Posted on 12/27/2022 7:29:23 AM PST by Starman417
I was in 6th grade in 1976 during America’s Bicentennial. I played Abraham Lincoln in the school’s celebration, my family parked next to the Pentagon to watch the fireworks above DC and our class visited the newly opened Air and Space Museum. And of course, TV commercials were chock-full of patriotic themes from morning until stations signed off with the national anthem. It was a good time to be an American.
Looking back, I lived in a cocoon of security that comes with knowing that the world was as it was supposed to be as if God had our backs. It seemed as if the America I knew was almost predestined, as if it was inevitable that our nation would grow from a scrappy upstart in 1776 to the leader of the world in 1976. America was Manifest Destiny writ large.
It wasn’t until years later that I would discover that was an illusion. Although 9/11 had given me a glimpse of the wrinkle in the matrix, it wasn’t until I saw Tom Selleck playing IKE in Countdown to D-Day in 2004 that I fully recognized and appreciated that things didn’t have to turn out the way they did. Embarrassingly, it wasn’t until watching that movie that I discovered Eisenhower had written a letter in case D-Day failed. That fact was like a brick thrown through the plate glass window of my illusions. I’d always known like one accepts gravity without being told, that the US victory in WWII was preordained, but if the guy in charge of D-Day wasn’t certain of victory then certainly didn’t exist.
You would think that awakening would shake my confidence in America, but it didn’t. Just the opposite. Suddenly America’s success was not the result of robots acting in a play written by God, but rather, the result of the actions of millions of normal Americans doing things, trying things, building things, failing and picking themselves up by their bootstraps and returning to the fight… Sure, there were other factors, such as advances of the 2,000 years of western civilization that preceded 1776, bad decisions on the part of other nations and of course good luck and the grace of God, but at the end of the day, in a worldwide competitive marketplace of ideas and ideologies America had prospered because of the efforts of her citizens.
That puts American history in a completely different light. Looking at it through that lens, it seems to me that we faced five crucial points where had things gone just a little differently, the history of the world would have changed. While there are literally countless little things that might have changed the course of history, these five stand out to me.
The first was the fight for independence. In 1776 the British Empire was the largest and most powerful empire the world had ever seen. The sun literally never set on an empire that included Australia, India, a quarter of Africa, half of North America, and the British Isles themselves. Had things gone slightly differently, America as we know it might never have existed. Had the British ruled over the colonies with a tighter fist in the early 18th century, had Washington lost the Battle of Trenton or had a financially strapped King Louis XVI decided not to support the Americans against the British, the history of the world would likely have been dramatically different.
The second was the writing of the Constitution and the launch of the Republic. Had the 3/5th compromise never been made it’s likely the southern states would have formed their own country and North America would have grown into a fractured continent like Europe with all its attendant inefficiency, shifting alliances and wars. Had anti-Federalists not pushed for a Bill of Rights, American freedom and prosperity would likely never taken root. Had Washington, Adams or Jefferson had tyrannical tendencies, they could have smothered the new Republic in its bassinet. Had America not emerged as a Republic from the chaos of the late 18th century, the world would likely have been dramatically different.
The third point was the Civil War. Had Grant’s genius not brought victory at Vicksburg, the British not resisted calls to support the South or Sherman not taken Atlanta, the South may have been victorious or at least been able to negotiate a settlement rather than surrender. In either case, the history of America and that of the world would likely have been dramatically different.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
Nero, if what I see on FR is any indication.
America needs GOD, not Ike.
I’m going with Hannity or Lindsey Graham. Both are rock-ribbed conservatives.
Won’t be one. The fat lady is warming up her vocal cords to sing the death song for what was the greatest nation on earth.
I’m biased, but once again it’s become cliched that the “civil war” has to be included. That always pretty much ruins it for me.
Actually better would be to bring up the British War, better known as “War of 1812”.
That was a potential threat to the US even existing still. Too bad so many ignore it.
Who is Neo? Do you mean Nero?
Yes, but God needs to bless with a bunch of good men.
I’m just hoping we have a RON right now. Soon.
What if the wind on Lake Champlain hadn't shifted on September 11, 1814? Portland, Me., Portland, Ore., Minneapolis, Chicago and Detroit might now be part of Canada and New England might be an independent country.
In 1776, the British held only a few outposts in Africa and had not yet begun to settle Australia. Nonetheless, they still ran the world's largest empire and were arguably the most militarily powerful country on earth.
Bookmark
the Union worked, because states' tether to each other was light, mostly voluntary and mutually beneficial.
I believe we can return to that, but it will require a huge reduction in the spending and power of Fed.gov.
A nation that began with 13 Colonies, like Christ and His 12..
A nation that grew to 50 states, like Christ’s assembly grew at 50..
Is a nation of Divine Providence because it’s a nation with a prophetic foundation of the New Covenant church..
The problem is the church was going to be leavened, and corrupted, and serpent led..
The church was to carry the staff of the priesthood AND the shepherd.
The staffs that Moses, who shepherded Israel in the wilderness, and Aaron, was High Priest, carried.
Those staffs became serpents at some point, too.
As a sign..
When does the Church and America turn back into proper staffs?
So unbelieving Israel can believe in their deliverance?
The Church as a serpent is a harder sell these days than seeing America as a serpent..
But they both began the same way.
13 Colonies, Christ and His 12..
And grew at/to 50.
Some could even argue DC is a captain of the 50, and Elijah had a run in with 2 Captains and their 50..
Americans in the Church may have a unique job in the end times.
Not flee the mess they helped create, but grab Satan by the tail, and right the ship..
So Israel can see it. And believe in the Passover Lamb and His Work of Deliverance..
Or is that task for politicians/people outside the Church?
Those who weren’t tasked with carrying the staff at all?
There are two sets of Disciples called to not carry the staff (rule/authority) .
Mathew and Luke’s versions.
In Mark, those Disciples were called to carry staffs while in Mathew and Luke, those same Disciples were forbidden to carry a staff..
Why the discrepancy?
Maybe to tell a prophetic story.
Like America is a prophetic nation.
Not because of US.
But because of Him and His Plan..
He was truly one of the transformational figures of the last century, the first to show that Communism didn't have to be forever.
Re your tagline: Supporting dictators, one potential outcome of a politicized society, is what destroys civil society and human kindness. If I wanted to trash our Constitutional rights to free speech, trial by jury, and protection from warrantless searches and torture, I’d join the Democratic Party.
You can keep your strongman fantasies. I’ll stick with the US Constitution.
The one ratified back in 1789 or the "living" one we struggle under today?
We are already under the thumb of an oligarchy emanating from the Ivies and Silicon Valley.
We can prop up the economy with large and fabulous gay weddings, glittery drag queen shows, expensive gender "affirmation" surgeries, botox, breast enlargements, abortion vacations, complete rewrites of math, english, and history textbooks, etc.
What's not to like about the direction in which the US is heading?
Neo was a character played by Keanu Reeves in the Matrix series of movies. It turns out that is his character, have the ability to alter the computer animation that was the Matrix that held so many people in slavery by their computer overlords. In the end, he had to sacrifice himself in order to destroy a virus that had taken over the Matrix.
I’m not really sure that the author has any idea what a Neo could do for the United States.
If you think Pinochet was some kind of a dictator, you are basically ignorant. The man did the only thing that was reasonable considering how the Allende government had perverted the Chilean democratic and constitutional institutions to their own ends. Not unlike what the Deep State kleptocracy has done with our own government today.
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