The Biden Referendum: Tuesday, November 8

Joe Biden is a really bad President.

That's not just a statement from an admittedly partisan blogger, but it is empirically confirmed by the citizens and voters across the country.  There can be no question that, despite the advantages provided by a fawning and shilling news media, Joe Biden - with his 38% favorable rating - is one of the least popular U.S. presidents since such statistics have been tracked. (1)  However, that's not to say he hasn't been effective.  The trio of executive orders, selective non-enforcement of existing law, Congressional legislation, combined with a constant stream of propaganda from the presidential teleprompter have been very effective in dividing us along political and racial lines, undermining the shared social fabric, and destroying the country's economy.  Effective yes, very much so.  But popular, absolutely not.

As such, tomorrow's election - despite the President's objections - has turned into a referendum on the dangerous and destructive policies being imposed on us by the unpopular Biden Regime.  Many of us have come to the conclusion that the best way to stop or at least slow the consequences of those policies - at least in the short term - is to deny his political party the Congressional and state majorities which exist to enable his lawless regime and its policies

With this in mind, I have been compiling a list of a few of the most obvious reasons to vote against Democrats at all levels in Tuesday's election.  Below, I offer you my Top Ten Reasons to vote GOP on November 8:

 
Reason #1 to vote GOP on November 8: 
Intentional human Chaos created on the southern border - For fiscal year 2022, we had an all-time record number of criminal and illegal aliens flooding across the border.  Under the intentionally chaotic misrule of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, we have suffered through:
- 2,378,944 illegal alien 'encounters' in 2022 - the worst on record.  Most of these unscreened, undocumented, unvaccinated, uneducated, and acculturated aliens were ushered into the country posthaste by the Biden regime.
- Another 600,000 illegal alien known 'got-aways'
- 856 reported deaths at the southern border, another record - not including the deaths south of the border
- 98 known or suspected terrorists apprehended - 4x more than the previous 5 years combined (for reference, only 19 terrorists were involved in the Sept 11 attacks)
In an attempt to conceal the bad border news which reporting requirements forced them to publicly reveal, Homeland Security dumped the Sept. and fiscal year end data at 11:30 pm Friday (10/21) night. (2)

Reason #2 to vote GOP on November 8:
Intentional drug Chaos on the southern border - During his first two years in office, Biden oversaw record drug overdose numbers, much of which was fentanyl-related.  As a consequence of Biden's lawless border policies, enough fentanyl was seized while being smuggled in fiscal year 2021 to kill every US citizen 7 times, which begs the question how much of the deadly drug wasn't intercepted at the porous and virtually undefended southern border.  If the Biden regime isn't deliberately cooperating, hand-in-glove, with the Mexican drug cartels which are flooding our country with illegal drugs, it is hard to fathom what more they could be doing to assist the effort.

Reason #3 to vote GOP on November 8:
National security - A Surrender in the fight against Terrorism.  After the ill-planned and hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan, literally billions in armaments were gifted by Biden to the Taliban.  This included vehicles, planes, night vision equipment, small arms, and parts.  Even the lowest estimates of the value ($7-8 billion) of what he left behind is 2 to 3 times the amount the Biden regime requested for Israeli defense in fy2022 - in other words, Biden's policies provide more support for Taliban terrorists than our best middle eastern ally.

It's no better on the home front, where his inexplicably stubborn refusal to enforce the law, finish the border wall, or beef up the U.S Border Patrol, means that would-be terrorists are literally pouring across the southern border (98 of whom were stopped in fiscal year 2022 alone, according to DHS statistics, which do not speculate how many terrorists made it through)

Reason #4 to vote GOP on November 8: 
National security - Projecting Military weakness.  Undermining our military strength has been a hallmark of Biden's defense policy.  Not only did his unceremonious and haphazard surrender in Afghanistan signal weakness to our global enemies - and thereby greenlighting Putin's invasion of Ukraine - but by not consulting with our allies before his pullout there, he jeopardized their future cooperation.

He has further undermined our military by:
- Draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve needed to defend the country in wartime
- Injecting woke, politically correct, and divisive racial theories into the officer corps and enlisted ranks
- Implementing politicized COVID and speech policies to thin the ranks and deter recruitment.  (For instance, the army has fallen 25% below its recruiting goal in 2022). (3)

Reason #5 to vote GOP on November 8: 
Fuel prices - Biden's war on the energy industry.  While our Commander-in-Chief has generally favored the funding of - rather than fighting against - terrorism, Biden was quite quick to declare war on our domestic energy industry, and by proxy, the American people.  On his first day in office, he revoked the existing permit for the new pipeline bringing oil in from Canada, enacted a moratorium on oil and gas leases on Federal lands, and placed our entire economy hostage to the whims of Obama's unratified treaty known as the Paris Climate Accords.

In addition, he reinstated restrictive permitting & drilling rules while cancelling leases & lease auctions.  Among the most debilitating effects of all these America-punishing efforts included doubling and even tripling, the cost of heating oil, gasoline, and diesel.  This, in turn, led him to order the draining of the strategic petroleum reserve prior to the 2022 midterms, in an attempt to ameliorate the electoral impact of his misguided energy policy.

Reason #6 to vote GOP on November 8:
The lawless Justice Department. - Since his confirmation as Attorney General, Merrick Garland's partisan conduct has only proved that he was rightfully spurned as a Supreme Court justice nominee.  During his short time as A.G., the FBI has lost what was left of it's tattered credibility, while being remade into a bludgeon of political persecution. He has turned the Justice Department as a whole into little more than a partisan tool of the far left to target the Biden regime's ideological opponents.  At his direction,we saw:

- Targeting school board attendees by raising the specter of FBI investigations of parents interested in debating school board policies
- Refusing to enforce federal law against those engaged in intimidation of Supreme Court justices
- Personally approving an unprecedented armed Raid on a former President's residence over a document storage dispute
- Charging pro-life protestors with Federal crimes under a spurious interpretation of the FACE Act (while still ignoring BLM/Marxist/Antifa rioters who burned down entire city blocks and government buildings)

Reason #7 to vote GOP on November 8:
Stop a Lawless administration - Insomuch as he is actually capable of being in charge, Biden presides over a profoundly lawless and corrupt administration.  We had previously discussed the Dept. of Homeland Security and the Justice Department:
- Under Alejandro Mayorkas, Homeland Security is blatantly ignoring it's mandate and allowing literally millions of would-be terrorists, drug smugglers, human traffickers, and illegal aliens to stream across the porous southern border.
- Under Merrick Garland, we have seen the continuing radical politicization of the Justice Dept. and the FBI - including targeting of parents attending school board meetings and peaceful pro-life picketers, armed predawn raids and arrests of political opponents, and a refusal to prosecute Democratic political allies.
The only way such lawless public officials can be impeached and removed from office is when the Democrats who protect them don't control Congress or block Congressional inquiries.

While those examples are truly bad, there is much more dereliction of duty and outright corruption that requires probing by the Congressional oversight committees that Democrats currently control, including:
- The self-inflicted war on domestic energy production, that enrich our enemies (such as Russia, Iran, and Venezuela), spurred by his adoption of the radical Green New Deal policies
- The reckless draining of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a pre-election attempt to temporarily lower fuel costs caused by his energy policies
- The leaving of Billions - if not tens of Billions - of armaments and the renovated Bagram airbase to Taliban terrorists during his hasty surrender in Afghanistan
- An IRS which is literally arming up its agents and requiring them be prepared to use deadly force against taxpayers, while at the same time filling 87,000 new positions
- An attempted politicization and demoralization of our armed forces
- The Unconstitutional spending of $500,000,000 in unappropriated funds to forgive and transfer the college debt of potential wealthy supporters in a bold attempt to buy votes before the election. (The Brookings Institution says one-third of student debt is held by the wealthiest 20% of households.  By comparison, only 8% is owed by the bottom 20%)

Reason #8 to vote GOP on November 8:
Economy and Inflation - Biden's 8.2% inflation.  The Biden team's level of economic incompetence seems to be only rivaled by that of Jimmy Carter, and chasing hat of Weimar Germany.

Plainly put, Democrat policies have pushed our economy into a recession.  Despite the left's desperate attempts to rewrite the classic definition of recession or blame everything bad on Putin, a recession is defined as "two consecutive quarters of negative growth."  Biden delivered negative economic growth for both the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2022, and it is expected to go negative again for Q4.  Despite labor market shortages, inflation has now outpaced wages for 18 consecutive months.(4)  Fuel prices have doubled, and even tripled.  Pinching you even more, home mortgage rates have went from under 3% to over 7.5% under Biden's watch.

Although Biden had promised not to raise taxes on the middle class, keep in mind that this inflation itself is a cruel 8.2% tax - in fact, it is a flat tax - one that both erodes the value of our savings and increases the cost of goods and services we need to survive.

Reason #9 to vote GOP on November 8:
COVID-19 Policy - While COVID-19 was clearly a serious threat, in retrospect, one has to wonder if the threat to individual liberty was by far the greater peril.

The Wuhan/COVID virus quickly became an excuse for all sorts of mischief by those (almost exclusively Democrats) with totalitarian instincts, such as:  inflexible vaccine mandates, travel bans, lockdowns, vaccine work requirements, shutting down schools, locking in seniors, eviction moratoriums, banning church services, emptying prisons, student loan interest forgiveness, student loan debt cancellation and reassignment, the abrogation of election laws, unmonitored ballot drop boxes, etc. - and don't forget those economic stimulus checks they paid to inmates - all of which empowered the bureaucracy and endangered individual liberty.

Reason #10 to vote GOP on November 8:
Abortion - While it is probably unfair to characterize Democrats as godless, it is fair to ask the question - exactly which god it is that they worship?  Especially so as almost every other ad they've run during this campaign cycle is in support of unfettered, unrestricted abortion.  It does seem to me that this spectacularly cruel form of child sacrifice has become the most important sacrament required in the worship of their diabolical gods.

Indeed, their leader has pledged to turn bad Constitutional law (which was overturned by the Dobbs vs. Jackson ruling) into bad Congressional action.  Joe Biden has already promised that the first bill he sends to Congress next year will be one that legally codifies - and likely exceeds - the Roe vs. Wade decision, in the unlikely event that Democrats somehow control enough seats in Congress to pass it.  This threatened violation of everything good and holy in itself, seems to me to be the only reason one needs to justify denying them a ruling majority.


That's the ten, but there's still so many more, which I will lump under the title:
Return to sanity - I recently heard a GOP congressional candidate say something to the effect that this election "wasn't about Democrat versus Republican, but crazy versus normal."  I think he was on to something.

Consider the following "crazy" ideas being promoted by the left:
- Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools
- Drag queen story hours and pornographic literature for small children
- Mutilating minors with so-called 'transition' surgeries
- Girls/women forced to compete against boys/men in sports.
- Criminalizing political dissent
- Decriminalizing drug crimes
- Defunding the police
- No cash bail for repeat offenders
- Millions of criminals crossing southern border
- 401k plan-destroying inflation
- DEI and ESG
- Promises from a figure-head president to shut down power plants and "no more drilling"

A return to a Republican Congress, your statehouse, and legislature is the best check on their "crazy" brand - the crazy, leftist policies of Biden and his Democratic enablers, led by Pelosi and Schumer.  It could even open a path to impeachment proceedings against their worst offenders - including Garland, Myorkas, and Biden.

Meanwhile, we keep in mind their sneering arrogance and refuse to forget the utter contempt these people have for us.  Obama called us 'bitter clingers', Hillary called us "the deplorables", CNN's Rick Wilson sneers that we are the ignorant "boomer rube demo", Biden thinks he insults us by saying we are "ultra MAGA", and more recently, the View's Sonny Hostin accuses us of being cockroaches.  But considering the source of the insults, those of us patriots who are their targets either laugh or perhaps take it as a compliment, while we vote them out of office at the polls on Tuesday!

But above all, remember to fight, finish, and keep the faith.  As goes the encouragement the Apostle Paul gave to his understudy, Timothy, while speaking to his fortitude and personal conduct:  " I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (5)

 

 

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1 - https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/10/20/bidens-job-rating-is-similar-to-trumps-but-lower-than-that-of-other-recent-presidents/ 

2 - https://nypost.com/2022/10/22/record-856-migrants-die-at-southern-border-in-fiscal-year-2022-cbp/

3 - https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2022/10/13/is-the-military-too-woke-to-recruit/

4 - https://www.statista.com/chart/27610/inflation-and-wage-growth-in-the-united-states/

5- II Timothy 4:7

Impeachment Redux

In her continuing efforts to unify a country emerging from a divisive election season, primarily by shaming, silencing, or straight-up eliminating the political opposition, Nancy Pelosi has ushered her troops through a successful second impeachment vote. She will now work in tandem with Chuck Schumer – with the tacit approval of President Biden – in trying to manipulate the Senate into a kangaroo court trial and removal from office of a popular president - one who happens to no longer be in office.

Notwithstanding that this act is most likely Unconstitutional, it also seems a rather unlikely way to bridge the gap between the two sharply divided political parties or kick off an effort encouraging meaningful bipartisan cooperation in tackling the urgent issues facing our county – unlikely?  well, yes - at least, to those of us living outside the D.C. beltway.

Nonetheless, in her infinite wisdom and with many decades (if not a century) of experience in this sort of thing, the Speaker charged ahead. She forced a change of House rules and rushed through a lone article of impeachment in a single day – without provision for legal representation for the defendant or so much as an attempt to present evidence to prove her claims.

That said, it's not to imply there wasn't an abundance of examples of threatening and dangerous-sounding speech, which might suggest the incitement of violence, to be employed in an impeachment proceeding.  But rather, in her zeal to begin healing the country's divisions, the good Speaker simply couldn't take the time away from her other unification efforts to share it all with the country. So in the interest of fairness, and as a public service to you, my fellow citizen, I present for your consideration some of the most damning evidence of hateful, riot-inciting speech I could find so you can decide for yourself about guilt or innocence in the whole matter.

For some background, even prior to the storming of capitol Hill on January 6, President Trump was heavily criticized for his history of pugilistic language aimed at political adversaries:

Exhibit 1a:

If I were in high school I'd take him behind the gym and beat the he** out of him.¹

Exhibit 1b:

...my testosterone sometimes makes me want to feel like punching him, which would be bad for this elderly, out-of-shape man that he is, if I did that, (laughing)...²

One of the many claims advanced by the Democrats was that the President's continuing careless words whipped up the crowds at his rallies to extreme acts:

Exhibit 2a:

You know, there needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there’s unrest in our lives.³

Exhibit 2b:

I just don’t even know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country, and maybe there will be...⁴

They further claimed that President Trump's repeated use of incendiary language provoked his followers to threaten political opponents and elected officials: (Even directing followers to storm the Capitol...)

Exhibit 3a:

You get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them! And you tell them that they are not welcome, anymore, anywhere⁵

Exhibit 3b:

Please don’t just come here today and then go home. Go to the Hill today. Get up and please get up in the face of some congresspeople.⁶

Because he insisted that election fraud cost him the 2020 election, they claim that he impugned and threatened the elected officials and courts that rejected his claims - although often merely on technicalities:

Exhibit 4:

You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions⁷

The most serious allegation is that he summoned his most ardent followers to storm the capitol and foment an insurrection:

Exhibit 5:

So, this is just a warning to you... We ain't playing with you. Enough of the shenanigans. Enough is enough. And for those of you who are soldiers, you know how to do it. Do it right. Be in order. Make them pay.⁸

One of the most devastating charges was that during the siege on the Capitol - that they blame him for starting - he wasn't quick enough to denounce the mob and talk down the rioters:

Exhibit 6:

This is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not going to stop and everyone beware, because they’re not going to stop... They’re not going to let up and they should not and we should not⁹

Of course, others deny that the President did any such thing:

Exhibit 7:

We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. ...I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.¹⁰

So that's the evidence I found, so you can decide for yourself based on the direct quotes. But before you render your final judgment, there's just one more thing your should know.

Actually, all of those quotes – except the last one – were from elected Democrats and not the President.

You can look at the endnotes for yourself and confirm that. All were elected Democrats encouraging riots, Democrats threatening violence and insurrection, and Democrats cheerleading violence directed against their political opponents. This whole narrative they have invented about Trump is known as psychological projection - accusing Republicans of doing what they themselves are doing.

It's what leftists do.

--- Footnotes ------------------------------------------

1 - Exhibit 1a: Joe Biden - “...they asked me would I like to debate the gentleman. 'I said no! If I were in high school I'd take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.” – 03/20/2018 –

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/21/politics/joe-biden-donald-trump/index.html

2 - Exhibit 1b: Cory Booker - "Donald Trump is a guy who you understand- he hurts you and my testosterone sometimes makes me want to feel like punching him, which would be bad for this elderly, out-of-shape man that he is if I did that," (laugh) "Physically weak specimen, but do you see what I'm talking about here?” Cory Booker – 07/22/19 - https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/cory-booker-knocks-trump-refers-to-him-as-an-elderly-out-of-shape-man

3 - Exhibit 2a: Ayanna Pressley - "Make the phone calls, send the emails, show up," she continued. "You know, there needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there’s unrest in our lives.” – 08/15/20 – https://www.foxnews.com/media/ayanna-pressley-calls-for-unrest-in-the-streets-over-trump-allied-politicians-ignoring-americans-concerns

4 - Exhibit 2b: Nancy Pelosi - “I just don’t even know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country, and maybe there will be when people realize that this is a policy that they defend,” she said. “It’s a horrible thing, and I don’t see any prospect for legislation here.” – 06/14/18 – https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jun/14/nancy-pelosi-wonders-why-there-arent-uprisings-acr/

5 - Exhibit 3a: Maxine Waters - “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them! And you tell them that they are not welcome, anymore, anywhere,” – June 2018 – https://www.foxnews.com/politics/watchdog-says-maxine-waters-inciting-mob-violence-presses-ethics-complaint https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/25/politics/maxine-waters-trump-officials/index.html

6 - Exhibit 3b: Corey Booker - "Before I end, that’s my call to action here. Please don’t just come here today and then go home," Booker said. "Go to the Hill today. Get up and please get up in the face of some congresspeople." – July 25, 2018 – https://freebeacon.com/politics/booker-tells-activists-get-face-congresspeople/

7 - Exhibit 4: Chuck Schumer - “I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.” – 03/04/2020 – https://dailycaller.com/2020/03/04/schumer-kavanaugh-gorsuch-abortion/

8 - Exhibit 5: Cynthia A. Johnson, D-MI House of Reps. - “So this is just a warning to you Trumpers: Be careful. Walk lightly. We ain’t playing with you. Enough of the shenanigans. Enough is enough. And for those of you who are soldiers, you know how to do it. Do it right. Be in order. Make them pay." – 12/08/20 – https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/michigan-lawmaker-disciplined-over-facebook-warning-to-trumpers-after-she-says-she-was-threatened/ar-BB1bN6Qy

9 - Exhibit 6: Kamala Harris - “This is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not going to stop and everyone beware, because they’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop before Election Day in November and they’re not going to stop after Election Day. Everyone should take note of that on both levels. They’re not going to let up and they should not and we should not.” 06/17/20 – The Late Show with Stephen Colbert https://www.foxnews.com/politics/flashback-kamala-harris-nationwide-protests-not-going-to-stop https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1299013980711784448

Harris also raised funds to bail out rioters, so they could continue rioting:

If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota. https://t.co/t8LXowKIbw

– Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 1, 2020

10 - Exhibit 7:  President Donald Trump -

Anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.

Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated.

I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.

Today we will see whether Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections.

 01/06/2021 - https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-01-13/transcript-of-trumps-speech-at-rally-before-us-capitol-riot

 

Walzing Around the Truth

On Wednesday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz issued an official statement concerning events unfolding in D.C.. If truth be told, had he only penned the final two paragraphs, he would have earned a modicum of respect from me, and perhaps, even displayed a bit of real statesmanship by calling on us all to be bigger and better persons.  But unfortunately, that was not to be.  Much like his Washington D.C. mentor, Speaker Pelosi, when given the chance, he just couldn't resist playing the role of the shamelessly opportunistic political propagandist and hypocritical pontificator.

The missed opportunity is truly a shame.

His statement, in its entirety, is reposted here:

Statement from Governor Walz:

“I see the events unfolding in our nation’s capital today not just as a Governor, but as a former high school history teacher. The last time our nation’s capital was under siege was more than 200 years ago when our country was at war with the British.”

“Today, it wasn’t a foreign nation that seized the capitol building and attempted an insurrection. It was citizens of our own country, incited by our president and enabled by many political leaders, who made a direct assault on our democracy.”

“In my classroom, I taught my students to see moments like this in a greater historical context. We must do that reflection today. President Trump has fanned the flames of hatred and undermined the sacred American institutions he swore an oath of office to protect. And whether it was through the support or silence of other politicians, he didn’t do it alone.”

“We must recognize that democracy cannot be taken for granted. We ask our soldiers to endanger their lives to defend our democracy abroad—we all have a duty to protect it here at home. That means toning down our rhetoric, bridging divides, and upholding our Democratic ideals.”

“History is being written today. What will our future students read about this moment in their textbooks? It’s on us to ensure today is the end of a chapter. And marks the beginning of when America stood up and stood together.”(1)

For a supposed teacher of history, he seems to have a very short memory of recent events - or at least a highly selective, politically self-serving one.

We all saw our nation's capitol (and many other Democrat controlled cities) come under full scale siege last summer by mindless, rioting BLM Marxists and Antifa's fascist bully-boy insurrectionists.  They vandalized national monuments and federal buildings, destroyed public property, and even torched the historic St. John's church located next to the White House, forcing the Secret Service to move the president to safety.   But apparently in the governor's closed mind, none of that really counts - at least as long as it advances the left's political agenda, its all good.

Closer to home, just this past summer, we saw Governor Walz, rendered helpless and dithering for days on end, weighing the political pros and cons of large scale mob violence against his personal political fortunes, while not just watching - but by his inaction, likely even fanning - the flames of destruction and mob violence.  Meanwhile, Minneapolis burned, police officers were injured, lives and livelihoods were destroyed, and whole neighborhoods were torn apart, until he finally allowed law enforcement and the National Guard to act in some measure of response.  Then, to add insult to injury, he had the audacity to ask the taxpayer to foot the bill for his feckless incompetence, while the perpetrators of it all, for the most part, got by scott free.

And yet now, this same governor lays blame at the feet of our President, the Republican party, and by implication even the GOP voter concerned about the real likelihood of voter fraud, for the mostly non-violent, short, but inexcusable actions of a few miscreant thugs.

By his own measure, Walz is far more culpable in his own actions and inactions than those whom he accuses - but then again, why have standards when you can have double standards?

We must be clear on this point:  Walz's indecision directly contributed to the normalizing of political violence and his inaction, by literally watching a city burn, was far more dangerous than the mere hyperbolic fanning of flames that he accuses his political adversaries of.
 
So we must respectfully ask the governor to what dubious intellectual or moral authority it is that he lays claim to?  What is this duplicitous moral foundation, that justifies him to so brazenly smear with broad brush his political opposition with the actions of a few, while refusing to acknowledge his own complicity in egregious events occurring under his own watch that went on far longer and were far more serious, deadly, and costly? 

Spelling check:  How many "Y"s are there in the word "hypocrisy"?

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1 - https://mn.gov/governor/news/?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR2PX31mMSyfw8HQrvWjm2tlNPL0ql45NhV3OOQ9e6WEjtt7VsCUTR8oMec&utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=#/detail/appId/1/id/462163

Bulletproof

We live in a skeptical, if not cynical age – an age largely without heroes.
 
That is too bad, because while most postmodern academics scoff at the idea of anything regarding ultimate meaning, ridiculing those things that are larger-than-life, it seems culturally we are set to drift aimlessly in search for that which we know not.  Our young people are left to look amongst the coarseness of the locker room or to sort through the rubbish left in the wake of a voyeuristic entertainment industry for someone to look up to; in seeking someone to emulate.  Each one offered up to us by our culture seemingly worse than the ones who came before.  We all seem to sense the need.  We are losing our way.  And we are all so much the worse off in the absence of a hero.

This malaise seems to have kicked into high gear sometime in the mid to late 60's, and the disease has been spreading unabated since that time.  It impacts almost every realm:  historical, political, religious, the news media.  To use an analogy from my favorite movie genre, the American Western, it seems everywhere we turn, the well-meaning, if rough around the edges, hero of John Wayne's Rooster Cogburn in True Grit has been replaced with Clint Eastwood's openly sadistic, immoral anti-hero, the Stranger, from High Plains Drifter.

Just a little over a week ago, Legacy Christian Academy had the privilege of hosting David Barton, Christian historian.  Reflecting on Barton’s visit that Monday evening triggered memories I had of a story he had written probably 20 years ago, which I think merits retelling here. As I understand it, versions of this story were included in most textbooks in generations past, but sadly, that is no longer the case.  Due to the influence of liberal historical revisionism, great stories such as this, have largely faded from the public's memory.

Twenty years prior to the Revolutionary War, a youthful George Washington, found himself an officer serving under British General Braddock and his veteran forces.  At the time, Washington was the 23 year old commander of the 100 man Virginia Regiment, joined with British forces against the French and their Indian allies in a territorial dispute between the two nations.

I will let Barton tell the story as he discovered it from an 1856 Maryland textbook (taken from his book America’s Godly Heritage):

The British troops arrived in Virginia, where George Washington (colonel of the Virginia militia) and 100 Virginia buckskins joined General Braddock. They divided their force; and General Braddock, George Washington, and 1300 troops marched north to expel the French from Fort Duquesne — now the city of Pittsburgh. On July 9, 1755 — only seven miles from the fort — while marching through a wooded ravine, they walked right into an ambush; the French and Indians opened fire on them from both sides.

But these were British veterans; they knew exactly what to do. The problem was, they were veterans of European wars. European warfare was all in the open. One army lined up at one end of an open field, the other army lined up at the other end, they looked at each other, took aim, and fired. No running, no hiding, But here they were in the Pennsylvania woods with the French and Indians firing at them from the tops of trees, from behind rocks, and from under logs.

When they came under fire, the British troops did exactly what they had been taught; they lined up shoulder-to-shoulder in the bottom of that ravine — and were slaughtered. At the end of two hours, 714 of the 1300 British and American troops had been shot down; only 30 of the French and Indians had been shot. There were 86 British and American officers involved in that battle; at the end of the battle, George Washington was the only officer who had not been shot down off his horse — he was the only officer left on horseback.

Although various accounts differ on exactly how many total casualties there were that day - one account I found said 63 of 86 officers were killed or wounded with a total of 878 casualties - it was a crippling loss for the British-American side.  Yet, despite having lost two horses, and with four bullet holes in his coat, Washington emerged from the melee untouched.  Most of the other officers were killed or wounded.  In the ensuing retreat, General Braddock himself died of injuries suffered in the ill-fated battle.

The young George Washington, who wasn't technically even in Braddock's chain of command, organized some semblance of order amid the slaughter, and managed to engage in an orderly retreat until the remaining survivors could rejoin the main force.  From that point onward, he would be known by many as "Hero of the Monongahela".

If that was the end of the story, as told by most early textbooks, we could on that basis alone be disappointed that our children are being denied an inspiring story illustrating the heroism of a founding father and a retelling the Providential protection afforded the one who would go on to become one of our greatest Presidents.  Yet, when you continue reading, note how the 1856 text book recounts Washington’s interpretation of the events that day and yet again how it appeared from the perspective of one of his opponents that day, a chief fighting with the French:


The next day, Washington wrote a letter to his family explaining that after the battle was over, he had taken off his jacket and had found four bullet holes through it, yet not a single bullet had touched him; several horses had been shot from under him, but he had not been harmed. He told them:

"By the all powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation."

Washington openly acknowledged that God’s hand was upon him, that God had protected him and kept him through that battle.

However, the story does not stop here. Fifteen years later, in 1770 — now a time of peace — George Washington and a close personal friend, Dr. James Craik, returned to those same Pennsylvania woods. An old Indian chief from far away, having heard that Washington had come back to those woods, traveled a long way just to meet with him.

He sat down with Washington, and face-to-face over a council fire, the chief told Washington that he had been a leader in that battle fifteen years earlier, and that he had instructed his braves to single out all the officers and shoot them down. Washington had been singled out, and the chief explained that he personally had shot at Washington seventeen different times, but without effect. Believing Washington to be under the care of the Great Spirit, the chief instructed his braves to cease firing at him. He then told Washington:

"I have traveled a long and weary path that I might see the young warrior of the great battle…. I am come to pay homage to the man who is the particular favorite of Heaven, and who can never die in battle."

Is the account of the meeting with the Indian Chief accurate?  From what I could tell, the sole source of the story of the meeting with the chief comes from Washington's step-grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, who claimed he was told the story by Dr. Craik after his grandfather's death.  However, even if we dismiss that particular portion of the story as murky legend, it is still pretty clear from what we know to be true about the battle of Monongahela and what Washington himself acknowledges, that he miraculously survived the catastrophic battle - a battle in which almost every other officer was killed or wounded.  God had still greater plans for young George Washington.  This is the kind of story that needs to be told.

George Washington's complete story can be found in the short history Bulletproof George Washington by David Barton.  Another great book I recently became aware of for a culture desperately in need of a hero, is 7 Men and the Secret of their Greatness by Eric Metaxas.  I haven't got to this one yet, so feel free to leave a comment below about that book or other stories about worthy heroes.

We are a culture greatly in need of heroes.

10/16/15 Addendum:  My wife informed me that her 4th grade A Beka history curriculum includes the above story.  However, as primarily a Christian curriculum, the vast majority of students will likely not profit from A Beka's inclusion of the story.