Put no trust in
princes,
in
children of Adam powerless to save;
who
breathing his last, returns to the earth;
that
day all his planning comes to nothing.
Blessed
the one whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose
hope is in the LORD, his God...
[Psalm
146:3-5]
I
think, sometimes – perhaps most of the time – we forget that only God saves,
and that He, not us, remains in charge. If we look to another human, whether
man or woman, to rescue us from the perils we ourselves have created, we will
soon be greatly disappointed. Of course, the Lord of History sometimes raises
up the least likely individuals to fulfill His plan, so we must look to their
fruits if we hope to recognize God’s action in the world.
If
you are among the 80+ million Americans who watched the presidential debate on
Monday evening, you witnessed two people trying to convince us that they, and
only they, can lead our nation to the promised land. Each has a very different
vision of what that land looks like and how to get there.
[Full disclosure: I skipped the debate, preferring to catch the highlights the next day -- far less tedious.]
 |
| The First Debate |
One candidate,
Hillary Clinton, plans to follow the same path paved by the current
administration in which she was a key player. But she seems unable to recognize
or accept that the plan is dysfunctional, and has created far more problems
than it has solved. And so she tells us: Don't get all wrapped up in who
caused our current problems, because I've got some brilliant solutions ready to
go. Her solutions, though, seem more than vaguely familiar; indeed, they're the same leftist approaches that have consistently failed whenever and
wherever they've been tried.
Mrs.
Clinton is also afflicted with a few other issues. If the polls reflect reality,
a majority believe she is not healthy enough to be president. This can be a
tricky problem for her. She must convince voters that these concerns are
baseless despite all the contrary evidence. And what about Tim Kaine, her
running mate? She can't focus too much on his presidential qualifications without
seeming to confirm her own health issues. Lots of webs being woven here.
But
perhaps more troubling for Hillary Clinton are the large numbers of Americans
who simply don't trust her to tell the truth. I suppose it all began years ago
when she mobilized her team of sycophants to provide cover for her husband's
"indiscretions." She did so by attacking the women, so many women, on
whom Bill preyed. Impeached but not convicted – his sins, after all, were the
same as those of his judges – Bill has been rehabilitated by the folks who
matter.
 |
| Bill stumping for Hillary in NH -- Enthusiastic Women? |
But
Bill is only one chink in Hillary Clinton’s honesty armor; consider:
- Her removal from her House Judiciary Committee staffer job because of incompetence and lying;
- The whole Whitewater debacle;
- Her tall tale about landing in Bosnia under sniper fire;
- The "cleansing" of the White House travel office;
- The vast right-wing conspiracy that she claims was at the heart of her husband's problems;
- Her “flat-broke” claims after leaving the White House;
- Her speaking fees -- the pay for play, quid pro quo deals with Wall Street firms and foreign nations;
- The ongoing email-national security scandal and associated corruption of her State Department staff;
- The Benghazi lies and "What difference does it make?" attitude.
For
me, however, it is her extreme stance on abortion that disqualifies her. How
can anyone who so strongly supports the brutal killing of the most innocent and
helpless among us be qualified for the presidency? This is the same reason I
neither voted for nor trusted our current president, Barack Obama.
 |
| Oh! It's a "Person" but without rights... |
The
other candidate, Donald Trump, is an enigma, perhaps the most unlikely of presidential
candidates. New York businessman, reality TV star, off-the-cuff stump speaker, as
brash as his home town with an ego to match, Donald Trump has apparently caught
on with many Americans. A multi-millionaire, he is viewed by his supporters as
too rich to be corrupted by other people’s money. Many Americans are tired of the professional politicians
who seem to love spending their constituents’ money on anything and anyone that
will help their reelection. These same voters seem to regard Mr. Trump as the
outsider who will clean house and remind the pols that the people are still
sovereign. Could be...but that’s the problem with outsiders: they have no
political track record. They force us to focus on the personal.
And
so Donald Trump has had to define and refine and re-define his vision and plans
for the nation. He’s had to leave the shallows and wade into the deeper waters
of specifics, and that, some believe, will cause him problems. I don’t agree.
Donald Trump has said so many things that the mainstream media and their fellow
travelers consider outrageous, and each time he gains ground. That same media,
following the lead of his opponent, have attacked him and his “deplorable” supporters
as “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic” and pretty much any
other “ist” or “phobic” they can think of. The result: his poll numbers
continue to rise.
 |
| Trump: College Supporters |
The
elites in Hollywood and the media, as well as those who roam the corridors of
power in Washington, are flabbergasted. How can this be happening? One can
understand their confusion since few have spent much time among the hoi polloi, the masses in fly-over
country who struggle to pay their bills every month. Interestingly, minorities –
generally considered a lock for the Democrats – are beginning to show some
interest in Donald Trump. I suspect he will draw a larger percentage of the Black
and Hispanic vote than any of his recent Republican predecessors.
And
then there are the “Never-Trump” Republicans, really a mixed bag of neocons and
establishment types, along with a few former opponents with hurt feelings. I’ve
never really trusted the neocons because of their subtle dismissal of those “permanent
things” that traditionally form the foundation of true conservative thought.
Most gravitated to so-called neo-conservatism from the far left, and still seem
partly connected to their big-government, Marxist roots. |
| Bush Presidents and Hopeful |
Even
the Bush family, the most establishment of all establishment Republicans, have
come out against Donald Trump, with the elder George admitting he’ll likely
vote for Hillary Clinton. Jeb Bush, who was just kidding when he signed that
pledge to support the Republican nominee, is now encouraging Republicans to vote
for the Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson, a man who makes Donald Trump look positively
Socratic. As for George W. Bush, I suspect he’ll probably sit this election
out.
I’ve
said all along (see post: July 18)
that I expect Donald Trump to win the election, largely because the stakes are
so high. He's also generated a level of enthusiasm among his supporters that Hillary Clinton
will never be able to match. As for Mrs. Clinton’s appeal to women – “Elect the first
female president!” – it doesn’t outweigh all her negatives. Unlike President Obama who
gathered in over 90% of the Black vote, Hillary Clinton will be lucky to draw 55% of the
female vote.
Although
not a Trump supporter, I will probably vote for him. To vote for a third party would waste a vote, and I can think of no third party worth my vote. From our perspective as citizens and voters, politics must always be the art of choosing the least imperfect. Is one candidate the lesser of two evils, or
is the other the evil of two lessers? I think the latter.
In
the meantime, I'll try to avoid politics in future posts and just put my trust, not in princes (or princesses), but in God
alone, the Lord of History.
Pray
for our nation.
