Nena Arias | February 11, 2019
After President Trump’s State of the Union Address, if you had any doubts about the condition of our country, the events and happenings during his speech should have eliminated them. The battle lines are clearly drawn. They are literally black and white. The abyss couldn’t be deeper and wider than many imagined, desired to know or believe. There is no doubt the nation desperately needs a reformation in all areas of our national life that it may survive this self-destructive course it is on.
The partisan political agenda is more than evident. If the president proposed something that could be approved by the opposition it was recognized, if not the rejection was so thick you could cut it with a knife. On the other hand, those belonging to his party were clearly with him. That type of partisan politics is not only wearing out our society, but it is dangerously headed toward consolidating the power of the State over our national life.
Each party has its own political, ideological and philosophical agenda; this does not necessarily mean that this factor will benefit society in general. The reason is due to the fact that the majority in Congress have made a career out of their public office in contrast to the president who is only allowed to serve a maximum of two 4-year terms in that office. The others, such as Representatives and Senators can be re-elected indefinitely by the constituents of their district and state.
Historically, we have witnessed that the longer the same people stay elected to Congress they tend to distance themselves from the reality that common folks have to confront on a daily basis. In other words, they encase themselves in a bubble believing that their ideas and proposals are infallible and divine in nature. Proof of this is that Senators with more seniority change their positions on the issues to legislate and interpret the law according to their wants and they have the audacity to say: either this is done my way or not at all. This attitude in no way has the best interest or well-being of society in mind.
Both parties are guilty of this and have turned our national Congress into a totally different world than the rest of us live in. The oath they took when sworn into office to serve, for the most part, has been left in the land of the forgotten. They forget they work for us and are supposed to represent us. The Democrats seem more and more hell-bent to take the nation toward socialism. This is confusing because the majority profess belief in the Christian faith, but their ferocious aggression against the biblical values causes us to question their type of “Christian” faith. It is shocking to see their stubbornness to perpetuate the murder of millions of babies and consider that to be a “woman’s right” and worthy to stake their entire political career on this one issue. It is disgusting that the litmus test for Democrat political office now is abortion. This is one of the major blockages in the path of confirmation to the Supreme Court. Another incessant persistence of the left is to push the same-sex, and transgender issues.
The agenda to keep pushing the idea of making the power of the state the only power over the nation is ludicrous. This will happen if they keep pushing socialist programs, which seem to be all the Democrats want to promote. They thrive on making the minorities and the marginalized believe that they are their saviors and without them they will not have the benefits they “deserve.”
On the other hand, the Republican Party who is supposed to be on the side of the conservative sector of society, even when they have the majority in Congress fail to advance conservative values. They could have already been able to eliminate the ill-fated massacre of the unborn. Congress has the power to repeal rulings by the Supreme Court that violate the Constitution, why have they not done it? Why have they made so many concessions with their campaign promises leading us to believe they were in favor of our conservative values? Congress’s list of betrayals is very long.
It is undeniable that both parties are pushing the nation off of a cliff. More and more they present evidence of moral bankruptcy and that they have lost the original vision of our Founding Fathers for the greatness of this nation. Are they redeemable? I still believe in miracles.
It is interesting that the idea is already floating around to form a new conservative political party that will once again embrace the fundamental values to help get us back on track with what gave this nation its greatness. Anyone who considers or affirms that a nation with a diversity of opinions held at the same level of importance is a good thing has no clue of the benefits of unity. That person has become imprisoned by their own ignorance and disinformation and will be the only one held responsible for the loss of their liberties.
Benjamin Franklin left a very clear warning to a generation that is uninformed: “A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.” 1
History reveals that when civil government usurps people’s liberty and positions itself as the maximum authority over society, those people have ceased to self-govern. This is the belief that the state is the Messiah who should save them from all their problems and inconveniences in life.
When the above happens, self-destruction of a free nation is near. For this reason, the fourth president of the United States and primary architect of our National Constitution, James Madison left these prophetic words for the generation that abandons its principle of self-government and ceases to confront corruption in civil government. He said:
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” 2
The true government of a nation originates in the life of the individual; otherwise we renounce that power and authorize the out-of-control growth of civil government to elaborate absurd laws. We give them free reign to spend even what we don’t have.
Is that what we want for the future of this nation? What is your understanding of the State of the Union?
1 Franklin, Benjamin. Stephen McDowell and Mark Beliles, “The Providential Perspective” (Charlottesville, VA: The Providence Foundation, P.O. Box 6759, Charlottesville, Va. 22906, January 1994), Vol. 9, No. 1, p. 3.
2 Madison, James. 1778, attributed. Harold K. Lane, Liberty! Cry Liberty (Boston: Lamb and Lamb Tractarian Society, 1939), pp. 32-33. Frederick Nymeyer, First Principles in Morality and Economics: Neighborly Love and Ricardo’s Law of Association (South Holland: Libertarian Press, 1958), p. 31.