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16. BIDEN TAKES COMMAND

CHALLENGES AT HOME

CONTENTS

The rush for the American borders

The rights and duties of the American voter

Making Washington, D.C., a new "state"

"Reforming" the Supreme Court

 The debate over High-Tech's censoring of internet communications

The Federal State's growing share of the American economy
 
More mindless gun violence hits America

 Protesters take on the Supreme Court

 Going after Trump

 Meanwhile ... a Christian revival seems to be taking place with Gen Z youth

 But almost unnoticed ... An amazing American grassroots response to a hurricane
The textual material on this webpage is drawn directly from my work
        America's Story – A Spiritual Journey © 2021, pages 485-491 .
        ... with the rest simply post-2021 updating.
THE RUSH FOR THE AMERICAN BORDERS

Very quickly a number of public issues pushed forward as America turned in new directions in the new Biden Era.

Not surprisingly, America is a very attractive destination for those Central Americans – and a huge number of Haitians – wanting to escape the poverty, crime, horrible hurricanes, and more recently the Covid-19 pandemic.  But is America itself ready to accept a flood of such people, a flood that would certainly change deeply the very social-cultural character of the nation?

Biden, in his run for the presidency, made it very clear that he and the Democratic Party were strongly in favor of opening its doors to just such a flood of people ... claiming humanitarian motives in doing so.  The Republicans, backed by a strong Trump resolve, were highly opposed ... advocating instead more walls and tighter restrictions designed to slow up and possibly even halt an apparent flood.

And of course this supposedly placed Biden and the Democrats on superior moral ground as the more "humane" party ... in comparison to the "inhumane" nature of the Republican position.  But in fact, those that understood the politics behind both positions in this debate also understood that the Democrats were looking forward to a grand increase in their electoral support by bringing these immigrants into the American political process – probably with quick amnesty for them as "illegals," followed up by an equally speedy naturalization process.

It is well understood by both parties that these immigrants come from a culture that promised welfare (socialism) in return for their support ... and that these immigrants, by political instinct, would certainly be receptive to the same offering in their newly adopted homeland.  In short, they are most likely to vote Democrat if given the choice ... and both parties know this.

But one fact is inescapable, namely, that it is the supposed humane character of Central American Socialism that is the reason their economies failed, most cruelly in Honduras ... but bad elsewhere in Central America.  And with this economic collapse has gone the collapse of the moral foundations of these societies... as the people scramble for whatever material support they can find, even if it comes violently.  Thus an exploding crime rate has also accompanied this economic collapse in those countries.


Guatemalan soldiers attempting to restrain a caravan of
Hondurans heading north to America ... through Guatemala
January 2021





THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE AMERICAN VOTER

Another issue which follows the lines of the immigration debate is this matter of how much discipline does the American voting process need in order to maintain its integrity (the Republicans) or the broadness of its reach (the Democrats).  It is well-known that many American residents do not vote, for various reasons.  The Democrats suspect that those non-voters would likely be Democratic Party voters if they would but just turn out.  Therefore it becomes imperative for the Democrats to make the vote as easy as possible for everyone.  And Covid-19 certainly strengthened that position, with the sending out of ballots that could simply be mailed in, well ahead of voting day, and even in some cases in an allotted time period after that date.  The Republicans fought this move, claiming that mailed-in votes have no way of being authenticated as to who it was that actually voted ... and how many times they might have voted, and what ultimately happened to those mailed-in ballots.

Trump even went on to claim that he had lost the vote in a number of states because of the ease by which fraud was brought into the new voting dynamic ... although he could offer no actual evidence for this claim.  But it did raise the question:  what can be done to preserve the integrity of the vote?

Republicans want the vote to be done the old way:  at a voting station, by a person on record as eligible to vote in that district, and with proper identification, usually just a driver's license ... although identification cards are supposedly available everywhere for non-driving adults.  Democrats answer that such restrictions are designed merely to discourage the nervous voter (supposedly a Democratic Party voter) and thus should be disallowed by law, which the Democrats are working on getting put through (again, principally by way of the federal courts).

This became such an emotional issue that even corporate America jumped in on it ... with the state of Georgia finding itself at the center of a deeply emotional battle over its tightening the disciplines of voting in that state.  Georgia's new standards were actually no more restrictive than, say for instance, New Jersey's ... except that New Jersey is generally considered to be a reliably Democratic Party state, whatever the disciplines, and Georgia is something of a critical swing state.  Thus there was a call by Democrats to boycott Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, headquartered in Georgia ... in order to bring pressure to bear on Georgia to back down on its new identification requirements for voting in that state.  

Protesters on the steps of the Georgia State Capital - Atlanta
March 8, 2021

Protesters calling for a boycott of Delta Airlines
(headquartered in Atlanta) - March 25, 2021
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Likewise the All-Star baseball games were pulled out of Georgia as punishment for the state's new rulings ... and American Airlines and Dell went on record in their loud opposition to the Georgia voting issue.

Congress of course jumped into the issue with its "For the People Act" (H.R.1), passed in the House along purely party lines, 220-210 ... but held up in the Senate, not able to secure a majority there,  The idea of this bill was to take away from the states their constitutional right to determine their own voting procedures, and give that right over to a federal commission ... as if federal commissions were never politically partisan!  Also, it eliminated all identity checks ... making it possible for even illegal immigrants to vote.  It is easily understandable therefore why the Democrats supported this measure and the Republicans opposed it.

Nancy Pelosi explaining H.R. 1 (For the People Act)

And ultimately, it would be yet another step in ending the checks and balances system of the American Constitution, giving federal authorities in Washington yet another major piece of power by which to govern the country.

MAKING WASHINGTON, D.C., A NEW "STATE"

In early January of 2021, a bill was introduced with 202 co-sponsors (Democrats, naturally) to create a new state entitled "Washington, Douglass Commonwealth" (named after Frederick Douglass), with two voting Senators and one Representative allotted it, members of the Democratic Party to be sure.  Whether this would require amending the Constitution (changing the provisions of the 23rd Amendment) or not is debatable, and how the American voting public at large stands on this matter also seems debatable – depending of course on whose poll you consult.  Of course, Biden and Harris were also supporters of this action ... though it seemed to gain no ground with the passing of time.



Congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and a new American
flag with 51 stars ... represeting the inclusion of D.C. as a new
state,  Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.  The House
passed the bill enabling this development ... along party
lines (216-218) in April of 2021.  But itstalled in the Senate.

But this effort would was renewed in Congress at the
beginning of 2025 ... and then again in 2026 in Norton's
effort to make May 1, 2026 "D.C. Statehood Day."

"REFORMING" THE SUPREME COURT

There has been much anger among Democrats over the fact that Trump was able to nominate three individuals to the Supreme Court, ending the small majority that the Left-leaning justices once commanded.  Consequently, the Democrats have put forward the idea of "reforming" the Supreme Court ... by adding four more justices to the bench, that is, by "packing" the Court with Biden nominees – something designed to swing the Court back to the Left politically.  Roosevelt attempted such a "reform" in 1937 ... and it backfired greatly – not even Roosevelt's Democratic Party allies willing to go down this road when it appeared clearly that the American people were convinced that such "reform" was merely another form of political authoritarianism that Roosevelt was increasingly being accused of ... at a time, the 1930s, when authoritarianism seemed to be a general trend around the world.  Remembering the Roosevelt episode, Biden has moved cautiously on the matter, merely setting up a 36-member commission to "study" the issue carefully.  

The Commission submitted its recommendations that same December.  But not much came of the effort.



Biden taking a new tack on the matter, again calling for 
reforms of the Supreme Court (18-year term limit, a new 
code of conduct) - July 2024.
THE DEBATE OVER HIGH-TECH'S CENSORING OF INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS

Not surprising, considering the cultural power they command, some of internet's biggest communities have jumped into the political arena.   A former president of the United States, Trump, was banned from having any further public voice by Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, and a number of other internet biggies ... for political-moral reasons of their own.  But they did have the power.  And they were most willing to use it.

This in turn raised some deeply serious questions.  As anyone should know, a person, group, society, or whatever, can easily find any reason it wants – and justify it morally any way it wants – in order to manipulate and control the public voice.  In short, these major sources of the public voice are completely free to shape and control that voice any way they want.

But such unlimited power inevitably leads to self-justifying tyranny.  And for a free society such as America has proudly seen itself to be (relatively so, anyway), such control raises all kinds of questions ... and fears.  And questions and fears can go in most any direction.

What can America do to keep the public conversation open – and within bounds – and without the conversation referees (Facebook, etc.) deciding which part of the conversation they are going to allow and which part are they going to shut down?

This is only going to be an even more important matter in the fast-developing world ahead of us.  And yet no one seems to have any good ideas on the matter.  All that is heard is just more ideology, supported by clever moral argument.  But it needs clarification and broad agreement in America ... before such unashamedly authoritarian powers as China and Russia take a larger hand in the world of internet communication.

Satellite internet technology:  A double-edged sword
Research Outreach

THE FEDERAL STATE'S GROWING SHARE OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY

Biden and the Democrats pushed hard for a multi-trillion-dollar federal "infrastructure" program put forward by the Democrat-controlled House – which the Senate did its best (complements of a Democrat and Republican balance in the number of seats each holds in the Senate) to pare down in size ... to avoid a further expansion of the government's debt – growing rapily and with no seeming restraint

Also, there has been much contention over the word "infrastructure," which Biden's new programming was principally all about.  The Republicans tend to see government infrastructure in traditional terms:  mostly just roads and bridges (that indeed do need repair), which the Republicans are willing to support.  But the Democrats see infrastructure in far broader terms, everything from a government-supported change in American lifestyles (carbon-free energy and a "greener" approach to domestic development), education of the young, and increase in welfare support ... the latter at the time quite urgent because of the flood of immigrants coming to the country.  In short, "infrastructure"was/is about ideology and politics ... and not just about material development of the nation by the federal government – which itself had only very limited constitutional support prior to Roosevelt's New Deal and Johnson's Great Society.


The last time federal spending was brought under control
was during the years of the Clinton Administration (1990s)  ... 
thanks to the strangle-hold the conservative Republican
leader Gingrich had on government spending (which was
not at all appreciated at the time by either the Democrats
in Congress or the Liberal press!)

MORE MINDLESS GUN VIOLENCE HITS AMERICA

 

 
A young man, Salvador Ramos, 18,  went on a shooting spree
with an AR-15 at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas
– May 24, 2022.  Nineteen children and two teachers were
killed.  He shot in the face, but did not kill, his grandmother
 ... before heading for his rampage at the school.

Los Angeles Times




Uvalde Police take their time going after the shooter waiting
for well over an hour ... while the shooting inside continues
 ... before entering the classroom to shoot and kill the shooter
  New York Times (from a school security camera)



Salvador Ramos texting his plans to do the shooting with the
gun he got for his 18th birthday.

PROTESTERS TAKE ON THE SUPREME COURT

 


Protesters gather outside Kavanaugh's Maryland home –
May 18, 2022.  Someone had revealed that the Supreme
Court was about to overturn Roe v. Wade

National Review

Angry pro-abortion protesters in front of the Supreme
Court building – June 24, 2022
The Mainichi – Japan's National Daily



 Democratic Reps. Nydia Velazquez, Ilhan Omar, Jackie Speier,
 Carolyn Maloney, and Alma Adams  march from the Capitol
to the Supreme Court to protest Roe v. Wade decision ...  
and to be arrested (along with 11 other Congresswomen)
 July 19, 2022
CNN

GOING AFTER TRUMP

The anti-Trump movement in Congress continues ...  led by Congress's House Select Committee (created in July of 2021) which was investigating  the January 6th events ... and which was trying to come up with criminal charges against Trump (fraud, criminal conspiracy) which would put him out of political business and possibly even away in prison.


The Nancy-Pelosi-appointed House Committee is made up
of 7 Democrats and 2 Republicans.  One of the Republicans
is Liz Cheney ... who clearly wants to see Trump put away ...
and the other is Adam Kinzinger ... the only two Republicans
willing to serve on the committee.

Serious charges (which included prison terms) were also aimed at Trump officials for contempt of Congress" when they ignored the committee's subpoenas demanding their appearance before the committee.

MEANWHILE ... A CHRISTIAN REVIVAL SEEMS
TO BE TAKING PLACE WITH GEN Z YOUTH

A massive Christian revival developed at Asbury University in Kentucky ... starting up in February of 2023 and by that fall involving thousands of students.  From there this spirit of Christian revival quickly spread to other college campuses.

It seems that Gen Z youth are not buying the secular worldview passed on to them by their Gen X parents ... and Boomer grandparents before them.  They have seen exactly how much personal happiness, personal worth, personal sense of purpose that a very greedy secular world can offer people ... and are not buying the secular legacy.

Somehow they are turning back to the approach to life by which American generations prior to their Boomer grandparents went at life:  following a personal sense of God's leading spiritually through faith in Christ ... and by way of the Truth of Biblical Scripture.  They are hungry for such Truth, such purpose, such "connectedness" to the larger world  – the "way" that earlier Americans lived by ... and brought America to greatness.

We will see where all this takes America as it moves on to other – time-tested – strategies than the ones crippling America today.

BUT ALMOST UNNOTICED ... AN AMAZING AMERICAN
GRASSROOTS RESPONSE TO A HURRICANE

Making landfall in Florida on September 27, 2024, and doing a vast amount of destruction there, Hurricane Helene made its way north ... and inshort order, with massive rainfall hitting North Carolina, flooded the rivers of the Ashville region, leading the rivers in turn to not only flood numerous towns but to cause landslides that destroyed roads, utilities, and multitudes of homes and buildings.  The devastation was mind-boggling ... especially with the realization that many people had disappeared in the process ... the count ultimately reaching over 100 in that area alone (a similar number as a total of the deaths in the Florida, South Carolina and East Tennesse regions as well).

Of course FEMA was mobilized to help begin the process of rebuilding life in this hard-hit area.  But even more amazing was the response of ordinary Americans who simply took it upon themselves to bring whatever assistance they could to their fellow countrymen suffering from this horrible devastation.

Sadly, the media was so caught up in the dramatics of the upcoming election that while it was quick to cover the destruction (quite dramatic reporting) ... it seemed to find the story of this amazing American response to be of little interest.  Yet this weighed as a greater measure of the strength and character of American society than all of the electoral dramatics.

Even from my own hometown, Pottsville, Pennsylvania, a group of just ordinary citizens became part of this "American response" ... and in oearly October put together a relief program for North Carolina ... termed the Skook Relief Trip ("Skook" a local reference to the name of the Schuylkill County).  This response was so typical of the many similar programs that American put together simply on their own ... that it deserves special coverage as a reminder that America is still ruled by American hearts, not by Washington, D.C. politicians and bureaucrats.


Hurricane Helene did horrible destruction in Florida


But in making its way north it destroyed even more deeply
 through massive flooding ... in particular in the Asheville
area where flooded rivers washed away whole towns  ...
and over 100 people died as a result


But most amazing ... and barely covered by the press was
 the response by numerous American individuals and groups in
bringing sustantial assistance to North Carolina's fellow citizens
... an event which had absolutely nothing to do with what was
going on in Washington ... and thus also most sadly got little
media attention

But this is truly ... America being "America" ... at its best!

These are the guys who put the local project together
 ... definitely not government bureaucrats!

But they soon saw how others – many others – had also arrived
on the scene to help out




For more pictures of this amazing
citizen response to an American tragedy

   
Go on to the next section:

Challenges Abroad

  Miles H. Hodges