by Mike Pyatt
The American population has been pushed into thinking about the 2020 election prematurely by the crowded Left leaning anfractuous Democrat field. The 2016 post election narrative that Trump stole the election persists to this day in congressional halls and by the 24/7 mainstream media peddlers. Hillary’s still the victim. President Trump has drastically changed the economic and political landscape for overall good. The extent and the rapidity of unfolding events has been the great surprise to even the “never trump” stalwarts. That over-hyped forecast of an American nightmare, only in the cranial recesses of the Democrats, never materialized.
Fortunately expanded government intrusion in our lives has been temporarily slowed. WikiLeaks couldn’t penetrate Hillary’s armadillo-like veneer, with Comey’s FBI running interference for her. President Trump served as a political stringent, revealing the true face of the feckless, fading establishment GOP. For that, they vilified him. To this day the Bush and McCain klan cudgel him. Joe Biden’s China doctrine, “they’re good folks.” Trump called China’s forked tongue bluff for the first time in decades. Who’ll blink first? Not everyone’s pleased with the proposed tariffs. While the two countries haggle, Iran lurks nefariously behind the scenes, saber rattling, emboldened by former Secretary Kerry’s reckless, some labeled treasonous, meeting with Iran officials last year. President Trump issued a stern warning to the Ayatollah.
To be genuinely thankful, one must understand what we’ve dodged by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 defeat. The Supreme Court would be unrecognizable had she prevailed. Many of our Constitutional liberties would be up for grabs. Hillary would’ve appointed nearly five hundred lower court activist judges, and countless federal agency monarchs. The reach of the EPA would be unrelenting, and more tyrannical. Fossil fuel and fracking would’ve been brutalized. Coal miners would be wax museum replicas. Secular progressives are in derision of constitutional conservative judges. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, not jurisprudential twins as expected, would be unknowns under Hillary’s reign. It would be ugly. Political elites would prosper. Pay-for-play would be a quotidian event.
Absent the Rule of Law, our way of life in this Republic would be dramatically diminished if any of the Left leaning Democrats occupy our White House in 2020. In major urban cities, lawlessness will continue to escalate. After nearly seventy years of Democratic reign, Chicago’s chaotic, deadly, war-zone street killings, are a preview of coming attractions in other rural inner cities like Baltimore. Economic liberty would be displaced by the further expanding, corrosive role of the disastrous monetary policies of the Federal Reserve System. Executive orders under Trump have been strategically targeted for our overall good. Like all mortals Trump’s imperfect. For those who love the unborn, what President has done more? His policies and executive orders mirror his words, vociferously apposing late term abortions in unambiguous terms.
History offers a menacing template. It may resemble a “road map to Hell,” notwithstanding the GPS’s unrecognizable detour. How then are we to live in a corruptive culture? Russian novelist, dissident, and Gulag outcast, exiled in 1974, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, understood, pointing out that the foundations of lawless expediency were firmly established by Lenin, paving the way for the famous “showcase trials” of 1937, under Stalin. He identified the root cause of lawlessness as the willingness for citizens to assure national security at any cost. He wrote, “From the most ancient times justice has been a two-part concept: virtue triumphs and vice is punished.” The DOJ would continue to be the “Department of Injustice.” Evangelicals, whose staunch support of #45 still hovers around 75%, found little comfort knowing the only time the Clintons darken a church door, it’s a black church, when they’re running for office, or passing the collection plate. Bill Barr would be only a cameo from the Bush 41’ DOJ.
The tangled web of corruption and vice foisted on us for nearly thirty years from the Clintons and eight years of Obama, justly fueled candidate Donald Trump’s often derided chant, “The system is rigged.” Under Hillary, virtue would’ve been laughable and vice laudable. Her cronies and indefatigable supporters aren’t resistant to the corruptive nature of her sinister devices, including the GOP establishment who rallied to “dumped Trump,” However, not the 63 million who voted for him. If Hillary would’ve moved in the White House again, like the State Department and the Clinton Foundation, it may be mortgaged in four years. Comedian Tim Allen humorously reminded us, “The Clintons are like herpes. Just when you think they’re gone, they show up again.” They’re more pernicious. Sadly, there’s no inoculation against them-except a sound 2016 thrashing by Donald Trump. Indefatigable commentator G.K. Chesterton’s quip on corruption, “The doctrine of original sin is the only doctrine verified by thousands of years of human existence.”
While governments rise and fall, Christian’s timeless marching orders haven’t changed. Anent government, we’re reminded in Romans 13:3-5, “For rulers are not a cause for fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on one who practices evil. Therefore it’s necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.” That’s why police are a threat to the lawless, and the primary reason thugs and anarchists like Antifa refuse to submit to or obey authority.The guiding principles of Scripture supports the conviction that civil authority’s legitimate.
What about a corrupt government? Must we surrender to corruption? Religious liberty’s a big deal. Peter and John were arrested for preaching the Gospel in a hostile public square. They refused to abdicate. Government overstepped its authority. They were obligated to obey God. Christian loyalty is to Jesus Christ. We’re to pray for our leaders. Our role’s not passive. Influencing the culture and civil government is in our realm. We’re to be watchman, understanding the seasons and times we occupy. Opposing wickedness and injustice. President Trump boasts strong support from a broad cross section of the nation. How would we fare under Bernie Sanders or other radical Democrats? Would they usher in the dire “Orwellian 1984” warning?” Is Facebook’s dominance, with 2.3 billion users, more ominous? What about MicroSoft’s “autocorrect” feature? A threat to free speech? Corruption’s first a state of mind, that stitches together a formidable phalanx, despite what side of the political isle it emanates or behemoth social corporation with deep pockets and shallow souls.
Would Christ ultimately become a “political prisoner” under Leftist Democrat’s rule? Would orthodox Christianity systematically be unmoored from its roots in terms of daily practice. Our calling is to be light in darkness. It has been said, “Persecution is two parts opportunity, one part crisis-God always brings opportunities out of crisis.“ Must we reach the nadir of our sufferings before we awaken? We’re not exempt from persecution. What do you think?
Mike Pyatt’s a Natrona County resident. His email’s roderickstj@yahoo.com
