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The biggest story of President Trump's first 100 days (which ends tomorrow, April 29) may be the fact that he has survived the unvarnished, organized attacks on his presidency and his policies and his family and his person.
Not since President Abraham Lincoln have we seen this kind of behavior---with Democratic leaders Schumer and Pelosi saying publicly it doesn't matter what the president proposes "we oppose it" to Congresswoman Waters demanding on day 1 he be impeached.
He has not only survived but accomplished some of what he and those who voted for him had hoped for.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Goodwin with the New York Post said earlier this week, "Unless the world ends before Saturday, most assessments of Trump's first 100 days will include a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. The emphasis will reveal more about those doing the grading than Trump himself."
Goodwin notes, "The jubilation among his supporters offered a stark contrast to the weeping and wailing of Hillary Clinton's. She had called Trump to concede---and we learn later she did so only after President Obama insisted---but kept out of sight in the crushing end to her quest."
Within hours, Goodwin recalls, "her supporters took their anger to the streets, denouncing Trump as 'Not my President' in cities across the country."
Legal efforts to overturn the election, an all out attempt to change the vote of the electoral college voters, the proclamation that "the Russians" elected Trump and demands for impeachment were under way even before Inauguration Day.
And the "news media" spread the news.
The talk turned to violence as personal property was destroyed during the Inauguration ceremonies, and Madonna spoke of "blowing up the White House" with no consequence for making such a threat.
Film maker Michael Moore told the press, "I need to make a movie to bring down a sitting president."
And CBS's lead news anchor, Scott Pelly, wondered out loud if President Trump suffers from "mental problems."
Goodwin says a new poll shows "67% of Americans think the Dems are out of touch with their concerns, making Trump's historically low approval rating of 42% look respectable."
He says, "The media, of course, is still biased and, after failing to elect Clinton, turned on Trump with savagery and cartoonish exaggerations...One New York Times story actually said his cabinet met in the dark because nobody knew how to turn on the lights...."
Goodwin says he's optimistic that Trump will ultimately be a consequential president who made America better and safer...even "great again."
Media Research Council (MRC) monitors the media. During the time Goodwin described---the first 100 days---MRC actually kept the numbers and the facts---they counted the words and what they said.
Goodwin is right. But most of us already knew that.
MRC says, "As President Trump approaches the end of his first 100 days in office, he has received by far the most hostile press treatment of any incoming American president, with the broadcast networks punishing him with coverage that has been 89% negative. "
They note that the news media largely ignored important national priorities such as jobs and the fight against ISIS, in favor of a news agenda that has been dominated by anti-Trump controversies and which closely matches what would be expected by an opposition party---not so-called "news."
During the first 80 days of Trump's presidency the networks ABC, NBC and CBS's evening news broadcast 869 stories about the new administration (737 full reports and 132 brief anchor-read items) plus an additional 140 full reports focused on other topics but which discussed the new administration.
Between January 20 and April 9, the first 80 days, 1501 negative comments were made by the big three news networks, while 186 positive ones were made,
Here's the breakout of the actual minutes spent on each topic in negative reporting:
When Abraham Lincoln began his political career, such things as broadcast media and the Internet did not exist, but there were newspapers.
In what was seen as a speech to clear the way for Lincoln to become president, rather than using words to say nothing for fear of someone disagreeing with him, honest Abe told a deeply divided America that they were, well..."deeply divided."
To make his point, he drew from a passage of Scripture in the New Testament that declares "a house divided against itself cannot stand." Although he continued that he believed America would not fall because we would not continue to be divided, the press missed that part---focusing on his "negativity" and his "dim view of his country" even some were suggesting he wasn't patriotic.
His close friends and even a law partner, Leonard Swett, told Abe his remarks were "unfortunate and inappropriate" and would likely preclude him from ever becoming president and accomplishing his goals.
Now, a little more than 150 years later, America is once again deeply divided---and it isn't merely political. Once again it's a moral and spiritual divide that ranges from human sexuality, marriage, and family to killing unwanted unborn babies and calling it "health care."
And the divide involves the very identity of this blessed country and its sovereignty.
When Hillary called us a "basket of deplorables"---racists, sexists, homophobes, xenophobes, Islamophobes, bigots...that was not rhetoric, it was real words with conviction. She and the millions who supported her, and now flood our streets, destroy private property, wage war against free speech (except their own expressions of it) and work to redefine freedom of religion to "freedom of worship," deeply believe in their cause.
You will recall, Hillary, speaking to the Women in the World Summit in New York, said, "deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs, and structural biases have to be changed," and "All the laws we've passed don't count for much if they're not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice not just paper."
Are these isolated beliefs? Unfortunately, they are not.
President Obama was expressing the same convictions when he identified us as people "clinging to their guns and Bibles..."
Yesterday, Rasmussen Surveys found that "GOP Voters Like Trump's First 100 Days; Democrats Really Don't."
The house is divided. Jesus taught it will not continue to stand divided.
President Lincoln told his generation he was certain America would not continue divided because one belief regarding slavery would ultimately prevail over the other belief.
The contest in American today is not the wailing of the media over 100 days---it's about our identity---it's about what we as a nation actually believe---and what price we Christians and conservatives are willing to pay to stand for righteousness.
Be Bold. Be Faithful. Be Informed. Be Prayerful. Be Blessed.