Posted on 03/25/2017 6:22:09 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Free Republic stands for God, family, country. We generally look to Judeo-Christian* guidance on issues of law, morality, justice, freedom, life, family and civil society. And we have a Christian self-governing, self-reliant, individual accountability & responsibility, you gotta work if able-bodied and want to eat attitude on cultural and societal issues. And a Christian pro-Constitution, original intent, pro-liberty, pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, restricted government, small government, states rights, individual rights, free enterprise position on political and civil matters.
*Note: I say Judeo-Christian because Jesus was a Jew and referred to the Ten Commandments, Jewish law, beliefs and customs and the scripture he quoted was from the Torah, ie, the Hebrew Bible and basically today's Old Testament. If you believe in the Bible (Old and New Testaments) and the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, etc, then you believe in our one true Judeo-Christian God.
We take the Bible, the Declaration, the Constitution and our Christian founding and heritage seriously, though we are sometimes backsliders. We the people formed our original Christian states (and they were indeed Christian as the original constitutions of all 13 states openly declared it so), and after the revolution we the people of the original Christian states established and ratified the Constitution and formed the new national government.
We the people of the original states through our ratifying representatives agreed to delegate certain enumerated powers to the new national government and limit it to just those delegated and enumerated powers, reserving all others to our existing Christian state and local governments and to we the people.
We the people of the original Christian states also included a Bill of Rights that prohibited our newly established limited national government from interfering into our God-given (per the Declaration and common understanding) inalienable rights to free speech, freedom of religion, right to keep and bear arms, right to speedy trial before our peers, etc, etc. We had just rebelled against a tyrannical king and there was no way we were going to sign on to or allow a newly formed central government to rule over us or interfere into our currently long established Christian governments and communities, or deny us our God-given rights or take our guns or lock us up on some trumped up federal charge, etc.
The God-given right to our individual freedoms (including the right to freely exercise our Christian religion) and to self-government was of paramount concern to the founders and to we the people and to our original states. We had no intent of signing away our rights to community and even state level Christian governments. The Constitution and Bill of Rights was intended to keep the newly established federal government OUT of our state and local and individual matters! It restricted the federal government not the states, ie, a community or even a state recognizing God as our Creator and source of all rights, and or communities celebrating Christmas or Easter is NOT a violation of the first amendment, nor is prayer offered from a public space.
The above is my understanding and is critical to the positions I take today. If I am proved wrong about any of the above then I may need to rethink my personal philosophy in regards to God, Christianity and the Constitution.
The primary and then the first dodged bullet.
I supported Cruz before and at the start of the primaries due to his obvious Christian constitutional conservative positions and track record of defending the Constitution. IMHO, he stood head and shoulders over Bush, Rubio, Kascich, Paul and other assorted GOPe RINOs, globalists, amnesty pushers, establishment hangers on and unknown newbies, etc. I didn't care much at all for Trump. Thought he was an untrustworthy chameleon and charlatan. Wrote him off completely.
And then I began watching his rallies and listening to him explain his positions. Build the wall, enforce the law, deport them all, end sanctuary cities, end anchor babies, slap a moratorium on Muslim immigration, cut taxes, cut spending, cut regulations, cut the government, make better trade deals, bring back manufacturing and jobs, dump the EPA and global warming, bring back coal, gas & oil, rebuild the military AND (as all the other Republican hopefuls pledged: REPEAL OBAMACARE!
Ok, so I'm impressed. The guy sounds like a Reagan conservative. But I'm still a Cruz guy. As I continue watching and listening to both and then start reading Trump's plans as he fleshes them out on his website, I get even more interested. His initial tax plan even out Reagan'd Reagan. He proposed cutting all taxes, but especially cutting the corporate tax to ZERO! Now that piqued my interest way up! What a boost to the economy and jobs that would be (unfortunately, cutting the corp tax rate to zero was later in the primary modified to 15%, I suspect after GOP bean counters got involved).
So now I have two favorites in the race. Cruz was my guy but I could be happy with Trump. If either of these guys won the primary, I'd back him to the hilt. Even thought it'd be great if they partnered up on the ticket.
And as the race progressed, it was impossible not to see that Trump was not only a great campaigner, and a great communicator, but he was also a great fighter and wasn't going to rollover for the establishment or the media. He takes his message straight to the people and does not apologize or back down.
One by one he knocks off anyone who attacks him, whether they be an opponent, a pundit, the GOP, the DEMs, the establishment or the media. We can't spare this man, he fights.
So it eventually gets down to Trump vs Cruz, but Trump is way ahead. Cruz has been holding off to this point, but now he has no choice. If he wants to win, Cruz has to take Trump head-on and the nasty battle begins. Again, Trump is the more aggressive campaigner and fighter and he pulls it out.
And the most aggressive campaigner and fighter is exactly what we needed to defeat Hillary and the democrats and the media AND the entire establishment ruling class of both major political parties.
His own party stood against him! Even FOX News and most of the so-called "conservative" media!
It was a miracle that Trump won. "He had no path to 270!" No one thought he could possibly make it. Coming down to the wire I think even Trump thought he'd lost. And then as the last handful of states were coming in, the network vote counters all agreed Trump had no path to a win. Then boom. Don't remember if it was Michigan or Wisconsin, but after Trump won whichever came in first, there was a long pregnant pause as the Network vote counters tried and tried, but couldn't calculate any clear path to 270 from the remaining states... for Hillary!
Trump won the presidency and America dodged a bullet!
And now at the risk of offending many of our dear readers and participants, I say yesterday we dodged another bullet.
We already know that the Democrat party absolutely hates our Christian founding & heritage and our Constitution and our constitutionally guaranteed God-given individual and states rights. And that they prefer a "living constitution" and an all powerful centralized Godless Marxist government with a globalized bent and a Godless Marxist judiciary unconstitutionally implementing their Godless Marxist agenda. This is a given and we also know this philosophy is infiltrating and making strong headway into our Republican party and establishment.
We all know that Obamacare is an unconstitutional, unsustainable socialist program rammed through our congress via questionable and unscrupulous processes without a single Republican vote and upheld by the opinion of an errant court doing the bidding of the aforementioned Godless Marxist government.
Why do we say Obamacare is unconstitutional?
Primarily because the power to legislate health care matters and or mandates on insurance matters to our states and or on we the people is NOT a power enumerated and delegated to the congress or the federal government by the Constitution and is therefore reserved to the states and the people.
Am I right or wrong about that?
If I am right then a health care or insurance law enacted by a Republican congress or government would be equally unconstitutional, regardless of whether it is better or worse than Obamacare.
Am I right or wrong about that?
If I am right in both cases then we dodged a second huge bullet.
If we God-fearing defenders of Constitution and Liberty join in with those who would knowingly pass unconstitutional laws for political expedience, ie, helping Trump move his agenda which is otherwise very good, then we've unwittingly shot ourselves in the foot and opened the doors to both political parties to destroy whatever is left of our Constitution and our Liberty. And they will do it if given the opportunity.
So we shot our toe off and delivered a defeat of his first legislative agenda item.
A lost toe to preserve foot and limb (or life and liberty, in this case) is much preferable to the alternative (don't ask me how I know).
If I'm confused or all wet on these matters I'm sure you will straighten me out.
(And yes, I know Trump's position evolved from repeal to repeal and replace during the primary. I supported him anyway because of the rest of his platform. I assumed cooler heads and the constitution would win out on the replace bit.)
Now we need to move on to REPEAL (along with the rest of his agenda)! Rules changes or whatever it takes, we must repeal Obamacare.
Jim,
What would you sacrifice to stop the tax financing of the murder of the unborn?
We are not talking about shooting a toe off: it’s the sacrificing of children to the gods of convenience.
“So we shot our toe off and delivered a defeat of his first legislative agenda item. “
That’s the bottom line.
Now, we have a chance to repeal it.
(I was for Cruz too....and then supported and voted for Trump)....I am still a big Cruz fan.
I am convinced that it is the democrats that missed an opportunity here not the republicans, and Trump. Had that bill passed it would be Trumpcare not Obamacare and all the failures built into Obamacare become Trump problems. As this plays out it might be funny to look back at all the liberal gloating over the last few days. This must be the 1,000 time that Trump has had it, the end for Trump.
Interesting. This was also my path to Trump and also my reaction to them pulling the bill.
I also do not think ACA is constitutional - but the law hardly matters any longer.
Keep praying for Trump - in particular his choices for advisors.
Agreed, Sir.
Jim's post summed up my feelings exactly, even the part about evolving from being a Cruz supporter to becoming a Trump supporter (I donated to Trump's campaign). I don't know that I believe that Trump was playing rope-a-dope with Ryan. It may turn out that way, but I think he sincerely wanted RyanoCare to pass. I daresay I'm confused as to where Trump and the GOP are goung with this.It's looking to me like the new position is "we tried, but Obamacare is too firmly entrenched mow and cannot be dislodged".
Correct. We dodged a 50 caliber bullet yesterday. And it pains me that so many Freepers are angry and bitter against conservatives of all people! And of course, I’m speaking of the House Freedom Caucus who were responsible for defeating Obamacare light.
In addition to remembering all of these fine points that you pointed out in your essay, Jim, we all need to remember that we will all live to fight another day. I do not believe that we are stuck with Obamacare forever. I do not believe that we will lose the House and Senate in the mid terms. And I do not believe Donald Trump is abandoning his promise to repeal Obamacare.
Regroup and reassess. Focus on the future. It still looks bright to me
Well, thanks.
I am hoping to get across the idea that the debacle that US healthcare has gotten into has entailed a lot of follies and a lot of woes. The Lazarus of American freedom that was resurrected is still wrapped in copious graveclothes. I doubt a single bill could fix all the gotchas. It’s going to have to be a “best approach for now” — and analogies about something imperfect but yet significantly better than Obamacare being “hung around Trump’s neck” seem, to me, to miss the point.
I was hoping the change would come immediately.
In other words, Trump as President with his influence could have supported replacing Ryan as speaker.
Maybe that will happen now.
If a single bill could be passed for that one, surgical purpose (eliminate taxpayer complicity in abortion), that would be great. Maybe this is how the new lobbyists should think. It wouldn’t try to fix Obamacare in any other way but that. An evolution of bills. (Is that the opposite of a murder of crows?)
If Trump follows through on his judicial picks, then it won’t be long. The decision to legalize abortion was not made or upheld legislatively. If we have a constitution respecting SCOTUS it will be reversed (along with a whole load of other unconstitutional stuff). Same with Obamacare. If we can’t get it repealed, a constitution respecting SCOTUS can cut it down to size or possibly toss it.
JimRob mirrored my thought process,
Love Trump, Ryan has been played.
Next!
“If I’m confused or all wet on these matters”
You’re not. You’ve got it right about losing the toe to save the foot.
The govt is already too much involved with healthcare with Medicare, Medicade, prescription drug program, etc. Obamacare has only made things worse and never designed to actually work. Single-payer is the goal of the progressive / socialist left.
God (actually, gospel) consciousness has to revive or frankly, we are howling at the moon here.
America has gotten both debauched and complicit with debauchery.
Let’s never forget what God hath wrought. We need to evangelize like souls depended on it (in fact they do).
I knew the Ryan bill was doomed as soon as they began selling it as part of a three-phase strategy. It failed because nobody believed they could deliver on all phases, and Phase 1 simply didn’t offer any relief from huge increases in insurance premiums.
The trend can be reversed, but there won’t be such a thing as a single magic bill to do it.
It was a miracle that Trump won. We know from reading in the Bible, we know from my own personal experiences that God does work in mysterious ways.
I firmly believe that God worked for the salvation of America by using a pervert. I’m speaking of the Weiner man. The very fact the FBI discovered missing Hillary emails on his laptop which was also filled with porn, weiner pictures, and sexts to underage girls; led the FBI to re-open another investigation into that crooked Hillary Clinton. And that was the final straw which broke the camels back. The American public had had enough.
As a result of that, Donald J Trump won.
It’s kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario.
I think 3 phases might have actually worked with the energy and pressure of Donald Trump behind it. However, people are still thinking about the notorious fickleness of Congress and are going “sure, sure, sure” in irony.
Something is going to have to populate all those phases, at the least, even if trimming bills need to be passed later to adjust things.
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