Election 2016--Do You Want to See Something Really Scary?

This marks the sixth annual edition of "Do you want to see something really scary?" The recurring title of this post is, of course, a tribute to Twilight Zone--the movie. I did not see it--my mother was extremely strict and never allowed us to watch horror movies or even light comedy containing anything that smacked of the occult. But I remember my father coming back from a trip and telling us that he had been driving with his nephew on a dark, wood-lined road when his nephew told about the scene from Twilight Zone where a set of characters are in a car at night trying to scare each other. Finally, one of them says to the driver of the car, "Do you want to see something really scary?" When his friend agrees, he turns his face away, and when he turns back he has become a monster who kills the young man who is driving.
Over the past five years that I have been writing this post, I have used it to highlight the scary problems in our political world.  And every year there is more and more to fear.  The real life events taking place in our country today are worse than any scary film plot ever hatched in the mind of any Hollywood producer.

In three weeks either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will be elected president of the United States.  That's horror film stuff in and of itself.  I am #NeverTrumpandNeverHillary and I said in July that if she were the nominee she would definitely win the election this fall.  However, after having gone through this entire season I now would not be shocked if he pulls off a last minute win.  Today the HuffPo headline is that Texas is in play because Hillary Clinton is only 3 points behind in a new poll.  Yet, EVERY person I know here in Texas with the exception of TWO is going to vote from Trump.  Some are going to vote for him because they love him and see him as the savior of this country--others are going to vote for him because they don't like her.  I have met a lot of people who should be Hillary's demographic--young, socially liberal, etc.--who are choosing Trump because of his stance on immigration and because they don't want to see welfare expanded.  Polls aside--there is a lot of support for Donald Trump, and I think the final vote is going to be a lot closer than the pundits predict. 

To me, the scariest part is not that either Trump or Hillary will be president--although that is pretty scary.  What is scarier still is the way that Americans on both sides of the aisle have completely abandoned all traditional values to support wholeheartedly two of the most corrupt candidates in history.  To prop these two up, we had to completely disregard the rule of law (Hillary) and the laws of decency (Trump).  Although she loudly denies this, Hillary was NOT vindicated by the statements made by James Comey.  Instead, he told Americans that if WE committed the same crimes she had committed and mishandled classified documents, WE would be in prison.  But those crimes are not a problem for HER because she's Hillary Clinton.  Neither, apparently, is selling State Department favors via the Clinton Foundation, or deserting the ambassador of Libya and three Americans to die brutally in Benghazi.  That a woman who had to call on the super delegates and the full force of the-DNC to dispatch Bernie Sanders--a 74-year-old self-proclaimed socialist--could actually be weeks away from becoming president is astonishing.  Through revelations of thousands of emails showing her contempt for the American people, for the rule of law, and even for the voters in her own party, we have seen that Hillary is exactly who we thought she was--a vicious, hateful woman bent on gaining power at all costs. And that the media could give her cover and shore her up after everything she has done is even more astonishing.

On the Trump side, we have a man who has cheated and defrauded trusting students through Trump University, sexually harassed scores of women, bragged about his affairs with married women, insulted and demeaned candidates who were far superior to him, told little girls he will be dating them in a few years and spoken of his own daughter in crude sexual terms and the American churches are supporting him as a great guy.  This election has laid bare the corruption of a society where people are so immoral that the son of the late Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell, who also shares his father's name, says that he does not care if Donald Trump has raped women--everyone at Liberty University supports him anyway.   The amazing irony here is that the Moral Majority was based on a notion that there was a large block of Americans who did not accept the leftist standards of promiscuity and abortion and obscenity and that they would stand together to support a man who stood for their ideals.  Falwell Jr. apparently understands that today most Americans comprise an Immoral Majority who think traditional values are stupid and that they just want a strongman who will promise to fix their lives.  They are voting for the candidate who can make them believe that he or she will make their individual lives great again--forget America.

What I think Falwell, and Robert Jeffress, and Franklin Graham and all evangelicals supporting Trump are conveniently forgetting is that they have abdicated their right to speak out on moral issues for all time.  By throwing their support behind this man who is a sewer of indecency--"for the good of the country"--and overlooking his behavior they have lost the authority to say that any behavior is wrong or corrupt or indecent. They will continue to have big churches and big rallies and big meetings, but very simply when they speak on any issues of morality no one is going to take them seriously--ever again.

Two years ago, in this post I wrote that at the time the GOP had a good shot of taking over the Senate and stopping the progression of Socialism in America.  But what I failed to understand was that when the GOP did take over the Senate they would just stall Obama until the next election.  They would not make any big changes or reverse anything--partially because they did not want to change anything.  They just wanted to tread water.

Today, faced with two very bad choices, we have a lot of Americans who believe that Trump is the answer to righting all of the wrongs in their own lives, and a lot of Americans who believe that with Hillary the world will continue on as it is today.  The election in three weeks will really come down to who is able to get their voting block out to vote.   Both Hillary and Trump are the political equivalents of Freddy Krueger--no matter what happens to them they just keep coming back, so we can't really discount either one of them as they have both been resurrected from political suicide too many times to count.

The worst part about this whole mess is that whoever wins, we have diminished ourselves and our nation through the process.  We have thrown away a sacred precept dating back 811 years (since 1215 when King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta in Runnymeade) that the leader of our nation is not above the law.  In fact, we have extended being above the law to men and women seeking the office of leader of the nation.  We have thrown away the principle that the leader of the nation should be moral or should be a role model.  In doing so, we are creating a ruling class where those who lead are exempt from all rules--moral, social and legal, and we the people have abdicated our authority to hold them responsible for their actions.  And that is really pretty scary.


Alexandra Swann has a master's degree in history with emphasis on the French Revolution. Her novel, The Planner about an out of control, environmentally-driven federal government, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net.


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Published on October 24, 2016 07:57
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message 1: by David (new)

David Candid, lucid, thought-provoking, and spot-on.


message 2: by Werner (new)

Werner In a sane world, Constitution Party presidential candidate Darrell Castle (http://castle2016.com/platform/ ) would be leading the polls right now. In the insane and, as Alexandra ably explains, scary world we inhabit, the establishment media's systematic news blackout on his campaign, as intended, has guaranteed that most voters have never heard of him; and the establishment parties have managed to keep the Constitution Party off the ballot in about half of the states. But he has my vote!

In Ignazio Silone's novel Bread and Wine, the night after Mussolini declares war on Ethiopia, one of the characters goes out and writes "NO!" on the walls of buildings in his village. When he's asked why he did something that pointless, he says something to the effect that, "I wanted people to know it wasn't unanimous." I'd like for people to know that America's suicide isn't unanimous.


message 3: by Glen (last edited Oct 27, 2016 06:11PM) (new)

Glen Stott When I was very small, my sister – two years older than I was, showed me how to respect her gender through teaching, example, and sometimes at the end of her fist. She was my first, best friend, and she taught me well. I had planned to hold my nose and vote for Trump. When the Trump recordings came out, I was disgusted, angry, fed up. My wife and I decided to write in someone we liked for President, someone less imperfect than Trump. I had the Never Trump fever and I smugly walked around the house wrapped in my superhero, self-righteous cape knowing I would be making a resonating moral point. Hillary is scum and Trump is scum, what a perfect pair to run for chancellor of hell.

Then I spent a sleepless night pondering the consequences of this election. There are many things those two stand for, but they are different shades of disgust. Hillary stands for abortion, even partial birth. In her gut, in the unfeeling, vacuous pit where her soul should be, she wants those babies dead. She doesn’t care if it is done by bashing a hole in their heads and sucking out their brains while they are in the birth canal – just so the inconvenience they might cause is disposed of. And if the organs in their lifeless bodies are harvested for scientific experimentation – so what?

But, isn’t that like a step and a half from Soylent Green?

We put labels on humans describing their stage of development; adult, toddler, middle age, infant, adolescent, fetus and more. Labels, that’s all – no stage is more or less human than any other. Isn’t ultrasound marvelous? You can actually watch these fetuses making faces, sucking their thumbs, playing with their fingers and toes. I have three great grandchildren, one still in the womb. I have seen the ultrasounds of all of them – beautiful small people doing what fetuses do. I have a toddler great step granddaughter who comes to see us regularly. She can’t carry on a conversation yet – is she worth less than a kindergartner because of that? She runs around the yard pointing at flowers and birds, bending over to watch ants, flipping her tongue in and out at lizards. A few weeks ago, her mother reposted on FB the ultrasound of her as a fetus at about six mouths. It was a view of her little face. And you know what was breathtaking about it – I could clearly recognize her. She had the same determined face I see when I hold her up to the fountain as she catches streaming water in her fingers. You want to know what evil is – it’s killing fetuses by the millions because they are inconvenient to their mothers. That is evil in its rawest form. I know progressives don’t see it that way. Directly from the Church Lady, “Well, isn’t that convenient?”

Hillary also stands for Single Payer health care as the only real fix for Obamacare. That means health care will be provided by the government and funded by the tax payers – including members of the Never Trump coalition.

If she is elected, within two or three months, Hillary will appoint a new (young) Supreme Court Justice. Before she is through, she will appoint two or three more young Supreme Court Justices. She will only appoint justices who support partial birth abortion and single payer health insurance. Even if Republicans don’t lose the Senate, there’s no way they can refuse to confirm new judges for four years. These judges will unbalance the court to progressivism and remain in the Supreme Court for rest of their lives. They will fundamentally change America to resemble the soulless shells they are. This is not theoretical bull crap. Millions of the unborn have already been killed. Hillary and her progressive court will put Stalin and Toa in the minor leagues when it comes to mass murder. And they will be killing the undisputed totally innocent victims of other people’s bad choices. They will be killing unborn babies who no way are Earth can speak up for themselves; these victims will not march in the streets, they will not vote in elections; they totally depend upon … upon whom? – the Never Trump people?

If Hillary wins, sometime, maybe as soon as 2018 or 2019, the IRS will be collecting money from me and my Never Trump friends; money we earn that will go to pay ghoulish doctors to punch holes in infants heads to suck out their brains. And there will be nothing we can do about that.

But there sure as hell is something that might be done about it NOW.

Trump is scum – I know that. But he says he will appoint judges who would overturn Roe v Wade. He says he will lead the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare with a private program. Maybe he’s lying; god knows he’s not above it. But he has listed the judges he would consider. I think Trump will keep those promises, but I am confident that even he doesn’t, he will not carry things to the limitless, godless levels of hell progressives will take us. I know exactly what Hillary will do. This is a close race – if the Never Trump crowd reconsiders, that might be enough to defeat Hillary.

My scary nightmare: There are thousands of toddlers in a terrorist slaughter camp. The terrorists say they are not human beings because they are Christians and therefore, do not deserve to live. They are killing them. A terrorist comes to me saying, “These Christians are an inconvenience. They can’t talk or feed themselves; they can’t even control their bowels. Put me in charge of the camp and I will reduce the paperwork so they can be destroyed quicker.” Then a pimp comes to me saying, “I will do everything I can to save these children by replacing judges who don’t think they are human.” Then a preacher comes saying, “I have been praying for the Christian children for fifty years. Choose me. Even though I will have no power to do anything, I will continue to pray for them.” Pick the preacher, if you must; I’m going for the pimp, with no apology over his moral turpitude.

Trump is the only chance to stop Hillary; I know he is grossly flawed. But is it possible that this election could inspire him to reconsider some of his actions? Is there no redemption? Is it even necessary?

So, do I want to stand before God alongside the Never Trump people with my hands extended palms up and proclaim, “at least my hands are clean; I didn’t soil them voting for evil Trump;” do I want to stand with Pontius Pilate, who also washed his hands? No – I don’t. So whatever influence I can bear, I will push to elect probably the second worst candidate to have run for the office. On the stage before me; one boldly supports mass murderer – one does not. One of the two will be President. This whole conversation is very theoretical for some; for others, now and in the future, it is a matter of life and death, and they don’t get to participate in the conversation. That is the cold, hard reality. Fail to stop Hillary and hundreds of thousands more innocent children will be viciously, mercilessly murdered – in time it will be millions. These people, who fight for the right to slaughter children in the birth canal, would cringe at the thought of someone doing the same to a dog or even a goldfish. I totally reject the idea that when I post my vote for Trump I will have lost moral credibility. To my Never Trump friends – when the number of mass murders of the innocent spikes, will you be satisfied with your vote for an impotent third party candidate to make some muted moral point in lieu of fighting with everything you had, including your vote, to stop Hillary – to stop or, at least, slow the slaughter?

Ultimately, even if my hands are dirtied by voting for Trump, I will still do it, because someone should, and the victims can’t; and I will face God with the consequences of my choice and He can decide the morality of it.


message 4: by Werner (new)

Werner Glen, I can't speak for any non-Trump voter except myself. But in my case, my decision isn't about "keeping my hands clean." God sees my hands, and the hands of my wife --who plans to vote for Trump on the basis of he same argument you make-- as clean because they're washed in the blood of Christ. Because of love and gratitude for God and love of other humans, we want to do whatever, in our best judgment under the guidance of His Spirit as we perceive it, best furthers God's will in the world. Being fallible humans, our judgment isn't apt to be perfect. That doesn't take God by surprise, nor change His mind about accepting us.

If I were vested with absolute power to personally appoint the next President from the two choices put forward by the establishment parties, yes, I would appoint Trump, for the reasons you stated. But the "cold, hard reality" is that I DON'T get to appoint the next President. Even if the playing field were level, my vote would count for perhaps one millionth of a per cent in determining the outcome. In reality, it counts for absolutely nothing, along with all the Trump votes that will be cast in Virginia, because the state's electoral votes are cast "winner take all," and Virginia is in the bag for Hilary. Yes, if every single non-Hilary supporter in the country --the supporters of every other third party candidate, plus those who don't plan to vote at all-- would magically decide to vote for Trump, he might stand a chance of being elected. If every one of those voters would magically decide to support Castle, he could be elected. But realistically, we know neither of these things will happen --for different reasons in each case. In Trump's case, it's because he's too toxic, in the estimation of too many voters for whom the welfare of the unborn isn't as important as it is to you and I. That's why, in point of fact, this election isn't close, though I understand why you want to believe it is. I'd like to believe it is, because the reality is a nightmare. But the reality is that we're facing a Hilary landslide, with probable down-ticket fallout. (Far from being a benefit to the unborn babies, Trump's candidacy is very likely to drag down many of their sincerest defenders in the Congress and the state governments.)

Do we then abandon the babies? No. But the political strategy that's best calculated to stop the killing is to build, and to consistently advocate, pro-life political options that will command the support of the persuadable non-Hilary supporters (and even of some of her persuadable supporters), IF their attention can be gained. (And if gaining their attention is hopeless, than we might as well hang it up, because then the long-term survival of America as anything resembling a free society is hopeless.) That political side of the strategy has to go hand in hand with a strategy of persuading the public to care about human life, human rights, and human decency, which will happen to the extent that the Christian church takes seriously its mission of being salt and light in this world (I don't despair of that possibility, either) and a strategy of meeting expectant mothers at risk for abortion with compassion and help to persuade and enable them to choose life. (That's what crisis pregnancy centers do every day.) In the decades since Roe v. Wade, the latter two strategies, by themselves, have greatly and steadily reduced the abortion rate in the U.S., even while, for much of that time, the country has been under Democrat dominion. No, tragically, this won't end abortion overnight. (Neither, alas, would electing Trump --or for that matter Castle-- even if either were possible.) But that three-pronged strategy, I submit, is the only one that would actually bring the end of the abomination closer.

The "support the GOP at any cost, no matter how vile their candidate, and no matter what ills their other policies will bring on the country, as long as they promise to put pro-life justices on the Supreme Court!" has been the mantra of the pro-life movement during all those decades. And we have precious little to show for it. Yes, some pro-life justices have been appointed --but never enough to turn the Court around. And pro-abortion Republican justices have often been appointed as well (we have Reagan to thank for Justice Kennedy). There are those who doubt that the GOP leadership really wants to end abortion; keeping it going makes a handy "wedge issue" to keep the pro-life voters forever on their leash. Be that as it may, they have never demonstrated the political will to fight for a pro-life Supreme Court, and there is no reason to think they've gained it in the Age of Trump.

Glen wrote: "Even if Republicans don’t lose the Senate, there’s no way they can refuse to confirm new judges for four years.". Well, actually there is. If, for discussion's sake, Trump were elected, and actually did nominate pro-life judges, especially to the Supreme Court, this is exactly what the Democrats will do. And they will do it openly, boldly, and without apology, and loudly make their case to the American people: "Yes, having one, two, three or even four vacancies on the Court is inconvenient, but that pales into insignificance beside the horror that confirming these monsters would be!" (And their lapdog media would support them, and their base would be energized to pour in campaign contributions.) Some would do this out of the courage of their benighted and fanatical convictions, and most would do it because the Democratic Party depends financially on the abortion industry as one of their four indispensable donors. And they wouldn't, under the Senate's bizarre rules, have to regain a Senate majority to make this stick --all they'd need is 41 votes, a pretty low bar. Under this state of affairs, I don't believe it would take Trump long to cave. Congressional Republicans, of course, could do exactly the same to Hilary (and would be supported by Fox News, and similarly reap the donations of a really energized base). But most congressional Republicans have no genuine convictions and no courage; and the pro-life movement, unhappily, isn't a large-scale cash cow that can write million dollar donations on one check. Yes, this state of affairs can be changed. But I don't believe that two-party, establishment party politics as usual will ever change it.

I don't write any of this with the intention of persuading you to act against your conscience, and I wouldn't attempt to persuade you to that if I could! (As the Apostle Paul wrote, in another context, "each one must be fully persuaded in his own mind.") I write in the hope, I suppose, that if my position isn't made convincing, it can be made understandable. In Lincoln's words, "We are not enemies, but friends." And it will behoove all pro-life Americans to be friends, as we strive to build a culture of life in the difficult days that are going to lie ahead.


message 5: by Glen (new)

Glen Stott Hey Werner – you’ve given me a great idea for a dystopian novel. President Clinton and Senate leaders enter into a secret plan to eliminate the Supreme Court. Clinton puts forward a string of unacceptable candidates that the Senate refuses to approve. The Court is composed of several very old justices and there are a few who, unknown to anyone, are despondent and on the verge of committing suicide, and others who decide to retire. Then, when there is no court to declare her Executive Orders unconstitutional, Clinton writes a series of them that eviscerate congress, and wha la! she is dictator. And the new rules of secession (by Executive Order) make Chelsea dictator after her. Too bad I don’t write well in that genre.
Well, this thing is about over – what shall we talk about then?


message 6: by Werner (new)

Werner If you write that novel, Glen, I'd read it. :-) Of course, the chilling thing is, given Hilary's predilections, that isn't far off the track of what she'd like to do.... I've sometimes thought about writing a novel or series in which a Clinton-esque President conspires to burn the U.S. Capitol building, blames it on "right-wing fundamentalist wackos," and uses it to ram through an "Enabling Act" modeled on the one enacted in Germany in 1933. (And of course most Americans would be too ignorant of history to see the parallel.) But that's not really my genre either --it would be more in Alexandra's line!

Hmmm! After the election, we'll have to wait and see what else Alexandra wants to write about that can get us interacting. :-)


message 7: by Nathan (new)

Nathan Chattaway Well, here we are after your election. And we can be sure that God has appointed Trump as your leader for this next period.

[Rom 13:1-2 ESV: 1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement.]
But, God is working through Plan A. And it works out in the end:
[Rom 8:28 ESV: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.]


message 8: by Werner (new)

Werner Yes --I often say that I've skipped to the end of the Book and read the conclusion (in Revelation), and I know it has a happy ending! In the short run, I don't know what the future holds, but I'm happy that I know the God who holds the future.


message 9: by Nathan (new)

Nathan Chattaway Such a good happy ending, and one that neatly illustrates my hermeneutic "analogy of the faith" aka allowing clear passages of scripture to interpret less clear passages.

We the bride, the church ARE that big cubic gold heavenly city of New Jerusalem, replacing the cubic holy of holies in the temple and the tabernacle before, missing the altar because God the Father and Son are eternally present in our midst.


message 10: by Werner (new)

Werner Nathan, I think you and I probably have a very similar understanding of eschatology.


message 11: by Alexandra (new)

Alexandra Swann I think at this point we just have to trust that God is ultimately working something good through all of this. I have family members who voted for Trump and family members who voted third party and no one is very happy right now. But ultimately we trust that at the end God is in control.


message 12: by Werner (new)

Werner Amen to that, Alexandra! God in His providence and mercy at least spared us from a Clinton presidency (a deliverance that I for one never expected!), and the Senate has ended the filibuster where Supreme Court justice nominations are concerned, another political miracle that very recently appeared to be inconceivable.


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