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With 22 Democrats running for president, it's impossible to hear all they are saying all the time.
Billions of words.
However, three threads are found woven tightly through the words: Pro-socialism. Pro-secularism. Anti-Biblical Christianity.
What would a "progressive" president really cost our nation? Economically? Culturally? Morally?
Be informed.
There's a great deal of overlap in the stump speeches of the candidates because there are so many, and there are so few "must have" talking point promises.
Even Democrat candidates who may not fully agree with the extent to which key issues are being promised, they feel the pressure to move further and further to the Left to attract secular progressive leaders in their Party.
The economic cost.
I've chosen Elizabeth Warren as an example because she has said, several times, she represents all the best of the progressive movement.
She has adopted most of the economic proposals being advocated.
Plans that she has backed or proposed during her 2020 presidential campaign totals $129 trillion in spending.
Along with backing the Green New Deal ($94 trillion) and Medicare for all ($32.6 trillion), which totals an estimated government spending over the next 10 years of $126 trillion, three of Warren's major personal proposals alone cost $2.365 trillion: opioids, $100 billion; canceling student debt and offering free public college, $1.25 to $1.565 trillion; and universal child care $700 billion.
Warren has won high praise from the Left. Most on the Left say she's "got a plan for the most important issues."
She has also proposed an "ultra-millionaire," 2% tax on Americans worth $50 million or more---it rises to 3% on Americans worth at least $1 billion. This, she says, will pay for the projects.
More details and sources on each of these spending events are found here and here.
Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's New Green Deal is almost absent details, in fact when she posted it on social media and her website, the backlash and mocking was so strong that she withdrew the proposal from the sites, but the plan is still in good health among the progressives. Progressive voters want it, and progressive politicians are anxious to deliver.
At a CNN Town Hall last month, Warren said, "I am a strong supporter of the Green New Deal."
If each of the 22 Democrat candidates are profiled, you will find they either fully endorse all of the above, or are pretending to support them. They will continue the pretense through the 2020 election. Should any one of them be elected, the pressure will be tremendous to implement these economic proposals.
The cultural and moral cost.
David French writes for the National Review. I don't agree with all French's views, but he is smart and articulate---and on almost all the issues, he's brilliant.
However, his "never Trump" stance is a mystery to me, because French regularly writes about how secularism and progressivism are undermining and destroying our culture, and he advocates for conservative values and principles.
Some of the following is taken from an article he has written, combined with my own observations and convictions.
Bill Donohue, in his book "Secular Sabotage," says the secular attack on Christianity is not "happening from accident or whim. It is happening because disaffected liberals have deliberately set out to upend our Judeo-Christian traditions."
Donohue, a Catholic leader says,
"Indeed they are determined to tear down the traditional norms, values, and institutions that have been a part of American society from its founding. The cultural debris that these saboteurs have created will take decades to clean up."
French notes,
"There's an old observation about America that goes something like this: If the most religious country in the world is India and the most secular country in the world is Sweden, then America is a nation of Indians governed by Swedes. Its population is largely religious, but its leaders are a largely secular elite."
Agreed.
America, over the past 20 years, has essentially divided itself into two halves. Secular and religious. Not Democrat or Republican. Not even liberal or conservative.
We have become a tale of two countries. Lincoln called it a House Divided, drawing from the teaching of Jesus. Regardless of how sincerely people on either political side advocate for everyone in America to just come together--- or well-meaning politicians call for a "bipartisan effort," it won't happen---short of a spiritual awakening in our country.
It can't happen, because the great divide is spiritual. Not social. Not political. Certainly, political differences exist, but they are lesser and guided by the spiritual divide.
Political restoration will follow spiritual restoration.
Secular leaders and politicians are working to marginalize biblical Christians. The secular elites claim that the more devout biblical Christians are not in the mainstream of the culture anymore---they're disconnected from where America is today, yet I see survey after survey that shows there is a strong interest and belief in spiritual---for the most part Christian--teaching.
Yes mainline churches are losing their congregations, and 18 to 34 year old's are leaving some churches in masse, but that same demographic consistently says they are very interested in spiritual matters.
The secular elites are the ones who are disconnected from the majority.
In 2017, California Senator Diane Feinstein famously told conservative Catholic judicial nominee Amy Coney Barrett she was too religious and "The dogma lives loudly within you, and that's a concern."
Barret was eventually confirmed. It is entirely possible that President Trump could nominate her for the Supreme Court. She is highly qualified. And yes, she is deeply spiritual. In fact, she has referred to herself as an evangelical, spiritual-filled Catholic.
Also, remember in 2017, I wrote about it in this column and talked about it on the radio, Senator Bernie Sanders grilled an evangelical Christian nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget over his beliefs about the differences between Christian and Muslim beliefs.
Bernie's main point was that the Christian nominee believed that Jesus Christ is the only way to God, therefore, those who do not come to God through Jesus Christ will not go to heaven. John 14:6.
Last December, Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono and California Senator Kamala Harris (now a presidential candidate) asked a series of hostile questions to judicial nominee Brian Buescher about his membership in the Catholic organization Knights of Columbus.
They zeroed in on the fact that the Knights of Columbus oppose abortion and same-sex marriage. Both beliefs are entirely consistent with orthodox Christianity. However, they used words and phrases that suggested that somehow the Knight's position on abortion and same-sex marriage was way off the margin.
This kind of rhetoric has become a staple in today's political discourse.
We all remember that Washington State's Attorney General Bob Ferguson went after Richland, WA., florist Baronelle Stutzman with the money and the power of the state because she declined to create floral arrangements that celebrated same-sex marriage---it violated her deeply held biblical religious beliefs about marriage.
There was the baker in Colorado--Masterpiece Cakeshop--where the "pretext" of his refusing to bake a cake to celebrate same-sex marriage was part of the argument in court.
Yesterday, a shouting match exploded in the Alabama Legislature over a "heartbeat" bill that will likely become law.
CBS reported on the incident last night on their national news, but they chose to play only one sound bite from a black Democrat who was giving a moral lecture to the white Republicans who are "trying to tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body."
That is not news. It was manipulation of public opinion, at best.
This moral battle is all headed to the courts---finally to the US Supreme Court.
But ultimately this battle is a spiritual battle. It will be settled at the altars of our churches, our homes, and our hearts. We will not continue to be a "House Divided" because as President Lincoln said one will ultimately prevail over the other.
Should the secular progressives gain control of this country in the 2020 election, America will be fundamentally changed forever---economically bankrupt, and spiritually challenged.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Bold. Be Prayerful.