Conservatism has morphed into Trumpism.....and they are two very different agendas! We need to understand that....and acknowledge that. Donald Trump saves promises to give us when he sees parts of his conservative base crumbling. He'll do this only until he no longer needs us. We can expect some rather big milkbones thrown our way in this election cycle. Previous to this mid-term election conservative candidates would go to Congress and immediately be co-opted by the McConnell/Boehner/Ryan cartel. What we are looking at now is conservative speaking candidates.....co-opted already by Trumpism through a lack of vigilance.....and it's hard to get excited about that. What we need are candidates campaigning on....."Donald Trump is not who he said that he was.....I'm running....not to place blame solely on the Congress....but to hold the President accountable to his promises"....but these candidates are few and far between.
The following are the concluding words from an April post....'Folks, I spent years in my early Christian walk researching cults......how could this million people follow this man.....or that ten million people follow that woman......can't they see the signs of deception and manipulation? I put ads in the newspaper......call me.....let's talk! And now.....thirty years later.....I find conservative patriotic Americans as if throwing palms before Donald Trump. They refuse to question anything that he does. It's as if he has some kind of hold on them. He's our president.....let's defend him from this deep state coup.....but let's not cut off our hair....put on saffron robes....and dance and sing....Hare Trump....Hare Trump....Hare Trump....all year long. (which in effect is chanting....USA....USA....USA)
Roundheads Revisited
It's pretty amazing how things can change so much in such a relatively short time.This populace revolt began long before the arrival of the Tea Party. The Clintons awoke something in America. The government was taxing too much, spending too freely, incurring a debt that plundered the future of our children, and seemed to be having a good time doing it, while the law didn't seem to matter a whit to those with the power. We were not just mad but incensed after 9/11....then along came the these people....products of our anti-American progressive miseducation system....they seemed to want to help our enemies. The whole world seemed to be going crazy. Enter the Marxist Obama.....and the Republicans did nothing about any of this....absolutely nothing!
The awoken were going to take back America one step at a time and the first step was to get rid of the despised Republican establishment. We were Cromwell's Roundheads. The common man....the parliamentarian....up against the cavalier ruling class. We had enough of the Lord John McCains and Mitt Romneys. Conservative Talk Radio was our information and provided us with the forensic evidence that the media refused to give us. If anything else was needed....which it wasn't....there was Hillary Rodham Clinton.
There was no Reagan but there were a lot of good men....and women. In fact the women led the way at first. The showdown was going to be in November of 2016. Then the unexpected happened. Out of the clear blue patch of the Manhattan sky came Donald Trump. He shouted where our guys debated. He ranted and made our guys look like mannequins. We had the intellect in Ted Cruz and the honesty of Ben Carson and the no-nonsense Rand Paul. We had too many good ones in fact. Jeb Bush was relegated to the ash heap and that was the first goal but we couldn't come together and get down to business.
Who was this Donald Trump? He didn't have any new ideas.....he just made a lot louder noise. We kind of liked that....never expecting....and neither did he.....that he would actually come out on top. Many Christians had been praying intensely....we knew what would happen if Hillary Clinton ever became president. And now a man known mostly for his gambling casinos....pageant spectacles.....reality show.....and ego.....a man who was not one of us but sure sounded like one of us.....this was the last man standing.
We should have known what we were in for when he humiliated Ted Cruz at the convention. There was a problem here....a big problem....but we were blind to it. What followed was the most astounding popular revolt that I at least had ever seen in my half century of following politics.....more so than Robert Kennedy's charisma.....and more than Ronald Reagan's magnetism. We now had Trump's machismo and his signs were everywhere......outside of the metropolitan areas that is. It was something to see.
OK....it was truly a great day....that Tuesday in November. To this day a picture of Hillary's post-election frown calms the tremors of the day if only for a few moments. The despised Republican establishment....the self-crowned elite....our malevolent masters....were beaten back so severely that we wondered if they could ever recover....but things started falling apart right at the beginning. Why was he picking these people......the Ivankas and Jareds and others? Come on....somethings wrong here....but we simply shrugged it off.
Then came another surprise.....a deep state attempted coup.....and it's still going on a year later! They hated this man with such a passion that to this day we are amazed at the intensity of it....but what was happening in the Oval Office itself? Our man....the one who we just put into the White House....was turning out to be zanier that we even thought he was when he was running around the world seeking those few cameras that had not yet caught his image. Many of us regrouped but looked around and no one was rallying with us! All of a sudden the establishment was back with a vengeance....and the others really didn't even care! The Roundheads were looking more like blockheads.
Were we really that shallow in our beliefs that a boom market and and some saber rattling could strip us of any of our values and beliefs? Well that's about what happened. We don't even pray anymore. Why pray.....God was obviously already rewarding our goodness.
And that's where we are today. We now believe that the greatest disaster that could possibly come about would be in impeachment proceedings......for Donald Trump has taken on an aura of almost mythic proportions....a new George Washington....forget that it was said that George could not tell a lie yet it seems that Donald has struggles with the truth.
This all need not have happened. Had we just said something like...."OK....Mr. President....go for it and we'll see how you do".....we would have given him credit when it was due and called him to account when he strayed....but we put ourselves into a position where we are in effect offering Donald Trump a crown.....a crown that both Washington and Cromwell rejected.....but Donald Trump is eyeing up. We rightly are fighting this coup attempt tooth and nail....but we are crowning a king in the process....and therein has been our chief problem from the beginning!
There would have been no constitution in America....there wouldn't even be an America....had not God directed those rickety vessels here....and had He not pollinated those colonies with people who knew and worshiped their Lord.....and then fertilized the expanding frontier with the gospel of Jesus Christ! He called us....formed us....and poured out blessing after blessing....and withheld the rod until it could be withheld no more....and then blessed us some more....and the world through us....but as it always is with man....we came to think a Babel better than a Bethel....a manifesto better than a constitution....and a king better than the King of Kings.
Note: my comment on Ted Cruz needs explaining because conservatives are only reminded that Senator Cruz did not endorse Donald Trump at the convention. What I saw was this....The Senator was giving a speech which was due him or anyone who had so many supporters. Donald Trump should have just let him finish his speech and then he could have his day. Instead he entered the arena during the speech which was a purposeful attempt to humiliate the man who did not bow down before him. It worked.
The following are the concluding words from an April post....'Folks, I spent years in my early Christian walk researching cults......how could this million people follow this man.....or that ten million people follow that woman......can't they see the signs of deception and manipulation? I put ads in the newspaper......call me.....let's talk! And now.....thirty years later.....I find conservative patriotic Americans as if throwing palms before Donald Trump. They refuse to question anything that he does. It's as if he has some kind of hold on them. He's our president.....let's defend him from this deep state coup.....but let's not cut off our hair....put on saffron robes....and dance and sing....Hare Trump....Hare Trump....Hare Trump....all year long. (which in effect is chanting....USA....USA....USA)
Roundheads Revisited
It's pretty amazing how things can change so much in such a relatively short time.This populace revolt began long before the arrival of the Tea Party. The Clintons awoke something in America. The government was taxing too much, spending too freely, incurring a debt that plundered the future of our children, and seemed to be having a good time doing it, while the law didn't seem to matter a whit to those with the power. We were not just mad but incensed after 9/11....then along came the these people....products of our anti-American progressive miseducation system....they seemed to want to help our enemies. The whole world seemed to be going crazy. Enter the Marxist Obama.....and the Republicans did nothing about any of this....absolutely nothing!
The awoken were going to take back America one step at a time and the first step was to get rid of the despised Republican establishment. We were Cromwell's Roundheads. The common man....the parliamentarian....up against the cavalier ruling class. We had enough of the Lord John McCains and Mitt Romneys. Conservative Talk Radio was our information and provided us with the forensic evidence that the media refused to give us. If anything else was needed....which it wasn't....there was Hillary Rodham Clinton.
There was no Reagan but there were a lot of good men....and women. In fact the women led the way at first. The showdown was going to be in November of 2016. Then the unexpected happened. Out of the clear blue patch of the Manhattan sky came Donald Trump. He shouted where our guys debated. He ranted and made our guys look like mannequins. We had the intellect in Ted Cruz and the honesty of Ben Carson and the no-nonsense Rand Paul. We had too many good ones in fact. Jeb Bush was relegated to the ash heap and that was the first goal but we couldn't come together and get down to business.
Who was this Donald Trump? He didn't have any new ideas.....he just made a lot louder noise. We kind of liked that....never expecting....and neither did he.....that he would actually come out on top. Many Christians had been praying intensely....we knew what would happen if Hillary Clinton ever became president. And now a man known mostly for his gambling casinos....pageant spectacles.....reality show.....and ego.....a man who was not one of us but sure sounded like one of us.....this was the last man standing.
We should have known what we were in for when he humiliated Ted Cruz at the convention. There was a problem here....a big problem....but we were blind to it. What followed was the most astounding popular revolt that I at least had ever seen in my half century of following politics.....more so than Robert Kennedy's charisma.....and more than Ronald Reagan's magnetism. We now had Trump's machismo and his signs were everywhere......outside of the metropolitan areas that is. It was something to see.
OK....it was truly a great day....that Tuesday in November. To this day a picture of Hillary's post-election frown calms the tremors of the day if only for a few moments. The despised Republican establishment....the self-crowned elite....our malevolent masters....were beaten back so severely that we wondered if they could ever recover....but things started falling apart right at the beginning. Why was he picking these people......the Ivankas and Jareds and others? Come on....somethings wrong here....but we simply shrugged it off.
Then came another surprise.....a deep state attempted coup.....and it's still going on a year later! They hated this man with such a passion that to this day we are amazed at the intensity of it....but what was happening in the Oval Office itself? Our man....the one who we just put into the White House....was turning out to be zanier that we even thought he was when he was running around the world seeking those few cameras that had not yet caught his image. Many of us regrouped but looked around and no one was rallying with us! All of a sudden the establishment was back with a vengeance....and the others really didn't even care! The Roundheads were looking more like blockheads.
Were we really that shallow in our beliefs that a boom market and and some saber rattling could strip us of any of our values and beliefs? Well that's about what happened. We don't even pray anymore. Why pray.....God was obviously already rewarding our goodness.
And that's where we are today. We now believe that the greatest disaster that could possibly come about would be in impeachment proceedings......for Donald Trump has taken on an aura of almost mythic proportions....a new George Washington....forget that it was said that George could not tell a lie yet it seems that Donald has struggles with the truth.
This all need not have happened. Had we just said something like...."OK....Mr. President....go for it and we'll see how you do".....we would have given him credit when it was due and called him to account when he strayed....but we put ourselves into a position where we are in effect offering Donald Trump a crown.....a crown that both Washington and Cromwell rejected.....but Donald Trump is eyeing up. We rightly are fighting this coup attempt tooth and nail....but we are crowning a king in the process....and therein has been our chief problem from the beginning!
There would have been no constitution in America....there wouldn't even be an America....had not God directed those rickety vessels here....and had He not pollinated those colonies with people who knew and worshiped their Lord.....and then fertilized the expanding frontier with the gospel of Jesus Christ! He called us....formed us....and poured out blessing after blessing....and withheld the rod until it could be withheld no more....and then blessed us some more....and the world through us....but as it always is with man....we came to think a Babel better than a Bethel....a manifesto better than a constitution....and a king better than the King of Kings.
Note: my comment on Ted Cruz needs explaining because conservatives are only reminded that Senator Cruz did not endorse Donald Trump at the convention. What I saw was this....The Senator was giving a speech which was due him or anyone who had so many supporters. Donald Trump should have just let him finish his speech and then he could have his day. Instead he entered the arena during the speech which was a purposeful attempt to humiliate the man who did not bow down before him. It worked.
