Intentional Conservative

There’s an embarrassment of riches about the embarrassments at the Republican National Circus, but if I have to choose one to highlight today it would be the egregious benediction given at the end of the first night by Pastor Mark Burns.  Read the article here:

“Why Mark Burns’ RNC Benediction Was Terrible” by Hans Fiene, The Federalist, July 19, 2016

One benefit to my interest in following this campaign has come from stumbling across the rich treasure trove of thoughtful, conservative articles at The Federalist, many of them obviously written by Bible-believing Christians (including one by a former member of our beloved downtown DC church).  See the sidebar for a full listing of all articles that I’ve cited in this blog thus far.

Excellent article in The Federalist setting out in no uncertain terms what many wise commentators have also been saying:  The only Republicans/conservatives who will have any credibility left after this election will be the ones who had the guts to withhold support from Donald Trump.  And they will basically have to build a new party.

I was forcefully reminded of two sayings that my childhood pastor repeated many times:

1.  Everything rises and falls on leadership.

2.  If you want to know what a pastor is like, look at his church.  The wider application:  If you want to know what a leader is like, look at his followers.

Here’s the article:

Cleveland Is the End of the GOP As We Know It
by John Daniel Davidson, July 18, 2016

The Briefing 4-01-16

Then read the article that has been called the most important one written on this election. It’s a challenging read but so very worthwhile.

“Democracies End When They Are Too Democratic” by Andrew Sullivan in New York Magazine, May 1, 2016.

“He was a bad guy — really bad guy. But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read them the rights. They didn’t talk. They were terrorists. Over. Today, Iraq is Harvard for terrorism.”  (Donald Trump, July 6, 2016, at a campaign rally in Raleigh, NC)

​Does no one even try to vet this guy’s speeches?  I look at these few sentences and I’m overwhelmed by their utter stupidity.  It’s hard to know where to begin in addressing the outrageous, contemptuous, and indeed (one could say) traitorous ideas in this short quotation.  But before I embark on that task, let me remind you that the above quotation is not an isolated incident. Trump has been saying such things since last October as part of his campaign but has maintained this general idea for over a decade.  I guess you could say that it’s one issue on which he’s been consistent.  (He also has had fond words for Muammar Gaddafi.  Ah, the murderous regimes of yesteryear!)

Now for an attempt to point out the obvious:

1.  The main reason why we went to war in Iraq was because we (whoever one might mean by “we”–George W. Bush, Colin Powell, George Tenet, Condoleeza Rice) believed that Saddam had aided terrorists, in particular the Al Quaeda operatives who carried out the 9/11 attacks. 

I certainly do.  The picture is of my father, Peter Baerg. He grew up on a farm outside the small town of Delft, Minnesota and was a member of the Mennonite church, a group that has historically been pacifist.  But he and some of his friends decided to enlist during World War II.  As he said, “We decided that Hitler had to be stopped.”  (How I wish he were still here with us!  I’d love to ask him more questions about that decision.  He made it sound pretty matter-of-fact, but I’m sure it wasn’t.)  Once he got over to Europe he had to get his assignment for duty; one of the stories we heard many times was of him standing in line as they counted down the row for soldiers who would fight in what turned out to be the Battle of the Bulge.  He thinks they stopped just four or five men short of him.  Had he been in that conflict he might very well not have come home.  Again, I’d love to ask him how he felt as he stood there waiting for the commander to finish counting.  
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Other members of my family, including one of my nephews who was deployed for two terms in Iraq, have also served this country honorably.  In a couple of weeks we will be celebrating the 90th birthday of a World War II veteran who attends our church.

“What do you think about waterboarding? I like it a lot.  I don’t think it’s tough enough.”

“Don’t tell me it doesn’t work — torture works. Half these guys [say]: ‘Torture doesn’t work.’ Believe me, it works.”

“Only a stupid person would say it doesn’t work. If it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway, for what they’re doing.”

​”It’s fine, and if we want to go stronger, I’d go stronger too.”

to see my latest posts about the upcoming election, read comments, and, if you so desire, leave a comment yourself.  Because facebook includes pictures and introductory lines for any links, you’ll get a much better idea of the material on offer than you will on this page with its text-only links.  So, go here to read the latest.  Any material that I write myself will also be posted on this page in fall. But you can also just take a look at the sidebar on this page for a continually-updated list of the articles I’ve posted and go directly to those articles from here if you’d rather do that.  All depends on what platform you prefer!