This is What the Conservative Agenda Looks Like. Are You Willing to Accept This?

Rick Pidcock: Conservative's Agenda for America Looks Like my Bob Jones University Handbook 

In the third paragraph of the linked article, author Rick Pidcock, who was raised in fundamentalist Christianity, says this: 

"In my two decades growing up in fundamentalist Christian institutions, the schools dictated to our families where we could go to church, how we were to dress, what music we were allowed to listen to or movies we could watch, even what coffee shops we could patronize.  In short, they had complete authority over our family.  

So imagine those people expanding their territory to include entire cities, states and countries."  

Imagine, indeed.  

Get a clear picture of what that would be like, because that is exactly what the part of the MAGA political movement that has emerged from within the Evangelical Christian segment of the American church is aiming to do.  

When people like this tell you they are going to do something, when they get the power to do it, believe them.  And then do everything you can to keep them from getting the power to do it.  

Pseudo-Christianity is at Work

The conservative agenda blended with conservative Evangelicalism is not what I call "Biblical" Christianity.  That is to say, it is not the Christian gospel, nor is the practice of faith which emerges from the faith formation caused by the Christian gospel political in nature, nor does it promote any of the controlling aspects described by Pidcock in his experience at fundamentalist colleges and universities.  That kind of perspective and means of control is based on "proof texting," which is simply citing single verses from the Bible out of their context to justify a controlling practice.  

There's a wide gap between the academic study of the Bible, in its historical context, along with using the literary forms of its original languages, contrasted with the single-verse citations of fundamentalist Christianity, which doesn't even consider the fact that the authors never intended to have fragments of their work lifted out of context in a "verse," which is neither a literary device nor a complete thought, but merely a numerical reference added by the early printers of the Bible to find specific passages.  It's not possible to come up with a literal application of a 2,000 year old work written in the ancient version of several foreign languages, Greek and Aramaic specifically, which are not easily translated into English without understanding its historical context.  

Fundamentalists and many Evangelicals get around this by simply declaring that the Bible is inerrant and infallible, and that it's spiritual inspiration is both verbal, meaning the very words were inspired by God himself, and plenary, meaning that the whole, which is the sixty-six books of the Protestant Bible according to them, is inspired, and nothing else.  

The practice of Christian faith that emerges from that blend of error compounded with error is a legalistic system of works, required to please God into blessing the nation in which one lives, specifically, a "Christian" nation, meaning one in which a majority of the population is Christian.  It is as far from the genuine, Apostolic-inspired Christian gospel as any other cult that has emerged from Christianity, like Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses or Christian Science.  

But it has become dangerous because it has inserted itself into far right wing politics, via leaders like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, and to a lesser extent, Franklin Graham and Rush Limbaugh, the latter of whom helped build the bridges between the secular aspects of far right extremism and fundamentalist Christianity.  There's no trusting human nature, so instead of a faith that is based solely on God's grace for the forgiveness of human sin, a set of required works is substituted for the salvation experience.  Morality cannot simply be inspired, according to these people, it must be enforced.  And since their own leadership includes the only pastors and church leaders who know the truth and aren't afraid to tell it, no other churches can be trusted, the Catholics and mainline Protestants have all gone apostate, according to them, and attendance at their worship services and classes is required, along with a set of rules to obey to prove individual worthiness to God in order to live correctly and go to heaven at physical death.  

If America Doesn't Follow These Rules, God Will Judge it and Destroy It, Just Like Ancient Israel 

The centerpiece of this false gospel has been the Roe v. Wade decision.  Abortion is the main reason for God bringing down his judgment on America like he did to ancient Israel for their idolatry.  Never mind that there's no such covenant found in the scripture pertaining to any other people on the face of the earth, except Israel, or that the covenant of the Christian gospel is not made with nations or countries, but with individuals.  So instilling the fear that God will judge America like he did Israel because of the sin of abortion is the centerpiece of the union between ultra right wing Christianity and ultra right wing politics.  

The only way to save ourselves, according to them, is to submit to their rules, and their authority, let them have the power and maybe their righteousness will appease God and keep him from destroying the country.  This will also involve the destruction of all of the evil elements in society holding it back from God's favor.  The name for this, in some Christian circles, is post-millenialism.  It's the idea that if the Christians are in political control of a country, they are helping to usher in the return of Christ.  

Are You Willing to Live Under This System and Rule?  

So I'm going to ask a straight up question.  Is this the America you want to live in?  Because this is what it will become if Trump is ever elected again.  So if this is what you want, then do everything in your power to facilitate Trump's re-election, because he will give these people the power to do whatever they want to do, in order for him to be President, and get away with doing as he pleases.  

Here's a very simple way to prevent this from happening.  Keep this, put it on your refrigerator, and remind yourself that you still have the power to stop this from happening to our country.  

• You must cast a ballot in the next presidential election.  
• Set aside all of your petty little issues, Biden's age which is a non-factor, your tendency toward hyper-progressivism or reserved moderate tendencies, and all of the side issues that are trendy to talk about but dangerous to vote for, and cast your ballot for Joe Biden.  Not Jill Stein.  Not RFK Junior.  Not No Labels.  Not some irrelevant distraction funded by Russia.  
• Vote ONLY for Joe Biden for President.  No protest, no uncommitted.  Joe gets your vote.  
• Do not fail to show up or make sure you drop your mail in ballot in the box in plenty of time for it to be counted.  You must vote, and any vote that a Democrat or committed independent makes for anyone besides Biden will be a vote for Trump. 
• Vote STRAIGHT PARTY DEMOCRAT for down ballot races.  Not third party, STRAIGHT PARTY DEMOCRAT.  

Is that simple enough?  

Conflicting Parental Messages in Highly Publicized Arrest of Congresswoman's Son

Westword: Details Emerge in Arrest of Lauren Boebert's Son, Tyler

Controversial Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert's son Tyler was recently arrested for allegations related to multiple crimes in the area around where he and his family lives, near the town of Rifle, Colorado.  He's eighteen, and has been charged with both felonies and misdemeanors.  His arrest has gathered a lot of media attention, not only because his mother is a member of Congress, but because she is a right wing extremist who campaigns while also touting her Evangelical Christian faith, at least, in the way she understands it, in its white, Christian nationalist form.  

As much as I despise her political perspective, and her hero worship of the MAGA cult leader instead of being a patriotic American, I think leaving her son and his troubles out of the scope of politics is the best course of action to pursue.  Her ignorance and inability to function as a productive Congresswoman is one thing, open to criticism and the target of a movement to get her ousted through the ballot box.  But dragging her son, and her family problems into the mix is a different matter.  For his sake, this needs to be left alone for them to handle as they see fit, and as they are capable of doing. 

According to the article in Westword, the Congresswoman appears to be holding her son accountable for his actions while supporting him because he is her son.  Asserting that he "should be held accountable for poor decisions as should any other citizen," she stated, sounds like she's not expecting that he would get any special treatment because he is her son.  

It would be tempting to ask her if this same attitude applies to Trump, in her mind, given the crimes for which he has been indicted.  But, at least publicly, she's not asking for special favors for her son.  Whether law enforcement in their hometown takes that same attitude may warrant keeping an eye on this situation.  But using this as a campaign wedge is as far out of bounds as it is for Republicans to try to get to the President through making allegations about his son.  At the very least, I hope she gets this, and backs down from her position regarding the President's son.  At least, this may make her think twice, or we can always hope that it does.  

His father seems to be another story.  

He chose to blame all of this bad behavior, from the sexual relationship that led to his grandson's birth out of wedlock, to his son's felonious crime spree, on the COVID shut down, and all of the other "social shut downs" associated with it.  That's ridiculous and unfounded.  Yes, his son is in the media spotlight, because of his mother's election to Congress, and more specifically, because of her extremism and her skewed Christian nationalism. But look at the example he's been given to follow. His father also had some highly publicized misdeeds exposed because of the media attention given to his mother.  He doesn't have any standing to blame anyone else for his son's behavior.  

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, who has been a very vocal critic of Boebert and her politics, justifiably and rightly so, has said that the media needs to back off of this problem, which they must resolve on their own.  He's right.  The media attention isn't something her son chose for himself, and it shouldn't be something that alters what would be the natural course of events if he weren't the son of a highly visible, controversial extremist congresswoman.  

Boebert has plenty of strikes against her when it comes to her re-election.  Her son is off limits.  

So is Hunter Biden.   

"And They'll Know we are Christians by Our Love..."

Baptist News Global: Texas Pastor, Former SBC President Name-Calls Immigrants "Undesirables, Garbage and 'Raff'"

"Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love."  I John 4:8  

Preaching politics from the pulpit, instead of the text of the New Testament, the Christian gospel, is a clear sign that the church has been hijacked, and is in a state of apostasy.  Churches like the one referenced in this piece, Second Baptist Church of Houston, Texas, have never been about Christian ministry, evangelism or preaching.  They are collectors of large amounts of money, affluent congregations gathered in large numbers for protection from being asked to volunteer or do anything meaningful ministry-wise, to advance the mission and purpose of the church, who attract celebrity pastors addicted to the opulent lifestyle, and power they have over their congregation.

The preaching, which is a carefully constructed "feel good" inspirational piece, along with a nice dose of conservative ideology and aimed at the "perceived needs" of the congregation is pop psychology in a religious package.  It's orchestrated, with the worship music, and even the visuals, including set decorations, lighting and a blend of video and photographic images, aimed at making the point.  And the Christian content is usually just some dressing on the side.  The theme is completely pop psychology with a religious perspective and endorsement. 

So here is Ed Young, who has been pastor of Second Baptist Church since 1978.  He took what was a downtown church to the suburbs and under his leadership, saw its weekly attendance grow from 500 to about 30,000 on multiple campuses scattered around Houston, and a membership of over 80,000, mostly by attracting members from smaller churches around them which could not compete with the smorgasbord of ministry offerings at Second.  

Young turned being a pastor into a commercial enterprise.  Branding his product sales under "The Winning Walk," the name of his broadcast ministry, he packages and sells audio and video recordings of all of his sermons, as well as his books.  He has turned a church building into a commercial enterprise that includes a bookstore carrying his products, a fitness center and "family life center," where all kinds of things, including fitness training, can be purchased, a restaurant and conference center, and the church's sanctuary, holding about 10,000 people, has been designed to host concerts by Christian artists who sell their recordings in the lobby.  The facility was also built to accommodate conferences which attract high dollar keynote speakers and money from participants.  

The picture that comes to my mind is the description, in Mark 11, where Jesus cleared the money changers and merchants out of the Temple.  I've been to concerts there, and to worship services.  And that's my perception of it.  It's also a pretty protected pulpit.  Young doesn't leave it much, his sermons are broadcast to satellite locations, rather than having a pastor at that location preach.  At one point, before the video technology became available, he would take a helicopter from the Woodway campus out to the Katy campus to preach, to avoid traffic and get there in time to preach.  

Intruders in the Church

When I read stories like this, I keep going back in my mind to this verse in the obscure little book of Jude.  "For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness, and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."  

Reading this piece in Baptist News Global made me angry.  The authors description makes it sound like this pastor is stoking hatred among the members of his congregation, venting personal frustration and getting in his political attacks on politicians he doesn't like.  It's nothing like his biblically based "sermon series" from which he earned his reputation.  As my Dad used to say, "It sounds like he's stopped preachin' and gone to meddlin'."  It sounds like a mega church pastor who has let his power and influence set the course of his preaching.  

He's not alone.  False religion has stolen into the pulpits and churches of this country.  It goes back to Jerry Falwell and his "Moral Majority," and to Pat Robertson and his "Christian Coalition."  There's absolutely no biblical support for Christian churches to become agents of secular politics, and this sounds like that, with a heavy dose of the heresy of Christian nationalism thrown in for good measure.  It's a far cry from his preaching in the earlier days of his ministry, even if most of that was done to make a nice package to wrap up for peddling purposes.

Young is just another example of a Christian church sliding into apostasy.  

Randall Balmer and Jemar Tisby: Lusting After Political Power by Christians Results in the Loss of Their Prophetic Voice

Baptist News Global: Balmer, Tisby Say Christians "Lose their Prophetic Voice" while Lusting After Political Power

Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty: Christian nation ideology came early and has stayed late in American history.

Post Alley: Maga and the Souls of Evangelical Christians

One of our main themes at The Signal Press has involved communicating the message that being MAGA and loyal to Trump is antithetical to having faith in, and practicing the Christian gospel.  So when we see something like this piece, where Christian leaders who are well educated, experienced in leading churches, which is frequently a very difficult job involving ministry to members of the congregation, maintaining spiritual unity amid doctrinal diversity and theological autonomy, also speak and write about the incompatibility of genuine, Biblical Christianity with Trump's MAGA cult, we take notice.  We link their commentary, hoping that those who read it will take the time to share it with their conservative, Evangelical Christian friends, and perhaps will show some of them that their acceptance of the MAGA movement's platform has corrupted their church and rendered it ineffective in meeting its mission and purpose.  

Randall Balmer, an Episcopal priest and professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and Jemar Tisby, professor at Simmons College in Kentucky, recently teamed up for a webinar pointing out the corruption of Christianity which has occurred as conservative, fundamentalist and Charismatic/Pentecostal Christians, churches and denominations have merged their claimed belief in Biblical authority and inerrancy with far right wing political extremists who make up the MAGA cult.  They're not the only kind of American Christian that has allowed politics to infiltrate their ranks, but because of their doctrinal flaws, it has infiltrated and corrupted their churches the most.   

Tisby says that gaining control through politics is more or less an admission by conservative Christians of the failure of their faith.  Unable to bring about the kind of social change and control that they think is their mission and purpose by spiritual means, they are now resorting to political power to get their way.  According to Tisby, this takes away the Christian identity of the church, making it more political.  

"It's not Christian in the sense that it doesn't resemble Jesus," he says, "but it is Christian in the sense that it does use Christian symbols like crosses, and the Bible, and it does use prayer," he added.  

"White Christian Nationalism strips away any semblance of gospel witness because its purpose is to seize absolute control of government and society by ending democracy and pluralism," said Balmer.  "Once you begin to lust after political power, and political influence, you lose your prophetic voice," he said.  

Along with the moderator of the webinar, Nathan Empsall, who is also an Episcopalian priest and director of "Faithful America," an online Christian social action community, Tisby and Balmer described White Christian Nationalism as having white supremacy at its core.  It's neo-Christian, according to them, because it uses a Christian justification, claiming that God is on their side and that they have some kind of spiritual commission to be the ones in control of American government and society.  

While there is absolutely nothing in the text of the New Testament, and more specifically, absolutely nothing at all in the words of Jesus Christ himself, that remotely indicates this is how Christianity is intended to "reach the world," that's simply evidence that this is a pseudo-Christian movement, using the veneer of Christianity to justify their actions and to gather support from people who either don't know enough about their faith to know the difference, or who have been primed by this error having crept into churches for a long time.  And in denominations and groups which often shun education in favor of current spiritual revelation, the racist, theocratic tendencies are already there. 

Most of the apostles who became authors of the New Testament warn against this kind of heretical, apostate belief finding its way into the church.  When they wrote their prophetic warnings, the church was surrounded by a pagan society under Roman rule, and the idea of having the kind of political power necessary to rise up and throw off the Roman dictatorship with some miraculous, spiritual power behind them, was very appealing.  Most of the opposition from the religious leaders of Judaism that Jesus experienced resulted from the fact that his ministry didn't look to them like they had envisioned the Messiah after several hundred years of being under foreign rule. Conquests such as that of Alexander, the Romans and that of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, had convinced them that the Messiah would come as a military conqueror like David, re-establishing a political kingdom, not the spiritual domain which Jesus brought about.  

Even as soon as 20 years after the resurrection, the apostle Jude writes, "For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ." Jude, v. 4

The MAGA group and its leader certainly fit Jude's description of the denial of Jesus Christ, which they have publicly done on multiple occasions, passed over or excused by their pseudo-Christian apologists.  They fit the prophetic, biblical descriptions found in Jude.  Trump's lifestyle should be an open embarrassment to any Evangelical Christian, the adultery, the pathological lying, the glorification of worldliness, refusing to pay debts, and now, the open revenge he is promising that is antithetical to Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, which makes Trump an antichrist by definition of I John 4:1-3.  

Thankfully, there are Christians whose faith experience and educational background not only allow them to see this for what it is, but who are able to show how this clearly contrasts with the Christian gospel preached by Christ, and point out that white, Christian nationalism is not Biblical, is un-American and anti-Christian and corrupts both the church and the nation.  

Is This a Strategy of the "Liberally Biased Media"?

Since the 2016 election, I've limited my television news watching to local stations for local news, sports and weather, and the evening and Sunday lineup on MSNBC.  I reserve Saturdays for college sports.  I understand that while they try to avoid an obvious bias, they are commentators, not reporters, and they are putting their own perspective into their commentary, usually supported by evidence.  I much prefer their election coverage, especially on evenings such as the South Carolina Primary, where they can feel free to speculate, to be critical, to point out the obvious, and give a really realistic perspective of what's happening with the exit polls and the information being gathered.  

MSNBC's coverage of the South Carolina Republican Primary gives a great example of their approach.  They found some Trump voters who were willing to tell their reporters why they were voting for Trump, and there were no leading questions asked.  They just asked them who they were voting for and why, and they let them do the rest.  It was an eye-opening experience.  Everything that has been made part of the "deplorable" caricature of MAGA voters was right there for anyone to see, fully exposed in its unbridled ignorance and inconsistency.  MAGA is defined as a cult, in political terms, and those voters whose comments appeared on MSNBC's programming underlined exactly how dangerous it is to American Democracy and to the Constitution, as well as to the peace and social order that exists and protects us from violence and destruction.  

These people have, in every sense of the word, lost their minds.  And they are one hundred percent blind to the dangerous reality of the threat that they pose to the existence of the United States of America as we know it.  Comparisons to the Nazi movement in Germany in the 1930's are accurate.  There's been an abandonment of respect for societies norms, including respect for and obedience to civil law.  To them, laws they don't like are unjust, and it is just to disobey them, without consequences.  They are completely ignorant of this country's history, including of the volumes of words left behind by the founders which clearly state their intentions.  And they're full of fear, which causes them to look at everything as intentionally aimed at the destruction of their personal happiness. That's not an unfair evaluation of this movement.  

The fact that they've sold their loyalty to an individual who is one of the most psychotically disabled public figures in history should not be surprising.  Here's a guy who has aquired what they all really want for themselves, enough wealth to do as they please and ignore social standards, public opinion and the laws of a constitutional democracy.  He's been as "worldly" as they come, in terms of taking advantage of everyone with whom he does business, being openly dishonest and getting away with it, publicly humiliating wives whom he labelled as gold-diggers with numerous, publicly conducted adulterous affairs, and openly denying any adherence to the principles of the religion they claim is the most important thing in their lives.  

Their religion, conservative, Evangelical Christianity in most cases, is clearly not what they claim it is to them, or they would not be vulnerable to this man's philosophy of life as a pagan antichrist.  And that is what I got from MSNBC's coverage of the South Carolina Primary.  

Total Dominance of the News Cycle With Mixed Results

As a former President, Trump gets more coverage in the news cycle than the current President does, by far.  He's developed a strategy which gets him in the news for free campaign advertising as often as they will cover, and he has a knack for making them jump and run whenever he issues a call.  It's frustrating to me, to hear the name "Trump," over and over and over again, and to watch these journalists, who tend to be educational elites looking down their noses at most of their audience, incapable of resisting the temptation to cover something he's done that no other former President would ever have covered.  

So much for being fair and balanced, for journalistic principles, and for being a free press that holds government accountable to the people.  

But...maybe I'm missing something.  

In spite of the total dominance of the news cycle by Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, to make my point, he's not getting the benefit of all of that free advertising.  Using South Carolina as an example, in spite of all that he did, in a deep red state among his own party, where, considering the coverage he gets, he should have scored 90% of the vote, he didn't quite manage 60%, and that was a full 7% less than the polls said he would get.  His only remaining opponent, Nikki Haley, former Governor of South Carolina, picked up 40% of the vote, and was an embarassment to him as his victory speech clearly indicated.  

And a pattern that is beginning to show up, as we are now several primaries into the election season, is that there is a solid segment of Republican voters, at least 4 out of 10, who aren't really all that enthused or excited about Trump running again, and among that percentage there's a significant number of them, at least 33%, who are saying that they're not going to vote for him in November.  He couldn't carry deep red South Carolina if he lost 33% of the Republican vote, not to mention the 60% of independent voters who are steering clear of his candidacy.  

So I wonder if there's some sort of strategy behind the media's coverage, without much commentary, of the stupid, idiotic things he says and does.  Clearly, there's no one around him who is either brave enough or honest enough to tell him that much of what he says and does, while it makes his MAGA cult happy, is turning off a much larger percentage of voters who, either subtracted from casting a vote for him, or actually turning out for Biden, which will lead to his certain defeat in November.  And the news medis is spending a lot of time covering everything he says and does.  

Ignorance Seems to be Bliss

I was stunned when the news came out with the report of his most recent gaffe, his claim that he is now more attractive to black voters because they can now more readily identify with him because he's had his mug shot taken and has been placed under indictment.  That's an openly racist insult, not even subtle in its content.  His support among black voters, 16% according to some analysts, not more than 12% according to more reliable ones, is a little higher than his Republican predecessors.  But statements like this won't increase those numbers, which have already started to decline as primary season got underway.  

The reaction he got from blacks in South Carolina was exactly what to expect in the wake of a statement like that. He didn't get 16% of the black vote there, yesterday.  The very small number who voted in the GOP primary voted for Haley.  And if an insulting statement like that helps wake some black voters up out of the illusion that they might benefit from a Trump administration in some way, then, by all means, take whatever time is needed to keep it in the news cycle long enough for people to get its full racist intent.  

Until recently, I haven't seen any network actually play very long clips of Trump speeches.  I'm sure they can hear television sets clicking off even as his image shows up.  But lately, even MSNBC has hung with some of his speeches, even giving a few close ups as he seems to space out, lose focus, mispronounce strings of words, lose his train of thought and mix up statements he repeats over and over.  The far right media loves to try and put together clips of Biden stumbling over words or seeming to take some time to gather his thoughts.  They got Mitch McConnell off camera as quickly as they could when he had his blank-outs.  

Trump's speech at CPAC was a disaster of mispronounciation, rabbit chasing, lost trains of thought, a droning, way-too-long bore fest that emptied the auditorium about halfway through.  I saw more of that on MSNBC than they've ever played, and the major networks actually focused on the gaffes and blunders.  I don't know who came up with it, but I saw a speech he made recently in which he was so out of it, he actually shortened sentences, mixed up words and basically endorsed Joe Biden.  And while he didn't catch it, social media sure did.  

So I don't know if there's really a strategy behind all of this coverage.  Conservatives have been claiming for years that the news media has a liberal bias, that most reporters and commentators actually are Democrats who vote for Democrats and in spite of their training, can't hide their bias and be neutral in their reporting.  Perhaps, by giving this kind of coverage to Trump, letting his own words and actions indict him, they are employing a strategy which will lead to his downfall.  I certainly hope it does.  For all the time he gets on television and in the news and on social media, he has lost ground when it comes to favorability, since the 2020 election.  His negative poll numbers are higher, positive poll numbers considerably lower, than they were the last time he ran, and he's not attracting new voters while he's losing independent voters badly and even among moderate Republicans, isn't getting good favorability ratings.  

It won't make any inroads with his core base.  But he needs a lot more than that to win the election, and the more exposure he gets, the lower his support seems to go.  

 

 

This Might be Funny, if it Weren't so Tragic

Christian Family moves to Russia to escape LGBTQ, and now they're living in a nightmare 

There are times when the ignorance that comes to the surface in the mix of pseudo-Christianity that often passes for the real thing in North American culture, particularly in the more conservative sects of Christianity, is just absolutely unbelievable.  It really has become virtually impossible to practice the kind of Christian faith that is actually described by the apostles and other authors of the New Testament, and gives a theological and doctrinal foundation to the practice of the Christian gospel without being accused of being weak, or liberal, or of misinterpreting some already misinterpreted passage of Christ's recorded teaching.  Most Christians rest on their own definition of God, their own theology and doctrine and their own personal preferences, twisting what they call their faith into shapes that fit their ideology, with no resemblance at all to the life that Christ called his followers to live.  

Christians have been living, successfully, in full freedom to practice their faith as they feel led by the Spirit of God to do, in openly secular cultures around the world, for twenty centuries.  In Canada, which has guarantees of basic human freedom similar to the United States, no one is forced to accept any moral position they deem unsuitable, by religious conviction, for their family.  There are secular influences everywhere, all around, but Jesus and the Apostles did an outstanding job, in their written work and the record of Christ's spoken word, in preparing and equipping their early church for existing, living, and surviving in a pagan world surrounded by immorality and worldliness without having to compromise anything.  That is, in fact, the very foundational essence of Christianity, spiritual freedom.  

Apparently, Arend Feenstra and his wife found the atmosphere in Canada, favorable to lifestyles that they do not agree with, too oppressive for raising their nine children.  I see nothing in this story to indicate that they were being persecuted by persons of LGBTQ lifestyles, or that they were being forced by the government to expose their children to any of this.  

"There's a lot of left-wing ideology, LGBTQ, trans, just a lot of things that we don't agree with that they teach there now, and we wanted to get away from that for our children."  

And so, to get away from it, instead of just taking charge of their family, being intentional parents and dealing with adversarial ideology in the same way everyone else deals with it, they decided to find a place in the world where they wouldn't be exposed to these kind of ideas, and move there.  So they sold their farm and they moved.  

To Russia.  

That's the first sign that not all of the brain synapses are connecting, in either parent.  Thinking that Russia would be a more ideal place to raise your children than Canada, where no one is forcing anyone to accept lifestyles or ideologies or immorality that they choose not to accept, is inexcusable ignorance.  These parents have now moved eight of their nine children into an oppressive trap from which they might not ever be able to escape, because they have believed the lies that have been circulating around because of political stupidity, probably originating in the gool ole US of A.  Did they not pay any attention in school?  Clearly, what they thought they knew about Russia was pure poppycock.  

In Canada, they were free to be critical of the left wing ideology that they claimed was forcing them to move.  In Russia, well, apparently they're not free to be critical of anything.  And after the experience they endured when Anneesa Feenstra expressed criticism of the Russian officials after their money disappeared into a Russian bank, I wonder if they think their children are safer in Canada, where there is freedom of conscience for people to express their liberal ideology or extremist Christian views, or in Russia, where there is no freedom of conscience at all and where expressing one's opinion can be mortally dangerous?  

I guess there are Canadians who are as susceptible to the kind of mindless ignorance and blatant stupidity to which some Americans have fallen victim, as a result of our extremist right wing politics.  

Through work, I've met a couple of Ukrainian families who emigrated to the United States before the war broke out.  Even then, their fear of living so close to Russia under Vladimir Putin drove them to sacrifice everything, a restaurant business in one case, a medical career in the other, to bring their children to the United States to get them as far away from the reach of Russia as possible.  They've just been absolutely stunned to find Americans who think of Russia as some sort of Christian Nationalist paradise, full of white people and under the dictatorial thumb of a ruler enforcing Orthodox Christian principles.  

"Anyone who believes that lie," said my friend, whom I'll call Mikola, "has never been to Russia, or anywhere near it."  

I'm wondering where it was, in Canada, that this family encountered this ridiculousness anywhere in Christianity.  They missed the whole point of the Christian gospel and the New Testament.  Christ taught, and his words were recorded, and the apostles taught and wrote what conservative Christians believe is sacred, inerrant, infallible scripture with the main point being the instruction of followers of Christ in Christian living, how to live out your Christian faith in a world that was full of all kinds of pagan influences.  If they couldn't figure out how to protect their children from ideology they don't agree with, then they haven't learned anything about the faith they claim to practice, either. 

 

From a Grass Roots Democrat: Let's Get Our Priorities Straight, Get Control of the Narrative, Win the 2024 Election and Save Our Democracy

To my fellow Democrats, it's time to get our act together.  This cannot be overstated.  The Constitution and the government of, by and for the people that was established after ratification in 1788 is in danger of being destroyed by a political faction that has kidnapped and subverted the larger part of one of our major political parties.  George Washington warned us of the danger of partisan politics in his farewell address, something which most Americans have since ignored.  

But the danger has already presented itself.  It has built a following based on ignorance, selfishness, fear and bigotry, and it has succeeded in finding the weaknesses in a system built on a foundation of guaranteed individual rights and purely democratic values.  In fact, some of the safeguards put in place by the founders, originally for the protection of the constitutional democracy from becoming an imperialistic monarchy have played a role in their own weakening, and we can only hope that the creeping fascism now aimed at destroying our constitution and the liberties it guarantees has been caught in time, put in check and will be stopped before it can do further damage.  

I'm just a grass roots Democrat.  I volunteer to help out, I contribute as much as is possible for me to do on my income, and I spend some time writing pieces for The Signal Press, with the hope of contributing to party unity and party victories in elections, encouraging the 2,500 or so readers who visit here each month and offer back their encouragement.  So what I'm offering here is heartfelt conviction.  I am well educated, deeply involved in politics, know what is going on and desire to see our political party come to its largest majorities in the House and Senate, because I know that when we are in charge, the people benefit from it, and it's what's best for our country in terms of preserving and protecting the rights which the constitution guarantee to every individual, as well as keeping the country strong in the face of its enemies. 

The goal is to win across the board in November.  It's to win as many elections as we possibly can, from the Presidency on down.  

We're Not a Party "In Disarray"  

It's heartwarming to see the disarray going on in the House of Representatives on the other side of the aisle.  With the slimmest of majorities, under a Democratic President, the GOP can't hold it together.  They have no leadership ability, they have sabotaged their ability to govern with their inability and their prejudices. Democrats need to cash in this gift of political capital in every way.  

That means our party leadership needs to tighten things up and work with everyone to unify the party.  I sympathize with most of the causes that get reactions, draw attention and start protests.  But the people who do this need to keep from elevating the importance of their cause over the importance of all other causes.  Anyone who comes from a progressive viewpoint, regardless of where it falls on the spectrum needs to understand one basic truth.  

Their cause is dead if Trump wins.

Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib has passionately taken up the cause of the Palestinian people of Gaza.  I respect her position, and as an American and a Democrat, she has every right to publicly protest, hold her position and influence the government in her direction.  But, she is where she is because of the Democratic party, and she is part of it.  She needs to understand there's a way to go about protesting without rupturing the unity of the party.  To me, it seems that the Democratic party leadership in the House needs to get a handle on this.  It does not seem to me that she understands the manner in which she is making her protest will not change government policy.  And if her protest causes Biden to lose the election, then that's a fatal blow to her support of the Palestinians, and to anything else she hopes to accomplish as a member of Congress.  

Encouraging Democratic primary voters to cast an "uncommitted" primary ballot is, frankly, going way too far to make her point.  That's not the way this party handles its internal differences of opinion, and it will be counterproductive to any negotiating strength the Biden administration has with the Israeli government to bring about a solution, especially one that would satisfy her and her supporters.  The fact is that Tlaib and pro-Palestinian progressives in the Democratic party need the support of the leadership.  They need to do a better job of handling this if they want to have an impact and influence on the administration on behalf of their cause.  They can't elevate the value of their single issue over the whole party agenda, any more than the party should minimize theirs.  This needs to work.  

Let's Show the Country How a Real Political Party Should Work

Though we have two major political parties in this country, only one is still functioning as a political party, believing in principles of negotiation, compromise and mutual benefit of the American people.  The GOP has adopted a "winner take all" perspective, a selfish, "our way or the highway" approach that has led us to this point, where the whole idea of constitutional democracy is in danger, because they no longer understand cooperation for mutual benefit, and they don't want to.  

Individual rights can be provided without interfering with someone else's individual rights.  I'd like to see the Democrats who are further to the left work to incorporate issues and interests from those who feel they are outside the margins, and will vote for someone like Jill Stein.  While Stein may align with their views, other than express them, she is powerless to do anything about it.  She stands zero chance of being elected.  But there is a chance that she could draw enough votes away from Joe Biden to hand the election to Trump, just like she did in 2016.  And just like Rashida Tlaib, the chance of her supporters in the Green Party having any voice in government at all after that is less than her chance of winning the presidency.  Zero.  

Frankly, I have a difficult time understanding the point of the Green Party.  Most of their agenda is also included in the Democratic party's agenda.  They're more intense and extreme in some areas, which is neither an insoluble problem for resolving with Democratic leadership, and could be an advantage in helping get some things done.  The fact that a group of seemingly well-informed, well-educated voters on the left side of the Democratic party don't see themselves as a possible contributor to the loss of an election that dooms their own causes is a bit troubling, though, as is Stein and some of her politics, including her fascination with, and admiration of Vladimir Putin.  

So how about the Democrats developing a platform and a narrative that welcomes the groups on the left, including the Green Party, and neutralizes the threat of an electoral college disaster in swing states.  It's not that we're ever going to get any votes by appeasing conservatives anyway.  Trump is alienating a good segment of his own party who will, at the very least, stay home on election day.  We might as well go after the liberals with whom we're comfortable and who will actually vote for us at the end of the day when they're included and respected.  

"Time to Fight Dirty" 

Rachel Bitecofer's Tough Love Lesson for Democrats

When Democrats go off the rails in political campaigns, its because they lose control of the narrative.  We tend to be policy wonks, while Republicans beat the drum of a social agenda based on false information and run on personality.  But Democrats have, for the most part, had some pretty clear sailing through political waters since the 2018 election, especially when we've been able to communicate our message.  

"Shape the electorate and meet voters where they are."  Rachel Bitecofer, who has been spot on as a political analyst in this century, points to the strategy that has brought Democrats through unprecedented political wins over the past six years, based on controlling the narrative.  She suggests turning Republican political strategy around, and using it against them.  And when Democrats have followed her advice, they win.  

I'd suggest our party leadership take a close look at her new book, "Hit 'em Where it Hurts," and follow her advice which has worked.  Democratic party policy, as far as it benefits the people, is always a winner.  But the problem is that politics is no longer a debate over the finer points of policy.  With most of the political debate controlled by very biased, right wing media sources, and the think-tank institutions and their donors who support it, the Republican side of politics simply attacks candidates and focuses on the negative.  

There are some issues which Republicans have gift-wrapped and given to Democrats to use against them in full scale attacks. Bitecofer points out two that have given Democratic candidates in swing states considerable traction, enough to win elections.   In Arizona, for example, Adrian Fontes ran for Secretary of State against Mark Finchem, an actual participant in the Trump Insurrection, making that the central issue of his campaign, and won by a bigger margin than the other Democrats running for statewide office.  In Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer focused her attacks on Tudor Dixon's extremism with the unpopularity of the Dobbs decision, and also won big.  Rafael Warnock ran directly against a high profile Trump endorsee, and won re-election to a senate seat for the second time in just two years, also in a swing state.  

Democrats, in each of those examples, controlled the narrative.  And they won in swing states carried by Biden just two years before, by even larger margins.  From someone who really has a knack for getting the political predictions right, unlike most pollsters, this is the advice we need to take to a big win in 2024.  

I'm an Optimist, but I'm Also a Realist

So maybe a small, amateur blogger, who does his part to help Democrats win, has something worthwhile to say after all.  We're going to win in November, because a majority of Americans are well informed enough to know what's at stake.  We're going to win because our party candidates and strategists are smart enough to figure out how to get the message across to convince voters.  And hopefully, our leadership, which includes those in the Biden Administration and in Congress, are willing to work to keep petty bickering in check and focus on what is the real danger.  

And we'll all be voting for Joe Biden, who will be the only candidate running whose election will prevent America from falling into a totalitarian abyss.

Mike Johnson Claims the Bible is His Worldview; If That's True, Then He Shouldn't be Supporting Trump

"I do not sit with the worthless, nor do I consort with hypocrites; I hate the company of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked."  Psalm 26:4-5, NRSV

King David was the legendary ruler of Israel.  As all countries have a leader hero they point to, who they credit with being responsible for their "golden age," and in the history of Israel, as it is told in the Old Testament, King David is the symbol of their golden age.  Not all of his reign was golden, as the various records in the Old Testament indicate, and he committed some grievous mistakes as both the King of his nation, and in his personal life.  

What makes him stand out is that, as a leader, he acknowleged the error of his ways when that was pointed out to him, grieved over his wrongdoing, repented from it, and had to accept the consequences of his bad choices, which included family conflict and turmoil that persisted among his children, including having a son rebel against him and try to take the throne from him.  Ultimately, his actions resulted in the death of three of his children.  

He is attributed as the author of many of the Psalms in the Old Testament, reflections of his thoughts and his character, as he led Israel as its second King, to what would be its greatest extent and influence as a middle eastern empire.  Psalm 26 is a request for forgiveness, and a statement of repentance that demonstrates his desire for redemption and his turning away from the evil he had committed, asking for a grace he acknowledges he does not deserve on his own.  

"Do not sweep me away with sinners, nor my life with the bloodthirsty, those in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes.  But as for me, I walk in my integrity; redeem me and be gracious to me.  My foot stands on level ground; in the great congregation I will bless the Lord."  Psalm 26:9-12, NRSV

Integrity in a political leader.  Imagine that.  

Mike Johnson and his "Biblical Worldview" 

The current Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, a Louisiana congressman from the northern, "Bible belt" part of the state, an Evangelical by virtue of his membership in a Southern Baptist-affiliated congregation, has made the statement that those who wish to understand his "worldview" need only read the Bible, and that's it.  I'm suggesting, based on the evidence, including looking at this particular passage from the Bible which directly relates to the issue of politics and leadership, that the Speaker's real worldview is not biblical at all. 

That's based on my own observation.  It appears that the Speaker has an unqualified devotion for, and loyalty to, former President Trump.  And frankly, it is impossible to lay claim to holding a biblical worldview, and also support Trump in any way, shape or form, including from a strictly political perspective.  "Integrity" and "Trump" is an oxymoron.  One either has integrity, or he doesn't, and support for Trump is an indication of a lack of integrity.  I don't really care what the Speaker says about his worldview, if that's what he wants to call his perspective, it's not biblical, if that's the measurement he's using.  

King David says, ""I do not sit with the worthless, nor do I consort with hypocrites; I hate the company of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked."  That's a pretty clear worldview.  Speaker Johnson cannot say the same. 

His handling of the speakership is also an indication that he's missed the point of a biblical worldview.  Frankly, in a nation with a constitution that grants complete freedom of consicence to its citizens, including freedom of religion and separates the government from the church, for the good of both institutions, I would not expect the imposition of one's biblical perspective to come from a member of the government.  I have no problem with a member of Congress or a President relying on their faith for the strength and integrity to do their job of serving the people who elected them.  But I do have a problem with their failure to live up to the oath of office they took to become a member of Congress by making excuses for the leader of their political party who intended to overthrow what they swore to protect.  

The core values of the Christian gospel are found in the record of Jesus' preaching and teaching, and in the written works of the apostles, left behind as a rich deposit of values and virtues produced by the practice of Christian faith.  This would include the vitrues known as the "Beatitudes," found in Matthew 5:1-13, which includes values like "hungering and thirsting after righteousness," and being a peacemaker.  It produces character traits like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, genrleness and self-control.  "Against such things there is no law," says the Apostle Paul, who wrote that.  

Where is any of that visible in Trump, his agenda, or his MAGA following?  

It isn't.  And that's exactly why, under any circumstance, support for Trump is incongruent and inconsistent with a "biblical worldview."  The Speaker has made his choice, and it's not to follow the theology, doctrine and practice of Christian faith as it is defined in the Bible.  He's allowing himself to be defined by Trumpism.  That's his worldview and he needs to have the integrity to admit it.  

An Evil Infiltration of Christianity 

The early church apostles warned that philosophies and practices based on evil would easily slip into the Christian church and subvert its mission and purpose if the members of the church weren't well informed and well educated about their theology, doctrine and practice.  Jude says, "For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who, long ago, were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness..."  It's pretty obvious that a good sized segment of what is known as Evangelical Christianity in America has had this intrusion affect their ability to function as a Christian church, and it has become nothing more than a political tool in the hands of a corrupt, evil politician who brags about his worldliness as his trademark.  

Many Christians have accepted this man as a political leader, and think he has embraced their faith.  But Jude describes the kind of infiltraters in the church as  "grumblers and malcontents, indulging their own lusts, they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage."  That's a perfect description of Trump and his followers.  Trump has gone so far as to actually deny any experience of conviction of his sin, repentance and acceptance of forgiveness, which are core essentials of Christian conversion, according to the Bible, claiming he is sinless, and in no need of asking forgiveness from God.  The Apostle John labels any human who makes that kind of denial an "antichrist."  

As a Christian, I could never accept or support any leader, political or otherwise, who has such a record of pathological lying, business fraud and blatant dishonesty, who treated all three of the women he was married to with contempt, having multiple affairs and then humiliating his wives with the public proclamation of his adultery, who doesn't have a shred of integrity when it comes to owning up to his mistakes, but instead, seeks vengeance against everyone who holds him accountable to the truth.  

And so, the Speaker of the House has a choice.  He is either a follower of a Christian worldview with its foundation in the Bible, or he is a follower of Trump, and is just another dishonest politician who can't operate outside of partisan blindness.  

What the Democratic Victory in New York Congressional District 3 Really Says About the 2024 Election to Come

Newsweek Says Big Suozzi Win "Increases" Biden's Re-Election Problems 

What Democrats "Can Learn" From Suozzi Special Election Results

One of the best barometers measuring both the impact and significance of the special election in New York Congressional District 3 to replace expelled Congressman George Santos is Trump's reactions on his social media site.  All of the spin, downplaying, indifference and obfuscation in the conservatively biased media is nullified by everything from Trump's attacks on the Republican candidate, whom he claims he didn't endorse, but which, in fact, he most definitely did, to his over the top, angry, and partly incoherent rants in response.  

They wanted this win, they desperately needed it, they recognize the political significance of losing it and it is one more in a growing string of Democratic party election victories that is pointing to the re-election of President Biden, regaining a majority in the House and holding on to, and possibly increasing, their margin in the Senate.  On the Democratic party side, the winning combination includes the same post-Dobbs reaction that has led to significant shifts in support for Democratic candidates over Republicans in a whole string of elections going back to the 2022 mid-term, a clear drop-off of support for election denying conspiracy theorists in the core of the MAGA cult, and, perhaps, the newest bad news for the GOP could be backlash from the political game they've played over border security.  

It might be just a bit too soon to see any real effect from that gigantic political mistake, but long term, that's going to cut deep into any chances they have of winning an election.  Dobbs and election denying have been big losers for the GOP, as their favorability evaporates.  

The Biggest Take-Aways From Tuesday's Special Elections

We're just two years away from the GOP candidate for Governor of New York, Lee Zeldin, winning this district by 10 points, at the same time Santos won it by eight.  On Tuesday, Suozzi, who had been elected to Congress from this district before, won it by 8, a 16 point shift from 2022.  That's with votes still being counted and decimals in percentages rounded off, but regardless, it's a complete turnaround.  

There's no doubt that the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court continues to have far-reaching effects in propelling Democrats to victory.  It's not fading as a campaign issue, it's front and center, and was visible in both New York, and in Pennsylvania, where Democrats won a state house seat in a purple suburban Philadelphia district to gain a two seat majority in the state house.  It shows up as being one of several decisive factors in elections, especially at the state level.  That, along with much stronger resistance to candidates who spout conspiracy theories and are hard core MAGA election deniers than originally predicted, have been the one-two punch for Democratic candidates, who are currently on an almost unprecedented roll of victories in elections.  

Mazi Pilip, the Republican candidate in NY3, presented almost the same ethical nightmare that George Santos brought into the election.  It seems that Trump's MAGA influence in the Republican party is attracting candidates that fit Hillary Clinton's definition of "deplorable," when she was roundly criticized for using that term.  The ideal GOP candidate for office now seems to be someone who has a record of cheating the government out of taxes, cheating in business, borrowing with no intention of paying off the debt, and believing some of the most unprovable and ridiculous conspiracy theories to use as political fodder for the ignorant and stupid.  

But it appears that, while the Trump attack on Senator Lankford's bi-partisan immigration bill is still a relatively new development, it may have been one of the larger factors in widening the race out and putting it soundly and solidly in Suozzi's camp.  That move, which I believe is going to go down in history as one of the most fatally flawed political acts of all American history, is going to cost Republicans all down the line, including Trump, a significant number of votes in the coming election.  It may be worth as much as 5% to Democrats.  Along with Dobbs, it will be one of the political factors that leads to a big Biden win over Trump.  Big.  

Looking Toward 2024

This, along with the state legislative seat the Democrats claimed in a special election in Berks County, Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, is another part of the arrow pointing toward the Democratic party taking control of Congress in November.  It's coming.  Everything in this particular race, similar to other special elections in this winning streak for Democrats, including the re-capture of the state house in Virginia last fall, is a strong indication that the GOP does not have anything it can run on in order to win.  Being Trump and MAGA is obviously not enough, and in fact, it is obviously a losing proposition when it comes to national elections, and even to a majority of elections in the states.  

So ignore the gloom and doom news media.  They're desperately trying to make money off this while it lasts, which won't be long.  

This is Not Protected Free Speech; but it is a Huge Problem

NATO Leader Says Trump Puts Allies at Risk Saying Russia Can "Do Whatever the Hell it Wants" 

We have a real problem if a statement like this one, made by a candidate for the Presidency, can be made without any consequences.  This is not protected free speech by any definition that we know.  And the real problem we have, aside from the danger this creates in possibilities of kicking off another World War, is that it doesn't appear America has the will, or the mechanism, to control it and do anything about it.  

The fact that there are Americans who not only don't have a clue when it comes to the significance of a statement like this, made by a former President and current candidate for the Presidency, but who will allow treasonous remarks like this to sway their own opinion because of their ignorance, is a sign that the constitutional democracy under which we have prospered and lived for almost 240 years is in real danger.  It is also a sign that the world is in danger of another conflict, this time with nukes, that has the potential to completely destroy human civilization.  And that's not an exaggeration.  

The constitutional definition of treason is, "levying war against the United States, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."  This is from Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution.  This would include NATO alliance countries, with which the US has mutual defense agreements through the treaty.  An American, encouraging Russia to attack an ally, meets the definition of treason and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  

Is our democracy too weak to defend itself against this?  

The free world has long looked to the United States as the world's most powerful and prosperous nation, as the defender of democracy.  A good chunk of current NATO membership, including countries that gained independence and freedom from tyranny when the Soviet Union collapsed, openly declares its  gratitude to the United States for standing behind them and supporting them as they struggled to free themselves from foreign domination and communist oppression.  

From John F. Kennedy's declaring, "Ich bin ein Berliner," on June 26, 1963, to Ronald Reagan's statement, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," June 12, 1987, American support for the independence, freedom, and development of democratic self-determination for the whole Communist bloc has never wavered.  Because of this support, and the fact that those who were fighting for it knew America was behind them, communism essentially no longer exists in Eastern Europe, or in the European republics that emerged from the Soviet Union over the past 35 years.  

Now we have an entire political party, somehow mesmerized by an immoral, worldly, selfish, swinish phony, that is turning its back on the millions of people just now beginning to experience what we have taken for granted in this country for more than two centuries.  And unfortunately, there are those in this country who would rather swap their constitutionally guaranteed freedom for whatever incoherent, undefined worldview he's promoting.  That's because they are, like him, completely ignorant of history and greedy for what they think they're going to get out of it for themselves at someone else's expense.  Because that's what he promises and that's how he operates.  

Those Who Fail to Learn from History...

Watching news coverage prior to the Iowa Causes provided some interesting insights into just what many Americans know, or don't know, about their own history.  I majored in it, have continued to study it, analyze it and look at the details of it in order to be able to communicate to students exactly what they need to know about it.  But there, in Iowa, in the great midwestern middle America, where I thought education was valued, and where people fly American flags in their yards like patriots, were some of the most blatantly ignorant, uninformed, and thus deceived, people I've ever seen.  

And it's that way at every Trump rally, in every state.  

I wonder how many Americans ever encountered Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America in their educational experience.  It should be required reading and mastery in high school and college.  I had it in both, a whole section of my high school honors American History class was devoted to it, and we had to read it and write an analysis of it in college.  It also appeared again, toward the end of my college career, in a U.S. Constitutional History class.  

Tocqueville warned that democracy "must keep an eye out" for the development of an industrial aristocracy, which would allow the development of a super-wealthy class with the potential to dominate the culture and seize power and control through democratic means.  One of the best examples of the way that our democracy has not stood its ground in protecting itself from what is very much an "industrial aristocracy" in the United States is that industrial aristocrats have been able to purchase Supreme Court appointments, leading to decisions, such as Citizens United, which allow them to purchase favorable legislation for themselves, and the restrictions on rights of others, by using their massive wealth to buy the loyalty of politicians running for state legislatures or Congress.  

We already have a significant number of judges on the federal and state courts, and members of state legislatures and Congress, who are there because they were bought and paid for by bribe money masquerading as campaign contributions.  Perhaps we are already past the point of no return.  

Tocqueville also warned of future problems between the United States and Russia, something that was quite astounding when considering the time during which he wrote.  This included the possibility that Russia, an autocratic and absolutist monarchy at the time, might not be able to defeat the United States militarily, but that it might be infiltrated and influenced by the same forces that were at the disposal of the industrial aristocracy, the power and influence which accompanies money.  Tocqueville never saw the communist Soviet Union of the cold war era, his perception of Russia was as a totalitarian monarchy under the Czar.  It's interesting that the dictatorship that now exists there is reviving Czarist themes in the culture, particularly a Russian nationalist view of the world, and political and military domination of a sphere of influence in the smaller countries surrounding it.  

It's hard for democracy to "keep a sharp eye," when the evidence of Russia's attempted subversion of the American government was supressed, and failed to develop into indictments and charges because the Trump administration's attorney general used the power of his office to bury it.  But the Supreme Court, controlled by industrial aristocrats, have ruled in such a way as to prevent detection or prosecution for using foreign money to win an American election.  Thanks for doing that goes to George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. 

Get Ready 

So it is that dark money in American politics is buying power for industrial aristocrats.  And that decreases the power of American democracy, through its criminal court structure, to hold subversives accountable for their treason.  That's why a Republican candidate for President can publicly endorse Russian conquests of its peaceful neighbors, NATO allies of the United States, and get away with it.  Thirty years ago, his own party leadership would have forced him out of the campaign after making statements like this one.  And it would have gotten him arrested and questioned by the FBI.  Now, well, even in a Democratic party administration, is there anyone with the cajones to step up and do the right thing?  

It's almost as if our justice system is deliberately set up in a way to quickly disseminate cases where defendants aren't wealthy or privileged, but glacially slow when they are.  This statement by Trump, in any way it is analyzed, or interpreted, is the proverbial yelling of fire in a crowded theater.  It has shaken all of NATO, where countries like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey are on the front line.  

I hope our constitutional democracy is strong enough to hold. Statements like this need to have immediate consequences for the politicians who make them.  

It might be wise to get ready for what's coming if it doesn't.  

People Are Laughing, Because This is Funny

Pro-Trump "Prophets" Taking Their Show on the Road 

Hawley Seeks Revival of "Our Christian Nation"

"But you may wonder, "How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the Lord?"  If the prophet speaks in the Lord's name, but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message.  That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared."  Deuteronomy 18:21-22, NLT 

Mainstream conservative Evangelical doctrine does not accept that there are prophets being sent among us along the lines of those who are recorded to have delivered some very specific messages during Old Testament times, particularly when Israel became a divided monarchy after the reign of Solomon, and many of the kings fell under the influence of paganism.  However, particularly among the Charismatic and Pentecostal traditions of Evangelicalism, there is a belief that God does provide individuals with a specific gift to predict future events, and they issue all kinds of pronouncements, mainly connecting specific persons or events with the "end times" or the coming end of the world, or involving politics.  

Any observant person with reasonable intelligence can figure out the odds of someone making an accurate prediction based on a number of factors which point to it, and which doesn't necessarily depend on a supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit to make.  Even at that, there is no religious prophet today, and I'll repeat that so we understand that what we are looking at when we examine self-proclaimed prophets today are frauds and phonies, there is no religious prophet today who has the record of the 100% accuracy required by the Old Testament standard found in Deuteronomy 12:21-22 to lay claim to being a true prophet of God.  Not one.  

And what that means to the observant who are intelligent enough to understand this simple principle, is that they are all false prophets, none of them is speaking for God, and they are evil demons masquerading as angels of light (see 2 Corinthians 11:14). 

I'm old enough to have lived through a generation of false prophets who wrote books and made fortunes on predicting the "rapture," the return of Christ and the end times, and even with the obfuscation and denial that they incorporated to avoid looking foolish, still managed to do so.  People like Salem Kirban, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye and others used a variety of timelines and twisted interpretations of passages of the book of Revelation and the Old Testament book of Daniel to get people to accept their prediction, and then another whole variety of claims that they weren't guilty of violating Deuteronomy because they didn't specifically predict the exact time, when they were flat wrong about it.  

There was a flurry of "Jesus absolutely must return in 1988", because that is the end of the Armageddon calendar initiated by the re-establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948, and so that starts the 40 years after the gap of several thousand years between two chapters of Revelation, which coincides with Daniel.  It didn't happen, but most of the "prophets" were never held accountable because, well, first of all, most Christians have little to no idea about doctrine or theology, and do not know this passage in Deuteronomy even exists, and because when they make celebrities out of religious personalities, they are always right in their eyes and that's where their loyalty goes. 

The Religious Side of the Trump Train

It should be fairly obvious to anyone whose faith has been formed by the Christian gospel that anything having to do with Trump or his MAGA movement has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity.  The apostle Jude, who was the half-brother of Jesus, wrote a very short but very concise epistle to the church, warning about false teaching and doctrine that had the capability of rendering churches "apostate."  He defined apostasy as an infiltration which creeps into churches, imitating true faith in a deliberately deceptive manner.  Paul calls these individuals false apostles and deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ, in the same way that Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light.  

Personally, I think Trump and the MAGA movement aren't deceptively Christian to the point where they can't be distinguished from true, faithful Christians.  Trump's worldliness, which is his brand, is blatantly immoral, a contrast to the Christian gospel in every possible way.  These road-show prophets, not all of whom even make any claim to being Christian, except culturally, have yet to hit the mark on their prophetic utterances.  The characteristic they share in common with the movement's leader, Trump, is pathological lying, which violates the Ten Commandments as well as every principle of the Christian gospel.  

The fact that they have been able to gain the trust, admiration and more importantly to them, the votes of people claiming to be Christian under the Evangelical label serves as a perfect example of satanic deception.  Trump has replaced Christ.  It's that simple.  And that is apostasy. 

These are grumblers, says Jude, and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage."  v. 16 

He could have written that yesterday, and he'd have aptly described what is happening to many conservative Evangelical Christians.  They claim to believe the Bible, literally and implicitly, and that it is inerrant and infallible.  And yet, false prophets who fail the Biblical test of accuracy are deluding them, masquerading as angels of light, and spouting prophetic statements that are false.  Trump did not win in 2020 as they prophesied that he would, he was not "restored" after 2021 as their prophecy claimed.  

The Apostle Jude provides an apt, prophetic description: 

But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct.  Woe to them!  For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam's error for the sake of gain, and perish in Korah's rebellion.  These are blemishes on your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves.  They are waterless clouds, carried along by the winds, autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.  Jude, v. 10-13, NRSV

It almost seems as if Jude had met Trump and the pseudo-Christians who support him and then sat down and wrote his epistle.     

Self-Glorification in Persecution

Hank Kunneman, a pastor who says his predictions are remarkably accurate, has indulged in a little bit of persecution as confirmation of his correctness.  

"People have laughed at you," he prayed.  "They've laughed at your prophets, they've laughed at your church, they've laughed at your intercessors, they've laughed at the patriots, they've laughed at those who voted for 45."  

Of course they've laughed.  How else can they deal with such blatant contradictions and hijacking of true Christian faith?  It is, in fact, funny to hear people who were involved in a riot aimed at bringing down the Constitution claim to be patriots.  They laugh because people who claim to be better Christians than those they label "liberals" and "woke" lie through their teeth with a straight face and make ridiculous predictions which a six year old can check out and determine is absolutely false, and then, they lie with a straight face while saying, "I never said that."  These are all men who already have a reputation as charlatans, deceivers and who use Christian faith as a means to make themselves rich, so they already have a credibility problem.  The fact that they're going on a nationwide tour, obviously to rake in more cash from the duped, is, frankly, laughable.  So why not?  

I suggest going back to Deuteronomy 18, and doing some self-evaluation.  Trump lost the 2020 election, and the prophecy that he would win is not true.  Nor was the prophecy, a year later, that he would be "restored" when it was discovered the election was stolen, true.  No proof has ever turned up proving the election was stolen, another prophecy that hasn't turned out to be true.  I'd suggest sticking with easier prophecy, such as "the sun will rise over the horizon this morning," and "the sun will set below the horizon later today."  Or, "It might rain today or it might not."  That way, you don't have to meet any standard of accuracy and your dupes can still ooh and ahh over your prophetic power.  

Yes, I'm laughing too.  Not at God, because he knows what he's doing.  I'm laughing at all of this prophetic foolishness, and especially at Senators Josh Hawley and Rand Paul, and Representative Lauren Boebert, who were foolish enough to get involved with this and lend their names to its promotion.  Well, that's to be expected from a high school dropout, teen mom, reckless driver, and business failure.  There's a potential GOP star if there ever was one.  I guess Hawley, known as Fascist Gump after his gallop through the Capitol on January 6th, is a good addition to a traveling religion-on-the-road crusade.  

"I would sometimes spread misinformation," said Rand Paul.  "This is a great tactic.  Misinformation can be very important."  

Yep, he belongs with the religious road show too.  

Truth in conservative, Evangelical Christianity in America has been turned upside down.  God never requires his people to commit their loyalty to evil men, even if he does use them for his purposes.  But there's nothing in the Bible that even remotely can support the idea that God is using Trump, and if he's thought of as an evil man, then that's heresy and apostasy in the church.  It might be a good time to just get out, before judgment really falls on it. 

Prediction is Not Necessarily Prophecy

I will predict that Joe Biden will win the Presidency in 2024 by a relatively easy margin, picking up nearly 400 electoral votes, and that he will go into his second term with a Democratic dominated Congress.  Things will get done.  Things got done in his first term, and with a favorable Congress, that doesn't take spiritually empowered prophecy, that's just keen observation.  

I've got better than 50/50 odds on being correct.  By the time the election rolls around, Trump will have been convicted on multiple counts, regarding both January 6th and his meddling with the election in Georgia.  I watch the news, read the polls, and am basing that prediction on the 33% of Republican voters who say they won't support Trump if he is convicted, and the 65% of independent voters who say they won't vote for him, period.  I don't need spiritual help to make this prediction, I would never ask God for something that trivial and selfish anyway, and so it's not accountable to the Deuteronomy 18 verse.  

The prophets who are embarking on this tour have already been proven false.  

America's Largest Evangelical Denomination is Facing an Issue That is Its Achilles Heel

Baptist News Global: Dragging the SBC into Court drags truth into light

Baptist News Global: Southern Baptists' primary measure of denominational health drops to all time lows

Texas Baptist Standard: Pressler a "Monster" and a "Predator" 

Watergate is the standard used to measure the lowest point of corruption in American politics, at least up to this point.  It's about to be surpassed by multiple scandals of the Trump administration, which are going to bring convictions over the next few months, but right now, that's the standard for measuring political corruption.  

Currently, in the Southern Baptist Convention, there's a scandal going on that rivals the corruption of Watergate.  It's spectacular in the dishonesty, personal ambition and political corruption taking place because it is happening among a Christian denomination that brags about its theology and doctrine and the moral purity and piety which it uses to promote itself.  Blatant hypocrisy can be quite a contrast to sincere faith.

The Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention

Here's a little background on what's going on.  

In 1979, a movement that became known as the "Conservative Resurgence" began in the Southern Baptist Convention.  Ostensibly, the aim of this movement was to stop the leftward drift of the denomination's theological schools and mission boards by electing officers committed to the Doctrine of Biblical Authority.  This doctrine states that the sixty-six books of the Protestant Bible are truth, without any mixture of error, and are infallible and the sole authority for all matters of faith and practice.  The ten year struggle for control of the convention's trustee boards and leadership committees was engineered by two men given credit for being its "architects."  

Dr. Paige Patterson, then president of Criswell College, a small, financially strapped Bible college connected to First Baptist Church of Dallas, was the theological and doctrinal leader of the resurgence.  His aim was to expose seminary professors who were undermining, in his mind, the doctrine of Biblical Authority, teaching that the Biblical text was inaccurate, and contained human error.  Paul Pressler, an attorney and Texas appeals court justice, was the political organizer of the movement, figuring out how to use the convention's rules of order to get nominees on committees and trustee boards committed to their position.  Pressler was a long-time operative in the GOP, someone whose endorsement was sought by candidates running for public office in Texas, such as Senator Ted Cruz.  

From 1979 to 1989, these two men orchestrated the recruitment and seating of messengers to annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention who would be favorable to their desire to serve as officers, and who would be motivated by their fear of "creeping liberalism" into the curriculum and teaching of the seminaries.  The issue was really a clash between the denomination's academic elite and the church members in the pew, Baptists from the south who were mistrustful of education and seminaries and academic elites.  Over a decade, the Conservative Resurgence succeeded in putting a majority of fundamentalists on trustee boards of SBC entities and on the Executive Committee, and changing the entire position of the convention. 

Personal Agendas Were a Factor

While using inerrancy as a means to motivate churches to get involved and send messengers to the convention meetings, both Patterson and Pressler used the personal influence and power they got by doing this to feather their own nests.  There are those, this author included, who don't believe that either men really cared much about the Bible as they did about themselves and their career, and the salary they could get from the SBC.  

Patterson wrote letters, called in favors, stacked trustee boards and got himself elevated from broken down Criswell College to the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary as its President, and then, to the prize he wanted, the presidency of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, his alma mater and at the time, the largest, most influential of all six of the SBC's theological schools.  Pressler, the Republican party connection, worked to connect the SBC to the GOP, mainly by changing its public affairs commission, a small, single staff office known as the Christian Life Commission, into the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and used his influence to bring in a former Bush administration wannabe, Richard Land, as its executive director.  

Against the Backdrop of a Sexual Abuse Scandal in the SBC

Patterson was ousted as president of Southwestern in May of 2018 for mishandling a reported rape which took place on the campus at Southeastern Seminary during Patterson's tenure there, in 2003. Initially, after determining that the investigation into the rape, conducted by Patterson, was mishandled, he was offered a position as President Emeritus and Theologian-in-Residence at Southwestern in exchange for stepping down from the Presidency.  But after information from the internal investigation was given to trustees, they immediately terminated his employment. 

Issues surrounding Pressler are serious, according to one attorney for the Southern Baptist Convention, and have been occurring all through the time he was considered one of the architects of the conservative resurgence.  The Texas Baptist Standard link to the comments made on social media by Attorney Gene Besen provides background information on the lawsuit brought against Pressler, his law partner Jared Woodfill, who is currently a Republican candidate for a Texas house seat, and the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention.  The defendants all recently agreed to a settlement of an undisclosed amount on behalf of the plaintiff.  Pressler denies any wrongdoing.

Critics of the conservative resurgence who have always claimed that it was more about personal ambition than about Biblical fidelity have had their criticism validated by these events.  And they have come along in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal, uncovered and reported by The Houston Chronicle in June of 2019, just prior to an annual meeting of the SBC that is causing a lot of controversy regarding how to handle the revelations of abuse, prevent further abuse, censure or dismiss churches that refuse to cooperate in getting rid of abusive clergy, covering up cases that were reported to the Executive Committee as a result of local church autonomy, and ministering to the victims of abuse and their families.  Resistance to even acknowledging the problem, much less dealing with it, is finding ways to express itself in every annual meeting.  

And to go along with all of this, the Southern Baptist Convention has decided this is the time to come down hard on churches which have women serving in leadership positions on their staff, using the word "pastor" as part of their job title.  So while there's a monumental fight and a blame game going on over the unresolved sexual abuse issue, the SBC has chosen this time to assert its complementarian beliefs that only men can be elders or pastors in local churches.  

I can certainly see why this denomination has a credibility problem.  This is what happens, when far right wing politics blends with fundamentalist religion.  

So What Happens?

Ultimately, mixing conservative and fundamentalist religion with far right wing politics produces dangerous extremism.  People elevate their passion and feelings above the rule of law, considering it an illegitimate barrier to their freedom which permits them to fight against the freedom and personal rights of others who don't share similar convictions.  This skews any conviction of what is right and wrong, and it undermines the value of human life which becomes subject to someone's personal determination of "righteousness."  It turns people into crusaders for God's vengeance against his enemies, while he holds their coattails and cheers them on.  That's a perspective that is both oppositional to American values of freedom and democracy, and Christian values of the sanctity of every human life.  

The Southern Baptist Convention is on the verge of losing its title as "The largest Protestant denomination in the United States."  Since it's membership peaked in 2006, it has lost 2.8 million members, almost a fourth of its total, and it has lost 1.8 million in its weekly worship attendance which is over a fourth of the total.  The vast majority of these losses, which have climbed into the 400,000 range per year, have occurred since 2015.  And the public message that gets put out, after all of the debates, is not concern for the hundreds of women who have been abused because they trusted someone in their church, but is a whine over the money this is costing the executive committee.  

This is the Achilles heel of this largest of Evangelical denominations.  The lack of sincerity of leadership that appears to be more interested in power and authority than in restoring the cooperative missions and ministry aims of the denomination is visible, and people are leaving because of it.  Baptisms, representing the number of people who profess to be converted to Christianity, and which have always been a measure of the relative health of the denomination as a whole, are experiencing all time lows.  The denomination is at risk of fragmenting even further, splintering, splitting or completely dissolving, and that's a fact that is quite visible. 

This is also bound to have a negative effect on right wing political support.  Not only have the numbers declined,  which means less votes from white Evangelicals for right wing candidates, but the erosion of trust has the effect of rubbing off on candidates who have been somewhat extreme in their views, and that means a loss of marginal support as well.  Pressler's work to tie the SBC to the GOP now has negative consequences as the SBC's reputation is tarnished.  And on top of everything else that has gone on, the denomination is poised to approve an amendment to its constitution this summer which, if it passes, would lead to the expulsion of churches who have women serving in vocational ministry.  This is something which has already led to churches disaffiliating with the convention, and inevitably will lead to even more defections.  

Conservativism is regressive, resolves nothing, and leads to failure.  Here is an egregious example of that, in America's largest Protestant denomination.

The Survival of American Democracy Depends on the Re-Election of President Joe Biden

We are now thirty-three days into the election leap year of 2024.  It's time to set aside all of the media noise and clamor of the past six months and focus on reality.  This is an election year.  And while Democrats love to discuss the issues, including a strong economy and the ability that it has to serve all Americans well, there is a lot more at stake this time.  The Constitution of the United States of America, and the democracy which is the foundation of the government it created, is all at risk of total destruction by a demagogue.  

We Can No Longer Depend on a Judicial System Weakened by Decades of Republican Deference to the Wealthy Elite 

It's pretty clear that the strength of the justice system, and the recognition of the rule of law, which pushed Richard Nixon to his resignation from the Presidency in 1974 has been systematically weakened by pressure from wealthy elites who are financially able to buy time and grace that ordinary people like the rest of us cannot afford.  And that's had the effect, frankly, of nullifying laws for a segment of the population that is rich enough to spend millions of dollars in attorney fees to delay, obfuscate, and get around the law for their own benefit.  

Every Republican President from Gerald Ford to Donald Trump has used their appointive power to undermine the system by putting people on the federal bench who are more attentive to the favors they get in exchange for their rulings than to the law.  Delays, appeals, all kinds of time to assemble, re-assemble, categorize and reorder evidence are way beyond the affordabiity of ordinary Americans.  So are bribes, in the form of buying homes for family members of justices and underwriting their very expensive vacations or their children's private school tuition.  And yes, that's one very obvious example but there's plenty of evidence to suggest it happens everywhere, all the time, without being investigated or stopped.

The American people are entitled to know, before they go to the polls and vote, whether candidates running for office are criminals.  And the laws that we have passed over the years, based on past experience, are there because we remain a nation of laws which lives under the rule of law, without exception.  That's not happening.  It needs to change.  

The only way to change this, to ensure the survival of our nation, and its Constitution, is that the American people are going to have to educate themselves as best as can be done, get the facts, filter out the falsehoods, and a clear majority are going to have to step up, re-elect President Biden and Vice-President Harris, make sure Democrats have a working majority in the House and control the Senate.  Then we can debate the finer points of left wing political issues, including who is entitled to what and how much how often.  If third party distractions and pickiness, and that's what I'll call it because it is, wind up costing Biden the election, even though he's going to get about 8 million more popular votes than Trump, there will be no debates.  We'll be watching as the National Guard round up people on the streets of the big cities and puts them into concentration camps.  Then we can talk about the finer points of our expected entitlements. 

Looking at the charges against Trump, and the evidence which supports them, convictions are inevitable.  The fact that a conviction doesn't render him completely ineligible for public office is a lapse in common sense that obviously needs to be codified in the law, without any doubt.  That must be changed.  No criminal should ever be able to run for President, or vote for President.  But the problem, produced by dawdling in the justice department and the endless and pointless ways of delaying the beginning of a speedy trial deliberately done to avoid accountability of perpetrators, is that the court never seems to actually getting around to having a trial.  In this case, it appears that the system, regardless of who appointed the justices or judges, is determined to avoid making any kind of decision in a timely manner.  That's the most self-serving, bloated, ineffective, inept, incompetent justice system in existence.  

There is No Reason Not to Support President Biden 

So we've had this six month run of news media chasing after ratings, including bogus, skewed polling data, sudden surges here and there, and huge amounts of coverage of the few issues and problems in which the Biden administration doesn't appear to be having a high level of success.  Yet another jobs report, another month of unexpected, unprecedented, consecutive growth, combined with the stock market soaring and the economy humming right along two years after the doom and gloomers predicted recession, underline the fact that the President kept his promise of recovery following the pandemic.  

Let's acknowledge that the economic downturn, resulting from COVID, and the lack of any comprehensive plan to help the American people get through the crisis, were gigantic, monumental failures of the Trump administration.  They were the direct result of his incompetence, which includes a mental and emotional failure that doesn't permit him to take advice from people who are far more expert than he is.  The inability of anyone to see this is due to total ignorance, steming from a lack of education in discerning facts and facing reality.  

So let's get past all of the trendy, pseudo-intellectual discussion centered around Biden's age and the need for a door to be opened to someone else to pursue the Presidency from the Democratic side of American politics.  First of all, there is no alternative candidate on the left who has anywhere near the experience, intellectual ability, or the staff of expert advisors to come anywhere close to governing this country as competently as Biden has done.  His list of first term accomplishments, on behalf of the American people and right down the line of all of his Democratic party constituency, is historic.  

Cornell West just doesn't have the kind of leadership ability that will be needed in the Presidency over the next four years, as the world seems to edge closer to anothter world conflict.  Jill Stein is a Putin-lover whose words give her away, frankly, as a clueless, empty, dimwit with nothing to offer her party that they aren't already going to get from Biden.  The ridiculousness of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as a serious candidate is laughable.  He has no leadership ability, no intellect, and doesn't have the emotional stamina to have the kind of responsibility that is involved in the presidency.  No Labels appears to be living up to its name, with no followers either.  

Yesterday, on one of the MSNBC programs, the statement was made that Biden is seeing an erosion of support among Black voters.  I wish the media would get this straight and coordinate their contradictory statements, after reports the previous week about polls showing his support increasing among Black and Latino voters.  They went to a barber shop in South Carolina and brought in four African-American men who expressed their "doubts" about voting for Biden.  None of them actually articulated a reason why, except to cite the common narrative of his age.  One of them said, "I'm not really sure he did for 'us' what he said he would do." 

And what, exactly, was that?  

Unemployment among minorities is at record lows.  There are more African-Americans in the federal judiciary now than there ever have been, many of them women, including one on the Supreme Court.  COVID ran rampant in the black community, the Biden administration focused on that problem specifically, and got it under control.  No one actually mentioned West, by the way, in that interview. My question to black voters is this; if you are hoping to see specific issues addressed by the government, and by the president, who is going to be better at doing that for you, Biden, who has been doing it all along, or Trump, whose only shot at election is if you stay home or vote third party?  Not voting is a vote for Trump and so is voting for a third party candidate.  And that will set your progress back again this time, perhaps all the way back to the Civil War.

Age is Not an Issue Here

While a lot can happen in four years, age is really no issue at all here.  Joe Biden is not a nincompoop like his predecessor.  He has an administration, loaded with experts who are all good at their job, and he listens to their advice before making decisions.  He never jumps to conclusions, he thinks things through and trusts his advisors.  His retaliatory response to Iran, following the deaths of three soldiers in Jordan is a classic example of this.  So is his border policy which has prevented, at least so far, a major humanitarian disaster.  Ukraine would be a Russian province once again and Putin would be on the march of destruction of other democracies in Eastern Europe by now.  

If something happened to him, there is a competent administration in place and a competent Vice-President ready to step in.  Nothing would change.  He's not the kind of President who leaves his administration hanging, not knowing what to do if something did happen.  So I'll say that age is an issue in this campaign, in this regard, but it's not Biden's age or mental competence that is the problem, it's Trump's.  

So is There Anything Else? 

Solving the inflation problem is not an overnight activity, but the Biden administration's policies have led to its reduction.  The fact that he predicted it, told us where it would go, what they would do and when it would ease have all been right on target.  Inflation is a sign of a prosperous economy, something we've enjoyed almost from the day Biden got into office.  And yet, Democratic party economic policy produces the most prosperous economic circumstances, even for the fabulously rich.  

The President also leads out on women's health rights.  There's no question this is a divisive issue that is always mischaracterized by the far right.  But we've had some real-life illustrations of exactly what we are dealing with here, and the far right perspective is missing the reality of what is at the core of this issue.  The overturning of Roe will have farther reaching effects on women's health care than just banning abortion.  And the far right's perspective on it misses the point and turns it into something it isn't, based largely on an imposition of religious beliefs.  And given the popularity of codifying the principles of Roe into law, at over 65% of the electorate, this is another example of a President who listens to the people.  

It's pretty obvious who Trump listens to.  He listens to no one.  

Elections Have Consequences

The American electorate is, for better or for worse, becoming more separated from logic, reason, facts and common sense, products of education, than it ever has been before.  The past two Presidential campaigns have moved completely off the issues, into a cultural and social hole that seems to be bottomless.  I attribute this shift to the utter failure of American public education to teach students even the basic facts about their government, and to require them to know these things before they get a high school diploma.  That's largely due to the Republican party's systematic dismantling of it by reducing its resources and the scope of its work when they are in charge.  And the fact is that they've been continuously in charge since this is largely a state issue, not a federal issue.  

The time, then, does come when we have to muster all out strength and take it back.  We go with the hand we've been dealt.  Joe Biden has, over the past four years, proven that he is up to the task and can do the job by actually doing the job, something Trump proved, in four years, that he couldn't do.  

What I want to see, with Democrats in charge of the federal government, is a clean sweep of objectives.  Break the filibuster.  Restore individual rights that have been lost.  Establish a single-payer, universal health care system.  Make it impossible for a convicted criminal to run for or hold public office.  Pack the Supreme Court, choosing justices who will uphold the rule of law.  That's a start.  Protecting our democracy is the primary job and we'll vote to get it done.