{"id":13086,"date":"2020-10-23T17:49:11","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T17:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/?p=13086"},"modified":"2020-10-23T17:58:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T17:58:13","slug":"the-2020-presidential-election-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/23\/the-2020-presidential-election-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2020 Presidential Election"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA house divided against itself cannot stand.\u201d<\/p>Abraham Lincoln<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>
It seems like something has been released upon America, and it reminds me of an old Star Trek episode.<\/p>
\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>The Bible (and an <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/s4983sAoLdM\">old song by Barry McGuire)<\/a> says that there is a time for everything, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/kjv\/ecc\/3\/1\/s_662001\">a time to keep silence, and a time to speak, as well as a time to hate, and a time of peace<\/a>.<\/p>Regardless of one\u2019s political views, it\u2019s fair to say that it\u2019s getting pretty ugly out there. And I think that one of the reasons this is happening is because people are confused.<\/p>For example, a lot of terms are thrown around by politicians and the media which we would do well to look at briefly:<\/p><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">Democrats = political party, started by Martin Van Buren, to support the candidacy of Andrew Jackson in 1828. In the 1850's, the part split over the issue of slavery, allowing Republican Abraham Lincoln to win the 1860 election. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/us-politics\/democratic-party\">History.com<\/a><\/em>)<\/pre><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">Republicans = political party, founded in 1854 to oppose the westward expansion of slavery in America. It's first presidential candidate was Abraham Lincoln. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/us-politics\/republican-party\">History.com<\/a><\/em>)<\/pre>In his book, Are<\/em> You<\/em> Liberal? Conservative? or Confused?<\/em><\/span>, Richard J. Maybury claims:<\/p><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\u201cBoth (parties) tend to hover close to the center, which is where they perceive the bulk of the voters to be.\u201d<\/p><cite>Richard J. Maybury (\u201cUncle Eric\u201d)<\/cite><\/blockquote>That was the way it was in the 1970\u2019s (think Gerald Ford), but if you think back, American Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy could also be considered centrists<\/strong><\/em> or moderates<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">Moderates (Centrists) = \"One who is in the middle of the left-right spectrum...not to the extremes...\" (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Liberal-Conservative-Confused-Uncle-Eric\/dp\/0942617541\">Richard Maybury<\/a>)<\/pre>And even in the 1980\u2019s, we had Conservatives<\/em><\/strong> and Liberals<\/strong><\/em>, like Ronald Reagan, \u201cTeddy\u201d Kennedy, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro. But it was still an era of compromise.<\/p><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">Modern Liberalism = \"based, in general, on faith in progress and in the ability and goodness of man, and on the firm belief in the importance of the rights and welfare of the individual...Liberalism advocates steady change\" (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Liberal-Conservative-Confused-Uncle-Eric\/dp\/0942617541\">Columbia Encyclopedia<\/em>, 3rd Ed.<\/a>)<\/pre><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">Conservative = \"the desire to maintain, or conserve, the existing order...Conservatives value highly the wisdom of the past and are generally opposed to widespread reform.\" (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Liberal-Conservative-Confused-Uncle-Eric\/dp\/0942617541\">Columbia Encyclopedia<\/em>, 3rd Ed.<\/a>)<\/pre>But nobody\u2019s moderate now, and compromise has not happened in Washington D.C. since Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton produced The Contract for America<\/em> (\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/political-process\/report\/the-contract-america-implementing-new-ideas-the-us\">one of the most significant developments in the political history of the United States<\/a>\u201c) in 1994.<\/p>Today, everyone\u2013<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Liberal-Conservative-Confused-Uncle-Eric\/dp\/0942617541\">to quote Richard Maybury<\/a>\u2013is \u201cto the extremes.\u201d<\/p>But what would our Founding Fathers think of the nation that we\u2019ve become? (For an excellent understanding of their point of view, I recommend, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Evaluating-Books-Guidelines-Consistent-Principles\/dp\/0942617533\">What Would Thomas Jefferson Think About This?<\/a><\/em> <\/span> by Richard J. Maybury.)<\/p>The popular musical Hamilton<\/strong><\/em> does a pretty good job of trying to tell us about them (<a href=\"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.comindex.php\/2020\/09\/02\/wait-for-it-what-are-you-waiting-for\">See our blog<\/a> ). They were Classical Liberals<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">Classic Liberalism = \"One who believes that the country should have a small, weak government, and free markets, and that the individual is endowed by his Creator with inalienable rights to his life, liberty, and property. Also, one who believes in Natural Law and common law, or Higher Law (think Thomas Jefferson).\" (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Liberal-Conservative-Confused-Uncle-Eric\/dp\/0942617541\">Richard Maybury<\/a>) <\/pre>But they were not radicals<\/span><\/strong>. Radicalism results in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/france\/french-revolution\">widespread hysteria<\/a>,\u201d burning, and looting.<\/p>And it leads\u2013in the end\u2013to despotism, and the all-powerful State<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">Statism = \"The opposite of the original American philosophy (Classical Liberalism). Says political power is a good thing. Government is our friend, our protector, the solution to our problems, and there is no higher law than government's law.\" (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Liberal-Conservative-Confused-Uncle-Eric\/dp\/0942617541\">Richard J Maybury<\/a><\/em>)<\/pre>There are many, many examples of this in history\u2013in France, in Germany, in Russia, in China.<\/p>The Bible says:<\/p><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\u201cThis is the spirit of the antichrist;\u00a0you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.\u201d<\/p><cite>1 John 4:3<\/cite><\/blockquote>One of my pastors once said something very wise about this. He said that every generation has an antichrist waiting in the wings. I think that is true. Yet, it\u2019s really up to us. The Bible says:<\/p><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\u201d\u00a0You know what currently restrains him\u2026\u201d<\/p><cite>2 Thessalonians 2:6<\/cite><\/blockquote>The American people have restrained him before, and we can do it again.<\/p><\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cA house divided against itself cannot stand.\u201d Abraham Lincoln It seems like something has been released upon America, and it reminds me of an old Star Trek episode. The Bible (and an old song by Barry McGuire) says that there is a time for everything, including a time to keep silence, and a time to … <a href=\"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/23\/the-2020-presidential-election-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading “The 2020 Presidential Election”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,42,71,57,70,77,24,90,73,74,56,40,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-christianity","category-constitution","category-current-events","category-declaration-of-independence","category-democracy","category-education","category-election","category-french-revolution","category-government","category-liberty","category-truth","category-worldview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13086"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13093,"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13086\/revisions\/13093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}