As a social conservative, I do not support liberal President Joe Biden for obvious reasons. As a Christian, I could NEVER support a pro-abortion leader for anything. I pray weekly for the salvation of Biden, Kamala Harris, and the rest of their administration. But I also look forward to the day the White House is occupied again by a true conservative.
That said, our best bet for defeating and replacing Biden in 2024 will be voting for Donald Trump again, which I plan to do. He will be our best bet not because he IS the best but because he will probably be our ONLY bet in 2024. However, the runoff results in Georgia and the mid-terms in general has reminded us that Trump is not as sure a thing as once perceived. What was once seen as a “juggernaut” is again exposed to be very beatable.
I’ll be honest with you. While there may be some merit to all the theories of cheating being involved (compromised Dominion machines, mail-in ballot tomfoolery, dead voters magically rising from the dead during election season), the thought of 80 million Americans voting for Biden really does not surprise me. Believe it or not, it IS feasible to think that there are 80 million Americans out of the 330 million that live in the USA that would vote progressively. Have you seen all the “woke-ism” garbage being shoved down our throats every day in America? 80 million Americans voting for a liberal is consistent with the direction this nation is heading.
Now we are stuck with Trump as our best chances of winning in 2024. What concerns me, however, is that if the Georgia run-off results are any indication, perhaps it’s time to face the reality that what worked for Trump back when he won, is not the best bet anymore. Perhaps the lesson to be learned from Herschel Walker’s loss is that you need more than celebrity status with some Republican views to win. IOW, the celebrity Republican formula is not proving to be a sure victory anymore.
When will my conservative friends begin to admit that Trump won because of celebrity status more than anything else? Trump is not a real conservative. Never was. He himself has admitted this before. May I remind you, he was a partial-birth abortion supporting Democrat for many years before he turned Republican. Now I’m thankful that he changed. And God bless him for becoming pro-life. But not all Republicans are true Conservatives.
There are all types of Republicans on our side of the political fence. Trump is a Nationalist. A nationalist, America-first, perspective agrees with Conservative values more than Liberal ones. That’s why Trump did some good things that we as conservatives were happy with, for which I am thankful.
The problem, however, is now we as conservatives are stuck with a sometimes-conservative, better than nothing, celebrity candidate to lead the conservative cause. Meanwhile, down in Florida there is a REAL conservative name Ron DeSantis who did the unthinkable by turning what was once a purple swing-state into a predominately conservative state. Under DeSantis’s leadership Florida is now up there with Texas as being one of the most conservative states in the Union. DeSantis has demonstrated that being a real conservative still works. This is the kind of proven leadership that conservatives desperately need at this time.
DeSantis demonstrated true steadfast leadership when everyone else, including Trump, was bending to the overreaching Covid mafia. While DeSantis aggressively bucked the liberal agenda, Trump sided with the vaccine mandates even when his strongest supporters tried to no avail to encourage Trump to take a stand against the exaggerations and false narratives of the liberal news media and over-the-line big government.
Here’s reality. While Trump has been losing, DeSantis has been winning. Yet we’re stuck with a losing Trump. And we’re stuck with the very real possibility of Biden winning again in 2024, or even worse, Kamala Harris, if Biden keeps falling down stairs and off of bicycles.
Trump loyalists will argue, “Well we didn’t see this coming!” Uh, actually, some of us did. There were guys like me who were BEGGING for Republicans to go with a candidate with a proven track record of conservatism. But even some of my closest friends, some who are preachers, rebuked me for not supporting Trump in the beginning. (It’s ok. I still love you guys. I think. lol But don’t say I didn’t tell you so.)
Guys like me wanted a real conservative. But we were seen as lacking wisdom for wanting to stay true to our core values. You argued, “Having a big celebrity like Trump will bring so many new voters on board the GOP train that the liberals won’t be able to stop it.” Well, they did.
Some of us did our homework. For example, I understood that Senator Ted Cruz who ran in the 2016 primaries ran on an evangelical platform. Early in his career Cruz took note that during the Obama era there were over 55 million evangelical votes that were absent in past election seasons. So for years he built a career catering to the social values of evangelical voters thinking that he would be rewarded with their support when it came time to run for president, a goal of his from day 1. That was his strategy. Fight against abortion (he has a 100% perfect track record of voting AGAINST everything that came across his desk that would advance abortion), stand for traditional marriage (remember when that was still an issue?), fight for religious liberty, and basically stand for everything evangelicals and conservatives cared about, or at least said they did.
However, when the primaries came around, Cruz’s mistake was overestimating the depth of conviction of modern-day evangelical voters. When it came time to vote for a candidate that built a career doing EVERYTHING evangelical voters ever wanted, they ignored his body of work, ditched him, and went for pompous celebrity status instead. Their argument was that Trump’s big personality and business savvy is what we really needed at the time rather than a candidate that more consistently reflected our core values.
So Trump beat real conservatives like Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee (a former Baptist pastor), Rand Paul (a consistent conservative track record), Scott Walker (most conservative governor at the time beside Mike Pence) and Dr. Ben Carson. What did that show us? Why did evangelicals and conservatives go with the celebrity over real conservative options? I’ll tell you why. Because that’s the true spiritual climate of the evangelical conservative world today. Modern day Christianity has become pragmatic, shallow in conviction, and celebrity driven.
I will be voting for Trump in 2024. What other choice do I have? I hope he wins. I really do. I’m tired of this ridiculous inflation! I don’t deny that his business savvy couldn’t help us. But the reality is that the mid-terms have demonstrated that there’s a strong chance that Trump will lose again. And if and when he loses, it will stink to think that the winning DeSantis would have been a more sure bet.
In the wake of the Georgia run-off and Herschel Walker’s loss, what is the lesson to be learned here? Maybe celebrity status is not all it’s cracked up to be. Perhaps it’s time for conservatives to be REAL and stay true to their values. If we would have done that back in 2016, maybe we’d be gearing up for DeSantis instead of Trump right now. Remember when Trump said that we will be winning so much that we will become tired of winning? Right this minute it’s the other way around. Lol
At the end of the day, this all just reminds me why I’m a Christian first above everything else. The political arena is set upon shifting and sinking sand. This world is not my home, I’m just a-passin through! I can’t wait till Jesus returns. When He does, He’ll straighten this whole mess out. With a perfect leader on the throne, we’ll finally get to live in a world where everything is done right because Jesus is ALWAYS right. We won’t have to be worried about a rigged election or being outnumbered by progressive voters. Jesus will be unstoppable. Neither Trump nor Biden can tie His shoelaces!
Just some things to think about. As conservatives, we are on the same team but I feel its time to start adjusting our perspective on some things.
Pastor Manny's Perspective 