It's the American Presidential Election on November 5, and some have said it could be the last election. The people saying this are Republicans not Democrats. They point to the fact that most of the individual States are strongly blue or red (but the opposite colours to UK Conservative/Labour) and the balance of the remaining swing states can be affected by the movement of a few million people. Illegal migration since 2021 (ie under a Democrat President) is over 10 million. The Swing States (won by less than 3%) are Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. These have from 1.4 to 7.3 million voters, so it's not hard to see what effect the judicious relocation and enfranchisement of these people could have. Even without this, as the 'Electoral College' votes are based on population, having a few million newly naturalised residents will strengthen a State's position. California, the most extreme progressive state has also taken the most illegal immigrants.
The Dems say that Donald Trump is the enemy of democracy but offer no reason other than the Jan 6 2021 protest about election interference which, on investigation, seems to be justified. This is an example of 'projection' where you accuse the other side of what you yourself are doing or planning.
The view on whether 'Climate Change' policies are a scam is split on party grounds. When Dr John Clauser, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physics, was invited to the White House and was pointing out the unscientific nature of the President's climate policies, Biden replied that Clauser's was 'right-wing science'!
The level of both incompetence, maliciousness and untruth seen from the current administration is almost beyond belief, where legislation that will cost $1.2 Trillion (!!) is called the 'Inflation Reduction Act' (the Wall Street Journal says 'one of the greatest confidence tricks on taxpayers in history'). You can see that they (whoever they are) have no respect for the electorate, and don't mind them knowing it. People have talked half-seriously of another civil war - one commented that there already is one, a cold civil war. It's in this atmosphere that some commentators say that Trump will not be allowed to win.
Facts over fancy
I think at least half of elected representatives should have science-related degrees as that trains you to engage with reality. Most have arts degrees, and in these subjects (I almost said disciplines!) you can imagine utopias, decide what you like and get away with making up things and asserting its truth. Philosophy is meant to be a search for true truth, as is history, literature, music and all arts, at their best. 'There lives the dearest freshness deep down things…' (God's Grandeur, Gerard Manley Hopkins).
In science subjects, if you don't follow the laws of nature then things just won't work. But science can be bought-off when grants and professorships depend on research that focuses only on certain narrow lines of enquiry, such as what is the best way to capture carbon, not what is the point of capturing it at all.
The West flourished when it pursued all these subjects with integrity and a sense of 'thinking God's thoughts after him' (Kepler) not just in science but in art as well, where we're seeking and expressing God's glory, richness and beauty. His Person, His ways, as expressed in Love and Truth are above even the seemingly immutable physical laws.
The love of money...
A recent Bill going through the US legislature was intended to limit the CCP's hostile actions against US economy and interests. An interviewer commented – well that's a good thing? The response was that it would make no difference. Why is that? Because any real, substantive action against them would be blocked in the Senate due to the vested interests of its members. A house divided against itself…
'First do no pharm'. Big Pharma, who we all were expected to thank for the Covid vaccines, have a history of selling medicines with false claims of efficacy. In 2012 GlaxoSmithKline was fined $3 billion (!) under the False Claims Act and there are many others. Covid boosters are still being pushed although the Surgeon General of Florida advises against them and points out they can actually increase your chance of getting Covid along with the possibility of side effects. Why do these intelligent, capable company executives do it? It's just that the profits exceed the fines. 'You got unrighteous doctors dealing drugs that'll never cure your ills' as Bob Dylan puts it, When you gonna wake up. It's a moral vision problem.
In the UK a water company has hiked its rate charges by 37% over 4 years. Their helpline has been told to say that the cause is inflation (actually 23.5% over 4 yrs). They had been fined by the Regulator for breaking processing rules, and as a privately owned monopoly the shareholders were told to bear the cost. But they have to recoup the money from the only source they have - us. Their priority is retention of shareholders and senior management (dare not make them personally responsible). It's an integrity problem.
Starting strong
Government in the UK and US became aligned to Biblical principles. The US Constitution acknowledges our weakness for power and its corruption, so has many checks and balances to help keep people honest. The UK 'unwritten constitution' developed to provide similar safeguards so the UK became recognised as the 'Mother of Parliaments'. But in the end all these require virtue to keep working.'Without virtuous citizens, the entire democratic system they envisioned would crumble.' Founders. Rules and laws are only as effective as the will to enforce them. So it's more shocking (and we still can't quite believe it) when key parts of that are challenged with Progressives doing their best to suppress free speech (ie cancel the First Amendment). John Kerry is reported to have called the First Amendment "a 'major block' to stopping 'disinformation' and fighting climate change.". It's true that with more channels of information available, more people can say more things, but the choice of deciding who is true must be left to each of us, who should be taught (as we used to be) to read widely rather than swallow the curated message of the powerful, who may or may not be right.
We also need to look back to see how things have worked in the past. The printing press had as much impact on the free exchange of ideas as the internet does. It was key to the revivals and reformations of people and societies, and to the growth of technology that led to growing economies, food security, better shelter, health, heat and light. The religious, monied and political elites of John Bunyan's time bemoaned the masses talking among themselves about Christian truths and social freedoms. There were plenty of 'Ranters' (Progressives) as well – so you had to sort the wheat from the chaff – but the overall result of liberty was well-being.
This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it'...
The echo
So what is happening in the US (and being so faithfully mimicked in the UK)? Who is behind it all? We are in the process of losing representative democracy. It is being replaced by the control of wealthy vested interests (more in a future blog post) and the co-oped false ideologies used to facilitate it. A key part of this is reducing our agency by sapping morale, the will to resist, and impoverishing our material means.
What do we feel the Lord is doing? As our people retreat from Him and abandon His ways so the virtuous structures disappear and the agenda of the 'prince of the power of the air' is more visibly seen, the 'father of lies'. The de-civilising and loss of flourishing is part of God's judgement – revealing the natural consequences of our sin.
Many are waking up, often outside the Christian community. God loves them! He is the Lord of the harvest and we, as workers, need to follow his direction, do things His way and do not hinder.
…And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
