I have been hoping, for this election, for clarity. I wanted
the situation to be that people could see clearly who the candidates were, so
the choice could be made without deceit. I believed that, if the American
people had the clear choice before them, they would make the right choice for
our country.
Here is what was clear to anyone with eyes willing to see:
President Obama divides the people, ignores the constitution,
and has a four-year record of failed economic policies. His behavior toward our
allies has been offensive. His behavior to our enemies has been apologetic and
submissive. His specific lies following the Benghazi attack are so egregious as
to require impeachment. His history, while sketchy, clearly indicates a disdain
for our beloved constitutional ideals. He seems incompetent as a leader
(specifically failing to persuade others to follow his actual ideology when
truthfully stating it). Meanwhile, I think he is consistent in moving to
transform the nation from a constitutional republic into a marxist tyranny. His
tone is condescending and his attacks on his opponent are petty and
small-minded. Because I love my homeland and the blessed freedom we inherited
from our forefathers, I see him as an enemy. It is difficult for me to see
positives about him. Others see him as a “great” orator; I have never heard him
give a speech that moved me, and most of his speech I find grating and the
opposite of inspiring. But I grant that some people swoon and feel moved, for
whatever reason. (People do that over various rap “singers,” and I feel
similarly puzzled.)
Romney during the GOP convention from Ann Romney's Facebook page |
Deserved-President Romney has been knowable all along. He
is, despite the mischaracterization, about as steady and consistent as I have
ever seen a public figure. He has a genuine history of remarkable success. His
open record shows a very smart man, with an extreme work ethic combined with
almost superhuman energy. His priorities are with God and family, and caring
for individuals, with personal hand labor, not just with money. This was the
hardest thing to get to know about him, because his quiet service is a way of
life; he does it to serve God and fellowman, and it detracts from that purpose
to talk about it. But his friends, real people who have known him in real life
over long years, testify on his behalf. The stories of his sterling character
are legion. Meanwhile, no one, virtually not a single human being, comes
forward to testify of Obama’s lifetime character record.
Romney seems, in ways our founding fathers were, raised up
by God for such a time as this. He had the sterling qualities, the valuable
life experience, and the understanding—in addition to natural leadership
qualities that inspire the best in those around him. Whatever our serious,
practically insolvable problems in this country, if a human being, who would
turn to God for guidance, could be seen to find solutions and turn the country
around, that human being would be Mitt Romney. As Ann said, “This man will not
fail.”
The choice was between Obama’s failure for our country and
damage to our constitution, and the return to the constitution,
free-enterprise, and civilized living. This was a difference between right and
wrong, between freedom and tyranny, between prosperity and depression. The
differences could not have been more stark.
It was inconceivable to me that, with that clarity, a
majority of the American people would do anything other than rush to the polls to
make the right choice. I was wrong.
I had felt peace in the couple of weeks before the election,
that the clarity was there, and more than anything that God had things in hand.
In my perspective, which is a much smaller perspective than God’s perspective,
I could only imagine that meant a Mitt Romney win, and I was counting on
improved economic and other considerations—that we would have some relief from
the government-induced pain. So the immediate reaction was to mourn the loss of
my hopes and plans.
What I had refused to believe was that the country, because
of the people and their choices, was in as bad a shape as turned out to be
true. This changes my understanding completely.
In the Book of Mormon, there is an understanding that there
is a societal pattern we could call The Pride Cycle. A free and prosperous people tend to become complacent
and prideful and forget about God, which leads to corruption and then bondage. And then, in
their really bad straits, the humbled people turn back to God, and they eventually get
deliverance and return to prosperity. Until they become complacent and prideful again.
My son Political Sphere had been listening to the returns on
TheBlazeTV (Glenn Beck’s coverage online). And he said one of the guests, historian David Barton, actually
talked about the cycle. He called it the Cycle of the Body Politic, but it is
similar enough, I think we’re looking at the same cycle. I found this,
beginning at the 4:12 mark (four hours and twelve minutes in):
David Barton: It’s called the Cycle of
the Body Politic, and it goes through these steps:
·
You start with bondage as a nation.
·
Then you hit spiritual truth.
·
From that you develop great courage.
·
From great courage you fight for liberty.
·
You then have abundance once you get liberty.
·
But then selfishness sets in.
·
And then complacency.
·
And then apathy.
·
And then you go back to dependence.
And that’s the typical cycle of nations.
Glenn: I think the United States, many of our friends and
neighbors are at apathy and dependence, in that transition period. But there’s
probably a third of us that are in spiritual truth and great courage. We’re
just at opposite ends of the circle.
I think that’s right. Because I have mostly surrounded
myself with like-minded people, those of us at the “spiritual truth and great
courage” place, I believed we were a critical mass that could move us up toward liberty and abundance. But indeed a thin majority
of the voters saw Obama and what he represents as what they want. They do not
want to hear truth. They refuse to believe in principles of truth. They were
willing to believe Romney was an evil plutocrat out to gouge money from the
poor, with all evidence to the contrary. They were willing to believe Obama had
their best interests at heart despite the high unemployment, higher taxes, and
anti-business policies. One could say there are many among them that are too
stupid to know the truth, but I believe right now it is more willful disbelief.
Government is their replacement for God. Compared to the real God, government is
a pathetic substitute.
Even if we find there was enough voter fraud and
disenfranchisement of military voting to make the difference, the country
itself is nevertheless under condemnation--more than half choosing not to follow God's principles. The sizable percentage of eligible
voters who failed to vote in essence assented to the current path southward into tyranny. I was simply wrong about there being enough of us to prevent the
inevitable drop into the bottom bondage point of the cycle—and bondage is a
synonym for tyranny. We are already suffering a fair amount of tyranny and have
been suffering it for some years. I don’t know quite how to envision what is
yet to come. But in order for God to humble His people and persuade them to
turn back to Him, they must be made uncomfortable in their suffering.
There has to be a way to move back up north to freedom. We’ll
talk about that in days to come. For today, let me just say that we owe a debt
of gratitude to Mitt Romney for his tremendous sacrifice. He is a natural
leader without the common love of power. We might not ever see a candidate for
president who is as good a man as Mitt Romney has been his whole life.
There is a character in the Book of Mormon, a strong leader named Captain Moroni; it was said
of him: “Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and
ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have
been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of
the children of men” (Alma 48:17). If we had a preponderance of men like Mitt
Romney, instead of this one singular man, we would have prosperity,
civilization, and liberty at the very top of the sphere, with no slipping
southward.
I believe he was called by God to run this campaign and give
it his all. The cost physically, emotionally, and economically to him and his
family was significant. He knew going in that the odds were against him, but he
was the very best option, and he did his very best to give us the choice we
needed. I believe it was part of God’s plan to have Romney there, so the choice
would be stark, so that when the inevitable suffering of a people under
condemnation comes, the suffering will clearly be the natural consequence of
the choice.
What do we—who are already choosing right—what do we do now?
Whatever God continues to call us to do. There was this discussion at the 4:54
mark of Glenn Beck’s coverage (my apologies that I couldn’t locate the General’s
full name and don’t recognize him):
General: I’m disappointed, but I’m not discouraged. I’m going
back to the hotel tonight. I’m going to get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow I’m
going back to Washington, and I’m gonna do exactly what I’ve been doing. And,
David, you’ve just got to keep on writing books. And, Glenn, you’ve got to
continue to be the Ezekiel 33:6 watchman.
Glenn: It doesn’t end well for those guys.
General: You’ve got to be the watchman. We’ve got to keep
doing what we’ve been doing. It’s what we’re called to, and we keep doing what
we’ve been doing. And the outcome is not up to us….
David Barton: John Quincy Adams fighting a losing battle, for
him; he fought against slavery. But he never quit, and when the media asked him
why, he said, “Because duty is ours; results are God’s.” And if we’ll stay on
the track of doing the right thing, and don’t worry about the results, it
doesn’t alter what we do, we’ll be all right.
No comments:
Post a Comment