Category Archives: Republicans

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Daily Broadside | Trump May Have Historical Precedent Going For Him, But 2020 Is Historical Precedent Now, Too

We’re still 17.5 months away from the next presidential election, enough time for the Resident to do more considerable damage to the nation of which he is the titular head. I won’t say that he “leads” the U.S. because as we all know, he doesn’t have that capacity.

Nevertheless, we can begin fretting about how the political fight among Republicans will shape up and start making some observations. Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and conservative radio host Larry Elder have officially declared their candidacies to be the Republican nominee for president.

Of course, the presumptive nominee to beat is president-in-exile Donald J. Trump.

Historian and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Niall Ferguson, makes a prediction about Trump that has caught the public’s attention. 

Former President Donald Trump is likely to become the next U.S. president, according to Scottish-American historian Niall Ferguson.

“A second Trump act is not just possible. It’s fast becoming my base case,” Ferguson, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute, wrote in a May 13 op-ed for The Spectator.

Ferguson explained that there is a “campaign of lawfare against Trump” but the effort “has already started to backfire.”

“It may seem paradoxical that the Democrats are harassing Trump in the courts if they want to run against him. But it makes sense: the prospect of him performing the perp walk attracts media coverage, and media coverage is the free publicity on which Trump has always thrived,” Ferguson wrote.

Ferguson added, “Every column inch or minute of airtime his legal battles earn him is an inch or a minute less for his Republican rivals for the nomination.”

We already know that the DNC, the media, NeverTrumpers and social media giants like Facebook are all in to prevent Trump from becoming president again, and they’ll abuse the law in service to that end if it keeps him out of office.

I’ve said before that the greatest service Trump did for the country, perhaps apart from appointing conservative Supreme Court justices, was to expose the Deep State and their lawless activities, even if he did it inadvertently. Did you see John Durham’s report yesterday? It proves that the FBI knew the Steele dossier was garbage, but they used it as a pretext to open the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into whether Trump was a Russian stooge. It also proves that Hillary Clinton was in on the scam from the start. Think anyone will go to prison for conducting a psyops campaign during a presidential election, or nah?

Norms status: R E S T O R E D.

If Trump wins the White House again, it will be the same harassment and false charges all over again to hamper any effectiveness he might have.

What about Ron DeSantis?

Ferguson also argued that if it were a two-man race between Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, there would be “a good deal more uncertainty around the outcome,” given that the governor “still looks to be in contention” in head-to-head polling.

“When voters are polled about this crowded field, Trump is the clear frontrunner, leading DeSantis by an average margin of nearly 30 points, 52.1 percent to 22.9,” Ferguson wrote.

Currently, the Florida governor has not indicated when or if he will announce a 2024 White House bid.

I like what I’ve seen of DeSantis, but I also like what I’ve seen of Ramaswamy. As you know if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, I’m very mixed on Trump. Although if he’s the nominee, I’d crawl over broken glass and spilled vinegar to pull the lever for him.

Ferguson places the betting odds on Trump.

As for the primaries, Ferguson notes that Republican candidates that have an early lead in the polls, as Trump does, typically end up the nominee. “Early frontrunners have won Republican primaries in six out of eight competitive races since 1972, when the modern system of primaries was introduced,” he notes. “The two exceptions were John McCain in 2008 and Trump himself in 2016.”

If Donald Trump maintains his current average polling numbers throughout the first half of 2023 but fails to become the Republican Party’s choice for the presidential nomination, he would become the highest-polling candidate ever to be unsuccessful in securing the nomination. So the odds are clearly in his favor.

As for the general election. Democrats assume that Trump can’t beat Biden — and that’s probably the only reason they’re tolerating nominating a vegetable for president — particularly in light of the results of the 2022 midterms. Of course, while Joe Biden likes to take credit for that, the abortion issue was a much more significant factor than Joe Biden.

Ferguson goes on to say that the economy will be a huge factor in the 2024 election and that, historically, “The Republican frontrunner usually wins the nomination, and a post-recession incumbent usually loses the presidential election.”

I don’t know that post-2020 we can count on historical precedent. We now know that the government uses its political power to favor Democrats and that organizations like Facebook pump money into regions where they can harvest ballots on behalf of Democrats. We are becoming like the corrupt third-world countries run by tin pot dictators who hold political power by cheating and rigging and influencing the elections. I used to feel sorry for those people who voted in vain.

Now I just feel sorry for us.

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Daily Broadside | Trump To Be Arrested for Being Trump

I’ve written many times about my hate/love relationship with Donald J. Trump. I was not on the “Trump Train” during his first campaign for president. While amusing, I didn’t really like how he insulted his opponents by nicknaming them with all the gravitas of a first-grader. “Crooked Hillary,” “Low Energy Jeb,” and “Lyin’ Ted Cruz” seemed undignified for someone running for high office.

I also didn’t like how he seemed to speak off the cuff with rambling, unfocused, surface-level sounding responses during debates. Didn’t he prepare? Didn’t he have a plan? Why couldn’t he plainly tell us what it was?

And what was with his narcissistic personality? “I’m the only one who can fix our problems … build the wall … beat Hillary.” Really?

But then he got elected. And I saw how effective he was, how he put America first, and the necessity of “punching back twice as hard” as the Deep State emerged to challenge his presidency. Hands down, his most important accomplishment was not just seeing, but revealing the unelected bureaucracy hiding in the alphabet agencies.

I became a Trump fan during his first term because he reminded me of Lincoln’s words about U.S. Grant: “I can’t spare this man; he fights!” The ruling elite in Washington hated Trump and they launched a previously inconceivable and unprecedented series of sustained attacks on him, including the dirty “Russia” hoax developed by Hillary Clinton, the two sham impeachments, the misleading “expertise” of the men and women he trusted to lead us through the Chinese Lung Pox pandemic, with all of it culminating in a rigged election that installed the incompetent bumbling fool currently posing as Resident.

Trump has been out of office for more than two years, but that hasn’t satisfied the establishment. Merrick Garland’s DOJ conducted an unprecedented raid on Trump’s home over official government documents that Trump, as president, had the institutional and constitutional power to declassify. (At least, I think he did. Either way, you’ll notice that our mush-brain Resident hasn’t been treated the same even though many more documents have been discovered at many more places from when he was vice-president and did not enjoy the power of declassifying documents.)

And now, in the latest attempt to smear Trump to prevent his resurrection as president for a second term, comes news that he will be arrested this coming week on charges that he paid $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, a publicity-seeking prostitute, to buy her silence over their (alleged) liaison.

Trump on Saturday announced his impending arrest himself, writing in all caps on Truth Social:

OUR NATION IS NOW THIRD WORLD & DYING. THE AMERICAN DREAM IS DEAD! THE RADICAL LEFT ANARCHISTS HAVE STOLLEN [sic] OUR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, AND WITH IT, THE HEART OF OUR OUR COUNTRY. AMERICAN PATRIOTS ARE BEING ARRESTED & HELD IN CAPTIVITY LIKE ANIMALS, WHILE CRIMINALS & LEFTIST THUGS ARE ALLOWED TO ROAM THE STREETS, KILLING & BURNING WITH NO RETRIBUTION. MILLIONS ARE FLOODING THROUGH OUR OPEN BOARDERS, MANY FROM PRISONS & MENTAL INSTITUTIONS. CRIME & INFLATION ARE DESTROYING OUR VERY WAY OF LIFE…

Page 2: NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!

My go-to “newspaper,” The Epoch Times, writes what is behind the charges.

Trump’s possible indictment stems from the alleged misclassifying of a $130,000 hush payment made to Daniels not to disclose an affair between the two, which Trump has denied. A grand jury was empaneled in the case and expectations have been building for an indictment.

Influential people like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former GOP congressman and Truth Social head Devin Nunes have warned that if Trump is arrested, he’ll be re-elected in a landslide.

“As I’ve said for a very long time now, as the person who led the investigation into the Russia hoax, that we have slipped into a banana republic in this country where you have a two-tiered system of justice, where Democrats run scot-free, and then someone like President Trump, or other Republicans, are held to this ridiculous standard,” Nunes told the outlet.

Nunes, like Musk, believes that a Trump indictment would backfire.

“If they do move forward and indict, it’ll just make it even easier for President Trump to win election because people are going to see this for what it is,” Nunes said. “[It is] just a farce, and another attack on Trump at all costs to stop him from becoming president again.”

Maybe “it’ll just make it even easier for President Trump to win election.” If he’s publicly arrested, or booking photos are published, that might be enough to get people super angry over the double-standard standard now functionally in place across our country. But given the election “irregularities” of 2020 and 2022, do we really think the GOP will be allowed to put another president like Trump in office?

It’s clear to me that we are witnessing a slow build toward some kind of confrontation. We can’t go on like this. Either the cultural Marxists win, or true Americans win. One will be subjected to the other.

The Left’s reaction to Donald Trump’s political career has from the beginning been a classic case of a conviction in search of a crime. Charging their foes with bogus crimes is a venerable and tested Leftist tactic, going back to Stalin’s trials of his former Bolshevik comrades, whom he forced to confess to various fabricated charges of subversion in order to justify his executing them and consolidating his power as an unquestioned autocrat.

In the U.S., the Democrats enjoyed tremendous gains in both houses of Congress and won the presidency on the strength of Watergate, and they’ve never forgotten that lesson; in fact, tarring their opponents as criminals on bogus charges has become a cornerstone of their political strategy. And that is a prelude to treating them like actual criminals, complete with arrests, handcuffs, and perp walks. Whether or not it comes Tuesday, it’s coming.

Right now it’s looking to me like the American commies are in the driver’s seat. Trump calling for protests is intriguing, given the fallout of the J6 hearings that accused him of inciting the crowd to stage the “insurrection.” My question is, will the nation listen?

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Daily Broadside | Lurch Fetterman’s Lump Losing to Dr. Oz in PA Race

Daily Verse | John 11:48
“If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

Tuesday’s Reading: John 13-14

It’s November and one week to Go Time. A week from today will either be a red wave of tsunami-sized proportions or a trickle of red leaking through an overflowing toilet in Arizona. For now, I’m feeling optimistic that we will see a flood of Republican wins washing away Democrats for at least a generation.

There’s a lot going on in these last days of campaigning. Here in Illinois, which always votes Democrat because of Chicago and Springfield, Republican Darren Bailey is 17 points down to Democrat incumbent Gov. Pritzker according to a Civiqs poll (Oct. 24) listed at FiveThirtyEight.com. Over at 270toWin.com Bailey is down by an average of almost 16 percent. He’s unlikely to pull off an upset.

However, things are looking brighter in other races across the U.S.

One of the most high-profile races features Dem Lt. Governor John Fetterman, who is now behind in his Senate race with Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, who surged to the front after the Disastrous Debate Debacle featuring Fetterman’s mental deterioration after his stroke in May. That the media and the Dems (pretty sure I just repeated myself) have conspired to hide his mental state from voters and having repeatedly assured us that he was just fine, is not playing well with undecided voters.

Four polls conducted since the day of the one and only U.S. Senate debate in Pennsylvania have showed Dr. Mehmet Oz leading John Fetterman by two or three points, still within the margin of error, but suggesting Republicans are coming home to their party’s nominee while undecided voters are breaking for Oz over Fetterman. 

Just a word about Fetterman and the Dems hiding his condition. I have sympathy for Fetterman and sincerely hope he heals, physically. But I have zero compunction about noticing his condition and asking questions.

In the world of progressive utopia, we’re not supposed to notice, you know. We’re supposed to be passive and simply clap for Anyone Doing Anything. Noticing Fetterman’s mental difficulties is “ableist” according to Mrs. Fetterman and his performance during the debate should be lauded just because Fetterman and his Lump showed up.

He’d never get my vote anyway because of his hoodie-wearing, blue-collar progressive, anti-freedom ideology. Practically speaking, however, if Fetterman has an auditory processing disorder and can’t function even with compensation such as “closed captioning monitors to follow both the moderator questions and Oz’s remarks” (which, by the way, Oz didn’t have to agree to, yet did, thereby not being “ableist”) — what does that mean for processing debates at the highest levels of government?

I’ll tell you what it means: he can’t and won’t be able to process and will simply be a rubber stamp for the Democrats, albeit a very large rubber stamp. He won’t be able to think independently — but truthfully, he wouldn’t anyway.

All this to say, so called “journalists” and the Democrat party lied about his condition right up until they couldn’t hide it anymore. If anyone is “ableist,” it’s these monsters who enable a mentally deficient half-wit to run for national office.

I’m not the only one who thinks Fetterman isn’t fit for high office. Talk to the centrist Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one of PA’s largest newspapers, which just endorsed Oz.

“We believe Mr. Oz is the better bet for Pennsylvania,” the board wrote, before writing that Fetterman’s health stemming from the stroke he suffered earlier this year was not an issue for them.

We’RE NOt aBLeIST!

“His lack of transparency, however, in refusing to release his medical records is troubling. It suggests an impulse to conceal and a mistrust of the people. All candidates for a major elected office should release their medical records, as did Mr. Oz. If you want privacy, don’t run for public office,” it added.

[…]

The board wrote that Fetterman’s “life experience and maturity” were also concerns because he “lived off his family’s money for much of his life,” and had “little experience in holding real jobs or facing the problems of working people.”

LOL … a lazy do-nothing wants to continue being a slacker, just with more money and prestige.

It also cited Fetterman’s lack of apology over in an incident in which he pulled a shotgun on an unarmed Black jogger after hearing gunshots, and his flip-flop on supporting fracking.

HOw daRE yOu, rAciST!

“Mr. Oz is extraordinarily wealthy, but achieved his worldwide fame and success largely through his own talent and determination,” the board wrote. “Unlike most Republican politicians, candidate Oz spent a lot of time in poor urban neighborhoods, talking to people and, most important, listening and learning.”

Bottom line is that Dr. Oz is up 3 points and holding. Still within the margin of error, but the momentum has shifted to him. I suspect that we’ll see him win that race.

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Daily Broadside | Pence is the Quintessential Nice Guy, But He’s Not Presidential Material

Daily Verse | Jeremiah 31:19
After I strayed,
    I repented;
after I came to understand,
    I beat my breast.

Tuesday’s Reading: Jeremiah 34-39

Tuesday and there’s more than enough craziness in this country to power my blog for another ten years. Not that I necessarily want to keep cataloging and critiquing our government and the people who run it. I’d much rather that the partisan institutional power brokers are rooted out and we return to some semblance of nonpartisan governance. But that’s not happening anytime soon, and my fear is that we’re right on the cusp of crossing into a socialist society from which we won’t be able to extricate ourselves.

I don’t know Mike Pence at all except what I’ve learned of him in the news and from one of my friends who knows him. As far as I can tell, he’s a solid conservative Christian man of principle (Roman Catholic).

You may remember the outrage over his “I don’t dine alone with a woman not my wife” rule. Virtue Pick (VP) Kamala Harris had a case of the vapors over his approach, disingenuously suggesting that women’s rights suffered from men who ostracized them and limited their opportunities. Of course, when has Kamala been right about anything recently?

The point is that Pence seems like a genuinely nice guy, the kind of even-tempered soul you’d like to visit with over dinner (with both your wives).

Recently, there’s been speculation that Pence may toss his hat in the ring for 2024. For instance, he spoke at St Anselm College in New Hampshire, where would-be presidential candidates sometimes visit. But during his speech, he said something that illustrates why he’s not the right guy for the job.

Are you kidding me? We’re in an existential fight for our existence right now as a constitutional republic and you’re scolding us for criticizing and calling out the manifestly unconstitutional war that the FBI and the DOJ have levied on Donald Trump and, by extension, all of his supporters (and many who loathe the man but loathe the FBI’s off the reservation activities even more)?

Kurt Schlichter and others are warning conservatives off voting for him.

Your problem is that you live on forever in a world that no longer exists, if it ever did. You live in a world where there are norms. You live in a world of rules and guardrails, where the institutions are at least nominally neutral and where we all share some basic premises that provide common ground. But we don’t. They hate America. They hate believing Christians and Jews. They hate the idea of free speech, freedom of religion, the right to due process, and not killing babies three seconds before they poke their heads out. They think kids should be mutilated to conform to gender delusions. They want us normals disarmed, disenfranchised, and, more often than you softies will admit, deceased.

You [and Tim Scott] want to run in 2024, but you think it’s still 2005, and you both talk like a pre-failure Weekly Standard article about “empowerment” and “opportunity.” Buzzwords like that are worse than meaningless in an environment where our basic liberties are under constant assault by these communist bastards. There’s a war on and you people want to sing Kumbaya. That’s why you cannot be allowed anywhere near the levers of power in 2024. 

You just can’t accept what time it is. The FBI, Crusty Joe’s personal Stasi, invades President Trump’s home – they rifle through his wife’s panty drawer – and Tim Scott tells CBS News that we need to wait for all the facts. All the facts? Like the FBI hasn’t spent the last six years trying to frame our president and everyone around him? “Sure, they made up a lot of things in the past to imprison Trump and his staff, but this time it might be totally true – let’s give them the benefit of the doubt!” 

Mike Pence then tells us we need to go easy on the Bureau flunkies who did the deed because, after all, the institution is full of good apples. Yeah, good apples. Where are these good apples? Who’s the guy who quit because he refused to be part of the Democrats’ political hit squad? What’s his name? Jim Jordan says 14 whistleblowers have come forward. Awesome – 14 out of 35,000. That’s a good apple tart, not even a good apple pie, much less a good apple barrel. 

You always want to give the benefit of the doubt to the institutions because to not do so pushes you outside of your comfort zone. You desperately want the system to work. But so do we hardcores. The difference is that our response to the manifest proof that the system is totally broken to the point where only drastic reforms under a ruthless leader like a Trump 2.0 or Ron DeSantis 1.0 can save our country is to accept the harsh reality. We have made peace with the fact that there is nothing left to conserve, that we must loot and pillage and fight to rebuild upon the ruins. 

But you softies, you cannot get your heads around the truth of the situation because to do so would require you to go hard, and going hard is not in your wheelhouse. It’s not your brand. So you simply ignore reality and pretend that it is 20 years ago and that if you are only a good person, good things will happen.

Over at forbes.com, Pence is quoted as saying, “We need to let the facts play out, but more than anything else, the American people need to be reassured in the integrity of our justice system, and the very appearance of a recurrence of politics playing a role in decisions at the Justice Department demands transparency as never before.”

Well, yes. Unfortunately, he’s talking about law and order while we’re watching the emergence of a police state. You really think they’re going to listen to your calls for transparency? The only reassurance some of us will ever accept is if the current Stasi-cum-FBI is demolished, which will take, in part, being defunded.

As much as Mike Pence is likeable as a person, I have to agree with Kurt Schlichter and the others. He can’t be president because he’s part of the problem.

Pence seems like a genuinely nice guy, but I won’t support him for president because as nice as he is, he’s part of the Establishment, and right now we need someone who is not.

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A Biblical Approach to Politics | Part I

Being a guest on daveolsson.com is always a treat and I’m always flattered when Dave asks! Having a chance to converse with like-minded people and hopefully provide some biblically based food for thought is always a motivating prospect so, thank you, Dave!

For the next several days we’re going to be looking at a “Biblical Approach to Politics.” There’s a convention out there that says you risk compromising the needed rapport with a person to talk about spiritual matters when you introduce the topic of Politics.

But to say that “God doesn’t care about Politics” is a short-sighted perspective when you consider some of the verses we’re about to explore. Granted, God cares far more about your relationship with Him than the way you vote. But He’s the One Who facilitates governments (Dan 2:21) and He expects us to be aware and to be engaged ((1 Chron 12:32; 1 Tim 2:2). So in light of those Truths, we can base our approach to Politics and Current Events on more than a casual / hesitant demeanor and instead meet it head on with confidence and the boldness that comes from knowing that there is a Truth that can be relied on and therefore a bottom line that justifies a bold contribution to the dialogue that can and will make a difference.

Are you ready?

Buckle up!

Despite the fact that Donald Trump was defeated in the 2020 Election, his opponents continue to attack his character, minimize his accomplishments and question the sanity / morality of anyone who would support him. To some extent, you can’t help but wonder why? If he’s no longer in office, than there’s no reason to be concerned that his policies will make their way into the public sphere given the fact that he’s no longer in a position of authority.

But there’s more to Trump than just him being a political figure. He represents a different approach to politics that makes some very uneasy because of the way it reveals the lack of ethics and efficiency typical of big government and the Liberal perspective in general.

Ultimately, Trump’s platform translates to a result that’s very difficult to argue with, given the way it serves our country’s best interests. But that doesn’t change the fact that those who dislike him are especially passionate in their disdain and an intelligent conversation can be a real challenge because of the way they’re conditioned to perceive Trump as evil along with anyone who would come to his defense.

And it’s not just Liberals.

You’ve got Conservative Christians who either refuse to vote or assert a different name on the ballot because they’re so convinced Trump represents the kind of immorality that they simply can’t support.

So, why Trump?

Why would anyone support Donald J. Trump?

 Executive Summary

We’re going to break this down into several sections because there’s more to this than just an affinity for a particular political party.

 I) God & Politics

To say that God doesn’t care about Politics is to ignore the fact that He’s the One Who facilitates all governments to begin with. And while that’s obviously a nonsensical disposition, you also have the false premise that says that God doesn’t care about the laws of a nation and how they either promote what strengthens an individual or tears them down (Prov 28:2-3, 28; 29:2, 4). He does care and He expects His people to be engaged (1 Chron 12:32; 1 Tim 2:2).

 II) Your Best Option

The candidate that represents the most qualified to lead is the one who champions the approach that is most consistent with the foundation laid by the ones who defeated the most powerful empire in the world and established a system of government that, up to that point, was completely unheard of in the way it established the individual as the one who had the right to choose how they wanted to be governed and the extent to which they wanted to succeed (Ps 33:12).

 III) Who is Your Source?

Over the course of the last several decades, Journalism has become more of thermostat than a thermometer and you need to be wise in the way you process information coming from those who are vying for a position in your inbox.

 IV) Trees and Policies

Christ said you’ll know a tree by it’s fruit (Lk 6:44). However Trump is made to appear in the headlines, it is his policies that need to be evaluated in order to determine the substance of his platform and not just the commentary crafted by those who have a problem with his personality or his past.

I) God and Politics

A) God Cares

Some will insist that God doesn’t care about Politics. Because it doesn’t directly impact a person’s soul and the fact that it can be a very divisive issue to the point where a conversation about Christ becomes difficult due to the way in which political topics can poison a dialogue, the tendency is to avoid it altogether and believe that God is basically indifferent to who gets elected and what goes on in the halls of government. That’s absurd. First of all, it’s God Who establishes kings and those who are in positions of authority (Dan 2:21; Rom 13:1-2; 1 Pet 2:13). So, to say that He’s not concerned is to ignore the fact that He’s the One Who facilitates governments to begin with.

B) God’s Side

Some Christian communicators cite the answer given to Joshua by an imposing figure standing near Jericho just prior to the Israelites marching around the city as evidence that God does not take sides…

13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord[a] have for his servant?”

15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Josh 5:13-15)

God’s Sovereignty & Man’s Responsibility

If God is Sovereign, what’s the point of voting? If He’s the One Who, “…removes kings and establishes kings” (Dan 2:21), what part, if any, does the Electoral College play in legitimately “selecting” a President if God’s already made His Choice? The world is not a runaway train travelling out of control with nothing other than the forces of chance acting upon it. God is in control and you see that it in Isaiah:

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ (Is 46:10)

You, yourself, are designed with a Purpose and a Plan that was put in place before you were born…

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Ps 139:16)

Click here to read more…

The fact that the man replied by saying that he was neither on the side of the Israelites nor the Canaanites was not indicative of God being neutral and detached from the situation. The fact that it was God working through the Israelites that resulted in the successful siege of Jericho demonstrates that God was obviously invested in seeing the city destroyed. The point that was being made is that we don’t need to be asking whether or not God is on our side as much as we need to ensure that we are on God’s side and operating according to His Instructions and overall Purpose.

C) Why Bother?

But even if you’re on God’s side, do we need to be concerned about voting or even paying attention to the news if God’s Purpose is going to be accomplished regardless of our involvement? You could ask the same question about salvation, given the fact that those who are born again were predestined to be saved (Rom 8:29), yet we are to witness and Paul makes the Divinely inspired observation that you can’t expect someone to hear and understand the gospel unless someone preaches to them (Rom 10:14-15). The fact is, God has set things up in such a way where His Sovereignty exists alongside our responsibility – both are true simultaneously (see “God’s Sovereignty & Man’s Responsibility” on sidebar). Emphasizing one over the other invariably leads to disobedience and we are commanded to pray for those who are in positions of authority (1 Tim 2:1-3). The fact that our prayers are referenced as an act that makes a difference reinforces the idea that our involvement is both mandated and effective.

II) Your Best Option

A) The Template That Works

The key to political success is to model our approach according to the template used by our Founding Fathers who were able to defeat the world’s most powerful empire and to establish a system of government that, at the time, was completely unheard of. It’s that template that has allowed our country to flourish and it’s more than just political theory as much as it’s an ideological paradigm that serves as our legislative foundation. Those ideals go beyond human preferences or sensible philosophical options and it’s because they’re rooted in a transcendent Absolute that they can be asserted as functional bottom lines. The best qualified candidates for political office are those that possess the talent and the mindset that best facilitate those bottom lines – not just because they’re consistent with a successful history, but because of the way they’re based on Something that transcends human opinion and therefore avoids all of the corruption that characterizes the human condition. You can see that transcendent Absolute clearly defined in the Declaration of Independence. When we submitted that document to King George, we were saying that it’s because that God has created all men to be equal (Gal 3:28) that the individual has the right to choose how they want to be governed and the extent to which they want to succeed. It’s because it was a Divine Truth that we could logically point to as that which substantiated our claim, we weren’t just filing a complaint, we were making a point. Yes, there were other brilliant political philosophers, such as John Locke, that had contributed to the collective mindset represented by the Second Continental Congress, but ultimately it was a collection of references to God that was cited as the basis for our reasoning and not the names of several respected thinkers. This is why a candidate’s platform is so important. However noble or approachable they may appear, if their goal is to implement a worldview that runs contrary to our spiritual foundation, they invoke a doctrine that inevitably positions man as his own moral authority and the state as its own religion.

B) There’s Only Two Religions

While that may sound overly simplistic, the fact is there are only two religions in the world: Either God is God or man is God. Every religion save Christianity provides a way in which you can merit the favor of your preferred deity. With Islam you’ve got Jihad, as a Buddhist you’ve got Nirvana. Jehovah’s Witnesses strive to be among the 144,000 referenced in Revelation 7:4, Hindus pursue Moksha (MOKE-shah) in order to be liberated from the cycle of death and rebirth. Mormons believe that they themselves can attain the status of gods in the afterlife through their works here on earth (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345–354). In each scenario, while you have a supernatural element, you have the ability as a human being to tip the scales in your favor through some kind of action or mindset. Christianity, on the other hand, says that you are a spiritual corpse (Eph 2:1). You are dead in your sin and you have no option available to you that can offset your default status as a sinner that is permanently and irretrievably separated from God (Ps 14:3; Is 64:6). That’s what makes Christianity distinct from every other religious school of thought – you are utterly destitute apart from some kind of miracle that can somehow transform you in the eyes of God from being sinful to sinless. And that miracle is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

See you tomorrow for Part II!

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Daily Broadside | Trump Candidates Win Bigly While Brandon Struggles to Stay Afloat

Daily Verse | Ezra 6:14
So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendent of Iddo.

Thursday’s Reading: Ezra 7-8

Thursday and while I’ve written several posts about the leaked SCOTUS opinion reversing Roe v. Wade and there are still a lot of ripples from that dastardly, unconscionable, cowardly, illegal and unAmerican act of sabotage, there are other things happening while we suffer under the fraudulent Brandon junta that need some daylight to encourage us.

The recent CIVIQS rolling job approval average shows that Brandon is underwater in 46 states. Might I remind you that we only have 50? That means the cockwomble in the White House is scorned by 92 percent of the country. The other eight percent in the four states where Brandon is loved are:

  • Hawaii: 49 percent approval, 41 percent disapproval
  • Maryland: 46 percent approval, 42 percent disapproval
  • Massachusetts: 46 percent approval, 42 percent disapproval
  • Vermont: 51 percent approval, 37 percent disapproval

What the heck is going on in Vermont that more than half of voters “approve” of the job he’s doing?

Overall, the poll showed Biden with only 35 percent approval from the respondents and a 55 percent disapproval, and ten percent who have no opinion. The poll showed Biden with net approval of negative 19.

Here’s Brandon’s perpetual popularity calculation over at FiveThirtyEight, where the gap is not quite as wide (10.5 points) but nonetheless disastrous for the “chief executive” of these United States. You know he’s not chief executive-ing anything.

And here’s RealClearPolitics favorability ratings chart from May 11 where he’s upside down by 9 points.

And still we’re expected to believe that Brandon totally got #81MillionVotes, you guys, because he was so wildly popular and would restore our norms and put the adults back in charge. The greatest fraud foisted on We the People in the history of these United States.

Meanwhile, as Brandon circles the drain, president-in-exile Donald J. Trump continues his streak as kingmaker.

Tuesday’s results make Trump-endorsed candidates 58-1 in the midterm primaries thus far, as all 22 candidates who received the 45th president’s nod in Ohio and Indiana won their races on May 3, while all 33 Trump-backed candidates in Texas either won their primaries or advanced to runoffs. Of the May 3 races, the most notable victor was J.D. Vance in Ohio, who earned the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate with the help of a late Trump endorsement.

The most puzzling of Trump’s endorsements is Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz over surging opponent Kathy Barnette. Oz is not a conservative; he has supported transgenderism, abortion and red flag laws, all of which are opposed by conservatives.

On the other hand, Barnette is a black conservative Christian woman who was conceived when her mother was raped at age 11 by a 21-year-old man. She is well within the margin of error in the polling.

Seems to me that Trump would do better endorsing Barnette. However, you can hardly argue with his record of 58-1 in the midterm primaries. The real test will be in November as Republicans try to heave the dead wood out of the swamp and gain veto-proof majorities so that come 2024, the table is set to permanently roll back the serious damage done by the anti-American communist stooges in the White House and the deep state.

On the other hand, Resident Brandon is slow on the endorsements. Not sure if it’s because he’s being selective or that no one wants him within spitting distance of their campaign.

Biden has made just four endorsements since taking office: Reps. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) and Shontel Brown (D-Ohio), as well as former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who lost a bid to regain his old job last fall.

I’m guessing the latter.

This is all good news, for now. With the economy in decline, food shortages looming, inflation still up at 40-year highs, gas prices in the mid-four-dollar ranges, rising interest rates, mostly peaceful illegal protests outside of conservative Supreme Court Justices’ homes, a new Ministry of Truth headed by a partisan liar that is nothing more than a tool to go after conservative voices in the public square and so on and so on — it seems that even the liberals among us have had enough.

Let’s hope that holds true through the end of the year so that we can neuter Brandon and make him a lame castrated duck for the rest of his White House occupation.

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Daily Broadside | November Is Looking Good to Deliver a Reckoning

Daily Verse | Genesis 43:30
Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep.

Tuesday’s Reading: Genesis 45-47

It’s Tuesday and in the midst of the catastrophic failure of Brandon’s administration and the assault on our nation by domestic Marxist forces there continues to be scraps of good news that we can point to that offer some hope of political relief. The latest comes from the Gallup organization with a report that shows a seismic shift in political preferences over 2021.

On average, Americans’ political party preferences in 2021 looked similar to prior years, with slightly more U.S. adults identifying as Democrats or leaning Democratic (46%) than identified as Republicans or leaned Republican (43%).

However, the general stability for the full-year average obscures a dramatic shift over the course of 2021, from a nine-percentage-point Democratic advantage in the first quarter to a rare five-point Republican edge in the fourth quarter.

How rare?

The GOP has held as much as a five-point advantage in a total of only four quarters since 1991. The Republicans last held a five-point advantage in party identification and leaning in early 1995, after winning control of the House of Representatives for the first time since the 1950s. Republicans had a larger advantage only in the first quarter of 1991, after the U.S. victory in the Persian Gulf War led by then-President George H.W. Bush.

The key here is independents.

Regardless of which party has an advantage in party affiliation, over the past three decades, presidential elections have generally been competitive, and party control of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate has changed hands numerous times. This is partly because neither party can claim a very high share of core supporters — those who identify with the party — as the largest proportion of Americans identify initially as political independents.

Overall in 2021, an average of 29% of Americans identified as Democrats, 27% as Republicans and 42% as independents. Roughly equal proportions of independents leaned to the Democratic Party (17%) and to the Republican Party (16%).

The percentage of independent identifiers is up from 39% in 2020, but similar to the 41% measured in 2019. Gallup has often seen a decrease in independents in a presidential election year and an increase in the year after.

Statistically we have the same number of Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. So why do the Dems seem to have an outsized influence on our political affairs? It’s all about the independents.

Although a registered Republican, I philosophically became an “independent” during the 2016 presidential election and have only hardened my position because I’m disgusted by both parties; the Democrats for being a criminal organization akin to the mob, and the Republicans for being the political equivalent of the Keystone Cops i.e., a do-nothing squish foil for the Democrats.

I feel a lot like Kurt Schlichter who writes about the reckoning that the Republicans must deliver to the Democrats if they win back the House and Senate this November.

November is coming and what they have sown they shall reap. They have sown failure. They shall reap a House ruled by Kevin McCarthy and a Senate by the murder Turtle and the pain will begin – at least it better. The base is in no mood for hands across the aisle. Time to deal the pain.

Also, it will be fun to see Democrats fall in love with the filibuster again.

The reckoning begins in the House. We must have our vengeance, both to satisfy the reasonable craving for justice on the part of the base and to teach the Democrats that there is a price for crossing us. Ilhan Omar needs to get booted from her committees because she is as anti-Semitic as she is brother-curious. Toots Swalwell has got to go from the intel committee – you cannot have people who get suckered into tacky sex with mediocre-looking Chi Com honeypots on that board. And Adam Schiff must go too – he leaks worse than Biden’s colon at the Vatican.

But that’s not all. McCarthy must make the Dem poobahs pay. All the Democrats who worked for years and years to become ranking members of their committees? Throw them off their precious committees. Why? Because they let Pelosi screw Republicans. This is the price. All their dreams must die.

Exactly. I will be beside myself if the Republicans don’t deliver a smackdown on the Democrats. Not because I think it will change much, but because we live in an increasingly kill or be killed political world foisted on us by the ideological descendants of Stalin and Mao.

It’s long past time to clean out the rat’s nest that are the Democrats. Republicans may, once again, be given a chance to show some spine. They better take it.

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Daily Broadside | The UniParty is Strong with Ted Cruz

Daily Verse | Genesis 11:4
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Thursday’s Reading: Genesis 12-14

It’s Thursday, January 6 and the one-year anniversary of when the ruling class and their enforcers staged a Reichstag fire at the Capitol that netted them not only hundreds of men and women to harass, but also a foundation on which to build the lie that “white supremacist terrorism” is the most lethal threat we face in this country. They have continued to build on that theme and openly fret that the outgroup will overthrow the 2022 and 2024 elections and destroy our “democracy.”

For instance, here’s Chinese noodler Eric Swalwell taking it to the extremes:

“Democracy nearly died”?

Really?

You’re sure that’s not an exaggeration?

Swalwell is the last guy to be talking about the death of “democracy.” He sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and was literally in bed with a Chinese spy. Did Democracy “nearly die” while you were being intimate with Fang Fang, you compromised flak?

Why this guy still has a job is beyond me, but he’s a Democrat, you see, and the rules are different for members of The PartySM.

Besides, Swalwell is all about election integrity, doncha’ know.

“If we don’t get it right”? You mean rigging it again? To preserve your precious “democracy”?

I hate to break it to you, genius, but we’re not a “democracy.”

What’s amazing is that everything the Demokrats accuse the Republicans of doing is exactly what the Demokrats are actually doing. It’s a massive exercise in projection and gaslighting.

What really irks me though, is that Ted Cruz, a reliably conservative voice in the Senate, weighed in today with comments about J6 that, to me, sink any enthusiasm I might have had if he chooses to run for president in 2024. (I voted for him in 2016 as a write-in candidate before my thinking on Trump turned a corner.)

“We are approaching a solemn anniversary this week. And it is an anniversary of a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol, where we saw the men and women of law enforcement demonstrate incredible courage, incredible bravery, risk their lives for the Capitol,” Cruz said at a Senate Rules Committee oversight hearing Wednesday with Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger discussing Jan. 6 security failures.

For him to use that language—”a violent terrorist attack”—is to play right into the hands of our oppressors. JANUARY 6 WAS NOT A VIOLENT TERRORIST ATTACK. Nobody bombed Pearl Harbor and nobody turned airliners into missiles. Nobody blew up a cafeteria with a suicide vest, nobody ran down pedestrians walking along a sidewalk with a truck, and nobody lined up captives on a beach and beheaded them all.

To apply that language to a mass trespassing event is to trivialize 9/11 and oversell J6.

And as I wrote yesterday, the only people to die on January 6 were Trump supporters, all of whom encountered violence from the Capitol Hill Police. One was shot without warning at nearly point-blank range as she climbed through a broken window. Should she have been doing that? Absolutely not. Should she have been killed for it and should her killer get off scot-free? Absolutely not.

I’m not saying J6 was defensible. It wasn’t. I condemn vandalism and trespassing. But it wasn’t what the Left makes it out to be or, unfortunately, what the Right now makes it out to be.

No wonder the country is going to hell.

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Daily Broadside | Trump is More Than a Former President

Daily Verse | Proverbs 14:34
Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a disgrace to any people.

Thursday and I’ve been thinking about something I wrote a few days ago:

Waving a “Trump 2020” flag wasn’t stunning or brave. But it was a step of activism and I was able to express my opposition to the fraudulent Biden administration. Not because I want Trump in office (although I do) but because it’s an act of defiance against the ruling junta.

There’s a lot that’s unconventional about Donald J. Trump. He’s got zero verbal discipline, for starters. He just goes with whatever he’s thinking and lets it fly without considering that a leader of the free world might better off be judicious with his words. On the other hand, you know exactly where he stands on the topic he’s discussing.

“Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.”
— Proverbs 17:28

He’s brutal with the personalized pejorative. We all know them: Lyin’ Ted, Sleepy Joe, Low Energy Jeb, Crooked Hillary, Little Marco, Cryin’ Chuck and Shifty Schiff, to name a few. I confess to having enjoyed them applied to those I consider enemies of the republic, like Hillary Clinton and Adam Schiff, but it really bugged me that he tagged Ted Cruz as a liar during the primaries without anything to back it up. But even I have to admit — inventing nicknames for those he wanted to beat was an effective tactic, taken right from the pages of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals: “#13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize, and polarize it.”

From The Last Refuge (aka The Conservative Treehouse):
“The raw and unfiltered President Trump is the best Trump. President Trump endorses Mo Brooks for the Alabama Senate seat; and smacks Mitch McConnell and his DeceptiCon crony Richard Shelby in the process.”

Trump is also one of the biggest narcissists I can think of. He boasts about himself and what he’s accomplished, often polishing his accomplishments with superlatives like “tremendous,” “biggest,” “best,” “amazing” and “terrific.” In 2013 he wrote on Facebook, “Show me someone without an ego, and I’ll show you a loser — having a healthy ego, or high opinion of yourself, is a real positive in life!” The flip side is that he has accomplished some incredible things both in private and public life and, when he talks of them, he’s being factual. But he doesn’t demonstrate humility in leadership.

“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
— Proverbs 16:18

Trump is pugnacious and always ready for a fight. I’m not sure I think this is necessarily a drawback. If you believe, as I do, that we are being forced into a defensive posture in the cultural Marxist’s war on the United States, then we need people who are willing to fight. As I’ve written before, Trump reminds me of what Mr. Lincoln said of Ulysses S. Grant: “I can’t spare this man. He fights!”

I say all of this because, while I say I want Trump in office, the truth is that, for me, Trump is a symbol of opposition to the corruptocrats in Washington, D.C. He was everything they aren’t: willing to put the American people’s interests before the interests of the ruling class. Domestically he brought businesses back from overseas, made us energy independent, presided over one of the hottest economies in our history with record employment, including for minorities, and a stock market on fire. Internationally, he pulled us out of the wealth-transfer grift, the Paris Climate Accords, he put Iran on notice, put the screws to China and brokered the Abraham Accords in the Middle East. He did all of this in one term and was still going strong when the not-made-in-a-Chinese-lab (wink wink) WuFlu was unleashed by the CCP.

I’d much rather have Donald J. Trump in the White House than the fraudulent dementia patient who sleeps in the People’s House these days. Trump’s not your typical politician, he gets things done, his heart is (mostly) in the right place, and he genuinely loves this country. I am deeply aggravated by the power the unelected bureaucracy has over us and the astonishing depths of foul play they engaged in (with no one — no one! — paying any price for the illegal things they did).

I support Trump for the simple reason that he symbolizes resistance to the State; that he stands for me and millions of other Normal Americans; that his ongoing presence reminds the Deep State and the Techopolies of their corruption; and that Trump may be one of the only men capable of standing up to the ruling class.

Do I wish that he was more refined? Sure.

But I’ll take the unrefined Trump any day over a man who leads with lies and wants to install a permanent socialist regime in the country that was once (and for many, still is — see Cuba) the greatest symbol of freedom in the world.

Keep America Great, America.