed on 9-11. That means this is at least fifteen times worse, and it’s almost immeasurable with the way Hamas did it.
Remove the religious and ethnic component, and even as an international incident, if Israel acts like any other nation, it would react more harsh than it even is acting. When I hear Shapiro defend Israel’s reaction, I agree with him. I’ve heard both sides of the argument in all their iterations and I support Israel’s argument. The United States should just let Israel do its thing and not get in the way. I would advocate for U.S. backing and support if international escalation occurred from prominent Israeli enemies like Iran.
Varied Points of View, Yet Still Supporting Israel
Support without Foreign Aid
On the other hand, I like the idea of not sending money to Israel. I’m in the proto-Republican anti-intervention, quasi-isolationist camp. This is more in the realm of a fresh realization of the Monroe doctrine. The United States solidifies its own security and borders, solves its own very serious problems first. It follows the Pauline view of bearing your own burdens before you bear those of others.
As a companion to everything else, I like firming up freedom of speech. Some of this relates to a reaction to January 6 compared to Antifa and BLM riots and the denial of a rigged 2020 election and the denial of 2016 election seen in the Russian Hoax and Hunter Biden laptop. I understand the concerns over any even questioning of Israel policy as anti-semitic. White people in the United States, Israel supporters, have felt left out of the concern over racism from American Jews in comparison with silence over Antifa and BLM. Apparent first amendment supporters should allow free expression of these inconsistencies without pulling an anti-semitism card.
Democrat support of Israel comes with obvious strings attached. American money brings American supervision or control. When America attacked Iraq after 911, relatively little criticism came for collateral damage, death of innocent civilians. This is the cost of war for American retaliation. Hamas uses children as human shields and Israel must pause its offensive, perhaps leaving Hamas intact. The United States should consider not sending monetary support and just allowing Israel free reign on its own security. American Democrat politics affect Israeli security, bouncing Israel around like a political volleyball.
Hatred from Jews for their Own Supporters
It is tough to bridge historical support of Israel with the typical woke politics among Jews in the United States and Israel. Almost 50% of Jews in Israel self-identify as secular. They support same sex marriage and other forms of moral perversion, not operating according to objective truth. 62 percent of the 7.6 million Jews in the United States are secular. 79% voted Democrat in the 2018 midterm elections.
Pew Research did a study on American Jews in 2020 and 81 percent of Orthodox Jews supported Trump. On the other hand, the same study said 73% of all Jews opposed Trump. This describes the difference between a secular and religious Jew in the United States. Recently, secular Jew Barbara Streisand complained that she would not live in the United States if Donald Trump became president again. She would move to England — you know, the place where 300,000 pro-Hamas protestors recently gathered on the streets of London against Israel.
Shapiro himself sometimes plays, I believe, to the secular Jew. Perhaps a form of self-preservation innate from hundreds of years of persecution explains. As a professing Orthodox Jew, attaching himself to the Old Testament in a prominent way, he uses profane language and tells dirty jokes in public. Then when an Owens or Tucker, whom I would see as supporters of Israel, albeit in a lesser way, he reacts in a ballistic manner. When questioned on Trump in a secular crowd, he throws Trump under the bus in a harsher way than he would George Soros or Bill Maher.
Support of Israel and Milquetoast Response
Part of the Abrahamic Covenant, which is still intact, is that God promised He would bless people that bless Israel. Among other reasons, that explains a strong support of Israel in the United States, including welcoming those 7.6 million Jews in the United States. A majority of those Jews have been sharply antagonistic with their chief supporters, many expressing intense hatred for them. This communicates the peculiar situation this issue provides. You can greatly dislike the Jewish worldview while really loving and bestowing support for Jews and Israel.
No group provides as sharp and hateful rhetoric toward Christians in the United States like Jews do. Israel’s protection in the Middle East greatly depends on this group of people mainly hated by Jews in the United States. In a personal way, I’ve received no greater disrespect than I have from Jews and on many different occasions. I’ve never treated a Jew in a bad way, always in a loving way. A small percentage of the Jews I’ve known return that favor. Of course, they might explain that they don’t like the reason why we love them so much.
Many forms of contradiction occur over the issue of Israel and Palestine. A Jew easily can confuse a Catholic from a Protestant from an Evangelical. Even on this blog, in the comment section some attack Israel for Christian reasons while we defend Israel for Christian reasons. They both can’t be right, yet they both exist.
More to Come
Watching a Slow Motion Car Crash: 2023-2024 United States
Preach the Gospel
My wife and I live in a mobile home in small town rural Indiana, evangelizing Decatur County as well as a 25 minute radius of our church building. I preach the gospel almost every day to someone. We do discipleship, Bible studies, and meet for church. Her and I exist in our own little bubble. We walk twice a day by fields of beans, corn, and wheat.
I do think that the work of our church here transcends other contemporary narratives. We keep our eye on the ball, staying focused on the real problem in the world and its actual solution. It glorifies God, gives Him pleasure. Someone might say our little lives here epitomize one of many micronarratives within a larger macro one. I could argue, however, that we represent the macro and the popular larger narrative equals the micro. The gospel overshadows politics or what occurs to a nation in a window of history.
No one in the future kingdom of Christ and then the eternal state will look back and think that the American government was the main theme. Neither will anyone in that kingdom consider the decline of the United States to be the major issue of that day. The way back to Paradise, lost in the Fall, comes through Jesus Christ.
Slow Motion Car Crash
As a backdrop to serving God in a church, I observe now a slow motion car crash. Two cars now careen toward each other and a future wreck. Maybe I could use another metaphor, like the trajectory of an asteroid in the path of earth on schedule to collide in November of 2024. It might not matter what your side of the political spectrum, you see this crash coming too.
I don’t write to say, “You read it here first.” You could have read it somewhere else first. However, I haven’t read yet about the collision of which I explain and describe. When you read it somewhere else, you might say, I read it first at What Is Truth. Who cares, really? As I write about this here, first or last, you might anticipate this inevitable demolition derby.
Trump
Donald Trump leads the polls on the Republican side. He embodies a large faction of the country, bigger than any single cohesive body of people. That car continues rolling forward at a larger than ever fifty plus percent of Republican voters. Even in Iowa and New Hampshire he dominates his opposition right now 16 months before the next presidential election.
As Trump moves along his path, so do four different legal prosecutions against him, all very suspect in nature, especially in comparison to others (I understand this will trigger a portion of the readers). Trump voters saw the Russia hoax impeachment. They also witnessed the Zelensky phone call impeachment. The government spied on his campaign. The Clinton campaign paid for the fabricated Steele dossier used for a FISA warrant. The FBI lied about it and then covered it up. And all that is less than half of everything Trump supporters know.
Still, Trump enemies continue to use the legal system to impede or stop Trump, what people call weaponization of government. Every prosecution looks shady, questionable, like political persecution. The present administration targets its number one political enemy. Nevertheless, the Trump car rumbles down the road, even gaining in momentum the more legal woes he faces.
Biden
Joe Biden comes from the other direction. Even though he couldn’t fill an average sized local gymnasium to see him, he tallied the most votes ever in 2020. Zuckerbucks influenced local election offices all over the country. Courts changed laws to favor ballot harvesting with little to no voter identification. Social media giants censored news unfavorable to the Democrat. In addition, lies, lies, lies, lies, and more lies.
The Biden car and the Trump car head toward each other. They’re moving fast, but they’re so far away, that it’s like watching from thirty thousand feet. The cars move at an imperceptible pace, yet moving on an identical line.
Criminal prosecution hovers around Joe Biden. Massive corruption on an unprecedented scale looks obvious. It seems like no repercussions for him. Like the Clintons, nothing will happen more than verbiage.
A crash looks inevitable. No one knows what will happen in 2023-24. Will they prosecute Trump and try to put him behind bars? Might the Bidens skate again or face their comeuppance? Could a third party enter the race?
The Great American Divorce
Many more questions remain. What would Trump supporters do if this government convicted him? Would they accept that verdict? With the way the progressives use the system like a banana republic, will people stand by and let this happen? A large percentage of United States citizens see their government as dirty. Those people are waiting and watching right now from that thirty-thousand feet. A big gap separates the two biggest factions in the country. The two sides are irreconcilable. One of them is especially unhappy.
The country doesn’t neatly divide like the north and the south in 1860. Both factions live in the same states. Red citizens are fleeing blue states to red ones. A few years ago some started calling this, the great American divorce (here and here) or American secession (here and here). Historian Victor Davis Hanson says we’re on the verge of our French Revolution. He also called it, “The Impending Thermidor Reaction in Jacobin America.”
The Only Remedy
To go back to the way I began this essay, I call this slow motion car crash just a backdrop to the most important. The belief and practice of an individual true church surpasses the miserable condition of the nation. It seems obvious a future collision is coming. No one knows the outcome of this monumental head-on crash, but scripture says the remedy is still the same, the gospel.
Elevation of the gospel starts with the church. Turn and look to the message of the cross as the prescription. Judgment must begin in the house of God.
DeSantis, Trump, or Otherwise
2024 and 2020 Elections
It looks that the Republican side of the 2024 presidential election will include a hard fought battle that spends millions and millions of dollars for candidates trying to defeat one another. Apparently, our side could not work together to agree on a candidate to support without a huge war in the party. Meanwhile, the Democrats will pour huge amounts of money, almost incalculable sums, to further perfect their ballot harvesting strategy. Instead of preparing themselves for this same tactic, Republicans will spend it bashing each other before general election time.
Evidence shows large numbers of varied entities rigged the 2020 U.S. presidential election, including Covid related ones. The Durham Report alone proved that and then there’s Hunter Biden’s laptop. Despite all the forces against President Trump during his presidency, he accomplished much. I wish he became president in 2020, like many of you readers.
Giving Trump His Due
In addition to all the good things that came out of the Trump presidency, he changed the Republican party in a positive way. He influenced many other leaders to take a similar combative toughness as he. He showed them the way. I thank him for that. If another Republican besides him wins in 2024, Trump will have made a significant influence to that victory.
Republicans or conservatives should give Trump his due. They should stop disrespecting him in the manner they are. This will not help Republicans win 2024. It will not persuade any Trump supporter to vote for someone else. Insulting Trump and those who voted for him looks self-serving and virtue signaling.
Everyone knows Trump’s negatives. Most of what makes him negative is also what makes him positive. You might say, “He should stop doing this.” Well, “this” is also what makes him popular. Trump would not measure what he said for maximum political correctness. He also pushed back on the mainstream media almost to the extent that it pushes against political candidates it doesn’t want.
Since we will have to choose our candidate, I might still vote Trump, because voters have a lot of time to watch what will happen. I haven’t made up my mind yet. The one who gets my vote will stand up and battle for an almost identical agenda as Trump. I know Trump will fight, because I’ve seen him do it. Whoever wins for the Republicans will face monumental forces from many different fronts almost like no one in American history.
My Primary Vote
As I look toward the future, right now I predict though that I will vote for Governor DeSantis in the Republican primary. I don’t know that, but it is what I foresee right now.
Trump did his part. I give him credit for it, but in the present I believe his time has passed. He could still win. I would be happy if he did. I prefer Governor DeSantis at the moment. DeSantis could easily pick up the mantle of Trump and do better with it, even if Trump won’t hand it to him.
I get Trump’s anger about disloyalty. DeSantis could help with this too and bring along more Trump supporters by more strongly giving Trump his due. He could disarm the Trump disloyalty attack by honoring Trump. He should have won 2020. Many Republicans who supported Trump understand why someone would run against him. Both could happen, a candidate like DeSantis honors Trump and then explains why the Republicans regretfully need someone else.
Advice for DeSantis
Fight
DeSantis could pledge to fight in the example of Donald Trump. He could tick off all the ways he will emulate Trump and then honor him by winning on his behalf and those who support him. In an analogical way, I can see Trump not as the candidate like David wasn’t the candidate for building the first Temple. Trump was uniquely suited for the job he did in taking down Hillary in 2016. Please don’t say I’m saying Trump is David, the latter who loved God. Trump brought the fight to the party like it needed and will continue to need. David fought the Philistines.
At the time Trump became a candidate, the Republican Party needed a fighter extraordinaire. Of course, the spiritual solution is most important. Some of you critics rarely preach the gospel. Don’t be critical of spiritual lack in the political area if you are distracted in the evangelistic area. Are you really that dedicated to the gospel that you don’t have time to think about religious freedom? Good for you, but I don’t believe it with most of you. When’s the last time you even made a disciple in fulfillment of the Great Commission. You’re just, again, virtue signaling.
Trump’s kickstart of fighting for freedom and the American way is the start. Everyone now has a standard. All must surpass it. DeSantis, I believe, must prove that he will surpass Trump. I’m not convinced yet. What I am saying is that I believe he will. I hope he reads this.
Give Trump His Due
The Florida governor could also pledge to homogenize the MAGA support into a unified team. Some of the Trumpers could make the cabinet. This kind of approach to Trump is what will make it difficult for Trump to oppose DeSantis. Recently Trump said he had a hard time saying a bad word about Gavin Newsom because of how positive Newsom was with him. Trump takes well to positive reinforcement. Start every speech with a litany of pro-Trump signals before turning to what makes you the man for whom to vote.
DeSantis should set his sights on the enemies out there. Fire away at them. In my opinion, he’s tough, but still not tough enough. The way to impress Trump voters won’t be doing the Chris Christie, talking tough about Trump (especially to the press). The way to do that is to talk tough to and at the political elite. Hone that skill. Elevate the fire not against Trump, but against them.
I write this because it is what I think. I was just now ready to say it. Talk amongst yourselves.
My Take on the Disappointing Results of Tuesday’s Mid-Term Elections
Many of you have heard the terminology, “gag reflex.” Certain behavior once merited a gag reflex. You saw it and something rose in your throat that caused you to gag. It was a good response.
Then after awhile you saw the same behavior become so common that it was normal. You didn’t gag anymore. No reflexive reaction occurred at all. When you see something all the time and all over, you might become desensitized to it.
As the gag reflex became insensitive to one bad behavior, it required even worse behavior to bring it. Gagging necessitated a more extreme action. Don’t get me wrong, I care about John Fetterman as a candidate for the gospel. I would love him as a person. God can and will save him if he turns to the Lord. However, I gag at his Senatorial election win. I’m glad that some things can still boggle my mind. If he showed up to flip burgers, I wouldn’t hire him. I’d help him to the door and then watch to make sure he walked away.
Something happened on Tuesday night that was new. I always expect the polls are wrong. They were wrong again, except for ones usually wrong. Now they were right on this one. The left was wrong in 2016. The right was wrong in 2022. You can’t reliably predict these things any more. I thought John Fetterman could never win as a candidate. He did.
I thought a red wave would occur. Almost nothing went well in the last two years. Everyone suffered from Democrat control. I won’t list all the ways things have gone wrong. Republicans may still control the House and Senate, but it felt like a loss. It looks like one. What happened?
I just read Mike Pence’s personal account of January 6 from the Wall Street Journal. It’s an excerpt from his upcoming book. I haven’t read an analysis of it, but it seems like his attempt to sink Donald Trump. I wouldn’t call it retaliation. I don’t think Pence works that way. However, I do see it as purposeful to help someone else clear away Trump for 2024. Could someone? Maybe, maybe not.
A large group of people in the United States — I’m going to estimate thirty percent at least — are loyal to President Trump. He stood up for them and us and took unprecedented opposition for four years. 2020 was rigged. Whoever beats Trump in a 2024 primary will need those people.
In many ways, Trump created Ron DeSantis. No one operated like DeSantis until Trump. And as a result, something happened in Florida as never before. You remember the hanging chads in the Bush-Gore election of 2000? DeSantis wins by 20 points a little over 20 years later.
Two major points appeared Tuesday. Someone like Trump can still win an election, but he would do it like Ron DeSantis. DeSantis has everything good about Trump without most of what’s bad about Trump. Donald Trump will not back down. Someone will need to peel off some of that thirty percent. It’s not going to be easy. That’s one point.
What else? The country is even in worse shape than what it was. Way worse. I’m not talking about damage caused by President Joe Biden. He’s just a symptom. They voted for John Fetterman. Katie Hobbs is ahead in Arizona and she ran a near basement campaign. Even if Lake comes back to win big after they finish the count, why did the counting stop for over 24 hours at 66 percent? This wouldn’t happen to a Democrat. The final result won’t occur until Monday. This itself is a level of either corruption or incompetence that has become the new normal. And those in charge can still get away with this, just like those who spawned the Russia collusion hoax.
A majority of people may not like wokeness, but they will still do little to none to defeat it. It’s not going to change through elections. People must change in their natures to affect the downward trajectory. That will come only through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that won’t happen unless churches, the individual professing believers of churches, commit themselves wholesale to the only true gospel.
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Interesting Report from John Solomon on the Republicans Winning the Popular Vote on Tuesday, 53-47.
It Won’t Do You Any Good to Apologize for Trump
Very often conservative support for President Donald Trump starts with an apology. It goes something like the following.
I know he writes mean tweets and makes nasty insults, calls people names like a jr. higher. He is badly flawed, foul, immoral, a lawbreaker, braggadocios, self-centered, divisive, petty, a liar, a con man, a flip flopper, a criminal, authoritarian, and banal. But, I still voted for him because, you know, I look at performance.
People who start with an apology, I believe, think they’re warding off the expected angry reaction. Or, they won’t be associated with the worst character traits of Trump, readying themselves to hear them. I’m writing to say that it won’t do you any good to apologize for Trump. Embrace him. Accept his 2016 victory and his presidency.
None of the other 16 candidates would have defeated Hillary Clinton. Trump did almost everything he said he would do. He stuck his thumb in the eye of the corrupt media. He battled and fought for conservatives against the greatest political opposition in my lifetime and maybe all of American history.
In 1836, Sir Henry Taylor wrote the classic book, The Statesman, the first modern book devoted to that subject. He wrote:
[A] statesman has already, in the commonwealth of his own nature, given to the nobler functions the higher place; and as a minister; therefore, he is one whom his country may be satisfied to trust, and its best men be glad to serve. He, on the other hand, who sees in the party he forms only the pedestal of his own statue, or the plinth of a column to be erected to his honour, may, by inferior means and lower service, accomplish his purposes, such as they are; but he must be content with vulgar admiration, and lay out of account the respect of those who will reserve that tribute from what is merely powerful, and render it only to what is great. “He that seeketh to be eminent amongst able men,” says Lord Bacon, “hath a great task; but that is ever good for the public. But he that plots to be the only figure amongst ciphers is the decay of a whole age.”
Professor at Notre Dame, Michael Zuckert, wrote in 2020, Lincoln and Democratic Statesmanship:
Our ideas of statesmanship are fraught with seeming contradictions: The democratic statesman is true to the peoples (sic) wishes and views—but also capable of standing against popular opinion when necessary. The statesman rises above conflicts and seeks compromise between parties—but also stands firmly for what is right.
And I quote all that material about statesmen and statesmanship to get to my subject of President Donald Trump. I’m not going to say whether I think he is one or not. As you scan through the annals of the history of government, who was a statesman and did it matter? Was Julius Caesar one? What about William the Conqueror? Was King George III? What kind of statesmen presided over the Roman Coliseum?
If you go to scripture, you can look at all the various leaders of nations in order to surmise the statesman. Old Testament Israel looks like a recent Marine Corps slogan, “A Few Good Men.” Very few. A statue of General George Patton sits outside the library at West Point some say because he didn’t spend much time in there. Even Patton wouldn’t survive the present environment of the United States.
Today some propose settling for nothing short of Burkean conservativism in the trajectory of Russell Kirk. They yearn for William F. Buckley at the National Review. Jonah Goldberg just today, as I write this post, attacked Trump again. These conservatives, including many professing Christians, now take on the chief identification of Anti-Trump. In his piece, Goldberg insulted Trump voters, showing again, as he and others have again and again, got Trump wrong. This is seen all over his post in the LA Times, which doesn’t publish true conservatives, where he wrote:
One of the paradoxes of charismatic leadership is that the leader’s illegitimacy — in legal, rational or traditional terms — can have the effect of strengthening their hold on their followers. This dynamic has been at the heart of Trump’s distortion of the right. If the man cannot measure up to the traditional, moral, rational or legal yardsticks that conservatives once ascribed to leadership, then it is the yardstick’s fault for not measuring up to the man.
That’s right. Through his charisma, Trump has a cult-like, worshipful loyalty on his voters, who are called followers. All of these 74 million voters, which was more than any presidential candidate had ever received in any presidential election, could not see the fraud that Trump was like the enlightened Goldbergian human being. Goldberg said concerning the Founder of Turning Point USA, “Charlie Kirk, a pliant priest in Trump’s personality cult.” On the other hand, the public intellectuals (if that is possible), who voted for and defend Trump, call Goldberg the subject of Trump derangement syndrome. Douglas Wilson wrote last week:
Whatever I might think, the brains behind the progressive left have decided to take a header into the maelstrom of “doing whatever they can to advance the narrative and person and prospects of Donald J. Trump.” This is what a derangement syndrome can do to you. It turns the quivering brains of high-powered political operatives into a soupy kind of jelly, with green mold on the surface.
I see the jelly with the green mold coming out of Goldberg’s ears.
To speak of Trump without apology, consider why you voted for him, support him, and would vote for him again as president, even though you’re a Christian. You don’t have to use the Russia hoax, even the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade with all the conservative justices Trump appointed. Trump believes that something in the United States is of higher value than other nations worth protecting by securing the borders. Borders conserve something on the inside that is better than what is on the outside. That simple, basic conservative idea separated Trump from his competitors like the wall he aspired to build.
A long time ago the United States left the possibility of a Russell Kirk conservative. We are in much more desperate times. We have to look to principles much more basic than those outlined by Edmund Burke and Benjamin Disraeli. The Brexit vote in England recognized this too. What I’m describing, Jonah Goldberg calls “instrumentalism.” He wrote in another essay:
The least objectionable of them justified their decision in the name of instrumentalism—“Trump’s flawed, but we can use him.”
This isn’t using Trump until we can get somebody better. That’s still an argument for 2024. No, Trump is where we’re at. Maybe we will get somebody better, but that’s also the reasoning behind what led to Joe Biden in 2020.
Trump isn’t an instrument. He espouses necessary, rudimentary principles. His don’t go far enough. They don’t do as much as I would do. But they go further than what we would get from anyone else, such as names like Dole, McCain, and Romney. Even throw in George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Gerald Ford. Trump truly raised the bar over these men.
I want to argue just a little. You say, Trump is authoritarian. He’s a fascist. By far. By far, the greatest threat of fascism is the progressive left, like Ronald Reagan said:
America stands on four main values: Faith in God, Freedom of Speech, Family and Economic Freedom. If fascism ever comes to America, it will come in the name of liberalism.
Trump in his presidency practiced the separation of powers. He picked federalist Supreme Court justices, who did more to decentralize the federal government than in decades. Trump supported that. You’re just swallowing a lie when you say he’s a fascist or an authoritarian. He gave freedom to become energy independent, turning loose the American people.
Maybe you say he’s a want-to-be dictator because of January 6, 2020. Nothing like that came close to happening on January 6, nothing even nearly as bad as what did occur in Seattle, Portland, and the Twin Cities of Minnesota in the previous summer. The Russia hoax disenfranchised Trump voters. Illegal ballot harvesting did too. The perpetrators walk free. Does anyone think that we live under a fair justice system today? Where is the abuse of power? Who has attempted to criminalize parents who speak up in school board meetings?
I don’t apologize for President Donald Trump any more than I do for the minutemen on the Lexington Green.
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