ÜberManqué

Fourteen years ago today, I signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Afterwards, one Republican member of the House called the ACA the “most dangerous piece of legislation ever passed in Congress.” Another predicted the country would “never recover from it.” But then something else happened: it actually worked.

You can only choose one:

I mean make it easy on us Sam and Peter, what sin/s does a 5 month old commit?

Much has already been written about these two tweets, but I want to add one more thing… Both of these young men dwell in a theological/ideological subculture in which disciplining “sinful” infants is celebrated. Both of them sent these tweets in hopes of increasing their status in that subculture. They were both rewarded. Even as they went viral and thousands of people from outside their subculture rightly condemned their beliefs and behaviors, leaders from inside their subculture have offered support and even praise—both publicly and privately. Among right-wing Calvinists, Samuel and Peter’s stock has increased. Not only did they proudly proclaim the party line about disciplining depraved infants (even putting it into practice in Sam’s case), they are now enduring “persecution” from the “secular” and “progressive” crowds. This is the ultimate currency in their subculture. I don’t know if Samuel actually punishes his infant and I don’t know if Peter actually believes that 4-month-olds commit sins. But I do know that both of these young men made calculated decisions with the hope of climbing the ladder in their chosen subculture… and it paid off big time.

Beth, while Trump isn’t my guy in the primary (nor was he in 2016), I do think you have a blind spot. There may be a segment of Trump fans who love everything he posts, including the name-calling and the accusations of backstabbing toward former allies he now considers disloyal. But the majority of his ardent supporters don’t like these things. It’s just that, to them, his flaws pale in comparison to what he’s accomplished. His SCOTUS picks helped overturn Roe, saving thousands of image bearing lives. He helped bring about unprecedented peace in the Middle East. He oversaw a booming economy. I could list things I think he did wrong, but he also did a lot of things right. That’s why people like him. Plus, his political enemies have thrown everything possible at him, and still are. Heck, Time Magazine published a whole article explaining how national and international entities worked together to keep Trump out of office. Thus his supporters think, “If all the people that hate me also hate him, he must be onto something.” They see him as the victim of an unjust system and the only one who can effectively fight back against it. You can agree with them or not, but it’s inaccurate and unfair to say everyone who votes for him does so because they enjoy bullying and verbal abuse. It’s like saying that everyone who voted for Biden specifically wanted someone who can’t complete a coherent sentence and lies constantly. Which brings me to my next point—Where is your lament for our current political leadership? The Biden administration is objectively wicked. Destructive. Oppressive. Idolatrous. Bloodthirsty. Foolish. It actively promotes the butchering of children both in and outside the womb. Its support of abortion and genital mutilation are sufficient reasons to publicly condemn Biden and his cohort, and yet, at least from what I’ve seen, you haven’t. The faults in the White House go beyond bullying. The policies it pushes cause chaos, death, and decay. Every single city dominated by these progressive policies has been destroyed, Beth. Violence, drugs, inescapable poverty - all enabled and exacerbated by laws enacted in the name of progressive compassion. It’s okay that you don’t like Trump. I have my gripes, too. But save some righteous anger for the greater evil unfolding before your eyes, under this administration. If Trump is our mirror, so is Biden. And that, I’m afraid, is a far more sobering thought.

Sobered by last night and trying to practice what people call radical acceptance, not of a presidential candidate because surprising things happen. Just plainly sobered by the thought that, with other individuals to choose from, masses of people still hail Trump. He’s what they actually want in a leader. A bully. A verbally abusive, artfully and purposely divisive bully who has all but left the Republican Party unrecognizable. I don’t know. I just can’t understand it. Maybe I’ve got a mental block. But, you who are staunch Republicans, why don’t you care about your own party more than that? Forgive me. I don’t want to be a repeat performance of my 2016 self. I don’t. I didn’t like her anymore than you did. I intend to deal differently with this. I do not intend to get obsessed. I do not intend to lose more relationships. I don’t intend to talk about this regularly. As the Scriptures say, I want to seek peace and pursue it. I want to be a person of kindness, love and compassion. But I’ve got to move to a place of radical acceptance. It was one thing to cast a vote for a party’s only candidate, reasoning the choice as the lesser of two evils. This is quite another thing. This is wide-open-eyed, “we WANT Trump!” Anyway, this is where we are. We can complain all we want about our leaders but, in this government by the people, at the end of the day and the beginning of November, our candidates are mirrors of ourselves.

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Daily Wire and Candace Owens have ended their relationship.

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