I Prayed have prayed
Lord, we praise You for this country, the United States. We are so blessed to live here and fortunate to have the freedoms we have here. Thank you for this nation and all her beauty. Help us to preserve the America that You built.
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Donald Trump’s State of the Union address was far more than the usual laundry list of policy proposals and heartwarming moments with heroes from the balcony (although both were much in evidence). With this address, he honed and perfected his pitch for another term and for the future of American politics. The 2020 SOTU was the fullest expression of Donald Trump’s governing philosophy we have seen to date.

In essence, the president told Americans that he agrees with Democrats that we need a big, energetic government, but not their kind of big, energetic government. With Trump you’re getting economic nationalism, patriotism, an emphasis on American accomplishment rather than failures, celebration of American civil religion rather than a renunciation of it, and a bold, ambitious outreach to African-Americans.

In essence, he’s saying, “We can talk about history or we can make history going forward. Which do you prefer?” He clearly believes (with some evidence) that he is opening a new period in African-American prosperity through his protection of the American working class.

This last part is critical. You can either turn your magnifying glass on 1619 with the New York Times and the Democratic Party as you try to deconstruct America and all its promise, or you can use 1776 as a base from which to build. Notably, Trump spent little time bemoaning problems of over-incarceration and a malfunctioning criminal justice system with adverse racial impact. Instead, he became the president who actually achieved the first major steps to reform.

Trump clearly believes the answer to America’s tragedies in the past is a bright future explicitly for Americans, including African-Americans. His version of that future involves American citizens working to produce American goods rather than legions of disenfranchised persons living on a universal basic income with a highly developed knowledge of why capitalism is racist, predatory, and destroying the environment. The vision is more fundamentally positive (despite the occasional belligerence of the messenger) than it is critical.

At the same time, Trump is throwing away the Republican-libertarian emphasis on small government, which has typically been more honored through lip service than through concrete policy. He is offering more benefits, more protection, and more cooperation between the public and private sector.

He wants big, active government, but not run by the secular liberals. Rather, he is proposing big, active government the way regular folks (as he sees it) want it. This government will offer family leave to parents and intervene in a health care marketplace that has operated in arcane ways Americans find difficult to understand and navigate.

The sustainability and advisability of the pivot toward more government is an open question, but if he can offer a more attractive vision of big government (not the anti-patriotic, anti-religious version), then he may entice Americans to pay for it over time. The new ingredient here is that the bigger government will be one that embraces American ideals, American history, and American religion rather than tearing it down in pursuit of some post-religious techno-secular utopia. . .

There was a time when a great many religious Americans bought into energetic government. They may do so again if they don’t see that government as an enemy seeking to rout them from the field.

A couple of big questions remain. At the moment the prospect of building out a new direction in American politics may be brightest, one wonders whether Trump will be able to tolerate political prosperity. Any other candidate with his economic record would be sailing to re-election. He has put off many Americans, especially women, so badly with his rhetoric and aggressiveness that he isn’t the lock to win that others would be.

Just as he is beginning to crest the wave after impeachment, a successful SOTU, and Iowa’s disarray, one can’t help but wonder whether he’ll be able to maintain a more statesmanlike pose. Not addressing impeachment in the SOTU was a start. We’ll see if it lasts. . .

(Excerpt from The Federalist. Article by Hunter Baker.)

 

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Ken Budz
February 8, 2020

Lord thank You for this country. Thank You for its people and it’s beauty and resources. You Lord have given us a great nation. Help us to care for it even more than we do now. Help us to love You Lord and love one another. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Anita
February 7, 2020

The greatest strategy we have is the Word of God! “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭18:18-19‬ ‭CSB‬‬
https://www.bible.com/1713/mat.18.18-19.csb ……. “Bless the Lord, all his angels of great strength, who do his word, obedient to his command.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭103:20‬ ‭CSB‬‬
https://www.bible.com/1713/psa.103.20.csb…..Send them out to do this: “Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous. The one who examines the thoughts and emotions is a righteous God.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭7:9‬ ‭CSB‬‬
https://www.bible.com/1713/psa.7.9.csb….. “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve those who are going to inherit salvation?”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭1:14‬ ‭CSB‬‬
https://www.bible.com/1713/heb.1.14.csb(WE ARE THE HEIRS OF SALVATION!)

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Nolasy
February 6, 2020

To Nancy: “What right have you to recite my statues or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with those who act in bad faith…. Psalm50:16ff

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Brenda B
February 6, 2020

Father, THANK You for President Trump, and for raising him up for such a time as this. Keep Your steadying hand upon him and guide his every thought, word, and deed as never before. Not just this country, but every country in the world is watching this President and consequently us, the American people. Oh Father weed out those in every level of government in Washington DC, and every state, city, and community, including those that impose bribery and corruption to sully our government and to destroy any semblance of You. Dry up the coffers of those against you that fund corruption with the object of destroying all that you have established at the very foundation of this country. Mooooooove as only YOU can to straighten this crooked, precarious path that we have been on, and wake up Your own, brothers and sisters in Christ, all throughout this country and throughout the world as only You can, and may more and more of us raise our voices in prayer to You as a sweet incense, Father. May it be so, in Jesus name, amen.

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