Parallel States of the Union

Tonight, an unpopular president will report on the state of the union as he perceives it.

His PR office says his address will "be unlike any other previous State of the Union address."

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, has circulated a letter asking Democrats (and Republicans) to bring their Muslim friends to the State of the Union address.

She and the president's party believe that will make a statement.

A glance at the list of guests invited by the president and first lady gives clarity to what statement will be made.

However, the "state of the union" President Obama will present tonight is very different than the "state of the union" a majority of Americans see in 2016.

Yesterday, I received a note from Pastor Rich Hamlin of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Tacoma, WA. regarding the YMCA bathroom issue I mentioned in yesterday's article. This is a link to his open letter to the Y and to the public. Thanks Pastor Hamlin for taking a strong stand.

Politico is reporting that Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the DNC, has circulated a letter to Democrats and Republicans encouraging them to bring their Muslim friends to the State of the Union address tonight.

"This," she says, "is a way to rebut anti-Muslim rhetoric."

She is joined in her efforts by Congress' first elected Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison.

"Over the past two weeks," she and he write, "we have seen a shocking and alarming rise in hateful rhetoric against a particular minority population in our nation. Leading political figures have made offensive and outrageous suggestions that we should prevent any person of that faith from even entering this great country."

A clear reference to GOP candidates Trump, Cruze and Carson.

As usual, she either does not understand, or more likely chooses to misrepresent what has actually been said.

Conservatives and their presidential candidates are not trying to "prevent people of faith"---any faith, including the Muslim faith---from coming here. Candidates and conservatives are simply trying to keep those who seek to kill us in the name of their god and their religion from coming here.

The sacred texts of other religions do not advocate killing those with whom they disagree---the infidels.

Ellison and Schultz say if elected officials bring a Muslim friend to the event tonight, it will affirm "that we will not be intimidated by fear into discrimination."

Clearly she and Ellison can't discern between "fear" and "wisdom."

President Obama will be making further statements this evening as to what he prioritizes as important through the list of people he and his wife have invited:

• Ryan Reyes, a California homosexual whose partner was killed in the San Bernardino attack. He is invited because he publicly defended Islam following the massacre. And he is a homosexual.

• The first female Army Reserve officer to graduate from the Army's elite Ranger School.

• A plaintiff in the Supreme Court case in which the court declared homosexuals have a constitutional right to redefine marriage.

• One seat will be left empty to represent victims of gun violence, highlighting the "need" for gun control.

Also invited:

• Satya Nadella of Bellevue, WA., the CEO of Microsoft. He was invited because he increased paid leave benefits to 20 weeks for new mothers and 12 weeks for adoptive parents.

• Kathleen O'Tool, chief of the Seattle Police Department and homosexual advocate, because she has focused on officer body cameras.

While the president will spin a tale of "progress," America will listen, but a majority will not agree.

There are parallel "states of the union."

Our America is not unlike Abraham Lincoln's America. It is a house divided.

More than 53% of Americans disagree with the president's policies, with 41% "strongly disagreeing."

Gallup finds only 15% of Americans think Congress is doing a good job, and among those who are well informed regarding the function of Congress, only 7% think it's doing a good job.

The parallel "state of the union" doesn't believe America is "making progress" or "heading in the right direction."

People on the left and the right are angry at the state of our nation---and the political elites who have been running it.

Americans are dismissing the Republican political elites by supporting Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson for president. These 3 men get about 65% of the vote at this point.

Democrats are also angry with about half of them saying they plan to vote for socialist Bernie Sanders instead of secular progressive Hillary Clinton. And Bernie's support is growing.

Republicans have dismissed Jeb Bush and other establishment candidates and turned to Trump and Cruz because of the countless abuses suffered at the hands of Republican elites---who promised one thing during their candidacy, but did something very different once elected.

A $1.2 trillion Republican approved budget that didn't even defund Planned Parenthood was hard to swallow.

Once the spending bill was passed and Republican leaders could safely say they "didn't shut down the government," the people---the average person saw through the facade of then passing a bill to defund PP knowing full well that Obama would veto it.

They are sick of so-called "stimulus bills" that stimulate nothing more than bigger government.

They are sick of a government that continually empowers itself, while continually eroding personal freedoms.

They are sick of a president who regularly rules by fiat, bypassing Congress while appointing dozens of unaccountable czar's to carry out his "executive orders."

People are sick of a Republican majority that keeps telling the people "it's complicated" to explain why they can't find the fortitude to actually do---or at least attempt to do---what they promised the voters they would do.

They are sick of legislative "trick" votes that appear to be one thing, while they are actually something else.

Americans from both political parties are now feeling the pain of Obamacare. They resent that what was once the world's best medical system as been "remade" to be something much less.

We are sick of foreigners illegally streaming into America, while the religious left and secular progressives label it "compassion" when the rest of us know it isn't. And the majority of us resist the president's obsession with opening the borders to tens of thousands---perhaps hundreds of thousands of unvetted Muslim refugees, when it is clear there are those among the throngs who are committed to killing us.

We are sick of leadership that constantly attempts to strip Christianity from the fabric of a country founded on Judeo-Christian values and principles, while claiming that is what the Founders intended.

It isn't what they intended and most of us know it.

Perhaps not all, but certainly many Americans are sick of the progressives' mantra that America is not exceptional---it's no big deal---in fact it should, in the minds of some, be brought down a notch.

A majority of Americans know our nation is the most free, the most blessed, most prosperous, most generous nation in the history of the world

The parallel state of the union is a nation fed up with current leadership from both political parties.

And they are in the process of doing something about it.

Trump, Cruz, Carson and even Bernie Sanders get that, and are offering an alternative.

If Christians and conservatives can "get it" and vote their convictions, America will be truly changed.

Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful.