After three plus weeks and nearly 5,000 miles driving around the heartland of America, one can sense three distinct currents moving in the country.
The first is that the economy in both urban and rural areas is, with few exceptions, on fire. Job vacancies are posted everywhere and wages are being pushed up in many categories. Americans haven’t seen this type of dynamic economic growth and enthusiasm in well over a decade, and millennials have never know this kind of opportunity in their working lives.
When you talk to business people, there is absolutely no question that the Trump tax cuts, repatriation of foreign earned capital and deregulation are the source of the dramatic economic turnaround from the virtually “no growthâ€Â economic performance of the past decade.
The second distinctive is that the working men and women of America detest both political parties and the elite “ruling class†who have fed off Washington for decades, including the now ubiquitous radical left socialists, Marxists and run-of-the-mill America haters who have captured the so-called citadels of “higher learning†on American campuses. Tens of millions of Americans are now “on to†the ransacking of both the public trust and treasury through cronyism and special interests.
They are also repelled by politicians who now publicly admit what has been obvious for some time; that they are actually more interested in helping people who are in the country illegally than protecting average tax-paying citizens, and they support causes and movements whose agendas often lead to violence, or even the murder of police officers, and removing public safety officials from duty.
There is also a deep foreboding among average citizens about the disclosures of systemic corruption in the highest reaches of both the Department of Justice and the FBI and what that means for the nation going forward.
That said, these same citizens have a special loathing for elected Republicans and many organs on the right, whom they judge as weak, frivolous and dismissive of the president they chose over seventeen other Republican candidates and Hillary Clinton.
It is not lost on the rest of America that these Republicans lied to them during several election cycles about what they would do with Congressional power. Not only wouldn’t Congress actually repeal Obamacare when they received the power they asked for, they won’t defund Planned Parenthood and its extermination of 300,000 babies a year, and couldn’t even remove PBS and NPR from the public dole, in an era when virtually everyone has hundreds of TV programs and thousands of radio stations to pick from twenty-four hours a day.
If there is a consensus, it seems to be that our politicians and the national government have become self-serving and contemptuous of the people they are sworn to protect and prosper.
Finally, the third observation is that religious faith in America is changing fast, which is hardly a new revelation. But changing to what exactly is not so obvious.
Mainline traditions have lost millions of members, and there seems no bottom to the collapse in their congregations as these churches pursue social justice causes and trendy politics, at the price of a clear presentation of the Gospel message. This is happening while all across the country there are evangelical, Bible centered churches that are hard pressed to seat the crowds they draw.  My observation from this trip and others recently, is that there is an incredible appetite for authentic worship and Bible teaching, and that the real strength of America’s churches is misjudged by looking only at raw numbers.
There is a healthy, incredibly strong body of faithful Christians in the heart of America that is responding to the ancient call to authentic worship and sacrificial living.
These observations also coincide with the clear pattern that has settled into the American story; we are now a nation divided between those who believe that an Almighty God ordained our Founding and destiny, and those who believe that an almighty government must choose our way into the future.
This unsettling truth finds very little room for compromise or the promise of a peaceful resolution. And yet, this isn’t the first time the American experiment has been stretched to breaking.
Perhaps it is an inevitable cycle, where a re-dedication to what America is – and isn’t – will only be found in the churning currents unleashed by the thirst for human freedom. For authenticity. For goodness.
25 comments
GREAT job. Sums it up perfectly. Thanks!
Fabulous writing. Seems Blue voters just aren’t happy with prosperity but they didn’t lose their jobs and homes when Bush and Obama were in office. These people who form the elites want a warm fuzzy in the white house like Obama who talks a good game but then doesn’t deliver for the “proletariat” they supposedly want to help. We need to dust off those GHW Bush Don’t Worry Be Happy commercials, maybe!
Bush followed by McDonnell and Cuccinelli are my biggest trouble makers. Obama was just a jack ass.
I want Trump to be a hell of alot tougher on illegal immigration in particular the players in the Commonwealth.
Trump says no one is tougher on illegal immigration that’s true no one yet is tougher but he has much more toughness to exhibit.
Lock the tax evading illegal employers up,
Lock um up!
Apparently you only spoke with happy members of the Trump GOP (ie, about 30% of the population). Missed a big swath of America there, Sport.
Keep telling yourself that buckaroo. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/180df30f0528ed73996f018fb89df2745370cd40c6c1fe719672e312e780f20e.jpg
Is it just me, or are the colors backwards on that map?
Actually, it’s Rocinante that’s backward, like his candidate Corey. Rocinante’s map simply took on his personality, depicting things the opposite of the way they really are.
It’s a depiction of oceans and lava superimposed on a map of the U.S.
Let the pinkos be pink, they are more red than we will ever be.
You are not telling but half the story,
1) Trump and the Republicans have run the debt up to nearly $21 TRILLION, partly due to an irresponsible tax cut for the rich ideology. Both parties print money to improve the economy and purchase votes.
2) Trump nor the Republicans have kept their promises regarding healthcare, nor Obamacare. Republicans have not been held accountable for their 7 year lie to R & R Obamacare.
3) Fuel prices continue to climb in spite of giving big oil everything they asked for and deregulation. The increased cost of fuel and health insurance has taken far more money from the blue collar working class than any bogus tax cut for the rich has given to them.
3) The Trump wall has went from $10 BILLION TO $26 BILLION, and Mexico isn’t going to pay for it as Trump promised.
4) North Korea now has the nuclear bombs and missiles to hit the US. Trump has fallen for the same North Korean/Chinese BS as the previous administrations. Trump is trying to use tariffs on China to disarm N. Korea. In the end, Wall St. will have their cheap labor with China and Mexico. North Korea will have the bomb. The sanctions do not work. Just as they didn’t work with Iran, they do not work with N. Korea because just about everybody cheats for profit regarding sanctions. It’s all about the cabbage.
5) The trade deficit with China, Mexico, and the rest of the world continues to increase under Trump.
6) 50,000 illegal immigrants are now coming across the border every month under Trump. (Fox News) 10,000 more illegals entering now each month under Trump than Obama in Oct. 2016. (40,000)
7) The Republican controlled congress and White House has decided to let the Catholic and Jew SCOTUS run the country. Perfect example is the recent state sales tax ruling and immigration decisions by SCOTUS. Taxes and immigration are the responsibility of congress, not SCOTUS.
These are the facts. Europe, China, N. Korea, they can wait out/stall Trump. Both parties are dysfunctional and corrupt.
Calm down. And lay off the psychedelic drugs and the Left’s Kool-Aid. Because Trump is winning. And as the writer clearly observed, the core of America is winning.
Sad but doubt you can be saved from your delusions. We can do nothing for you because you voluntarily decided to believe the delusions and they have consumed your mind. Sad.
I cannot help but laugh. The facts hurt don’t they? You call what you cannot refute delusional. Ha,ha,ha.
I do not believe in the left vs. right philosophy. I believe in the right vs. the wrong philosophy.
Screw both corruption based parties.
Ok, good luck with your green/constitutional/libertarian party electoral successes. Way to stay above the fray, you’ll show them!
Oh, it’s the ‘Papists and Jews running things’ other half of the story. Sigh.
As an avid and first Trump supporter here at TBE half truth in part is correct.
On my journey the past several days to deep Southwest Virginia
(Coeburn) for the State Little League Tournament I did not have one problem getting White Conservatives to listen how BS Virginia Republicans and President Trump are a complete failure in removing illegal aliens from the Virginia Construction Industry and also how they were complicit in the payroll fraud that allows it’s Santurary.
I voted for Trump to build The Wall and to give Virginia Republicans the middle finger and I am far from being done with the task at hand, it is my calling!
Sincerely,
the American that does work and out works the poo sissy white collar Republican Virginia Builders.
“Catholic and Jew SCOTUS….” – Wow.
Beautifully written, Michael. Eloquently stated. Ominous … yet realistic and hopeful. To quote Joshua 24:15, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Wonderful assessment! MAGA.
“That said, these same citizens have a special loathing for elected Republicans and many organs on the right, whom they judge as weak, frivolous and dismissive of the president they chose over seventeen other Republican candidates and Hillary Clinton.”
A deep, dark loathing. Long memories.
GOPe and NeverTrumpers (..spit…) will never be trusted again.
GREAT post. “An Almighty Government”, something the left has long dreamed of.
Judging by the last budget passed by the right, which controls House, Senate, POTUS, it’s a dream shared.
I agree, it wasn’t good.
Used to be that atheists and Christians could easily coexist. Now not so much
Nah, Atheists have always mocked, belittled, and deprecated the Cult of the Carpenter. As long as we exist, it is they that must seek to prove the negative.
With the Atheists you know what you have and where they stand.
I have a bigger problem with the wicked who are masked behind Christianity for profit off of the sheep.
Atheists don’t know where THEY stand, it usually takes 5-10 min before they spontaneously become agnostic before my very eyes.
There is more than enough hypocrisy in just about every slice of life.