Daily Verse | Daniel 6:23b
And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

It’s Tuesday my friends. I’ve had enough of kumquats in the fruit salad.

I wasn’t always interested in politics. In many ways, I was your typical naïve citizen who believed that all of our presidents and congressmen were good men and women who sought the best for the country, revered our founding documents, and were worthy of the office.

It wasn’t until later that I discovered that many of them were scoundrels who played dirty out of sight of the public. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed historic civil right legislation but predicted that, by doing so, he would “have those n*ggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” Then there was Richard M. Nixon, who infamously lied about what and when he knew about the Watergate break-in and eventually resigned in disgrace as he faced certain impeachment and removal from office.

Still later, as I matured in my political knowledge and understanding of how our government operates, I began to see that even Republicans — the party of Lincoln! — and, ostensibly I thought, the keepers of tradition and conservative values — weren’t “conservative” as a whole. There were conservatives, of course, in the Republican Party, but there were also moderates and liberal Republicans — even libertarians!

And then I began to see a frustrating pattern. Democrats would be shredding the Constitution, our traditions, our morals, and the Republicans would make a lot of noise opposing the Democrats — but nothing would change. Republicans just sit there and act as if they’re powerless to do anything.

In other words, it slowly dawned on me that many Republicans were part of the “establishment” just as the Democrats were. And that awareness left me feeling politically homeless.

I write all of that to set up what has been a further disappointment coming out of the 20th anniversary of September 11. Former president George W. Bush gave a short speech at the 9/11 memorial service for Flight 93 in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Bush was president when the Islamic jihadist terrorist attacks were carried out, and he helped set the tone and the direction for the nation in the immediate aftermath of the devastation. He was generally lauded for his leadership then.

But now this speech.

In his brief comments, Bush likened the American citizens who breached Capitol Hill on January 6 to the radical Islamic jihadists who flew suicide missions on September 11, killing nearly 3,000 innocent people.

There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit and it is our continuing duty to confront them.

That’s right. George W. Bush compared American citizens protesting a clearly questionable election result to Islamic extremists. The only people to die that day were two of the protestors, with one being shot by a Capitol Hill officer and the other possibly being killed by Capitol Hill police using “a highly noxious gas on protesters.”

The protestors had no guns, didn’t kill anyone (not even the officers who subsequently died of other causes!) and most simply wandered through the building like lost tourists. Those that did cause damage should be charged and held accountable, as many are.

But it wasn’t an insurrection.

That didn’t stop Bush, whose comparison was appalling. While he didn’t specifically mention January 6, his words implied who he had in mind by leading with “their disdain for pluralism.” He didn’t mention BLM or Antifa, either, and we know those two movements, which celebrate “pluralism” and disdain whites, have been more destructive to our national bonds than anything that happened in January.

Bush is part of the swamp and his comments demonstrate a frightening fact: it’s not just the Democrats who despise conservatives — it’s the entire ruling class that they’re a part of, including men like George W. Bush.

Our political machine is rotten through and through, and those fighting against it from the inside, like Donald J. Trump was, are the exception.

“So interesting to watch former President Bush, who is responsible for getting us into the quicksand of the Middle East (and then not winning!), as he lectures us that terrorists on the ‘right’ are a bigger problem than those from foreign countries that hate America, and that are pouring into our Country right now,” Trump said in a statement distributed by Save America PAC.

[…]

“He shouldn’t be lecturing anybody!” Trump added.

George W. Bush agrees with the illegitimate junta that America’s greatest threat are patriots who dispute the last presidential election and are therefore “domestic terrorists” or, as some have called them, “the American Taliban.”

We are under the illusion that there are two main political parties fighting each other for power and influence, but when you get right down to it, they are all part of the same untouchable elite who disdain “Normal” Americans.

It’s deeply disappointing, but instructive.