THE PERFECT STORM

There seems to be a diverse opinion in terms of whether we should be optimistic or pessimistic concerning the state of our nation. Some see ominous signs that started long ago, but which have accelerated due to the sudden increase in the breadth and depth of government, with Mark Levin's NY TImes Best Seller LIBERTY AND TYRANNY being the point document du jour. Meanwhile, other conservative intellectuals such as Bill Bennett see cause for optimism and that despite the current excesses, everything can be fixed, because after all, "This is America."

My thesis to you today is that the current state of affairs is unique and that it is not foreseeably fixable no matter who is in power. I call it "The Perfect Storm". We have to know history in order not to repeat its mistakes. How far shall we go? Somewhat arbitrarily, I'll go about 50 years - say 1960. After all, many compare Barack Obama to JFK (and Michelle to Jackie O).

JFK and Jackie were built up to be Camelot. Youth, glamor, and a huge contrast to the prior Eisenhower administration put excitement in the steps of many. Young and old thronged to see JFK. He won by the thinnest of margins, thanks given by many to corrupt Chicago mayor Richard Daley where there were well-documented voter irregularities. After victory, the country united behind an inspirational speaker who seemed to have the world in the palm of his hand. However, there were two storm clouds that compromised his administration. One was the Cold War and Russia's quick move to test the very green new president (deja vu with Russia's current pronouncement to the similarly very green Obama to put bombers in Cuba). Except then the press screamed about it and now the press buries it. The Bay of Pigs was a defining moment of his adminstration. Thankfully his backbone honed during his years on PT109 was strong enough and the Russians backed down (yes I know about the hidden parts of the deal). The Berlin moment for JFK showed the best of America while encouraging Europe to go beyond where they had been. Unfortunately, the European tour of Obama was filled with apologies, a lack of belief in American exceptionalism which has long been an inspiration to the world, and unbelievably naive statements on disarmament while North Korea was launching a missile. If JFK would have spoken with such weakness and failed to understand that there is evil in this world that has to be defeated, evil that negotiates only with the weak for the sole purpose of gaining further advantage, his presidency would have been a complete failure and we might be speaking Russian today. JFK's second challenge was that both houses were controlled by Democrats. Many Democrats then were opposed to civil rights. Remember that it was the GOP that made the civil rights act possible. School desegregation was also the work of the GOP, as was the freeing of the slaves in the days of Lincoln. Kennedy could not get passed the legislation he championed, though his steadfast efforts resulted in his visage being a fixture on the walls of so many African-American homes. The Civil Rights Act was passed after JFK's death.

Ironically, Democrats give the better speeches (remember Mario Cuomo's stemwinder years ago?), the policies have consistently hurt minorities. The policies of the "Great Society" resulted in a drastic break-up of the Black family. Proportionally more Blacks moved into the middle class in the 1950's than in the 1960's, when poverty was widespread. The single biggest indicator for economic success is an intact nuclear family. Today, with cultural decline causing that across the board, that is the biggest reason that people of all hues are struggling mightily. We'll touch on how Obama's educational policies disproportionately hurt Blacks in a moment.

Let's go to Jimmy Carter. While the GOP is comparing Obama to Carter, and perhaps in terms of extreme weakness in foreign policy there are unfortunate similarities, there are a host of differences. For one, Carter was perceived as a conservative, Southern Democrat. He did not become ultra-liberal until after leaving office. Liberals did not trust him while he was president, and the press was merciless against him, while the vast majority of Americans are clueless about Obama's beliefs and policies because of a press that is 98% in his corner, serving as cheerleaders for his every word. Carter's failure in Iran was a fixture in the press. His Southern Baptist culture was derided and the cartoons abounded. Many forget that many Democrats have changed over the last 30 years. Al Gore used to be pro-life - he was considered too conservative to win as a Democrat! My, how times change.

Moving on to Clinton, he won with a moral cloud which soon exploded into a media soap opera. His first two years were a disaster. He came out of the box with "Don't ask, don't tell", hardly the priority of the hour. He raised taxes and the people rebelled. It was only with the GOP ending 40 years of Democrat control of the house, and recapturing the Senate which had also been Democrat except for 6 of the Reagan years, that the economy recovered, the taxes were stabilized, and people were happy. Clinton got the credit, but control of the Congress was the only variable here. Obama has come out of the box with a plethora of actions overturning perhaps every moral issue to an anti-Christian viewpoint. He now has a 61% difference in approval rating between Republicans and Democrats. One wonders what that would be if the press actually reported even a few grains of truth about Obama's actions that counter the stated beliefs of Americans in even a remotely impartial manner.

We could also deal with the judiciary - a problem for over 50 years - making laws instead of interpreting them; giving rights to criminals that EXCEED the rights of victims. It has been blatant and we would laugh if we were not crying. Obama's FIRST judicial appointment is David Hamilton to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. This judge in his current position said it was illegal in Indiana to pray publicly in the name of Jesus, because that was "Sectarian". Yet he said it was fine to pray in the name of Allah because no one would mistake the intent. His logic gets an "F". My friends, this is the FIRST nomination. A man called unqualified by the American Bar Association, an ACORN fundraiser and connected with the ACLU. Hey, I agree with the American Bar Association. What can we expect next from a President where ideology and the agenda trumps the Constitution, Freedom, and no-so-Common Sense? Exactly where a Marxist mentor in Frank Marshall Davis, a radical mother, a liberal Education taught by liberal professors in a liberal environment would lead a person, and an apostate Pastor who cursed his own country and endorsed Homosexuality. There never was any balance in his life to help him come to an independent thought process. Everything worked to reinforced a single, radical, world-view. Unfortunately, that is what is happening with kids raised by TV, Internet Porn, movies, teachers, peers, and professors. Some have some Christian influence from some quarter to balance things, but many do not.

Of course, there is the economy, undoubtedly made worse by the down-talking of it. The press ignored the simple fact that the meltdown happened after the Dems took control of Congress in 2006. All the warnings were pooh-poohed by the likes of Barney Frank and Maxine Waters. The 5 trillion in losses by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac triggered this mess. Now the ones that caused it are getting BIGGER bonuses than the clowns at AIG and Barney Frank is acting like an expert while sounding like a buffoon. We have the steep rise in taxes during a recession, removing incentives from small business to expand and hire people. We have proposed environmental controls and the desire to raise energy prices through mammoth taxation which will greatly reduce the amount of money people have to put into the economy. Norway has $12 per gallon gas and it is an EXPORTER! Norway is energy independent, yet the government taxes it mercilessly. That is the only way for wind and solar to be competitive. If you think $500 per month heating bills are too much, what about $2,000 ones? The decisions being made are all about control and NOT about what is good for the nation. We have no checks and balances. It is a runaway train that once it picks up speed is almost impossible to stop. France and Germany have tried to pull back. Ask them how hard it is. Unemployment in Germany is almost 50% higher than here. With rising US unemployment, the government will put more and more people on the dole (READ that in the euphemistically titles "Stimulus Package"). Incentive will be dropped, and all of government will be in the same or worse boat as Social Security and Medicare. WHo will have the courage to bite the hand that feeds them? Not GM, not the banks, not the people taking the easy way.

There is another cloud, though, which goes way beyond politics. In our nation, there has been an unprecedented decline in moral, cultural, educational, and religious values. People routinely live together before marriage, and rampant divorce has resulted in the families that do exist often being complicated with step-everyones and ex-everyones. It is hard enough to keep a family together without those distractions. Homosexuality has been increasing in terms of influence on the culture and acceptance, even by those whose sacred texts forbid it. Culture has become so degraded it is almost impossible to watch TV unless you go to Hallmark, FamilyNet, or a few others. Movies consistently push the anti-Christ agenda by degrading his name almost every minute like clockwork. People with no moral values and no understanding of God and certainly no allegiance to the Bible have taken over the educational systems. From Kindergarten through University, children are progressively indoctrinated into a skeptical, negative, and pagan world view. The tug of the flesh and the devil of course loves this, so it is not reversed by simply changing our political, educational, and cultural system, even if by some miracle it could happen overnight. This has occurred whether Republicans or Democrats have been in power, because it goes beyond politics. It goes to the soul of our nation. The pagan values of the current administration are simply the result of what happens when a full-time practitioner of these inculcated values comes to power. The educational establishment endorsed itself when it endorsed Obama. The anti-Christian mainstream media endorsed itself when it endorsed Obama, and Hollywood endorsed itself when it endorsed Obama.

For things to change, it is not a matter of the GOP purging itself of GOP-in-name-only people such as Arlen Specter and Olympia Snow and taking control of Congress in 2010. It is not a matter of mustering 40 votes on Card-Check and the absurd "Cap and Trade" debacle. It is a matter of REAL change in America. It is a matter of the GOP standing up to "Log Cabin Republicans". It is a matter of Jews demanding that Israel's favored status as the keystone ally of freedom i the Middle East be aggressively maintained before the world (incidentally, did you know that the proportion of Muslims in Israel is 16 times that of the USA? - yet those Muslims are not attacking there own country - there is ultimately more respect for the Muslin in Israel than for the Jew in Muslim countries - check it out). It is a matter of African American Christians demanding that their favorite son champion their values of the sanctity of life and the uniqueness of heterosexual marriage. If it weren't for American Americans in California, Prop 8 would have failed. 70% voted for it, yet I do not see any concerted effort to get Obama to stop his crusade to promote Abortion worldwide and his moves toward the "normalization" of Homosexuality - exactly what they overwhelmingly voted against in California. I do not see a flood of letters and emails to Washington on his proposed repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act that Bill Clinton signed, or the trashing of the voucher program in Washington DC that not only saved millions of scarce dollars, but resulted in significant academic gains by minority children in a failed school system. It IS a matter of Preachers standing for the Bible 100% and not backing off to gain or to retain members. It is a matter of the people resisting evil and following God no matter what the society or its leaders say or do. It is putting God above personal preferences and not selling your soul for a morsel of bread.

This perfect storm -

1) Control of all branches of government - President, Congress, Judicial, made worse because the control of Congress is not by a couple of seats, but such that even one or two GOP defections can result in a virtual rubber stamp, and also that the current Congress, unlike that of JFK, shares the President's values.

2) A press which is more captive to the White House than Pravda and Investia were to the Kremlin, a press which offers zero public vetting. "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

3) A society which is morally weak and already under the wrath of God, a society where our future leaders are being raised in a totally secular, self-centered, and leftist manner.

4) A society where the church for the vast majority of people has lost its savor and is considered a quaint relic, partially due to the greed and attitudes that mirror the society rather than contrast with it. The Kingdom of God is not promoted, but rather a Christianized adaptation of the Kingdoms of this World.

5) An economy where the new taxation will lead to huge additional job losses, contraction, and misery, with a bloated government taking so much and still not having enough. The debt added will take decades to repay, and when it can't the Chinese will likely call the loans and we will all have to learn Chinese to survive.

So my friends, I say to those who think the GOP or a new Conservative party that is financially responsible, ethnically diverse, and spiritually sound could get us back, "Think Again". We need a new Revolution that will overthrow the slide into Sodom and the decline into Gomorrah. We need all Americans to turn to God and to stand against oppression. What we face today is probably MORE oppressive than what King George III put on our plate. It will require nothing less than a new "Great Awakening" and a whole new way to live. Will God give us that chance? It is something well worth praying for.