Election Anxiety: No Jesus, No Peace

God and Country. Unlikely young readers are familiar with this three word phrase, part of our lexicon some scores ago. Some oldsters will remember and understand when and why it was evoked. There was a time this phrase and Spirit was an integral part of our lives - perhaps even more embedded in those born and raised South of the Mason/Dixon Line. Most important… the order mattered. God ‘trumped’ all.

Can’t recall a presidential election cycle where duopoly party candidates were more over degreed and under educated than 2024, wreaking with collusion and tyranny. Time for the Blue soviet party to do some serious soul searching (while the sting of defeat is still throbbing) and return to the traditional Democratic Party roots and principles of a limited federal government promoting the general welfare over specific interests to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.

Fixing primaries and installing candidates rejected by voters determined with taxpayer dollars [https://www.alabamagazette.com/story/2024/09/01/opinion/rigged-elections-primary-coups-and-general-racketeering/4033.html] is a fool’s errand. Many of the ‘blue-duped’ will now see the 107 day dance of the ‘Kamalala-Land Waltz’ a failure. It does illustrate poor choreography and orchestration, unable to defeat the ramblings of an old soviet corporate welfare queen on par with the ramblings of the sitting president they kicked to the curb. One can make the case Biden would’ve generated a similar November 5th outcome. Some argue a better result without the primary coup and certainty of only four more years of Biden’s authoritarianism over a likely eight years of Harris. The objective was not to win but to re-prime the money mill pump to extract more from the dumb masses and further enrich our political puppeteers with no souls or righteous goals. Even with inflation adjustment, the blue money dump was something to behold these past three months.

The more one observes unChristlike behaviour in our executives, judges and representatives, any rational person expects more anxiety, despair and harm. I’ve grown to appreciate Apostle Paul’s Scriptures on hope seemly aimed at the Greeks. No longer hearing ‘God and country; how many want to ‘roll our eyes’ remembering more modern phrases like, “The Man from Hope” or “Keep Hope Alive” bantered in past elections? Paul intuitively understood the Greeks’ struggle with hope. That Pandora’s Box thing - is it something to revile or revere? I find ‘hopeful Christians’ far too pessimistic… God’s will is a certainty to me, not a hope. Illustrated via the acts and Victory of Jesus; still alive and shepherding those pursuing righteousness, thousands of years hence. Folks can be an impediment or a facilitator toward God’s righteous ends. The choice was clear for Annas, Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, et al and just as clear for Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, George Wallace, Dick Nixon, et al in our time.

The two authoritarians most (who participated) cast their votes for are a shameful embarrassment. Amazing how many simply assert when one candidate makes some silly trash comment about the other, it has insulted half the nation. First, repeated insult from one with the intelligence and integrity of Biden/Harris or Trump/Vance caliber politicians indicates one trekking a righteous path. Second, minions duped by duopoly candidates are NOT halves. About 20% of eligible voters are going to blindly vote for the blue soviet and another 20% for the red soviet candidate. These two deeply flawed modern democrats (yes, I know Trump has been wearing the red jersey these past few years) don’t represent the 60% who do not participate or waste much time and Spirit to determine the ‘lesser of the two evils’ they aid and abet.

The C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity [1952] quote from last month’s column was soul-searching according to some reader comments:

"I feel a strong desire to tell you - and I expect you feel a strong desire to tell me - which of these two errors is the worse. That is the devil getting at us. He always sends errors into the world in pairs - pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is the worse. You see why, of course? He relies on your extra dislike of one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them."

One of Luke’s Scriptures recently stressed in my Bible Study class (I must confess I’m missing to pen this column) is most apropos in this time of angst.

Great crowds were following him. He turned around and addressed them as follows: “Anyone who wants to be my follower must love me far more than he does his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, or sisters—yes, more than his own life—otherwise he cannot be my disciple. And no one can be my disciple who does not carry his own cross and follow me.’ Luke 14:25-27 The Living Bible

Difficult to interact with those I hold dear embracing such flawed persons they’re supporting with their money, votes and words. Please remember those (bosses, co-workers, comedians, family, friends, politicians, press, pundits and esp. pastors) who shill and support such flawed, unChrist like candidates. Pastors shining light on only one of the ‘errors’ C.S. Lewis wrote about above are worse and most effective in accomplishing the Devil’s goal. Not only remember, but rebuke [https://www.alabamagazette.com/story/2022/05/01/opinion/remember-every-joesophant-and-magat/2349.html] and make them work hard to regain trust to be worthy of considering their input in your life.

As the ‘sugar-high’ of Trump’s re-installation fades, it will be time to again address the ‘buyer’s remorse’ of those who decided to vote ‘lesser of two evils’ or foolishly wished they’d voted for Harris instead of anti-duopoly. Harris’ projected $3.95 trillion spending increase would be just as deleterious as Trump’s $7.75 trillion projected spending increase. Biden is certainly on track to be as bad as Trump’s first four years. So as more ‘promises kept’ and ‘tired of winning’ unfolds while our hegemonic nation keeps accelerating to the edge of the cliff (indeed some care if we drive off more to the left or more to the right) please remember the folly of voting for such a highly degreed, poorly educated, failed businessman. There is no disputing Trump is an accomplished corporate welfare queen, he’s not equipped to understand promoting our general welfare over specific interests.

Let’s address the ‘big three’ issues from last month’s column. I will be Trump’s whole tenor section singing his praises if he repairs Nixon’s harm of closing the Gold Window. It would re-open at approx. $3,000/ounce thanks to following our soviet economists’ policies further enabled by Nixon and Republicans championing the removal of this monetary discipline and actually ‘Whip Inflation Now’ with Constitutional, stable coin based money. One of the most alarming things Comrade Trump promised on the campaign trail is to remove the few remaining threads of independence the ‘Federal’ Reserve still has in their power over the economy. If successful, it is easy to predict that interest rates will return to where Trump whined them down to be (dangerously close to zero) spring loading inflation during his failed (straight from the Obama/Biden playbook) Covid response. Little wonder Biden’s IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) threw gasoline on that ‘trumpster fire.’ The irony is IRAs and most anything on the exchanges (not driven by market forces) will explode again as investors again hedge against Trump’s inflation tax.

Onto uniform tax structure. Nice to hear Trump getting tariffs into the political discussion again… unfortunately, he’s shown himself to be poorly educated on the tariff history of the US and surrounded himself with more soviet economist disciples on the issue. As for the federal income tax, I worked with Dick Armey on the ‘Hall/Rabushka Plan’ to simplify the tax code and disempower the IRS. Doubt anyone in Trump’s circle remembers this plan, much less understands it… and NO readers, don’t expect the Trump team to be interested in having me or my well cited Econ journal publications on this deleterious wealth redistribution (destroying our nation) in Trump’s orbit.

Finally - a rational, Constitutional immigration policy. Much like the Reagan years, I forecast more amnesty to come. While ‘Obama the deporter’ was a good start, he didn’t seem to have much education on this Constitutional design any more than Trump. Unless Trump is given another Title 42 type excuse from his failed initial response to Covid, immigration will remain a problem [https://www.alabamagazette.com/story/2018/02/01/opinion/toward-a-more-rational-constitutional-immigration-policy/1275.html] just as observed in Trump’s first years in office. Our executives have shown a lack of knowing/understanding the letter and more importantly the Spirit of our Constitution to resolve this for our Republic… as oligarch babble of democracy carries the day.

In closing, Barabbas illustrated the hypocrisy of corrupt clergy and political sycophants. Most translations do not make clear Barabbas was assassin of Romans, killing and stealing all he could from his occupiers. For Caiaphas to promote sacrificing Jesus ‘to keep the peace’ and then call for the release of Barabbas over Christ is among the worst recorded in the Scriptures along with Judas [John 12:6] claiming to care about the poor to cloak one’s avarice. These past months I’ve seen far too many championing the path of Barabbas over Jesus… in a few decades the Temple was destroyed and Israel once again suffered the consequences of turning their back on God. Why would one expect any different fate? For me it is not a matter of hope for Jesus and God’s discipline… it is a matter of time and certainty.

Postscript: Some presidential candidates run to receive primary matching federal funds; the two of note from the 2024 primary are Jill Stein ($379,983) and Mike Pence ($1,128,977) who were soundly rejected this election cycle. Of course, Pence is more notable for the Spirit (or lack thereof) highlighted in this column. If Pence as VP had stood up to Trump’s failings from day one (instead of in the final days) and tried to shepherd him toward a righteous path, perhaps we would’ve witnessed a different result these past eight years. BTW, thanks for input on prostitucians or politutes - i.e., political prostitutes for future use. Still no consensus.

THE VIEWS OF SUBMITTED EDITORIALS MAY NOT BE THE EXPRESS VIEWS OF THE ALABAMA GAZETTE.