A NINEVEH MOMENT – PART II

THE “JONAHS”

In yesterday’s Front Line article, I began a series dealing with the present moment in American political history. It is my thesis that, with the election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States, God may be granting us a “Nineveh moment.” By that I mean a temporary reprieve from the judgment of God that America so richly deserves. In yesterday’s article, I listed the moral and biblical boundaries that America has crossed over the last 50 plus years that has put us in danger of experiencing the judgment of God. In today’s article, I want to chronicle some of the “Jonahs” that have been warning America of impending judgment and have been calling America back to its founding principles. This list is by no means comprehensive. Instead, it surveys those individuals and organizations that, in my opinion, have had the greatest influence in restoring America to its founding principles.

Robert Welch, Jr.: Businessman and founder of The John Birch Society. Mr. Welch (1899-1985) developed an organization infrastructure in 1958 of chapters nationwide. JBS is a conservative advocacy group supporting anti-communism and limited government. Headquartered in Appleton, Wisconsin, under the leadership of its current president Arthur Thompson, JBS owns American Opinion Publishing, which publishes the monthly magazine, The New American. In my view, the John Birch Society is the patriarch of modern day resistance and restoration movements in America.

Barry Goldwater: Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) was an American politician and businessman who was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party’s nominee for President of the United Sates in the 1964 election. Despite losing the election in a landslide, Goldwater is the politician most often credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal and fought through the conservative coalition against the New Deal coalition.

Phyllis Schlafly: Phyllis was an American constitutional lawyer and conservative activist. In 1972 she founded what is now known as The Eagle Forum: The Eagle Forum is a conservative interest group in the United States and is the parent organization that also includes the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the Eagle Forum PAC. She founded Eagle Forum in 1972 and remained its chairman and CEO until her death in September of this year. The Eagle Forum has been primarily focused on social issues such as pro-life and pro-family and reports a membership of 80,000. This organization successfully led the fight against the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. Phyllis Schlafly endorsed Donald Trump and published her last book shortly before her death, entitled, The Conservative Case for Trump.

Ronald Reagan: Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) was an American politician and actor who was the 40th President of the United States. Before his presidency, he was the Governor of California, from 1967 to 1975, after a career as a Hollywood actor and union leader. In 1964, Regan’s speech, “A Time for Choosing,” in support of Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign, earned him national attention as a new conservative spokesman. He ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the U.S. presidency in 1968 and 1976; four years later, he easily won the nomination and went on to defeat incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980. Entering the presidency in 1981, Reagan implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. His tax rate reduction and government regulatory relief spurred economic growth. Over his two terms, his economic policies saw a reduction of inflation from 12.5% to 4.4% and an average annual growth of 3.4% real GDP. His robust foreign policy also resulted in the end of the Cold War and the subsequent fall of the Soviet Union. Many believe that the “Reagan Revolution” was the culmination of the revolution that began under Goldwater.

Ron Paul: Ron Paul (1935-present) is an American author, physician and former politician. He served as the U.S. Representative for Texas’ 22nd district (1976-77; 1979-85) and 22nd congressional district (1997-2013). On three occasions, he sought the presidency of the United State: as the Libertarian Party nominee in 1988 and as a candidate in the Republican primaries of 2008 and 2013. Paul is a critic of the federal government’s fiscal policies, especially the existence of the Federal Reserve, as well as the military-industrial complex, interventionist foreign policies and the War on Drugs. Dr. Paul has also been a vocal critical of mass surveillance policies such as the USA PATRIOT Act and the NSA surveillance program. Known as “Dr. NO” in Congress, Paul is the only member of Congress over the last 50 years to have a perfect voting record in terms of Constitutional compliance. He is known as the “intellectual godfather” of the Tea Party movement, and many believe that the “Ron Paul Revolution” of 2008-2012 set the stage for Trump’s revolutionary victory in 2016.

It is my view that these individuals and organizations laid the essential foundations of Americanism and Constitutional government that the Trump Revolution was built upon. In our next article, I will give my view as to the “MVPs” in this year’s stunning electoral victory.