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.
Your ride is just like mine. And I agree with your assessments on all points that you have posted in this thread.
Specifically regarding healthcare, joethedrummer recently reminded of the following point and I thought it was very well put, so I quote him in his entirety...
I don’t get any of this...
Obamacare/Trump/Ryancare is NOT healthcare; it is putting a financial GUN to our heads in order to FORCE us to buy INSURANCE.
That’s the bottom line for me.
It’s utter corruption and banana republic tactics.
Government, GET THE HELL OUT OF IT!! PERIOD!!!
Jim,
If, if, if. What we had among other things was the unfunding of P.P. and it’s murderous policy. Instead of temporarily sacrificing some of our money and maybe some freedom to save the most vulnerable among us, we chose to continue the present policy of abortion. We could get the rest of what want through subsequent bills, but how many unborn did we sacrifice for not getting all we demanded now?
Great summary and assessment, Jim.
Phase 1 was such a weak step that I’m convinced Trump had no interest in seeing it succeed. Everything he does is bold and ambitious, and Ryan’s bill looked like it was drafted by a small-town Rotary club.
I think tax reform should have been done first. Which is what is going to happen now.
Also, it looks like the failure of the healthcare law is going to be hung on Ryan—which is where the blame should go. This is a good thing.
Well where are YOU when the shit is hitting the fan?
A one-purpose bill should be the best bid here.
No setback!
Conservatives won over Globalist? Soros puppet, Lyin Ryan.
Ain’t nothing wrong with that.
(my Mother would spank me right now for saying “ain’t”)
Yes that terrible Bill did include defunding Planned Parenthood. But what if Republicans were forced to delete that aspect as the negotiations between Republicans Democrats went back-and-fortth
I could so totally see that happening.
I didn’t follow all of the details but I’ll believe you here. When I heard Ryan was in it, I knew it wasn’t all that auspicious.
At the least, we need N steps (however many) all of them populated with SOMETHING, and then some kind of czar to oversee the process to untangle the inevitable tangles. That would take the utterly Calvinball nature out of what has been going on with Obamacare.
lol - Sweet ;-)
So will God strike me down with lightning for portraying Jesus as a redneck and saying ain't about it too? Or is he grinning His head off in heaven?
In his column today, Scott Adams does a great job of explaining why the best news of this is the fact that the “Trump = Hitler” idea is dead. The Left is already starting to spin the Trump is Incompetent story now, which is OK because we always expect the other side to say that our politicians are incompetent, just as we do with theirs.
His “two movies” theory is excellent and I recommend reading back in the blog to understand it because it explains modern politics and why no one on one side can convince anyone on the other.
Now, that Trump is obviously not Hitler (because he can’t make his own party jump off a cliff—as Obama was able to do), the Trump is Hitler movie that plays on a continuous loop in the minds of the Left is now broken.
He’s not trying to lose, but I think that he isn’t really playing to win right now. In fishing, you sometimes have to set the drag and let the fish run for a while before you start reeling it in.
They think they’re winning. He’s just letting them run themselves until they’re tired. And when I say “the Left”, I include RINO bastards like Ryan and McCain!
We are still waiting for the enforcement and border security that was signed into law in the 1986 Simpson/Mazzolli amnesty law.
And the Secure Fence Act of 2006?
Those were actually passed and signed into law and we still don’t have what’s in them, so it’s not surprising that people did not believe there ever would be a phase 2 or 3.
You crack me up Jim. For those who know you, we know how you know.
Blessings.
Amen brother!
Never give up.
Yes, take that evil Obamacare apart piece by piece. But my fear is that the lazy bastards in Congress will opt for another Omnibus spending bill or just another Continuing Resolution which will keep ALL the funding for Obamacare in place - for another year, or, indeed, in perpetuity.
I think that is exactly what they intend - especially since we are rapidly approaching another debt ceiling "crisis". The spineless morons have no stomach for a "government shutdown".
As far as I am concerned we should shut the whole damn thing down completely as the "government" no longer is governed by Constitutional restraint - and it hasn't been for a long time. The Good Lord has given the Republic a "stay of execution", but time is short.
Trump isn't perfect, but he's possibly the last chance to avoid a great deal of discomfort if we should slip into the communist hell the Rats (and the RINOs) are trying to establish.
I think only we had a good inkling Trump was going to win when Hillary quietly canceled the fireworks.
I wasn’t going to vote in this National Election, that is until President Trump announced...
From then on I was 100% behind him, in National work, in State work and in City work...I worked my butt off for that guy, and worked hard on this site for that man, I could see the person who could lead this Nation back and gather her people...
I watched every one of his rallies, I did a lot to help President Trump...not one look backwards, and I knew that we would have our ups and downs when he became President, nobody always wins everything, and as far as I am concerned, President Trump won yesterday and so did this Nation and so did her people...
This crooked bamicare is right where it should be, around the liberal Democrats neck and there it will hang and always be remembered that it was the worst thing done to this Nation as was the person it was named after OBAMA...a fraud, a liar, and a phony in everything that is in his life...
God doesn’t make mistakes, and God has His Hands on President Trump and this Nation and her people know this...
Agree with you as well.
I wasn’t sure what to make of Trump at first.
I didn’t really think he was serious but could not figure ot what he was up to.
Then when he wasn’t going away but actually getting more support, I started really listening to what he was saying and what he stood for and he won me over.
It’s wonderful to have a real alpha male in the White House.
You’re right, Jim.
BTTT!
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