Yes, Character Counts and Kamala Harris Will be a Strong President Who Works to Unify This Country

There's Nothing New About Trump's Meltdown of the Past Three Weeks

Reading comments on a couple of social media sites, and a message board, it seems that many people seem to be just now waking up to Trump's unhinged ranting and rambling word salad, full of hatred, bigotry, incitements of violence, threats of killing and murder, a narrative that is best characterized by the words "hate-filled insanity."  I've seen comments from news media outlets wondering about this "descent into an abyss" of desperation, which include streams of obscenity and vulgarity, leaving the general impression that "he wants to lose this race."  

This isn't anything new.  This is the Trump who he has always been.  Old age is certainly taking its toll on him, physically and mentally, requiring thicker makeup.  But even in his younger days, this guy was the bully on the school playground, the cheater in the classroom who never got caught, the vulgar, immoral, worldly businessman with the potty mouth and the gimmicks to get around the rules.  He has always been an off-putting, selfish braggart who is incapable of humility. empathy or normal human relationships.  His inability to deal with loss and failure is psychotic.  

Whatever one might think of his niece, Mary's opinion of him, all it takes is a thorough read through of her book and then sitting down and observing his behavior to see that she nails it, and she knows exactly what she is talking about.  I find his television programming to be deliberately insulting and capitalizes on putting people down in order to make money.  That's his bottom line.  He has no leadership skills, he leads by intimidation purchased by money.  Whatever success he has comes from cheating, fraud and lying.  

Unfortunately, when he first started running for President, I didn't take it seriously.  I thought it was a joke, like everything else he touched turned out to be.  I figured he'd be a flash in the pan like usual, and once people realized where things stood, the GOP would throw him on the pile with its other failures, and move on.  I lived in Pennsylvania at the time, and my next door neighbor, in a small community of 250 people, who had served as mayor, a county supervisor, a school board member and was the local chair of the Republican party, was actually the one who made me take Trump more seriously.   A loyal Bush supporter, he was horrified at the prospect that Trump could become the Republican nominee.  

"He'll kill the party," he said.  Turns out he was right.  

Kamala Harris is a Model of Integrity and Leadership Ability 

In spite of all of the rhetoric from the extremist right, and the childish name calling and vulgarity in Trump's insults, there isn't anything about Kamala Harris that even resembles a scandal.  Her middle class background is well documented and well known.  In a state where there's a lot of high quality competition in the legal field, she rose to the top.  She had a remarkable career as a prosecutor, representing the people, with a record that even conservatives must respect.  That gets lost in the rhetoric.  

The fact that a lot of conservatives who lean toward a white supremacist view of American idealism have been critical of her background only affirms that her upbringing is exactly what America is all about, and who we are to the rest of the world.  We are a nation of immigrants, regardless how long it has been since our ancestors came here.  Her parents came here, worked to provide for their family in the atmosphere of freedom that they came here to experience, and build a foundation for their children's success with their own hard work.  Harris is as American as it gets, in a country where the quality of one's character matters more than the color of one's skin.  

Her campaign has not shown any of the vulgarity, the insulting, demeaning attacks, the racism and bigotry or the threats of violence that are characteristic of her opponent's campaign.  I have not seen one fact checker find her to be out of line anywhere.  She's been Vice-President, not President, so criticism of administration "policies" in her name is inaccurate.  Those same critics would not want to credit her with achievements of the current administration, such as the roaring economy, the successful fight against inflation, the fact that there's been no recession as a result of their inflation-fighting strategy and that she will enter office following four straight years of solid economic growth.  

Give credit where credit is due.  

I'm not voting for Harris based on lock step agreement with her politics, though I see very little to which I would object at this point.  I'm voting for her because she has values and exhibits integrity in her conduct that is in vast contrast to her opponent.  She understands American idealism and the Constitution and how constitutional democracy works.  But her campaign has made me believe she cares about Americans like me.  And she picked a running mate who has helped with that impression, since I started my career out as a high school social studies teacher.  

I was raised in an Evangelical church, Southern Baptist to be exact, and in church and in the university and graduate school I attended, both related to the denomination, learned a set of virtues and values based on the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I no longer identify as Evangelical, precisely because the use of that term in association with far right wing Republican politics now means a deliberate departure from the Christian gospel, in favor of supporting a political candidate who denies the gospel openly, in order to pursue an agenda by the use of political power.  I would rather have a President in the White House with character, than a corrupt liar.  

Kamala Harris earned my vote.  I hope she has earned the vote of a hundred million other Americans.

Longtime Texas Evangelical Pastor Declares Support For Kamala Harris "For Character and Competence"

I'm a conservative evangelical pastor who's voting for Kamala Harris

I'm voting for character and competence and and for the candidate who has the capacity and the bandwidth to demonstrate respect and high regard for everybody made in the image of God.  Republican Donald Trump doesn't have Harris' character, her competence, or her capacity."  Dr. Dwight McKissic, Pastor, Cornerstone Baptist Church, Arlington, Texas  

"I Don't Even Recognize the Republican Party Anymore"

The two key positions on social issues that are the very cornerstone of the relationship between Evangelicals and the Republican party are abortion rights and gay marriage.  It's not about economic policy and the fact of the matter is that what agreement now seems to be standard fare for conservative Christians on economic policy, isn't the result of their biblical perspective, but of their support for Republican politics as a result of its position on social issues.  Most Republican economic policy flies in the face of biblical principle, and the teachings of Christ.  

As Dr. McKissic notes, the Republican party has abandoned its long standing call for a national abortion ban, and has removed the language that says marriage is between a man and a woman.  That's because they were told to do so by Donald Trump, because he sees these two issues as political liabilities.  There is no conviction there on either of those issues.  Trump sees these things as hindrances to getting votes, and he also thinks his Evangelical constituency cares more about their loyalty to him than they do about anything else, and that they will sit still for this, and abandon their convictions because he wants it that way.  

Dr. McKissic is one of just a few Evangelical voices raised in protest to this abandonment of the main reasons for their political involvement with the GOP.  They are more interested in gaining political power that potentially comes with a second Trump Presidency than they are in the convictions and spiritual power of their own faith, at least, most of them are.   And so they are following a man whose actions can be described by a passage of scripture found in Paul's epistle to the Christians in Galatia, 5:19 as "the works of the flesh."  It's hard to claim to preach truth, and then give personal support, through the ballot box, to a man whose character is described as licentious, but who openly rejects the very truth that these preachers claim to be preaching.   

As is the case in politics, which this particular pastor appears to recognize, character and conviction are far more important than planks in a political platform when it comes to the ability of the church to minister, win converts and thrive in an atmosphere of religious liberty and freedom of conscience.  The fact that the Democrats support a more secular position when it comes to both abortion rights and gay marriage doesn't prevent Dr. McKissic or his congregation from practicing their convictions regarding either of these two issues, and it does not impose any kind of requirement on them in any tyrannical way.  

And let me tell you what I know about Cornerstone Church when it comes to these two issues.  They do not condemn in hatred, they minister in love, and people who are struggling with all kinds of things in their life do not see this church as a place to avoid, but as a place to run to for help that they need.  Yes, they have convictions they believe are informed by their faith when it comes to abortion and to human sexuality, but they also make a priority out of loving God and loving their neighbor, and not condemning in judgement but ministering in forgiveness and compassion.  And they understand the  commission given to them by Jesus, recorded in Matthew 28-18-20 in the New Testament.  People will not be condemned at Cornerstone, they will be loved and helped and cherished and restored. 

And while I cannot speak for the congregation, the impression their pastor makes is an indication that he is as grieved and heartbroken over the deaths of women in Texas resulting from refusal of hospitals to treat them because they are pregnant, and because of the risk to the medical personnel because of its draconian laws.  Being pro-life is more complicated, and requires understanding all of the implications of banning a medical procedure.  That's not pro-life, that's ignorance of the consequences.    

Seeing the Real Issues Past the Politics

I believe that withholding medical treatment from mother suffering from a pregnancy-related complication that has been determined to be unresolvable and potentially deadly for her by continuing the pregnancy is just as immoral, and wrong, as an abortion performed solely for the purpose of birth control.  The problem is that abortion is a medical procedure, and what is done during that procedure is the same, whether it is life saving treatment, or not.  Believing that the government has no business making that decision, or even informing it, is a far cry from the accusations of being "baby killers" that is part of a shrill and unproductive debate on the subject.  

I'm sure those who scream this would not want to be called "mother murderers," by the same token. 

Vice President Harris understands that in running for public office, to be the President for all Americans, requires keeping personal beliefs and convictions out of her campaign for President, because she recognizes that she must be the President for all Americans, and that religious liberty and freedom of conscience, guaranteed by the first amendment, means the religious perspective of all Americans, or the absence of one, must be considered and served.  When it comes to character and competence, she is a far better choice than Trump, who has shown us exactly who he is, as Pastor McKissic describes him, "adulterous, childish, habitually lying, and criminally convicted."  

Harris is a Baptist, and a member of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, which means she has gone through the conversion experience that is part of being a member of an Evangelical church and includes conviction of, and confession of one's sin, repentance, being prayerfully forgiven by God in declaring that Christ is Lord and Savior, and joining the church by being baptized, by immersion.  I'm sure that her perspective on the issues of gay marriage and abortion are things she has had to figure out how to reconcile in order to serve in public office in a constitutional democracy where religious liberty and freedom of conscience include the right not to be a member of a religious faith, and not be discriminated against because of that choice.  

Dr. Adrian Rogers, late pastor of the Bellevue Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee, preached a sermon back in 1998 called, "Does Character Count," aimed at discouraging Christians from voting for a politician even though they may agree with a lot of his policies, if his character was questionable.  HIs target at the time, of course, was Bill Clinton.  But Dr. Roger's words still apply.  A man who cannot be trusted by his own wife cannot be trusted by the country.  Character is the greatest requirement to serve in the oval office, above the various platform issues we all think are so important.  But America has a responsibility for stability in the world which requires strong, competent, moral leadership.  

You're right, Dr Rogers.  And so are you, Dr. McKissic.  We need a competent, compassionate, strong leader, and Trump doesn't quality for multiple reasons, including his immoral behavior, his traitorous insurrection incitement, his pathological lying which removes him from reality and sanity, and his desire to wreak vengeance on his perceived enemies.  

I hope the American people, or at least enough of them who are thinking the same way, show up to vote on tuesday.  

This is the Most Consequential Election of My Lifetime

"So what happens if the President of the United States gets a speeding ticket?" 

Though it has been a while, I can remember, in high school history and government classes, asking the impossible, most extreme scenario questions about government, the Constitution and government leaders, and having teachers reassure us that the extremes were possible because the Constitution is law that limits the extent and power of government, but that they were very unlikely because the safeguard was always the voter and the ballot box, and the fact that the government can be changed by the people over a very short period of time, if they so choose.  

Of course, the President does not drive, which prevents his getting a speeding ticket.  But there was never a real answer about what would happen if a President committed a crime, because the assumption was that a President would be someone with the kind of integrity not to have to worry about it.  

And now, in just a few short years, as I approach the end of my educational career, we are facing an election in which one of the candidates has a criminal record, had a record of fraud, corruption and both business and moral bankruptcy long before he ever ran for office, and when he finally succeeded in getting elected, incited a riot to attempt to overturn an election, committed crimes on his way out like stealing classified documents, and in spite of all of that, was nominated by a major political party and is running again, this time with the goal of achieving immunity granted by a corrupt and paid-off Supreme Court, three of whose justices he appointed himself.  

It's the American nightmare no one ever imagined. 

The system has failed.  The justice department managed to prosecute most of those who committed crimes in the attack on the Capitol.  It hasn't yet got around to prosecuting the perpetrator in spite of a mountain of evidence against him delivered by a Congressional committee a full year before any action was initiated against him.  The political party he belongs to has lost its political and moral convictions, with money now being their bottom line, and has sold out to a fascist approach to keep itself in power, because it's having trouble winning elections.  

So going back some 40 years ago to that high school or college classroom, learning about American History and government, what we are seeing is the worst case scenario that we could ever have come up with to challenge a teacher to figure out how to answer, happening before our very eyes.  No one could have ever imagined a Hitler-quoting and admiring fascist, who prompted and incited a violent riot against the Capitol of the United States during a joint session of Congress while verifying and counting electoral votes, and who did everything in his power to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, violating the Constitution, would walk free, and actually be able to run for office again.  That would be way beyond our imagination, and the reality that there is no Constitutional provision against this happening would have been unfathomable.  

And in the 1970's it wouldn't ever have been imagined that the Republican party would be the vehicle through which this could happen.  We saw what went on with Nixon.  And we were horrified when Ford issued his pardon, which, to our relief, ended his political career.  I can still remember the feeling of betrayal, sitting in the living room with my Dad, when the news reported that Ford had pardoned Nixon.  

My Dad stood up, walked over and shut off the television.  

"That bastard got away with it," he said.  "Well, that's the beginning of the end of this country."  

On Tuesday, we will see if the last restraint against an attempted takedown of American Democracy holds.  And that's the power the Constitution gives to the people through the ballot box. I'm appalled that there are still so many Americans who are blinded by Trump.  The fact that anyone would want this despicable, demagogue anywhere near the White House is disconcerting, and means that we can't stop fighting against the bigotry, prejudice and disrespect for the rule of law that he represents.  

That is, if the law about how those votes are cast and counted holds up in the face of an increasingly corrupt justice system that has itself suffered from deranged partisanship.  Do we still have the ability to conduct a free and fair election that represents the will of the people?  

We will see. 

For Your Evangelical Pastor's Sunday Morning Sermon Illustration

Trump Does the Unthinkable in Milwaukee Rally Speech 

Does your pastor use a lapel mike, or a hand held one?  This could be a great ice breaker, an attention getter for sure, especially if the congregation is made up of Trumpies.  It could go along with all of the other vulgarities, horrible foul language, outbursts of anger, and threats to kill people he doesn't like, like Liz Cheney, as an illustration for a sermon entitled "What A Christian Running For Political Office Looks Like."  

Well, why not?  If you're going to vote for him, you might as well let everyone see exactly what they're getting.  As my West Virginia born mother always used to say, "You might as well eat the devil as to drink his broth."  

Whether Trump wins or loses, we are going to get something good out of this election.  We are going to know who the wolves are in sheep's clothing in the church.  Much of what is identified as "Evangelical Christianity," especially the media evangelists and those claiming the ability to be prophets and apostles with a direct line of revelation to God are phony.  A lot more people are seeing that.  There will still be easy marks who are duped, but Trump support has helped out the phonies.  

The Biden Administration Can Claim a Clean Sweep of Objectives for the American People

Listening to an online segment of a podcast by political expert Rachel Bitecofer the other day, I understand clearly that one of the big differences in politics now, from even thirty years ago, is the proliferation of literally thousands of different sources of information.  It is virtually impossible to get media saturation, which means that there is a ton of misinformation, and a lot of just plain ignorance of what is going on.  Unless something is hugely sensational, a majority of the population, all equipped with several electronic devices and access to hundreds of sources of information, and mis-information, won't know about it.  

It's that lack of competent, factual information, delivered with journalistic standards for accuracy and truth, that has led to the very false impression that the country is headed in the wrong direction.  That's just rhetoric.  The facts prove otherwise.

I'm just a blogger, a professional in the education field, an amateur journalist because I got a minor in English with some courses in journalism, edited my college newspaper for two years, and worked in small market radio for a while.  But I think this is worth putting out there, with some links, in this narrow window of time before the election, because I haven't really seen any news coverage that wraps this up.  

The Biden administration has been successful in resolving everything that has been raised as an issue in this campaign.  We've covered the legislative success he achieved when he had a cooperative Congress during his first two years.  And I'm going to underline the relative success that was achieved by a mid-term election cycle in which the party in power held on to the senate, and while they did lose control of the house, the margin has been too narrow for any GOP advantage to develop.  The Republicans did more to sabotage themselves than to own any libs.  

Let's start with some of the biggest successes that are campaign issues.  The evidence of achievement flies in the face of the impression of those Americans who think the country is going "in the wrong direction."  Clearly, it's not, and that's a false impression.

Inflation

The inflation rate was managed by careful moves with legislation and with management of interest rates by the fed, along with some tactics by the administration, such as selling off parts of the national oil reserves at high prices and replacing the sell-off with oil at a lower cost.  There's a lot of that kind of thing that goes on, people aren't aware of it, but it helps an awful lot.  

The infrastructure bill which Biden succeeded in getting passed, has been huge in keeping job growth going and the economy flourishing.  I can actually look out the window of my apartment on the far northwest side of Chicago, and see three separate projects funded by this bill, including the replacement of the storm drain system in the neighborhood just to the south, which was old, and had collapsed, causing flooding of my building's garage in heavy rains, the elevating and replacing of electrical transmission lines along the major street in front of our building with safer, sturdier poles and which will lead to the installation of much needed traffic signals, and a project to add off ramps to the exit at the edge of our municipality, off I-294, which promotes business development at that intersection.  

And of course, the inflation rate is actually down below normal levels.  Joe told us that there was no quick fix, that it would take a couple of years, but they would get it done, and they have succeeded, without triggering a recession and without affecting job growth or increasing unemployment!!! 

I'm happy to say, I have seen ads from the Democrats which celebrate this.  

Immigration

President Biden was willing to sign a border bill drafted by Republican Senator James Lankford, in a spirit of bi-partisan cooperation and recognition of a need on both sides of the aisle.  The proposed bill did several things which were necessary to secure the border, including beefing up the border patrol and doing some hardening up of infrastructure in areas where the biggest problems were occurring. It was a rare bi-partisan measure, not just a knee-jerk reaction, to resolving issues surrounding an immigration problem caused mainly by large numbers of political refugees from Venezuela seeking asylum in the United States.  

Trump, who, it should be noted, encouraged Venezuelans to come to the United States during his term in office, as a slap at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, told Republican Senators not to pass the bill because he wanted to run on immigration as a political issue, appealing to racist bigots among his base who are white supremacists and America first fascists.  

I'd have preferred to see the Democrats make this a hill on which to die, and that they'd gone ahead and busted the filibuster to ram this bill through.  But, the next best thing, which actually gives 100% of the credit for resolving the crisis, at least temporarily, was President Biden's executive order.  The Republicans are seen as playing politics with border issues, while the Democrats can now take 100% of the credit for taking the crisis seriously and doing something about it.  

And the crime rate has not gone up as a result of the number of immigrants coming into the country during the political upheaval in Venezuela, or the ongoing issues in Central America, or with the Haitians who have come here in large numbers for quite a while now.  The Trump campaign and the GOP have left plenty of evidence of their lies in this regard for voters who care to find it and look at it. 

Four Years of Stability Following Four Years of Inept, Incompetent, Instability

By every measure of political success, the United States has experienced what will go down in history as four of its best years in every regard.  The President secured the NATO alliance, provided assistance to Ukraine's military enabling them to hold off a Russian invasion and actually make advances into Russian territory to cut off some of their ability to keep their hold on its eastern provinces.  If Harris wins the election, Putin will find a way to back out of Ukraine, because his only hope for holding on is for Trump to be elected and cut off their help.  

We got out of the incredibly expensive and futile war in Afghanistan, in spite of the meddling, of Trump actually inviting Taliban leaders to Camp David in an incredibly incompetent move, undermining the elected government helped by George Bush's "nation building" failure, kicking the can down the road and leaving the problems for Biden to solve, which he did.  He organized an evacuation of over 100,000 Americans and Afghans out of the country in a matter of days, when Trump seemed incapable of making a next move after undermining everything by declaring we were going to leave.  

We have the hope of this continued success in our current Vice-President who has all of this as a foundation on which to build, with tax and economic proposals that virtually all leading American economists, including those at the conservative Wall Street Journal, have said will lead to far more prosperity for the American people than Trump's tax cuts for billionaires and tax added to retail and consumer goods through his proposed tariffs.  

Electing Kamala Harris as President of the United States on Tuesday will give her the opportunity to provide the same kind of success.  Let's give her a house and Senate that will help keep us moving forward.  

Voting is a Big Deal, and an Informed Electorate is Essential to the Preservation of Democracy

As the teacher of a high school honors civics class in the early 1990's, I always encouraged my students to register to vote when they turned 18.  I gave them a 100% as a test grade when they showed me their registration card.  They got another grade bonus if they could prove to me they voted.  

When these students would come to my honors class as juniors and seniors, their lack of interest in both American History and American Government was appalling, and I mean appalling.  The quality of Texas' education system is already seriously lacking.  It took a lot of energy to come up with ways to get the students interested and engaged.  I was big on group research and presentation, and it helps when they are finding the information and they have to make it relevant.  

But, I also shared a practical anecdote.  

I told them that I was a member of the baby boom generation, born literally right in the middle of this largest of generations at the time.  I said that their lack of interest in their government, economy and history didn't bother me.  My generation understood the importance of being informed voters and doing their civic duty.  There were more of us than there were of the generation of the students seated in my classroom.  

"Don't get too interested," I said.  "My generation is informed and votes at high percentages, and when we get old and are facing retirement, we will just elect politicians who will steal you blind, and put it in our Social Security and Medicare.  So don't vote, OK?"  

I don't know how well that reverse psychology worked, but two of my former students are now county district attorneys, one is a county sheriff, and one works as a Congressional intern.  So maybe they got the message.  But there's a lot of truth in that tongue-in-cheek statement.  In a constitutional democracy, the power is in the ballot box.  And if those who have the responsibility for it are uniformed, or not interested, it can become dangerous to the preservation of the democracy. 

More Required Social Studies Education 

I'm going to get on my soap box here, and rant for a couple of paragraphs.  The emphasis on school improvement in this country falls to math and science, because American students don't score as well on international assessments in these subjects.  But as we look at the dynamics of this election, it's pretty obvious we need to improve what students need to know about civics and American history in order to preserve our democracy.  How else is it possible for a convicted felon and rapist who himself organized a failed, but deadly attempt to attack Congress in the middle of counting electoral votes, to even be re-nominated by a major political party?  The rest of the world is asking that question.  Why can't we explain it? 

Several years ago, my wife and I hosted a foreign exchange student from Switzerland.  He was 16 years old, in his third year of what would be the equivalent of an American high school, spoke three languages, including his native Swiss-German, English and French, and was taking Russian in school, was placed in a Calculus AB class, in which he earned A's, and had enough of a working knowledge of American History to get A's in the class and help other students understand the objectives.  He was able to identify and explain political ideology in terms of both philosophy and government policy and understood differences between Democrats and Republicans more than almost all of his classmates.  And in Switzerland, he wasn't considered an honor student, though his grades were good enough to get into the University of Bern, where he earned a law degree. 

And for Swiss students of his age, that's typical.  The Swiss managed to remain neutral in the center of the hostile political environment of Europe, through two world wars that raged right up to their borders and to the edge of their airspace, and preserved their nation.  They value both their neutrality and their independence and they understand that an educated and informed electorate is the key to preserving both of those things.  It's a requirement for students in their educational system, and failure isn't an option, they must pass before leaving school.  

Their education system may also be one of the reasons why they have one of the highest percentages of personal gun ownership in the world, and no mass shootings.  John Dewey, considered the modern father of American public education, believed that education was the key to social reform for the benefit of a free society, and he was absolutely correct.  

An educated and committed electorate, made up of true patriots, would never tolerate such an insurrection, would have prosecuted the instigator along with the participants, and would never have been in the situation of having him become the nominee of one of the two major parties.  That must be fixed as soon as possible. 

Breaking Up the Commercialization of the Free Press

There is a free press in the United States, genuinely free, unencumbered by obligations that prevent it from telling the truth.  The problem is that because it has freed itself from corporate interests and ownership, it has a very small audience.  It tells the truth, can be trusted, holds politicians accountable and is actually fair and balanced.  

The Pacifica Radio Network is a good example.  It is a non-commercial, not for profit entity that owns five radio stations outright, in Houston, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Washington, DC and New York and has a larger network of affiliates.  Another of my favorites is The Texas Observer.  It may be considered a liberal leaning publication but it most definitely fits the definition of a free press.  And another favorite, Baptist News Global, has a religious context, but is Baptist in the historic, cultural context of what that means, not in the Evangelical context.  

I've been particularly frustrated at the fact that our corporately owned media is turning out to be more of a propaganda outlet than a free press.  It's become an apologetic mouthpiece for Republicans and for Trump, who has been the main subject of most of its reporting for over nine years now.  I can't remember a single day since the man first started running for President that the media, fascinated by his corruption and his ability to get away with just about anything, hasn't reported some news item that mentions his name or something he's done.  And if that's not a personal propaganda outlet, then I don't know what is.  

And let's be honest.  If reporting had been fair, balanced, and followed any rules of journalism, he would not have been elected the first time.  

Fighting to Keep Democracy Alive is Hard Work

Our own prosperity may be collapsing in on top of us.  Something once considered the most enlightened idea of the enlightenment, the American Republic, is dying.  It's dying because intolerance which I believe is the product of prosperity, has created such a rift along racial, ethnic, economic, social and religious lines that some Americans cannot stand to be around other Americans and cannot tolerate things protected by freedom of conscience. 

The projection from the far right is fascinating.  They accuse us of planning to do everything they are planning to do if they win.  Many of them seem to think that people who don't get in line with the conservative, religious right's way, the world will be destroyed.  They believe, wrongly, that God's judgment is just waiting to put the hammer down because of America's corporate "sins" in spite of the fact that there is no such thing.  

I do find it funny, and horrifically inconsistent, that those who believe that God is going to judge the United States for its sin, specifically for allowing abortion to occur within its boundaries, have chosen a worldly, corrupt, rapist, convicted felon and pathological liar as a presidential candidate.  Somehow he will be the one to save the country.  Not the prosecutor who has spent her entire life fighting crime. 

We are the ones to whom the task of saving America's constitutional democracy has been left.  We will have to do it at the ballot box.  Once we're able to make that happen, we need to seriously think about doing some of what I've suggested to keep this from ever happening again.  It's going to take a long time to get Trumpism out of American political life and culture, if we can ever even do so.  It will have to be something that happens among the younger generations, and involves our education system.  

Pro-Choice, Pro-Life and LGBTQ Rights Explained For Those Right Wingers Who Don't Get It

Before you pass over this article and move on to something else, give this a few minutes of your time and consideration.  For progressive, liberal, woke, Democrats, this is a perspective you can use when those Evangelical family or friends in your live back themselves into the corner of defending all of Trump's anti-Christian, anti-Patriotic, lying, cheating immorality because they are pro-life, and they stand for morality "against the onslaught of LGBTQ proliferation into our culture and society."  

And so does Trump.  And by eliminating abortion rights, and stopping the proliferation of LGBTQ intrusion into our culture, he will "make America great again."  

Get ready for what will be part rant, part sermon, part Bible lesson, part common sense.  That's all coming.

A Faulty Perception of "Abortion Rights" With Hot Button Words Like "Baby Killer" Applied

I'll get back to the "proliferation of LGBTQ intrusion" in a few paragraphs.  But let's start with the elimination of abortion rights.  I hope we can clear up a lot of ignorance. 

Most Evangelicals who have made this their top political issue have almost no understanding at all of what happens medically when a law is written that essentially dictates how a medical procedure can be performed.  The only thing that comes to their mind is that an abortion is murdering the life of an infant, because life begins at conception, and abortion is nothing more than birth control.  

Does life begin at conception?  

That would be an exclusively religious perception, if it is true. However, in Evangelical doctrine, any assertion of the truth of a statement must be supported by a correctly interpreted scripture, applied according to its context.  And there is no specific place anywhere in the Bible that makes this statement and declares it to be true.  There are, in fact, very few places where there is any kind of teaching on when human life actually begins.  There are a couple of examples where a child in the womb was identified, or, in the case of John the Baptist, "leapt" for joy when Mary came into the presence of her cousin Elizabeth, John's mother.  But there is no conclusive support for a doctrine stating that human life begins at conception.  It is inferred, but inference is not authoritative in Evangelical theology.  So they have come to a doctrinal conclusion without sufficient evidence to support their claim.  

Is all abortion performed exclusively for the purpose of birth control?  

This would be so much easier if that actually were the case.  Unfortunately, it's not, and that's why the simplistic "ban" of abortion that most Evangelicals are seeking is an impossible issue.  

Abortion is an invasive medical procedure.  And any time such a procedure is regulated by law, it removes all of the medical benefits the procedure was developed to deal with.  That's exactly the aspect of this that Harris' campaign has been demonstrating, by their use of examples.  They're not showing mothers who wanted to get an abortion because the pregnancy was unplanned and unwanted.  They're showing examples of women who couldn't get the medical care they needed to save their life because doing so involved removing the fetus to stop the spread of sepsis or some other potentially fatal infection.  But the restrictive abortion bans in the states that passed them since the Roe v. Wade decision was made have not taken that into consideration.

This occurs in about one out of every four pregnancies, not an insignificant number.  That's way too many women to put at risk for the government to control how, or if, a medical procedure can be performed.  It should be up to the family members, husband and wife, to make the decision about what happens at this point, not the government.  As long as there is a necessity for an abortion to save the life of the mother, in a grave and tragic situation, then it cannot be legislatively restricted, even if this kind of decision only represents a fourth of all abortions.  If just one mother's life is at risk, then a ban is not worth the cost of a life.  

And while smart-ass retorts are not the point here, the fact that the mortality rate among women with pregnancies gone wrong in these states has soared since the bans were put into place makes those legislators and governors "mother murderers," right? 

A More Thoughtful Approach Which Takes Constitutionally Guaranteed Freedom of Conscience Into Consideration

Kamala Harris is exactly right when she claims that putting a mother in a situation where her life is in danger, and a doctor will not provide life-saving care for fear of being sentenced to life in prison is immoral.  She's also right in saying that this is a choice which is a matter of conscience, involving the mother, and her pastor, rabbi, priest or imam, not the government.  Determining at what point life begins is a matter of individual conscience.  Believing that life begins at conception is solely a religious belief, not a scientific conclusion, nor something on which everyone agrees.  

Personally, I believe an abortion should not be used as birth control, but should only be performed in cases where the life of the mother is in danger. That's based on my own convictions, which are derived from my Christian faith.  But, as a male, I'll never be in position to have to make that kind of decision.  And when I have been involved in decisions about my wife's health, I've left those up to her, since she is the one who must live with whatever consequences result.  The complications of the presence of a reproductive system in a woman's body make her health care more complicated.  That is not the domain of government. 

And the fact of the matter is that the life of the mother doesn't really appear to be a consideration at all, as women have been denied care altogether when reproductive health is at stake in many of these states, left to bleed out and die in hospital parking lots because no choice is offered, as doctors fear being imprisoned for life under the penalties.  That's not a pro-life position.  

Trump's Position is Not Pro-Life

Those who hang on to their support for Trump because, well in spite of all of his immorality, lying, cheating and general worldliness, he's still pro-life are going to be sorely disappointed by this information they have been deliberately side-stepping.  Trump is not pro-life.  

His position is that abortion legislation should be decided "in the states."  Falsely claiming that "everyone wanted this to go to the states, that's what they said, the Democrats, the Republicans, wanted the people in the states to decide," he said first of all that he was "fine with it" if a state wanted to make abortion legal, as long as the people had a chance to vote for it.  

"We were kind of surprised at some of the conservative states," he said, referencing pro-choice referendums that have overwhelmingly passed everywhere, including Ohio, Kansas and Kentucky, among others.  "But that's OK, if that's what they want."  

And during the debate with Harris, when the subject of a six-weeks limit on the window for getting an abortion for birth control purposes, he said "six weeks is not long enough."  That's exactly what he said, and it's just as clear as a bell right there on video. 

Trump's abrupt shift in position, while at the same time duplicitously lying to his core followers about his choice of three justices on the Supreme Court who did overturn Roe, which he takes credit for, is just one more example of the man's dishonesty and lack of integrity.  He's been told by his campaign managers that his support for overturning Roe v. Wade is at the top of the list of reasons why a clear majority of voters, over 67% in the cases where it's been on the ballot, are opposed to his re-election.  So he had to come up with this "they wanted it in the states" nonsense to try and counter that, and in so doing, he was willing to throw his Evangelical supporters under the bus, because he thinks they're losers and suckers.  

And frankly, if any of them keep supporting Trump after this, it would be difficult to deny that.  

LGBTQ "Rights" Are Not Being Forced Down Anyone's Throat

After we clear out some ridiculous conspiracy theories, such as your little boy going to his kindergarten class in the morning, returning in the afternoon as a little girl, because he got a sex change operation at school, is not true.  That's really very understated.  Believing something like that is beyond stupid and ignorant, but I want to keep this civil, and it's hard not to just come apart at the seams over the ignorance a statement like that represents.  No wonder people think conservatives, many of them also Christians, are gullible and feather headed idiots.  

Every American's personal freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution.  That includes those who are of a different race or ethnicity, religion or denomination, level of income, level of education, whose family doesn't have one white dad, mom and two kids.  It means that an atheist has the same rights as the pastor of the country's largest megachurch.  

No one is forcing anything down anyone's throat.  The Constitution guarantees the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  That does not have to occur within your personal frame of reference or convictions to be legitimate.  But I have a word here for my Evangelical friends, to read, and to apply as they would something they believe to be divinely inspired, inerrant, infallible, and the written "word of God."  

"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"  

He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets."  Matthew 22:36-40 

"You have heard that it was said, 'love your neighbor and hate your enemies.'  But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in heaven."  Matthew 5:43-44

It might be kind of difficult to love both your neighbors and your enemies, and then advocate for taking their rights away because their life is lived in a different way than yours is, or their skin color is darker, or they are lesbian, gay or transgender.  I don't see any exceptions to this principle anywhere in the Bible.  If there's something sinful about the way they've chosen to live their life, they need to resolve that between themselves and God.  It seems that our responsibility, which is actually a demonstration of the sincerity of our own faith, is to love them the same way we love ourselves.  

Whether a person is gay, lesbian, transgender or bi is, frankly none of anyone else's business.  If that's sinful, it's not anyone's place to determine whether it is or to pronounce judgment on them, according to Matthew 7:1-5.  To step into their life, or to advocate for some kind of persecution as a result of their life is tyranny.  They answer to no one, out of their free will, other than God.  But however they decide to live their life, that has no effect on anyone else.  We are all free to live the life we choose, and whether or not others are gay, lesbian, or transgender is not tyranny to us.  

It's a fact that religious liberty and the constitutional provisions for a free conscience benefit white, conservative Christians more than any other group of Americans.  There's no persecution or tyranny at all, and any claim that there is should be accompanied by proof.  

There is no Christian Justification For Casting a Ballot For Trump

In 1998, a prominent, well known Evangelical pastor, Dr Adrian Rogers, went to his pulpit and preached a sermon he called, "Does Character Count?"  It was a Christian argument, using the scriptures, against casting a ballot for Bill Clinton, basically disqualifying him based on his immoral behavior more than on his positions on issues, such as health care, which many Christians supported.  

If those statements and arguments applied to, and disqualified Clinton as a viable President, then they haven't changed, and they apply to, and disqualify Trump as a viable Presidential candidate.  

It's because of Trump's lack of character that this Christian won't vote for him or support his run for office.  Along with that, his incitement of the January 6th attack on the Capitol, his opposition to Constitutional democracy, his openly immoral behavior, including multiple adulterous affairs and his rape of E. Jean Carroll, just about everything he did in his first, failed term in office, his insistence on maintaining worldliness and immorality as his "brand," his claim that he hasn't done anything requiring God's forgiveness because he "doesn't see God that way," his current tariff and economic policies, his intention to cut Social Security and Medicare, his flip flop on abortion from pro-life to pro-choice and his horrendous lack of knowledge of women's reproductive health care, and his racist bigotry and misogyny, are the main reasons this author, who considers himself Christian, has not in the past and will not now cast a ballot for Trump, or for any other Republican who supports him.