Idolatry in U.S. Politics
A False Equivalency
I'm going to put this out there:
Is a person who was shot at and missed a hero?
From what I have always known a hero is someone who is courageous and/or possesses noble qualities. Such as a person who saves another person's life. A person that will go to any length to help the less fortunate so that they may have a better quality of life. The hero is someone who goes into action to save someone or help someone. Simply dodging a bullet is not a heroic action.
The aggrandizement of someone and lifting them up to a false equivalence of heroism is akin to idolatry.
1 Corinthians 10:14
Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
1 John 5:21
keep yourselves from idols.
Please people do not let yourselves be sucked in by this idolatrous behavior. Keep your feet firmly planted in the roots of what is truly admirable and courageous.
Heroes usually have backgrounds that are consistent with their heroic status. There was always a trend line they were progressing along that would eventually bring them to their heroic pinnacle. Rape, fraud, theft, traitorous actions, lies, name-calling, and adultery usually are not included in such a back story.
Appearances can be deceiving. A person that struggles to speak and stumbles over their words does not mean they are feeble-minded or dimwitted. Some of the most gifted people in this world are embarrassingly socially awkward.
The humble and awkward person may actually be the one that gets the job done effectively. While the aggrandized one continues to bask in the glory of their celebrity.
Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare.
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βHe's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured." - A comment made by Donald Trump in 2015 regarding John McCain's service in the Army Air Corps.
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Many times Donald Trump has commented that there were no wars during his time in the White House. This is factually untrue. While maybe there weren't any wars started during his time there were several wars that continued and escalated during his time.
Trump ramped up troops and attacks in Iraq and Syria in which 65 of U.S. troops died.
The Russo-Ukranian war began in February 2014. This war contniued throughout Trump's entire occupation of the White House. Trump did nothing to stop Putin's war on Ukraine. Initially Trump eased sanctions on Russia which made it easier for Putin to excalate attacks on Ukraine and gave him the funds he needed to build his strategy against Ukraine. However, Trump did evwntually tighten sanctions only due to mounting pressure from the Democratic led Congress.
If we consider the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq War, Trump joins Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower in not having officially brought the United States into a new war since 1945.
Just four of the 13 presidents in office between 1945 and 2020 -- Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush β officially brought the country into new full-scale wars (Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq).
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Donald Trump also mentioned that there were no terrorist attacks on U.S. soils during his time. The following is a list of terrorist attacks that happened in the U.S. while Trump was in office.
Dec. 6, 2019: βA member of the Saudi Air Force, identified as Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, opened fire on a classroom in the Naval Air Base in Pensacola, Florida, United States. Four people, including the assailant, were killed and eight others were injured in the attack.
Dec. 17, 2017: βAn assailant driving a Home Depot rental truck entered a bike path in an attempt to run over civilians on the West Side Highway in Lower Manhattan, New York City. s, five Argentinian tourists, and one Belgian tourist, were killed and 13 other people, including the assailant, were injured in the attack.
Dec. 11, 2017: βA suicide bomber detonated explosives [a pipe bomb] at Port Authority Bus Terminal between Seventh and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, New York.
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Let's not forget the ongoing violence in the streets during Trump's term in the White House. 2017 through 2021 was a time of major social unrest. There was a non-stop barrage of protests and riots across the entire United States. Many could have been avoided had Trump used different language during his commentaries/speeches regarding some of these protests. Comments he made such as: "There are some Very Fine People on Both Sides,"When the looting starts, the shooting starts," In May 2017 after then-candidate Greg Gianforte attacked reporter Ben Jacobs, Trump said, "Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my type!"
Never have we had a president that was so careless with his words. Trump may claim his intent was not to incite violence, but the reality is hateful talk will eventually result in violence.
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Do we really want to put this careless man back in charge? Will there be a new candidate to replace Joe Biden in the presidential race? Will this new candidate be a strong contender?
Currently the economy is on an uptick. The stock market has been extremely strong over the past few months, job creation continues to be amazing. These new jobs are high paying jobs in construction, architecture, design, city planning, mapping, gas prices have recently decreased by $1.00 per gallon, manufacturing jobs have consistently since 2021, inflation is decreasing, many major retailers are cutting prices on thousands of products.
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Let's keep in mind what happens to the U.S. Supreme Court if Donald Trump makes it back into power. If you think it can't get any worse believe me you are wrong. Factors such as the Supreme Court and Project 2025 will work to take away the civil rights and freedoms from about 60% of the U.S. population. Those that will be hit hardest will be the LGBTQ community, Trans rights will be abolished, voting for will be more of a challenge for minorities, the quality of healthcare for women will decrease, further tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest will greatly increase the national debt, social programs such as Medicare, Social Security, and such will suffer.
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My thought is that this presidential election is going to take yet another turn in the next two weeks that will turn it all completely upside down and greatly change the trajectory of the race. Momentum seems to be going toward Donald Trump, however that may be very hard for him to maintain.
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With Love, RHC β€οΈ
About the Creator
Rick Henry Christopher
Writing fulfills my need for intellectual stimulus, emotional release, and soothing the bruises of the day.
Iβm an open book. Iβm not afraid to show my face or speak my mind
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Comments (11)
Excellent content Rick - this should be a top story! This rang true especially, βhateful talk will eventually result in violence.β Thank you for sharing these important messages.
Interesting, a good read.
I sincerely hope it is not maintained.
Ewww, no matter what, he would never and could never become a hero!
Well said. I applaud you. π€π€π€πππ
ONE more sentence, a bit of history that is true of many others. My far right wing brother gave me a turtle one time for a birthday present in my 20s. He told me he was the fast Hare, and I was the tortoise, too slow. I told him then, "Hmm, I was watching him run so much to run out of breath and I would meet him at the finish line of the race because I was watching him make a fool of himself trying to be so cool. lol So, the story struck a trigger but a good one. Let's get to the finish line and win while the Hare runs around saying, "What's up Doc?" All the while Democracy sits on the finish line while the Hare tuckered out at the last curve around the mountain as the Hare huffs and puffs, democracy won.
THIS IS A VERY TRUE STORY! I have this song playing over & over in my head, "Something happening here, there's a man with a gun over there." The song is still prevalent today. With Rumpus at the wheel I and many others will lose their social security, healthcare, and be forced to live on the street & be shipped off to a homeless internment camp as written into PROJECT 2025 BY THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION & it's author. Their goal is to dismantle our constitution and terrorize citizens that do not agree with their far right wing Nazi agenda. It is a dystopian nightmare.
I recently wrote one of my Stories-of-the-Day which included the following: "A true democracy gets what it wants; then it gets what it deserves."
The "Progressive Left" lost me when it started embracing Islamic terror organizations, taking over campuses, and dressing like ISIS while waving the flags of Hezbollah and Hamas, all the while chanting "Al-Quassam, we love you, we support your rockets too." NO THANK YOU. America is going to need a strong, resolute leader for what's coming in the next few years. Our enemies will not respect weakness, vacillation, or fence-straddling. As far as who is and who isn't a "hero," well, he may not be a hero, but getting shot and getting back up and fist-pumping the air? He's at least a badass. He went up a dozen notches in my eyes after that.
Amen brother!
I have been waiting for someone to step up with this very subject; thank you for taking the leap. Heroism, is that even a word now?, is when a man throws his body on his family and dies saving them. Ear grazing was mastered by Van Gogh as I recall.