The 2016 Election will Determine the Very Survival of our Constitutional Republic

Over the last 10 months I have had discussions with a number of voters. They’ve each expressed their dismay and have revealed feelings of hopelessness and despair, and of a troubled and threatened America and the possible dissolution of the Republican Party. They should realize that they are not alone in their anguish. Many of the American people are under the same dark clouds of doubt, fear and uncertainty. To add to their frustration, they’re angry and disillusioned and have lost trust and faith in their leaders.

In furtherance of this discussion and the impending difficulties this nation might face, there are a number of factors that I believe contribute to the current state of malaise, for want of a better description. Joblessness, the threat of terrorism, future uncertainty, a president and administration out of touch and using executive fiat to undermine the Constitution and accomplish their objectives, then there is the current crop of presidential candidate’s that leave much to be desired. As a people we have become cynical and indifferent in what is fast becoming a morally bankrupt culture, and at the heart of this confluence of forces is a lack of faith.

Patrick Henry wrote, “Virtue, morality and religion. This is the armor, and this alone renders us invincible. These are the tactics we should study. If we lose these; we are conquered, fallen indeed. So long as our manners and principles remain sound, there is no danger. Bad men (or women) cannot make good citizens. It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains”. There is a culture war raging in this nation; traditional values are eroding, the victim of secularism and moral turpitude. Religion is no longer practiced as it once was, with fewer of the American people attending church services, and many having no ties to an organized religion.

We have arrived at a crossroad, and as history has taught us in times such as these, when the people lose hope and to an extant life is filled with trial and tribulation, when there is an absence of faith in their lives and in a higher power, they often succumbed to the empty rhetoric of demagogues and false prophets who appear to be solicitous to their needs and expectations, but whose promises are hollow and often prove to be without substance.

The 2016 presidential campaign has brought before the voting public candidates with broad ideological differences on issues and according to surveys high negative ratings among the people. Over the last 10 months we have been inundated by the media with 24 hour coverage of the primaries, caucuses and the candidates. The internet, radio, TV, news periodicals have been saturated with any and all manner of opinions and theories, some of these conspiratorial in nature.

As part of their agendas, Secretary Clinton, Senator Sanders, and Donald Trump, each have repeatedly stated, if they’re elected, to take the necessary measures to fulfill their campaign promises, these include: to build a fence and close the border, rebuild a decimated military, destroy ISIS, provide free college tuition and medical insurance, terminate the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), deport millions of illegal or undocumented immigrants, tax the rich, reevaluate tariffs, create millions of jobs, close down the coal mines, close certain government agencies, assess our current status with regard to the United Nations. Not one of the candidates, however, has made mention of the Constitution and their duty to uphold this founding document.

According to some reports, certain of our allies have misgivings of the candidates, and their leaders have expressed reservations, especially toward Mr. Trump, who’s often times brash and insensitive comments have left the impression that as president he would take bold measures to reevaluate our associations and international policies. As for Mrs. Clinton, she is considered establishment, and the cloud of scandal is hovering and ever present, as the FBI continues its investigation of her Emails, and congress in her possible falsehoods and negligence in Benghazi.

Of the three, Senator Sanders has a higher likeability rating among the people, but his extreme socialist platform is antithetical to America’s values and the free enterprise system. Some have said that at the outset, the senator was meant merely as a tool used by the democrats to act as buffer, one that protects and absorbs any negative impact by intercepting and moderating adverse pressure on their real choice, Mrs. Clinton. But the senator has shown himself to be a formidable foe and worthy of a shot at the office of president.

We are at a crossroad, the American people will vote in November. Their choice for president will determine not only the direction we will take, but whether the Constitution and the very foundation upon which this nation was built will survive.