Making America Great Again: Returning to Greatness

By:  Dale Weckbacher

Nehemiah 7:73

The priests, Levites, gatekeepers, temple singers, some of the people, temple servants, and all Israel settled in their towns.

(CSB)

When we began this series on making America great again, and looking at how it parallels with Nehemiah, we began with Nehemiah enjoying the good life serving the king as cupbearer.  We learned the importance of the position of cupbearer because poisoning of leaders was a common assassination tactic for assassins.  (1)  This parallels with Donald Trump, a multi-billionaire who had a secure and comfortable life ahead for himself and his wife. 

Upon hearing distressing news about the plight of his fellow countrymen and women in Jerusalem, Nehemiah could not just sit in comfort serving the king any longer and knew it was time for action (Nehemiah 1).  After prayer, Nehemiah petitions the King (Nehemiah2:1-10) and through the providence of God receives what he needs to go to Jerusalem.  Donald Trump's experience in business has shown him the power of government to stifle business and the incomes of not only business owners but people working for them through earning lower wages.  Donald Trump knew that the main tools government uses to stifle capitalism are confiscatory taxes and onerous regulations, determining that the best means of solving the problem was becoming President of the United States.  This realization contributed to the Trump's announcement to seek the Presidency.  (2)

After a tumultuous primary and general election, Donald Trump achieved an Electoral College victory making him the 45^th President of the United States.  This victory was due to Trump successfully piercing the Democrat Blue Wall in blue collar states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.  (3)  This piercing of the Blue Wall is indicative of angry voters tired of government holding them in exile through high taxation and destructive regulations. 

However, the main point of the Trump campaign was his vowing to build a wall along the southern border of the United States.  Like Nehemiah who saw the vulnerabilities of Jerusalem to foreign invasion, Trump saw the threat of wide open borders where not only Mexican citizens but also other than Mexicans (OTM) potentially even from terrorist regimes the United is presently at war with or members of MS-13.  (4) (5)  Just as Nehemiah knew the danger of leaving the citizens of Jerusalem vulnerable through lack of a protective wall, The United States is vulnerable without securing its border through enhanced border security, including an enhanced wall along the Border. 

However, the biggest threat to the United States is not some enemy invasion threatening the nation militarily, but loss of the uniquely formed culture of the United States.  Among the things valued by Americans that make the country great are,

1)      Independence (6) – Socialism views culture as a collective of individuals theoretically interested in a common goal and everyone having his or her needs met.  However, human nature is individual in nature, something the founders of the United States understood and stated in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence.  (7)  After gaining independence from England, and a brief experimentation with the Articles of Confederation (8), the founders drafted what would become the U.S. Constitution and soon after its ratification passed the first 10 amendments protecting the individual rights of citizens and their independence.  (9)

2)      Equality (6) – The foundation of the United States is the premise of equality as stated in the Declaration of Independence.  The socialist philosophy of governance also touts equality, but not according to what the founders of the United States meant by equality.  Socialism seeks equality of outcomes and is the principle reason it must stifle independence to prevent anyone from have a greater outcome than anyone else.  The founders of the United States, however, believed in equality of opportunity with everyone doing as they wish with that opportunity.  They understood this philosophy would result in unequal outcomes as some individuals would do more than others with their opportunity.  Stemming from this desire for equality of opportunity, the founders drafted a constitution establishing a government with divided power (10) and checks and balances (11) insuring smaller government taking on the role of protecting citizens and not their provider insuring equal outcomes through confiscatory taxation and regulation.  These men had just gained independence from tyranny and did not want to set up their own unique form of tyranny but instead formed a system of government supporting individual independence and equality of opportunity for all.

From this culture of individual independence and equality of opportunity the United States emerged from a fledgling country to world superpower in less than 200 years.  However, threats both from within and without the country now threaten this culture.

1)      Secular socialist and atheistic philosophies – Post-modernism is an ungodly philosophy that permeates education, media, and now represents an underlying philosophy of governance.  (12) (13) (14)  This ungodly philosophy succeeded in taking God out of education, the shunning of people in the entertainment industry expressing deep conservative or religious beliefs, and now has resulted in secular programing full of gay marriage and other sexual perversions.  However, the recent surge in successful Christian movies at the box office provides evidence Godly values prevail and are alive and well.  (15)

2)      An illegal invasion of people bringing in their cultures, expecting citizens to give up theirs – Those living in states bordering the southern border of the United States can attest to a sense of living in exile within their own country.  They see signage on businesses that are not in English but Spanish or some other foreign language with English no longer the language of conversation on the street.  These illegal immigrants have no inherent love for country since they were not born in the United States.  These individuals have no respect for the property of others and block driveways, streets, and when confronted about it tell citizens born in this country that this is just they way it is going to be from now on.  As a citizen born in this country, having personally experienced these attacks on my culture, I am tired of what I see and support the efforts of Donald Trump to restore the greatness of America and its unique culture.  After all, my father and many other members of my family did not fight for this country only to see it turned over to foreign invaders. 

While the Trump Presidency has been massively successful thus far, the upcoming midterms represent a crossroads for the nation both philosophically and culturally.  Will those that supported Trump stay home believing there is no one running for Congress worthy of their vote, or worse yet believe that Trump can overcome any obstacle.  Or instead will they be part of a powerful team and block of votes that propelled Trump to the presidency and provide Donald Trump with greater congressional majorities so he can complete the agenda of his administration.  The answer lies within each of us and I pray voters will once again storm the polling places of this country and give our president the most crucial tool he needs to advance his agenda of making America great again, larger congressional majorities.

My God bless everyone reading this and may God bless America.

1. Jewish Virtual Library. Encyclopedia Judaica: Cupbearer. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. [Online] Jewish Virtual Library. [Cited: January 21, 2018.] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/cupbearer.

2. DelReal, Jose A. Donald Trump announces presidential bid. www.washingtonpost.com. [Online] The Washington Post, June 16, 2015. [Cited: January 21, 2018.] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/06/16/donald-trump-to-announce-his-presidential-plans-today/?utm_term=.5fddcc82a600.

3. Schleifer, Theodore. Trump stomps all over the Democrats' Blue Wall. www.cnn.com. [Online] CNN Politics, November 9, 2016. [Cited: March 4, 2018.] https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/09/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-blue-wall/index.html.

4. Bedard, Paul. Illegal immigration numbers: MS-13 exploding, 1,100 border arrests a day, 1M on deport list. www.washingtonexaminer.com. [Online] Washington Examiner, January 23, 2018. [Cited: February 18, 2018.] http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/illegal-immigration-numbers-ms-13-exploding-1100-border-arrests-a-day-1m-on-deport-list/article/2646876.

5. Richey, Warren. Are terrorists crossing the US-Mexico border? Excerpts from the case file. www.csmonitor.com. [Online] The Christian Science Monitor, January 15, 2017. [Cited: April 12, 2018.] https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2017/0115/Are-terrorists-crossing-the-US-Mexico-border-Excerpts-from-the-case-file.

6. International Student. American Culture. www.internationalstudent.com. [Online] International Student. [Cited: April 12, 2018.] https://www.internationalstudent.com/study_usa/way-of-life/american-culture/.

7. ushistory.org. The Declaration of Independence. www.ushistory.org. [Online] [Cited: October 30, 2016.] http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/.

8. Brackmyre, Ted. America’s First Failure at Government: The Articles of Confederation. ushistoryscene.com. [Online] U.S. History Scene. [Cited: March 19, 2018.] http://ushistoryscene.com/article/articles-of-confederation/.

9. constitutionus.com. The Constitution of the United States. constitutionus.com. [Online] [Cited: January 21, 2017.] http://constitutionus.com/.

10. USConstitution.net. Constitutional Topic: Separation of Powers. www.usconstitution.net. [Online] [Cited: April 12, 2018.] https://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_sepp.html.

11. —. Constitutional Topic: Checks and Balances. www.usconstitution.net. [Online] [Cited: April 12, 2018.] https://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_cnb.html.

12. Dulgnan, Brian. Postmodernism Philosophy. www.britannica.com. [Online] Encyclopedia Britannica, October 31, 2014. [Cited: March 31, 2017.] https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy.

13. Sanbonmatsu, John. POSTMODERNISM AND THE CORRUPTION OF ACADEMIC INTELLIGENTSIA. socialistregister.com. [Online] Socialist Register. [Cited: March 31, 2017.] http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/viewFile/5851/2747.

14. Saugstad, Andreas. Postmodernism and the Media. bolesblogs.com. [Online] November 20, 2000. [Cited: March 31, 2017.] https://bolesblogs.com/2000/11/20/postmodernism-the-media/.

15. Box Office Mojo. Christian. www.boxofficemojo.com. [Online] Box Office Mojo. [Cited: April 12, 2018.] http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=christian.htm.