2020 Update
As 2019 comes to a close, the 2020 campaign kicks into high gear. And there's growing anxiety among Democrats about the state of their presidential primary. Just consider these headlines:
"Democratic Insiders: Bernie Could Win The Nomination" -- Politico
"Could Four Different Democrats Split The First Four States?" -- USA Today
"Democrats Brace For 'Bloody' Primary Season" -- The Hill
"Why a Contested Democratic Convention Is Possible" -- RealClearPolitics.com
While former Vice President Joe Biden continues to maintain a healthy lead in most national polls, he's not particularly strong in the early voting states, except for South Carolina.
In Iowa, Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders are battling it out for first place. Biden is third.
In New Hampshire, Sanders and Buttigieg are neck-and-neck, with Warren nipping at Biden's heels.
In Nevada, Biden is leading, but there hasn't been a poll conducted there for six weeks. Moreover, Sanders did surprising well in Nevada's 2016 caucuses, and pollsters are noting that his support this time around is surprisingly solid in spite of his recent heart attack.
It is easy to see why USA Today suggests that the four early states could produce four different winners, and how the primary contest turns into a 'bloody' battle that drags on into a contested convention.
Buttigieg Politicizes Christmas
The left politicizes everything -- the courts, the Boy Scouts, fast food, football, even bathrooms. On Christmas morning, Mayor Pete Buttigieg tweeted this:
"Today I join millions around the world in celebrating the arrival of divinity on earth, who came into this world not in riches but in poverty, not as a citizen but as a refugee. No matter where or how we celebrate, merry Christmas."
Wow! Millions of Christians were celebrating the birth of Jesus, our Messiah, the son of God, the perfect lamb, and some leftists were trying to "draft" the Christ Child into the progressive movement.
Few things make me angrier than trying to use Jesus as an advocate of abortion, open borders and government confiscation of people's hard-earned money.
Buttigieg, who has emerged as a frontrunner in the Democrat primary, has been using this tactic throughout the campaign. While always claiming the mantle of tolerance, he has regularly questioned the Christian faith of Vice President Mike Pence. He once said that his marriage to a man brought him closer to God.
A few things about Buttigieg's tweet jumped out at me. It is curious how seldom Buttigeig says the name "Jesus." But let's put that aside for now.
The tweet is a brazen attempt to confuse Christians into believing that our faith requires us to support the left's big government agenda. Jesus was no fan of big government. Big government (Rome) did not treat Jesus well.
By the way, there's no biblical evidence that his family was poor for the times they lived in. Nor did Jesus come into the world as a refugee . . . from Heaven.
Buttigieg should stick to policy issues and stop trying to hijack Christianity for his narrow political ambitions.
The chutzpah here is breathtaking!
Buttigieg and his fellow progressives are trying to divide Christians going into the election year. Yet they fully embrace abortion on demand for any and no reason at all. Choosing death is the exact opposite message of the Gospels.
All the major Democrat competitors have made it clear that they will appoint judges like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose animus toward religious liberty is legendary. If it had been up to Ginsburg, the Bladensburg Peace Cross would have been demolished.
How could anyone forget that under President Obama the Little Sisters of the Poor were threatened by the Justice Department because they refused to subsidize abortion? How could anyone forget that evangelical business owners were bankrupted for refusing to participate in same-sex weddings?
The political left in America has swung so far against religion that a majority of delegates at the 2012 Democrat National Convention booed when the party leadership tried to insert God into the party platform. Far-left big city mayors have tried to silence pastors.
There are many reasons that all those leftists were crying on the night of November 8, 2016. There are scores of excuses for the three-year temper tantrum they have been throwing since then.
The most important is that the left thought it was on the verge of controlling the Supreme Court. It was so close to ripping America out of the rich soil of our Judeo-Christian heritage by using the courts to inflict its secular agenda on the country.
That is exactly what the left will attempt to do if Buttigieg, Sanders, Biden or Warren walks into the White House in January of 2021.
While American Values does not support or oppose candidates for public office, it does provide me with a platform to defend our cherished values, including religious liberty. Please stand with American Values now as we fight the good fight for faith, family and freedom!
"Enough Is Enough"
New York City is experiencing a rash of anti-Semitic attacks. The Wall Street Journal reported over the summer that in the first five months of the year, there had been an 83% increase in hate crimes compared to the same period in 2018. Sadly, 59% of them were anti-Semitic in nature.
The raw Jew-hatred is apparently getting worse. So far, there have been at least six anti-Semitic attacks during Chanukah.
Evan Bernstein, a spokesman for the Anti-Defamation League, blasted the attacks as "particularly heinous" as the Jewish community is still "reeling from the deadly attack in Jersey City on December 10th." Bernstein added, "Enough is enough."
These vile and vicious attacks coming during holiday season are heartbreaking. Men and women of faith have an obligation to speak out and to stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters.
As Pastor John Hagee of Christians United for Israel so aptly put it, "Anti-Semitism is not just a Jewish problem, it's everyone's problem. And it is not just the world's oldest hatred, it is sin."
