He doesn’t have to “throw” it to Clinton. She has it.
I had previously said that I was voting for Trump because:
1. He doesn’t think the Iranians are our friends.
2. He doesn’t think the police are our enemies.
3. He ain’t Hillary.
But I’m rethinking this: I can never vote for Hillary.
I have voted in every election since 1952. I may not vote this time.
I’m beginning to believe that Trump is a megalomaniac. Or an undisciplined clown.
Quandary: If I don’t vote, Hillary will be my fault.
If I do vote? What have we done?
Trump seems to be more than tone deaf. His behavior is absolutely baffling. I do think there’s a possibility now that he really, truly doesn’t want to win (I don’t think he believed he’d ever get the nomination when he announced his run). At least that would explain some of this.
If he still thinks he can win behaving the way he is, I don’t even know what to say or think.
And as for the Miss Universe obsession he now seems to have, one commenter put it this way: “I’m not paying a whit of attention to the particulars of this Miss Universe thing. All I know is that it looks like he’s attacking an overweight woman. That’s all that matters. that’s all that most non political people hear.”
Exactly.
And I think most voters are also like me when it comes to the rehashing of laments and accusations from Bill’s other women yet again. That was talked to death before, 20+ YEARS AGO. We’re all quite over it.
Chas, I assume you voted in the primaries, and did what you could then to stop Trump. I did, though the Indiana primaries were late enough to be useless. (Cruz dropped out within a day or two of us voting, I think maybe the same day. We had no choices left, but I still could vote for someone other than Trump even if they weren’t still officially candidates.)
I keep telling myself that if Trump turns out to be our first dictator, I didn’t vote for him. I’m leaning toward hoping Hillary wins, though I would never in a million years vote for her. I just have no confidence left that Trump will even be better than her, and at least Hillary is very definitely “their guy.” Initially I left some wiggle room–“I can’t see myself voting for Trump.” After all, a couple of times I’ve ended up voting for a weak Republican candidate since he ended up making some good decisions, such as selecting a good VP. And Trump actually did select a good VP. But I’ve seen nothing to lead me to think he will be even a mediocre president; everything I see says he is as evil as Clinton (though in different ways) and nothing that convinces me even he has the necessary skills.
But I will say that the country might explode with a Trump win, based on his lack of good character and out-of-control, adolescent behavior.
Yeah, great choice.
I suspect she’ll win, and that may be the best we can hope for considering the alternative. But vote for her? Not in a million years. I have no horse in this race anymore. (I have no idea how to play card games beyond solitaire, but I keep envisioning that moment when a player slams his cards, face down, and says “I’m out.”)
… here’s the problem: Everyone thinks Godzilla is cool when he’s fighting Monster Zero or swatting away fighter jets. But when they have that close up shot of Godzilla’s clawed foot coming down on a child or a screaming woman, all of a sudden, you can’t cheer the King of Monsters.
So it is with Trump: He wins when he punches up. He loses when he punches down. And that’s Trump’s Achilles’ heel: He can’t resist punching down. He can no more stop himself from “counter-punching” the little guy than my dog can agree not to chase rabbits. (“It’s just so hoppy! I must kill it!”)
Everyone knows this. Hillary Clinton knew it and she baited him. She almost literally could have said, “Donald, I’m going to bait you. You would be a fool to take the bait. But I know you will.” And he still would take the bait. In fact, I think he would be more likely to take the bait if she said she were baiting him, because he would want to prove that he could take the bait and win.
… When you’re baiting fish or Trumpzilla, the lure doesn’t have to be real, it just has to be shiny. In fact, getting the bait just slightly wrong makes it even more irresistible, because we all have a natural instinct to correct falsehoods aimed at us, and Trump more than most.
So Trump bit the shiny thing, and for the rest of the night, plodding, dull Hillary Clinton led Trump around the stage like a matador with a red cape. And, four days later, Trump is still charging around like an enraged bull. At first I thought Clinton’s use of Alicia Machado was odd. There are so many Trump victims out there, why use one with such a weird past? But that’s what was so brilliant about it.
If Machado were a nun, it’d be harder for Trump to attack. But Trump thinks he can win this one on the merits and so he won’t let go of it. He didn’t learn the lesson of his feud with the Khan family: The only way to win such fights is to not engage in them at all. The debate wasn’t a disaster but how he handled the post-debate spin was, and continues to be. …
…. Candidate Trump can’t be managed. Everyone with any contacts in or around Trump world has heard the stories about how his staff tries to impose discipline on him. The jokes about Kellyanne Conway desperately trying to hide his phone from him to keep him off Twitter are funny because they’re true. …
If Candidate Trump can’t be managed (and he obviously can’t be), why should anyone think that President Trump can be managed? Then we need to ask: What happens when President Trump gets mad at the Chinese leader and starts putting out insulting tweets about the wife of the Chinese leader in the middle of the night?
Michelle asked an interesting question. The really sad part is that if Trump is trying to throw the election, he could not have done it without millions of foolish Republican primary voters. How could they be so foolish? Trump is a world class con artist, but I have to believe God has allowed us to lose all judgment and discernment as we have turned away from Him.
I was not aware of Maples’ background. Her story is a sad one. I know dueling has a bad rap. However, it did weed out some of the worst elements of society.
I can kind of understand people choosing to vote for Trump because they are so afraid of Hillary. But I really don’t understand how some of my Facebook friends (a few of whom I know in real life) can be actually gung-ho for the man himself.
I feel sorry for Lester Holt, as I have seen such vicious things said about him. Everything I had read about him in the past painted him as a man of honesty & integrity (& that he is a fellow believer).
One friend showed a short video clip of Holt putting his hand out to shake hands with both candidates. After Clinton accepted his handshake, he turned towards Trump, who veered off to his family. Holt then awkwardly smoothed the hair on the back of his head & sat down. (Having seen the debate, I think I recall that Trump rounded back & did shake his hand, but I’m not sure I’m remembering correctly.)
Then it occurred to me that some of his supporters (the ones that would share that), would have liked him to ignore Holt’s hand, which means they would approve of impolite, immature, boorish behavior from him.
One of the accusations, maybe the main one, against Holt was that he kept asking Trump questions (I suppose they saw that as him “challenging” Trump) or interrupting him. But it looked to me, as far as I can recall, that most of those interruptions were because Trump was interrupting Hillary, or not answering the question Holt had asked. Or he was trying to get clarification on Trump’s comments.
Maybe that doesn’t account for all of Holt’s extra questions/interruptions to Trump, but I think it does account for a large percentage of them.
I really think we need to pay attention to how the remnant lived in Babylon–I don’t see any other option, no matter who wins. Americans have chosen this situation, the candidates reflect the attitudes–harden hearts?–of the electorate. Just because I may not agree with who holds office (see my entire voting record), doesn’t mean the rest of my fellow Americans don’t.
So, how do we as believers follow the Bible: “to do mercy, love justice and walk humbly with our God,” plus Jesus’ reminder, “a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you?”
That’s what keeps coming to mind as I consider my future in America.
God has put me in this time and place for His purposes, using my experiences, my knowledge and my life. His aims for me? See paragraph number 2.
The “real” church thrives under persecution. The marriage of evangelicals and the Republican party has been a debacle for the church, as anyone with a knowledge of history should have seen.
Kizzie, when I interviewed the woman who was a hostess for several years at Trump’s facility in our area she mentioned that he was something of a ‘germaphobe’ and avoided hand shaking.
I’m not sure if that was just an observation she’d made (she waited on him a couple times and had a chance to observe him on his frequent visits) or if it’s something that’s actually known about him.
That said, he’s undoubtedly had to shake many hands as he’s running for president, so his behavior with Holt could have been a slight.
On the radio today someone made the point that Trump managed to tweet out a message that was “racist, sexist and vitriolic,” all within the allowable 140 characters and at 3 a.m. — quite a feat. It takes talent.
Mona Charen tweeted a fine article from Damon Linker. In it he describes a type of conservatism that all Southerners of a certain age recognize and love. It is the culture of their ancestors.
This is the conservatism of forms and formality, order, modesty, nobility, moral rectitude, private and public honor, and steadfast adherence to standards of right conduct and traditional restraints. Trumpist populism, with its roots in the sleaziest side of tabloid culture, including the world of reality TV in which Trump honed his public persona, could never be mistaken for conservative in this rarified sense.
Does anyone remember who prosecuted and sent Martha Stewart to jail?
At the time, Comey explained his reasoning for prosecuting the domestic diva:
“If it was Jane Doe she would have been prosecuted. [T]here were 2,000 cases by the Justice Department that year for providing false statements during an investigation.
I thought of my hesitation about the case due to someone being rich and famous, and how it shouldn’t be that way. I decided we had to do it.”
So what has happened since then to change his views?
Good morning, Tychicus. I am going to pick the Texas/OU game as the tie-breaker for next week in honor of you and the 1963 and 1969 National Championship teams.
Meanwhile, Matt Walsh made some good points while also making me laugh out loud.
Does anyone know a Christian who actively supports Trump other than the “famous” ones who signed a letter endorsing him recently?
(I’m studying Proverbs right now in Sunday school and having had my eyes open to the Biblical definition of “fools” I’m seeing them everywhere. I fear those who signed that letter will be made to look like fools when this election is over and Trump reveals his true intentions).
It bugs me Christians have been painted with the arrow for this individual when I don’t know any Christian who supported him in the primaries. I took my nephew to task who asked me this question and he was quite taken aback that what he reads in the paper might not be true.
(Okay, he’s 20 and goes to Cal; we were all young once . . . )
Can you not see how vile this “association” makes the church? Do we not know who will be the ones to pick up the pieces when this mess all falls out?
I’m sorry, I will NOT take the blame nor the fall for this Republican debacle.
It won’t touch me as an Independent, but it will as a follower of Jesus Christ.
The mess of Trump and the election all points to the Republican party leadership and I deeply resent them implicating Christians as the reason for Trump’s popularity when it is their policies over the last 15 years which brought about this rise.
A Congress that rolled over to Obama and paid lip service to the many Christians who voted for them believing they would be fiscally conservative and stem the bleeding morality and Constitution of this country.
No, this is a lie and I will not stand for it.
I didn’t realize how angry I was until I started typing.
To answer Michelle’s question, no, I don’t know any Christians who support Trump (though I know some who will probably vote for him to prevent another 4 years of what we’ve had).
(The one exception: An older woman from our church, now living out of state — very stalwart but who lost her husband, who was the main political thinker between them (and I can’t imagine his supporting someone like Trump but his wife is a little more fiery) in the past couple years — initially supported Trump but her family talked her down from it; when I told her I likely wouldn’t vote for president this time, though, she insisted I reconsider, saying a Clinton presidency would be disastrous.)
Michelle, I’m curious about exactly who is implicating Christians for Trump’s popularity? Was that from a link somewhere (I haven’t read all of them here yet)? I have seen Republicans railing against letting the party be too influenced by social conservatism and Christianity in the recent past, saying that has been part of the downfall. It would be interesting to see Christians somewhat withdraw from the fray for a while.
And I think polls have clearly shown that Christians who say they support Trump are, for the most part, those who also say they don’t really attend church. Those polls ask people to self-identify and too many probably still claim or choose the mantle of Christianity without really knowing what that even means.
I’ve gone back to being a registered independent as well, it’s probably the most honest and accurate public position for me as both a Christian and a journalist at this point.
Politically, I hope a new conservative movement will emerge from the ashes, one with integrity and intelligence. But it may be a while after all of this. What a full-blown mess. And a newly pulled together GOP might not be very warm toward social conservatism. as the culture, for now, has largely rejected it.
But untethered populism, as we’ve seen with the rise of Trump, is a scary thing.
On the other hand, I’ve seen both parties be declared effectively “dead” in my lifetime, and they always bounce back — and generally more quickly than the predictions said they would.
What the Republican party will look like in the future remains to be seen.
Oh, now I just read the Matt Walsh link with the Christian references.
And I’ve also thought about what happens to those who really went all the way “in” with Trump should he go down in flames (which I believe is the most likely scenario).
It’s just too late for Trump’s candidacy to be redeemed, in my mind. The 3 a.m. tweets signals to me that the guy has completely fallen off the cliff and is not listening to any of his saner staff. He obviously intends to keep on keeping on, doing it his way.
**** Caveat: I’ve been wrong (frequently) in this election cycle before. *****
I’m not sure if he’s trying to lose (that remains a possibility, I think) or if he really is simply unbalanced (another distinct possibility). But either way, I don’t see him coming back from this past week’s behavior to win the day. Add to that the release of his taxes … with probably more to come … And what will be renewed scrutiny of Trump’s own moral past (another of Trump’s siren calls that turned into a self-inflicted wound as he was trying to throw attention on the Clinton’s on their past behavior). Really?
As Mona Charen said, Pot/Kettle. I see where Trump also now has suggested Hillary has been unfaithful to Bill. If there’s a line,Trump insists on crossing it, every time.
Michelle, Most of the people in my church support Trump. A few even did so in the primary. It is generally a question of age, intelligence and education. The older, less educated people are more likely to support Trump. I’ve talked to many of these people. They get their news from Fox News or their friends on Facebook. When I tell them that I consider Trump to be a liberal Yankee, they are sympathetic as they figure I have sources of information not available to them. However, at this point they are fully committed to Trump as opposed to Obama (who they know to be a Muslim) and Hillary (who is obviously the bride of Satan).
My neighbors supported Trump (though she expressed some reservations to me about whether she’d actually want to see him as president.
They are not Christians and fit the demographic Trump appeals to — older, working class, white, they’ve worked hard, raised kids, saved money and keep their house up to top standards. But they feel left behind I think (they also were lifelong Democrats, were planning to change their registration to vote in the Republican primary; and they watch Fox news)
I know some Christians who are voting for Trump. Basically they were extremely pro-Carson until Carson dropped out and endorsed Trump. But they weren’t for Trump in the primaries.
I’m not talking about politics to most people in this cycle, but those I am are mostly saying about the same thing: no good choices, this looks like time for God’s judgment, and God is sovereign and our hope is in Him and not in politicians.
Wandering Views 
I have been at Quartz Mountain, Oklahoma. Not all of the locals are friendly.
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Here’s a question I’ve been pondering, what would the election look like if Trump was trying to throw it to Secretary Clinton?
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He doesn’t have to “throw” it to Clinton. She has it.
I had previously said that I was voting for Trump because:
1. He doesn’t think the Iranians are our friends.
2. He doesn’t think the police are our enemies.
3. He ain’t Hillary.
But I’m rethinking this: I can never vote for Hillary.
I have voted in every election since 1952. I may not vote this time.
I’m beginning to believe that Trump is a megalomaniac. Or an undisciplined clown.
Quandary: If I don’t vote, Hillary will be my fault.
If I do vote? What have we done?
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That snake looks well fed.
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Trump wants Obama to promise to not pardon Hillary.
Obama doesn’t think Hillary has done anything wrong.
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Trump seems to be more than tone deaf. His behavior is absolutely baffling. I do think there’s a possibility now that he really, truly doesn’t want to win (I don’t think he believed he’d ever get the nomination when he announced his run). At least that would explain some of this.
If he still thinks he can win behaving the way he is, I don’t even know what to say or think.
And as for the Miss Universe obsession he now seems to have, one commenter put it this way: “I’m not paying a whit of attention to the particulars of this Miss Universe thing. All I know is that it looks like he’s attacking an overweight woman. That’s all that matters. that’s all that most non political people hear.”
Exactly.
And I think most voters are also like me when it comes to the rehashing of laments and accusations from Bill’s other women yet again. That was talked to death before, 20+ YEARS AGO. We’re all quite over it.
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Chas, I assume you voted in the primaries, and did what you could then to stop Trump. I did, though the Indiana primaries were late enough to be useless. (Cruz dropped out within a day or two of us voting, I think maybe the same day. We had no choices left, but I still could vote for someone other than Trump even if they weren’t still officially candidates.)
I keep telling myself that if Trump turns out to be our first dictator, I didn’t vote for him. I’m leaning toward hoping Hillary wins, though I would never in a million years vote for her. I just have no confidence left that Trump will even be better than her, and at least Hillary is very definitely “their guy.” Initially I left some wiggle room–“I can’t see myself voting for Trump.” After all, a couple of times I’ve ended up voting for a weak Republican candidate since he ended up making some good decisions, such as selecting a good VP. And Trump actually did select a good VP. But I’ve seen nothing to lead me to think he will be even a mediocre president; everything I see says he is as evil as Clinton (though in different ways) and nothing that convinces me even he has the necessary skills.
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I can’t ever say I “hope” Clinton wins.
But I will say that the country might explode with a Trump win, based on his lack of good character and out-of-control, adolescent behavior.
Yeah, great choice.
I suspect she’ll win, and that may be the best we can hope for considering the alternative. But vote for her? Not in a million years. I have no horse in this race anymore. (I have no idea how to play card games beyond solitaire, but I keep envisioning that moment when a player slams his cards, face down, and says “I’m out.”)
Maybe a meteor strike before Nov. 8?
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Otherwise, there’s always Mars …
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The LGBT bullying continues…
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/09/30/family-bakery-closes-after-left-wing-bullies-finally-get-their-pound-cake.html
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From Jonah Goldberg on Trump:
http://www.nationalreview.com/g-file/440609/donald-trump-tweet-storm-debate
______________________
… here’s the problem: Everyone thinks Godzilla is cool when he’s fighting Monster Zero or swatting away fighter jets. But when they have that close up shot of Godzilla’s clawed foot coming down on a child or a screaming woman, all of a sudden, you can’t cheer the King of Monsters.
So it is with Trump: He wins when he punches up. He loses when he punches down. And that’s Trump’s Achilles’ heel: He can’t resist punching down. He can no more stop himself from “counter-punching” the little guy than my dog can agree not to chase rabbits. (“It’s just so hoppy! I must kill it!”)
Everyone knows this. Hillary Clinton knew it and she baited him. She almost literally could have said, “Donald, I’m going to bait you. You would be a fool to take the bait. But I know you will.” And he still would take the bait. In fact, I think he would be more likely to take the bait if she said she were baiting him, because he would want to prove that he could take the bait and win.
… When you’re baiting fish or Trumpzilla, the lure doesn’t have to be real, it just has to be shiny. In fact, getting the bait just slightly wrong makes it even more irresistible, because we all have a natural instinct to correct falsehoods aimed at us, and Trump more than most.
So Trump bit the shiny thing, and for the rest of the night, plodding, dull Hillary Clinton led Trump around the stage like a matador with a red cape. And, four days later, Trump is still charging around like an enraged bull. At first I thought Clinton’s use of Alicia Machado was odd. There are so many Trump victims out there, why use one with such a weird past? But that’s what was so brilliant about it.
If Machado were a nun, it’d be harder for Trump to attack. But Trump thinks he can win this one on the merits and so he won’t let go of it. He didn’t learn the lesson of his feud with the Khan family: The only way to win such fights is to not engage in them at all. The debate wasn’t a disaster but how he handled the post-debate spin was, and continues to be. …
…. Candidate Trump can’t be managed. Everyone with any contacts in or around Trump world has heard the stories about how his staff tries to impose discipline on him. The jokes about Kellyanne Conway desperately trying to hide his phone from him to keep him off Twitter are funny because they’re true. …
__________________________________
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If Candidate Trump can’t be managed (and he obviously can’t be), why should anyone think that President Trump can be managed? Then we need to ask: What happens when President Trump gets mad at the Chinese leader and starts putting out insulting tweets about the wife of the Chinese leader in the middle of the night?
Michelle asked an interesting question. The really sad part is that if Trump is trying to throw the election, he could not have done it without millions of foolish Republican primary voters. How could they be so foolish? Trump is a world class con artist, but I have to believe God has allowed us to lose all judgment and discernment as we have turned away from Him.
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Here is an old story about Trump pressuring his mistress and future wife Marla Maples to pose nude for Playboy. He negotiated the fee.
I was not aware of Maples’ background. Her story is a sad one. I know dueling has a bad rap. However, it did weed out some of the worst elements of society.
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I can kind of understand people choosing to vote for Trump because they are so afraid of Hillary. But I really don’t understand how some of my Facebook friends (a few of whom I know in real life) can be actually gung-ho for the man himself.
I feel sorry for Lester Holt, as I have seen such vicious things said about him. Everything I had read about him in the past painted him as a man of honesty & integrity (& that he is a fellow believer).
One friend showed a short video clip of Holt putting his hand out to shake hands with both candidates. After Clinton accepted his handshake, he turned towards Trump, who veered off to his family. Holt then awkwardly smoothed the hair on the back of his head & sat down. (Having seen the debate, I think I recall that Trump rounded back & did shake his hand, but I’m not sure I’m remembering correctly.)
Then it occurred to me that some of his supporters (the ones that would share that), would have liked him to ignore Holt’s hand, which means they would approve of impolite, immature, boorish behavior from him.
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One of the accusations, maybe the main one, against Holt was that he kept asking Trump questions (I suppose they saw that as him “challenging” Trump) or interrupting him. But it looked to me, as far as I can recall, that most of those interruptions were because Trump was interrupting Hillary, or not answering the question Holt had asked. Or he was trying to get clarification on Trump’s comments.
Maybe that doesn’t account for all of Holt’s extra questions/interruptions to Trump, but I think it does account for a large percentage of them.
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I really think we need to pay attention to how the remnant lived in Babylon–I don’t see any other option, no matter who wins. Americans have chosen this situation, the candidates reflect the attitudes–harden hearts?–of the electorate. Just because I may not agree with who holds office (see my entire voting record), doesn’t mean the rest of my fellow Americans don’t.
So, how do we as believers follow the Bible: “to do mercy, love justice and walk humbly with our God,” plus Jesus’ reminder, “a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you?”
That’s what keeps coming to mind as I consider my future in America.
God has put me in this time and place for His purposes, using my experiences, my knowledge and my life. His aims for me? See paragraph number 2.
The “real” church thrives under persecution. The marriage of evangelicals and the Republican party has been a debacle for the church, as anyone with a knowledge of history should have seen.
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Amen, Michelle.
Kizzie, when I interviewed the woman who was a hostess for several years at Trump’s facility in our area she mentioned that he was something of a ‘germaphobe’ and avoided hand shaking.
I’m not sure if that was just an observation she’d made (she waited on him a couple times and had a chance to observe him on his frequent visits) or if it’s something that’s actually known about him.
That said, he’s undoubtedly had to shake many hands as he’s running for president, so his behavior with Holt could have been a slight.
On the radio today someone made the point that Trump managed to tweet out a message that was “racist, sexist and vitriolic,” all within the allowable 140 characters and at 3 a.m. — quite a feat. It takes talent.
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And, again, what Michelle said, this is why I think 2016 may actually be a very good thing for the church in America.
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There is a lot of this sort of thing on Twitter:
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Mona Charen tweeted a fine article from Damon Linker. In it he describes a type of conservatism that all Southerners of a certain age recognize and love. It is the culture of their ancestors.
This is the conservatism of forms and formality, order, modesty, nobility, moral rectitude, private and public honor, and steadfast adherence to standards of right conduct and traditional restraints. Trumpist populism, with its roots in the sleaziest side of tabloid culture, including the world of reality TV in which Trump honed his public persona, could never be mistaken for conservative in this rarified sense.
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Here is the article:
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Good news! The Holy Spirit is moving with power in New York City.
http://theresurgent.com/god-in-gotham-inside-look-at-nycs-growing-church-culture/
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Does anyone remember who prosecuted and sent Martha Stewart to jail?
At the time, Comey explained his reasoning for prosecuting the domestic diva:
“If it was Jane Doe she would have been prosecuted. [T]here were 2,000 cases by the Justice Department that year for providing false statements during an investigation.
I thought of my hesitation about the case due to someone being rich and famous, and how it shouldn’t be that way. I decided we had to do it.”
So what has happened since then to change his views?
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Good morning, Tychicus. I am going to pick the Texas/OU game as the tie-breaker for next week in honor of you and the 1963 and 1969 National Championship teams.
Meanwhile, Matt Walsh made some good points while also making me laugh out loud.
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Does anyone know a Christian who actively supports Trump other than the “famous” ones who signed a letter endorsing him recently?
(I’m studying Proverbs right now in Sunday school and having had my eyes open to the Biblical definition of “fools” I’m seeing them everywhere. I fear those who signed that letter will be made to look like fools when this election is over and Trump reveals his true intentions).
It bugs me Christians have been painted with the arrow for this individual when I don’t know any Christian who supported him in the primaries. I took my nephew to task who asked me this question and he was quite taken aback that what he reads in the paper might not be true.
(Okay, he’s 20 and goes to Cal; we were all young once . . . )
Can you not see how vile this “association” makes the church? Do we not know who will be the ones to pick up the pieces when this mess all falls out?
I’m sorry, I will NOT take the blame nor the fall for this Republican debacle.
It won’t touch me as an Independent, but it will as a follower of Jesus Christ.
The mess of Trump and the election all points to the Republican party leadership and I deeply resent them implicating Christians as the reason for Trump’s popularity when it is their policies over the last 15 years which brought about this rise.
A Congress that rolled over to Obama and paid lip service to the many Christians who voted for them believing they would be fiscally conservative and stem the bleeding morality and Constitution of this country.
No, this is a lie and I will not stand for it.
I didn’t realize how angry I was until I started typing.
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To answer Michelle’s question, no, I don’t know any Christians who support Trump (though I know some who will probably vote for him to prevent another 4 years of what we’ve had).
(The one exception: An older woman from our church, now living out of state — very stalwart but who lost her husband, who was the main political thinker between them (and I can’t imagine his supporting someone like Trump but his wife is a little more fiery) in the past couple years — initially supported Trump but her family talked her down from it; when I told her I likely wouldn’t vote for president this time, though, she insisted I reconsider, saying a Clinton presidency would be disastrous.)
Michelle, I’m curious about exactly who is implicating Christians for Trump’s popularity? Was that from a link somewhere (I haven’t read all of them here yet)? I have seen Republicans railing against letting the party be too influenced by social conservatism and Christianity in the recent past, saying that has been part of the downfall. It would be interesting to see Christians somewhat withdraw from the fray for a while.
And I think polls have clearly shown that Christians who say they support Trump are, for the most part, those who also say they don’t really attend church. Those polls ask people to self-identify and too many probably still claim or choose the mantle of Christianity without really knowing what that even means.
I’ve gone back to being a registered independent as well, it’s probably the most honest and accurate public position for me as both a Christian and a journalist at this point.
Politically, I hope a new conservative movement will emerge from the ashes, one with integrity and intelligence. But it may be a while after all of this. What a full-blown mess. And a newly pulled together GOP might not be very warm toward social conservatism. as the culture, for now, has largely rejected it.
But untethered populism, as we’ve seen with the rise of Trump, is a scary thing.
On the other hand, I’ve seen both parties be declared effectively “dead” in my lifetime, and they always bounce back — and generally more quickly than the predictions said they would.
What the Republican party will look like in the future remains to be seen.
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rw: Sounds good, but unfortunately I think that the Longhorns’ Swiss cheese defense is going to continue to dishonor those championship teams.
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Oh, now I just read the Matt Walsh link with the Christian references.
And I’ve also thought about what happens to those who really went all the way “in” with Trump should he go down in flames (which I believe is the most likely scenario).
It’s just too late for Trump’s candidacy to be redeemed, in my mind. The 3 a.m. tweets signals to me that the guy has completely fallen off the cliff and is not listening to any of his saner staff. He obviously intends to keep on keeping on, doing it his way.
**** Caveat: I’ve been wrong (frequently) in this election cycle before. *****
I’m not sure if he’s trying to lose (that remains a possibility, I think) or if he really is simply unbalanced (another distinct possibility). But either way, I don’t see him coming back from this past week’s behavior to win the day. Add to that the release of his taxes … with probably more to come … And what will be renewed scrutiny of Trump’s own moral past (another of Trump’s siren calls that turned into a self-inflicted wound as he was trying to throw attention on the Clinton’s on their past behavior). Really?
As Mona Charen said, Pot/Kettle. I see where Trump also now has suggested Hillary has been unfaithful to Bill. If there’s a line,Trump insists on crossing it, every time.
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No apostrophe in Clintons.
Just in case Mumsee is peeking in. Or even, dare I say, peaking in.
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Michelle, Most of the people in my church support Trump. A few even did so in the primary. It is generally a question of age, intelligence and education. The older, less educated people are more likely to support Trump. I’ve talked to many of these people. They get their news from Fox News or their friends on Facebook. When I tell them that I consider Trump to be a liberal Yankee, they are sympathetic as they figure I have sources of information not available to them. However, at this point they are fully committed to Trump as opposed to Obama (who they know to be a Muslim) and Hillary (who is obviously the bride of Satan).
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Bride of Satan is a new one 🙂
My neighbors supported Trump (though she expressed some reservations to me about whether she’d actually want to see him as president.
They are not Christians and fit the demographic Trump appeals to — older, working class, white, they’ve worked hard, raised kids, saved money and keep their house up to top standards. But they feel left behind I think (they also were lifelong Democrats, were planning to change their registration to vote in the Republican primary; and they watch Fox news)
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“Frust in the Lord…” Easy now, I don’t understand! If only I remember to trust. Old habits die hard.
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http://www.nationalreview.com/article/440638/donald-trump-does-he-really-want-presidency
Does Trump really want to be president
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Tychicus, The Thunder are in Spain. I know those European countries aren’t much bigger than Yankee states. You should drive over and catch a game.
Here, Wesrbrook, Adams and the rest of the team meet with some famous Spaniard. I’m not sure what he does. Maybe he is a bullfighter.
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I know some Christians who are voting for Trump. Basically they were extremely pro-Carson until Carson dropped out and endorsed Trump. But they weren’t for Trump in the primaries.
I’m not talking about politics to most people in this cycle, but those I am are mostly saying about the same thing: no good choices, this looks like time for God’s judgment, and God is sovereign and our hope is in Him and not in politicians.
Two more months and it will be pretty much over!
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Maybe God is allowing this mess of an election so we will finally believe that HE is the one to trust in for this nation, not the politicians.
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Of course, most of us would say that we already believe that. But this election just solidifies that belief, so to speak.
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Cheryl – I suspect that whoever becomes president is going to get more flak than usual from the opposition during his or her presidency.
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Cheryl (at 9:37) — rather, it may only just be beginning.
The next few years will likely be brutal
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