PORTRAIT OF AN EXTREMIST

John 10:30-31

30 I and the Father are one.”

31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him,

John 15: 23- 25

23: Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well. 24: If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father. 25: But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’ 

 Our president called Trump supporters the most extreme political group in history. Well, I am guilty as charged. I am proud to claim that title. As proud as I was to claim the title of a "deplorable". Extremists like myself are in good company. I guess Jesus was the greatest extremist of all time. Israel had strayed so far away from God that many Jews did not recognize Jesus when he began his ministry. He was simply reminding them of their purpose for existence. Which was to lead the world to salvation. There was no New Testament in Jesus day. The only scripture that existed was what we refer to today as the Old Testament. Everything in the scripture, the Law and the Prophets pointed to the coming of the Messiah. Still, most Jewish leaders considered Jesus an extremist. A threat to their power and wealth and for that they crucified him. Our Founding Fathers were extremists. They believed in ideas that had never been expressed before. That all men were created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Rights that were not all realized in their day but the promise of these rights would be fulfilled by future generations of extremists.

 When Israel was faithful to God they prospered. When Israel was disobedient they paid the price for that disobedience. At first they were divided into two kingdoms until they were finally taken into captivity by the Babylonians. America has prospered as long as we remained true to the Constitution. Our problems have resulted because we have not remained true to it. For example our Constitution says in Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 5 that the government has the power "To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures." In other words our money was based on something of value at one time. Precious metals like silver and gold. Both political parties have completely ignored this article in the Constitution over years and we have paid a high economic price as a result. The price we have paid has been in the form of economic recessions, depressions and inflation which we are experiencing now. This is because our money is diluted and it is not based on anything of value. If we need money we print it. The only ones who benefit are the super wealthy and politicians who have an unlimited supply of money to spend on waste and corruption. The rest of us pay the tax of inflation to pay for their waste and corruption.

 Various court cases throughout our history have adversely affected this country because they ignored the Constitution or made up law out of thin air. Dredd Scot, which stated that black people could not claim American citizenship, Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 which ignored the 14th Amendment and institutionalized segregation in this country until the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Everson vs. the Board of Education in 1947, Engle vs. Vitale in 1962, and Murray vs. Curlett established the mythical idea that the 1st Amendment established religious neutrality in America. In other words the idea that there was freedom from religion rather than freedom of religion. Korematsu vs. the United States upheld the internment of American's of Japanese descent during WW2. Roe vs. Wade, along with subsequent rulings allowed abortion through all nine months of pregnancy and denied the people in all 50 states the ability to decide whether or not abortion should be legal and under what circumstances. Then there was the Supreme Court case upholding Obamacare which forced many American's to pay for a product that they did not want and has severely damaged our medical system as well as causing a dramatic increase in the cost of medical services. Finally there was the case of Obergefell vs. Hodges which legalized homosexual marriage. Like abortion, this was an issue that should have been left to the states to decide. Polls showed that the majority of people in the vast majority of states were against it and most had already held referendum's that ruled against homosexual marriage. 

The modern conservative movement can be traced back to Barry Goldwater. A strong argument can be made that if Goldwater had won the 1964 presidential election America would be in a much better position today, economically, culturally and spiritually. I do not believe that Goldwater would have expanded the war in Vietnam but if he had his philosophy was that America should not enter a war that it is not prepared to win. There would not have been a disastrous war on poverty that damaged both the black family and white family because it incentivized women to have children out of wedlock. Women did not need a husband when the government became the husband. Without the Vietnam war there probably would not have been a Hippie movement which introduced the drug culture, and a free love culture. Both of which added to the deterioration of the family. 

 Goldwater's main goal as a senator was not to pass legislation but to stop legislation. Without Barry Goldwater there would not have been a Ronald Reagan. I will never forget that that main accusation against Goldwater during that campaign was that he was an extremist. Why, because he insisted on an original interpretation of the Constitution. Goldwater was in the same company with Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. They were all called extremists in their day, or outsiders that not only had to fight against the Communist left, aka Democrat party and the eastern establishment wing of the Republican party or what we call RINO Republican's today. Goldwater lost in a landslide to Lyndon Johnson because of the sympathy vote for the assassinated John Kennedy and Johnson was able to successfully paint Goldwater as an extremist that would involve us in a thermonuclear war. Johnson's Daisy Girl add was only shown once but it was very effective. The commercial portrayed a little girl picking flowers on a hillside when a voice can be heard in the background counting down to zero and she is destroyed in a nuclear explosion. 

 I was only 14 years old in 1964 and not able to vote but if I could have I would have voted for Johnson. Fast forward to 1980 when the incumbent Jimmy Carter was running against Ronald Reagan I was able to vote and I voted for Jimmy Carter. I was a Democrat then and I believed the lie that Goldwater and Reagan were extremists that would get us all killed. Luckily Reagan had greater popular appeal and also ran a better campaign than Goldwater. He had the benefit of running against an incompetent president that presided over the worst recession since the great depression. Reagan's presidency and leadership changed my life for the better. By 1984 I was a solid Conservative and have never looked back. I voted for Reagan in 1984 and I guess I officially became an extremist on election day 1984. The best influence on my life during those years was that I wanted a closer relationship with the greatest of all extremists, Jesus Christ. 

People have asked me over the years why I am a Conservative. For years I would say that I wanted to conserve those things worth conserving and change those things that needed changing. This is a good explanation but the best explanation for being a Conservative is that I want to conserve four things. As a Christian the first thing has to be the Bible. The second is the Declaration of Independence. I believe that all men are created equal and our inalienable rights derive from God and cannot be removed by government or man. That if government attempts to usurp these rights, resulting in tyranny, the people have a right to alter or abolish that government. Third, I believe in the Constitution and fourth, the Bill Of Rights which includes the right of free speech, the right to worship as I please, to right to keep and bear arms to defend myself, my family, friends, strangers and overthrow a tyrannical government if the need arises. The right to a speedy trial by a jury of my peers, and protection against a government law enforcement agency searching my property without a search warrant among other rights, According to Biden and the Communist Party USA this is the definition of an extremist. If this is what an extremist looks like, then I am it. Goldwater said two things that were true in 1964 and even truer today. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have. When he accepted the Republican nomination for president he said that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Being an extremist can be an unpopular place to be sometimes but I like the company.