Lux Lucet

Democratic debate night 2, Miami FL, June 27, 2019.  From left to right:  Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Michael Bennet.  Photo. Saul Loeb AFP/ Getty Images.

“I lack the words.” That was my first thought in hearing the remarks of the Democratic presidential candidates last week. From Beto O’Rourke and others babbling in Spanish – are these guys running for President of the United States or President of Mexico? – to lecturing Americans about how horrible they are for not wanting their country invaded by welfare migrants to Bernie Sanders admitting that, yes, he wants to raise taxes on an already over burdened middle class to pay for his big government initiatives of universal single-payer health care and free college for everyone, a more out of touch group of candidates seems hard to imagine.

The message I heard loud and clear from these men and women was this: America, we hate you and want to destroy you.

Generally, I try to steer clear of making overtly partisan remarks on this blog. When discussing politics, my preference is to frame the issue in terms of what the Bible has to say about a particular topic and critique the statements and actions of men based upon the standard of Scripture. I do this, because the problems facing our nation ultimately are not political or economic, but spiritual.

Further, I come from a family of Republicans and I myself have been a Republican and have been all my life. “You hypocrite,” someone may say, “You criticize the Democrats for their shortcomings but fail to see the problems with your own party.” Admittedly, going after the Democrats could be construed this way. But I would say this in my defense, I hardly thing the Republicans are perfect. Far from it. This author has many disagreements with mainstream Republican thought, including some of the policies of the Trump administration.

But what I see from the Democrats that I don’t see from the Republicans is the raw contempt for this country, its people and its institutions – a hatred that I’m even tempted to call demonic – that constantly issues forth from the mouths of various Democratic leading lights. Democrats as a matter of course regularly attack individual liberty, private property, limited government and equality under the law. They cry crocodile tears over the children of illegal immigrants while working overtime to make sure as many American women as possible retain the inalienable right to murder their children. They call their fellow Americans “deplorables” and “bitter clingers” while knowingly advocating policies that are damaging to the legitimate interests of the very people they presume to lecture. They stand for sodomy, socialism, feminism, and cultural Marxism. They can’t wait to take your guns and to give away your hard earned money. They are a party that countenances the use of violence against those with whom they disagree. They are world class experts in political dirty tricks. This is a party so corrupt that several times their activities have forced me to admit that, yes, I indeed have been wrong about them; the Democrats are in reality far more corrupt than I ever thought possible in my wildest imagination.

Not that massive corruption is anything new to the Democrats. They were the party of slavery in the ante-bellum South and the party of Jim Crow afterwards. The Democrats identification with the Confederacy is what in part led Presbyterian minister Samuel Burchard to famously refer to them as the party of “rum, Romanism and rebellion.” Burchard was right in 1884 and his words are still true today. The Democrats rebelled against the Constitution in the 19th century and they are still in rebellion against it the 21st. The 19th century big city political machines – Tammany Hall, for example – were all run by Roman Catholic Democrats.

So what are we to make of the 2019 edition of the Democrats? It seems to me that there are certain broad issues that characterize the party, among them are: Socialism, Environmentalism, Identity Politics, Open Borders and Abortion. All of these are openly at odds with the teaching of Scripture and the provisions found in the US Constitution. Let’s take a look at them.

Socialism

As far back as I remember, the Dems have always been the party of big, and bigger, government. It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who put in place the New Deal. Thirty years later, another scion of the Democrats, Lyndon Johnson, graced America with another socialist boondoggle, this one called the Great Society.

But these guys, as aggressive as they were with trashing the Constitution to expand the role of government, were mere pikers compared to their present day descendents. Democrats are now calling for single-payer nationalized health care, the socialist Green New Deal, Universal Basic Income and free college for all. So what if the country is headed for bankruptcy and hyperinflation without the addition of any new spending. According our Democratic lights, there’s no ill the government can’t cure if you’re just willing to give them a little more of your money.

That socialist states regularly fail, leaving the people, not only without money, but without liberty as well, seems not to concern them in the least. That neither the Bible nor the Constitution empowers the federal government to pay for doctor’s bills, so-called green energy initiatives or to fund welfare transfer payments is no barrier to Democratic politicians making absurd promises.

In last week’s debates, Senator Kamala Harris betrayed her socialist/statist views when she rebuked her fellow candidates for their infighting and told them that the American people want to know how they’re [the Democratic candidates] are going to put food on their table. If it’s okay with you Senator, I prefer to ask the Lord for my daily bread and then get to work, just like the Good Book tells me to. I’ve never once looked to you or to any other politician for my sustenance. All I expect from a politician is to punish evil doers, and to praise the good. Apart from that, kindly stay out of my life.

Andrew Yang has his own take on socialism, promising to give every American citizen $1,000 per month just for being an American citizen. He calls this initiative Universal Basic Income (UBI). “What a deal,” someone will say. Really? Let’s take a quick look at the numbers.

According to the 2010 census (the latest numbers available) the total U.S. population over age 18 is approximately 234,966,000. Multiply that by 12,000 and you get $2.82 trillion. Now the population of 234,966,000 probably includes any number of non-citizens. If there are 20 million illegal aliens in the US, that would put the number of US citizens at about 214,966,000. Multiply that by $12,000 and you get $2.58 trillion.

Now the most recent federal budget for fiscal year 2019 is $4.746 trillion. This means that Yang’s UBI plan, if implemented as stated, will increase the already unimaginable absurd federal budget by approximately 54%!

To pay for all his “free” goodies, Yang proposes slapping a 10% Value Added Tax (VAT) and welfare reform. In practice what we’ll likely end up with is a VAT plus the current welfare system, plus UBI which includes payments to illegal aliens as well as US citizens.

This is statist garbage and should be rejected out of hand by every Christian.

Another word for socialism is statism, or as Ludwig Von Mises called it, statolatry, the worship of the state. And one of the logical corollaries of statism is gun control. An armed people is, generally, a free people. But statists in the Democratic party are not interested in liberty, they’re interested in telling you how to live your life down to the smallest detail. And if a politician wants to micromanage the people, that implies taking their firearms. Dictators throughout history have understood this, and our would be Democratic dictators are no exception.

Environmentalism

The Dems have long been the party of environmentalist nut jobs. One naturally thinks of Al Gore in this regard. But this year, Democratic Gaia worship has gone next level.

It was only back in February that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Edward J. Markey announced the Green New Deal (GND) resolution. The name itself is a dead giveaway that this is a socialist initiative, named as it is after Roosevelt’s unconstitutional, socialist program from the 1930’s.

According to the New York Times, the main provisions of the GND are:

• Achieving net-zero emission by 2050, meaning carbon would have to be absorbed as it is released into the atmosphere – the US must take a leading role here.
  
• The federal government must: dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create high-paying jobs, ensure clean air, clean water and healthy food are basic human rights, and, oddly enough, end all forms of oppression. So what does this mean? Well, the text of the GND explains it in the argot of the SJW’s thus: To promote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth. But what if you don’t fall into one of these collectivist categories? I think we all know the answer: No justice for you, buster! Get ready to fork it over.
  
• To make this happen, the plan calls for a “10-year mobilization” to reduce carbon emissions in the US, sourcing 100 percent of the country’s electricity from renewable and zero-emissions power, digitizing the nations power grid, upgrading every building in the country to be more energy-efficient, and overhauling the nation’s transportation system.
  

Accompanying the release of this hot air was the usual verbal hysterics, with Ocasio-Cortez warning that the world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change. When the absurdity of this statement started to blow up in her face, she tried to argue that her statement was an attempt at dry humor. That she was serious can be seen by the fact that her Twitter feed has the following statement pinned to the top: “Climate change is here + we’ve got a deadline: 12 years left to cut emissions in half.”

Identity Politics

Some call it political correctness, and others cultural Marxism. By others it’s known as identity politics. Regardless of the name, the concept is the same. As Merriam-Webster defines it, identity politics is where groups of people having a particular racial, religious, ethnic, social, or cultural identity tend to promote their own specific interests or concerns without regard to the interests or concerns of any larger political group.

There are any number of examples of the Democrats promoting identity politics, but perhaps none are more obvious than the Democrats push for reparations for slavery. Here’s the list of Democratic candidates coming out in support of reparations or at least the study of reparations:

• Cory Booker
  
• Kamala Harris
  
• Julian Castro
  
• Elizabeth Warren
  
• Kirsten Gillibrand
  
• Beto O’Rourke
  
• Marianne Williamson
  

For my part, I cannot imagine a more divisive policy than slavery reparation. No one alive in the US is a slave (unless you count those who have been brought in by recent immigrants) nor are any current Americans (unless you count recent immigrants) slaveholders. Perhaps one could make a case that immigrant slaveholders should pay reparations to their immigrant slaves. But the idea that the government should extract money from current day what Americans and give it to black Americans for slavery, which was outlawed over 150 years ago, is a political stunt that should be soundly rejected by all Americans of good will and sound mind.

The Monstrous Regiment

Feminism is another form of Democratic identity politics. Specifically, the party’s unceasing drive to give us the monstrous regiment. Although in this day and age its considered a controversial position to take, no Christian should support a woman for president. As John Knox correctly argued in his treatise The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment [Government] of Women, to men God gave the right of leadership in the family, church and civil government.

According to Knox, “To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire above any realm, nation, or city, is repugnant to nature, contumelious to God, a thing most contrary to his revealed will and approved ordinance, and finally it is the subversion of good order, and of all equity and justice….The revealed will and perfect ordinance of God…do manifestly oppose that any woman shall reign or bear dominion over man. For God first by order of his creation, and after by the curse and malediction pronounced against the woman by the reason of her rebellion, has pronounced the contrary.”

If this was an unpopular idea when Knox wrote his treatise in 1558, after over two full centuries of feminism how much more is Knox’s argument held in contempt today?

But ignoring all this, a full 25% of the Democratic presidential candidates are women. They are:

• Tulsi Gabbard
  
• Kirsten Gillibrand
  
• Kamala Harris
  
• Amy Klobuchar
  
• Elizabeth Warren
  
• Marianne Willismson
  

My prediction is this, sometime in the relatively near future the Democrats – or possibly the Republicans, seeing that they’re not really any better on feminism – will succeed in foisting a woman president on us. I also predict that we will get a good, hard, practical lesson in why this is a bad idea.

Three Cheers for the Sodomites

The Democrats simply cannot get enough of the sodomites. So great is their admiration for this group that they are now running an openly homosexual presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg, who’s same sex married to his husband.

I suppose this makes me an old fogey in the eyes of many, but I never thought I’d type the words “a presidential candidate and his husband.” Nevertheless, that’s the sorry state of our nation today.

To add insult to injury, the Democrats seem to think this is some sort of faith outreach since Pete Buttigieg claims to be a Christian. To keep it short, by his open embrace of sinful homosexuality, Pete Buttigieg shows himself, not only to not be a Christian, but to be in a state of blasphemous open rebellion against the all holy God. This is a man who openly and eloquently twists the Scriptures in an attempt to justify both his open sin and his incompetent and immoral politics.

The Bible says that homosexuals and sodomites will not inherit the kingdom of God. By claiming to be a Christian, Buttigieg instead shows himself to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

It’s high time for Christians to point out this man’s manifest sins.

Open Borders

Not all that long ago, Democrats favored measures, including a wall along the Southern border, to reduce illegal immigration. But today’s Democrats have gone full open borders on us. “Come on in and get your free stuff,” is their message. “And once we’re done showing you with free stuff, we’ll even make you citizens so you can keep voting for more free stuff!”

It is truly shocking to this observer the utter contempt the Democrats have shown for the American people with their nation breaking immigration proposals. The logic behind it is both simple and cynical. Not enough Americans will support the Democrats socialist nonsense, so they have to import a new constituency to cast the votes Americans won’t cast.

With Beto O’Rourke, Cory Booker, Julian Castro and Pete Buttigieg all answering questions in Spanish during last week’s Democratic debates, it’s a wonder to me why any American with any sense at all would support these men, showing as they do their open disdain for the American people by answering political questions in a language most Americans do not understand.

Abortion

While the Democrats spend a great deal of time publically berating Americans about their supposed abuse of children of foreigners, they loudly proclaim their willingness to defend to the death the right of American mothers to murder, not just their unborn, but now their newborn, children.

Don’t believe me? Consider Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s comments a few months back. Appearing to discuss what would happen if a child was born after a failed attempt at abortion, Northam said, “the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensure between the physicians and the mother.”

To help clarify that the Democrats are the party of infanticide, consider the following two recent votes. In North Carolina, Democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the ‘Born Alive’ bill aimed at providing protection for infants accidently born during the abortion process. All but three Democrats in the US Senate voted against a similar measure there.

The Democrats are the party of infanticide.

Closing Thoughts

This has been a high-level overview of the state of the Democratic party circa 2019. As such, I’ve left out a lot of detail in an attempt to cover a lot of ground. Lord willing, I shall come back and discuss these issues more fully as the 2020 presidential campaign continues.

One thought I’d like to leave with the reader is my shock at just how evil the Democrats have become. It is truly remarkable what they’ve become. They have gone so hard socialist, feminist, pro-homosexual, pro-foreigner, anti-American, that this observer is truly shocked.

The Democrats have become the hate America party, and it is my prayer that they get what they so richly deserve: a crushing defeat in 2020.

But whether they win or whether they lose the upcoming presidential election, the Democrats are a dangerous party, they are an un-American party, more importantly, they are an ungodly party with an explicitly sinful message.

May the Lord deal with them as they deserve.