Political Thoughts -- Mixed with a Bit of Religion

Like millions of others, I watched the whole debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton tonight, and came away singularly unimpressed and unenlightened.

To wit: Hillary was her usually glib and imperial self, supremely disdaining to answer forthrightly the (extremely mild) questions put to her, using them instead as springboards to attack Donald Trump, in league with and fully sustained by the overtly biased moderator, Lester Holt.

Which put Donald largely on the defensive -- and as Hillary no doubt conceitedly expected, Donald would not vigorously counter-attack, because then he would appear as domineering and sexist (i.e., not shrinking from attacking a poor, defenseless female).

Indeed, I remember a number of occasions when it was Donald who said he was not spending any money on responding in kind to the Clinton campaign's scurrilous attack ads against him -- yet it was Hillary who in the debate claimed (quoting St. Michelle) that she was taking the "high road."

Likewise, Hillary never admitted to being in the same "birther camp" as Donald -- but her minions, like Sid Blumenthal, surreptitiously fueled the "birther" debate (though they now deny it) when it was to her political advantage to do so. Instead, she successfully maintained that Donald stayed in that camp for much longer than she did. (Since she lost the race and became Obama's Secretary of State, why in the world would she keep pushing it?) And thus she came off making Donald appear as the more unscrupulous one.

But the main question is: why were we treated to exchanges on so many topics that are wholly in the past, when the pressing issues of immigration, Hillary's wide-ranging abuse of her position as Secretary of State to garner funds for her foundation, and the respective health status of the candidates, never even surfaced? (Just another instance of how the media's -- and this moderator's -- political bias has let this country down.)

In sum, it was not a good evening for America, as neither candidate did themselves proud. (Nor, once again, did the media -- but we long ago lost them to partisanship.) Hillary smugly hid behind her status as the first female candidate of a major political party, and declined to be drawn into answering any specifics about the shortcomings of her past policies or the vapidity of her future plans if she becomes President.

And Donald Trump was far too much the deferential gentleman, largely unlike the scrappy persona that has gotten him to this point in the race. He has to learn that the key to going up against Hillary is not to try to interrupt her mid-sentence (and thereby miss his main opportunity for a measured response), or to out-talk her, but instead to bide his time and hit back at her overweening self-assurance with some well-aimed blows at her glass jaw.

Just to take a major "for instance": Hillary speculated that Donald's failure to disclose his tax returns was because "he probably is not as charitable as he says he is" (or words to that effect). Well, are the Clintons such paragons of charitable giving that they donate to much beyond their own self-dealing foundation? I have not seen any such evidence.

Or again, how in the world does Hillary get off with claiming that she is the soul of public disclosure when she (or rather, her hired minions, for her protection from unwelcome inquiries) deleted over 33,000 official government emails so that the public would never see them? Instead of Donald scoring a big point on that issue, she managed to place him on the defensive by claiming that he just wanted Russia to hack "private American servers" -- which she never should have had for official State business in the first place.

So if this is the way the debates are going to proceed, count me out -- I have better things to do than watch the halt flail away against the blind in the rigged arena of national television. As I said in an earlier post, this election has turned out as it has because this nation, having neglected its basic Christian roots and priorities, is now under the judgment of God. It will assuredly reap the harvest that He deems fit for it, whether in 2017 or later.

Even if you may not agree with these observations, I ask that you join myself and many other Christians in praying for the repentance of our country from its self-indulgent and God-defying arrogance, in the hope that it may ultimately be delivered from the wrath that will otherwise come upon it.

Look to the Bible: has there ever been an unrepentant nation whom God ultimately spared from judgment? So why ever should He except the United States, so long as it remains committed to defying Him? (Indeed, you might want to ponder the question posed in this earlier post.)

(Of course, if you are one who does not look to the Bible for guidance, for whatever reason, then you are part of the problem, and I have nothing to say to you, beyond wishing you God's grace and peace in your final days. So be it -- I cannot do otherwise, while I still pray for America to turn back from her current ruinous path.)