Volume 4, Issue 25
This morning, CNN released a new poll that actually shocked commentators. After three brutal weeks of attacks by the press and his opponents, Donald Trump was still within four points of Hillary Clinton, dead even in Ohio, even in Pennsylvania, and ahead in Florida. If the presumptive Democratic nominee loses these three states, her path to a majority of the Electoral College is very narrow.
What’s going on?
National commentators forget that 88% of the American public believes that the country is on the wrong track. They are looking for something other than business as usual. Hillary Clinton’s negatives are 61%; Donald Trump’s are 67%. In their quest to find a new course for the country, the public is not gravitating towards Hillary Clinton. She has picked up very little of any support that Donald Trump has lost. This is also very important when a third party candidate is thrown into the mix. Clinton and Trump remain close in the polls, and therefore close in the Electoral College. In other words, the American public, looking for alternatives, is still willing to consider taking a chance on Donald Trump.
During the meeting today, Mr. Trump got personal with the audience. He said that he had been hammered by the national press almost since the beginning of the announcement of his candidacy. At the same time, he said, Christians have also been abused. He went on to say that he is in politics. Christians are just pursuing their faith. He said the election had taught him one thing – that everyone has a first amendment right of free speech, and that it is unfair that most anyone could say anything they want on Fifth Avenue, without persecution or criticism, except for Christians. He promised as President that he would protect the first amendment rights of all individuals to practice their faith, speak their minds, and disagree with the government whenever they see fit. A rapport began to emerge between Donald Trump and the audience as he made the connection that he understands what Christians feel when the government attempts to encroach upon their constitutional rights.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan ran on a platform of limited government. He established the premise that government itself was part of the problem and needed to be addressed. This was blasphemy to the elites. The New York Times was vicious in its op-eds against Ronald Reagan. He advocated the change of business as usual when business as usual needed to be changed. Looking back, we now understand that Ronald Reagan made it socially acceptable to be a conservative.
In 1988, Pat Robertson ran for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. He was part of a respected lineage of a long family history in national politics. He built a major broadcast media and communications corporation. He introduced Christians into active politics. The press labeled him a TV evangelist. They were limited in their perception of his total accomplishments. Pat ran a respectable race, winning seven of the first eight primaries, winning a substantial number of delegates. He was honorable in that he provided resources, contacts and endorsements for the ultimate nominee, George Herbert Walker Bush. Evangelicals were a critical component to George H.W.’s election to the presidency. Christian activists contributed to the party in time, talent, and resources. The party was strengthened, the movement enhanced. Pat Robertson made Christians acceptable to the general public in the political process.
In the past eight years, during the presidency of Barak Obama, progressives have made great gains in suppressing and silencing conservatives and Christians. The President has even distorted the meaning of the first amendment that Christians have a right to worship, but not to practice their faith. Worship means that Christians are to be confined inside the walls of a church. They are not to openly practice their faith or speak of it in public. This was not the intent of the Founding Fathers, nor has it historically been the interpretation of the Constitution.
In relating to Christians, by recognizing that progressives attack concepts, ideology, and speech that they find to be socially unacceptable to their elitist persona, a resonant chord was established.
Practicing one’s faith in all aspects of one’s life, to include vocation and education, is a God-given inalienable right. Donald Trump may be the candidate who can restore social respectability to the right of free speech.
Christians only expect to be treated equally by the principles espoused in the first amendment. Their constitutional rights should never be deemed inferior. This equality of rights is all they ask.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?