What’s Good is Bad, What’s Bad is Good

I’m voting for Trump, not because he is a saint or a man untarnished. He like most of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. As a Christian, Constitutionalist, Conservative, and retired Army Vet following a 30-year soldier’s journey. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Did not Thomas Jefferson also say, "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever." George Washington, often referred to as the “Father of Our Country,” said “While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be attentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian." James Madison said: "We have staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, far from it. We stake the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the “Ten Commandments of God." Regardless of the duo who will represent the Democrat Party this coming election, their present leadership is shifty and, in my estimation, shady. America needs a full-on overhaul. The U.S. Constitution must remain in play. I believe President Trump only wants what’s best for all People. To love America, to Honor her, to love one another, to Unite the People and “Make America Great Again.” What’s wrong with that? I shake my head when I hear the left and their media darlings parroting each other as they talk claptrap. By their words, policy decisions, organization affiliations, lawfare behavior, degradation of America’s National Defense capabilities... they loathe our Republic, its Constitution as founded, liberty and justice for all. This nation, though imperfect, has made them wealthy. They’ve taken everything good and ruined our lives. They see things differently. What’s good is bad, what’s bad is Good. It’s shameful.

Use What You Have, Do What You Can To MAGA

Just thinking... America is facing a constitutional crisis. It's a crisis that involves a fundamental political question: Who rules whom? The Constitution established a limited government in which the people ruled through their elected officials. Under this form of government, America became the freest and most prosperous nation in history. Today, however, our constitutional system is one that increasingly exists in name only. The Constitution of "We the People" is being replaced by an elite, out-of-touch, and unaccountable administrative state that rules without the consent of American citizens. What does this mean? This means we live in an era of growing bureaucratic despotism, manifested in an administrative state that bypasses the Constitution, rejects the separation of powers, and replaces the rule of law with regulations. Is there hope for a turnaround? Yes! How so? Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow, pray for Donald Trump, our next president. Pray that he may know the will of God, and that he may have the spiritual courage and grace to follow it. Deliver him from all selfish considerations and evil. Lift him above the claims of politics. Lest we forget; Dreams are lovely. But they are dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It's hard work that makes things happen. Put differently; Use what you have. Do what you can to “Make America Great Again.”

The U.S Constitution and We the People

Did the U.S. Constitution not establish a limited government in which the people ruled through their elected officials? Furthermore, under this form of government, did not America become the freest and greatest nation in history? Yet, as we celebrate America’s Independence Day, this 4th of July 2024, our constitutional system is one that increasingly exists in name only. The constitution of "We the People" is being replaced by an elite, out-of-touch, and unaccountable administrative state that rules without the consent of American citizens. This means we live in an era of growing bureaucratic despotism, manifested in an administrative state that bypasses the Constitution, rejects the separation of powers, and replaces the rule of law with regulations, and dare I say fiats. How pray tell, did we get from where we were in 1776 to where we find ourselves in 2024. Real history always tells the tale from the beginning to the end. Lest we forget, truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.  In the early years of our nation’ s founding Thomas Jefferson hit the nail on the head when he cautioned future generations with these words of wisdom: “Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity has a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.”

It has been said and reinforced by Historians and Statesmen alike that “All healthy societies are bound together, not by the power of a state and its military... but by the power of a culture.” In America’s case, our culture was a fusion of Enlightenment sources such as individualism, self-government, and especially the reformed traditions of Christianity. Consequently, this hybrid-Enlightenment was the source of political shared aims at the time of the founding. It worked because it was impenetrable to the power or faculty of sight that people could read their own tradition and communities into it. The result was a “practical morality” A similar, even if vague understanding of family life, the gender roles, work, civic decency, public responsibility, and the relative importance of faith and the practices that went along with it.” Today, however, diverging issues have fractured this moral consensus. Abortion, gender roles, sexuality, and the authority of religion became mainstream causes of public and political contention. Consequently, cultural opponents have largely stopped trying to legitimate their positions through an appeal to common American traditions of political philosophy. Rather, “the only thing that matters to each is defeating their opponents.” As a result, we are seeing a “narrative of injury” whereby an adversary is not a trustworthy opponent but an enemy. The result is a “shared cultural nihilism.” From what I have been seeing and or hearing via social media posts, MSM news accounts and group discussions as it relates to a “narrative of injury” is that we are presently there. To deny otherwise is irrational to the point of being absurd.  Today’s culture is “fundamentally oriented toward dehumanizing the opposition; it is fundamentally about a symbolic and cultural annihilation.” Is there hope for America and its cultural decay? If we see the immorality of our culture as an imperative summons to pray and work for moral and spiritual awakening there is hope.

In today’s political environment, if a serving or an aspiring politician could persuade every American citizen to accept all their political views, opinions, beliefs... it would not make those views, opinions, beliefs... correct. Nor would it change what is true. As President Ronald Reagan warned: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” To that end, we must remain vigilant, strong, ready, willing and faithful to both God and country. Unlike both Jefferson and Reagan, today’s President of the United States, his Administration, and many within the Legislative branch fall wide of the mark.