“You shall have no other gods before me” – Ten Commandments
“Christians, go vote this time. You don't have to vote anymore. Four more years and things will get better and better. You don't have to vote anymore.” –Donald Trump
Politics has become our official religion.
While those on the left fear a religious coup by evangelical Christians on the right, the danger comes from an entirely different direction: Our constitutional republic has given way to a theocracy built around the worship of a political savior.
Politics has, in effect, become America's God.
If you observe closely any political convention of a presidential candidate, it quickly becomes apparent that Americans have been brainwashed into worshiping political idols created by the Deep State.
In a meticulously orchestrated plan to strip the American people of their power and rights, “We the People” have become the victims of the Deep State's confidence games.
Every con game has six key stages: 1) the foundation to lay the foundation for the illusion, 2) how to reach the victim, 3) the setup to make the victim feel like they have a vested interest in the outcome, 4) the justification (with the help of a third-party accomplice) that the conman is in fact honest, 5) the payoff that allows the victim to experience some initial small “wins,” and 6) the “hurrah,” or a sudden crisis or change of events that creates a sense of urgency.
In this particular game of con, every candidate who is dangled before us as some kind of political savior, including Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, is part of a long-running and elaborate deception aimed at convincing us that, contrary to appearances, we live in a constitutional republic.
Thus, the voters are gullible, the candidates are shills, and as always the Deep State is manipulating the election results.
Terror attacks, pandemics, economic uncertainty, national security threats, civil unrest: these are all engineered crises to heighten a sense of urgency and get us to care about the outcomes of various elections, without changing much in the long run.
No matter who wins this election, we will all remain prisoners of the Deep State.
In fact, the history of the United States is a testament to the old adage that as government (and government bureaucracy) expands, freedom diminishes. In other words, as government expands, freedom diminishes.
Those in power have a never ending appetite for more wealth, more power and more control, so since 9/11 the government's answer to every problem has been more government and less freedom.
But contrary to what some believe, the Constitution is not a magic spell that will stop government misconduct. In fact, the Constitution is only as effective as the people who follow it.
But without courts willing to uphold the Constitution's provisions when government authorities ignore them, and without a public informed enough to be outraged when those provisions are undermined, the Constitution offers little or no protection against SWAT raids, domestic surveillance, police shootings of unarmed citizens, indefinite detention, and so on.
Unfortunately, the courts and the police have become so aligned that anything is permissible in the name of national security, fighting crime and counterterrorism.
As a result, America no longer operates under a judicial system characterized by due process, the presumption of innocence, probable cause, and clear prohibitions on the abuse of government power and the abuse of police power. Instead, our courts of law have been transformed into courts of order that uphold the interests of the government rather than the constitutional rights of the people.
The rule of law, the U.S. Constitution, was once the map by which we navigated our sometimes hostile governmental territory, but it has been unceremoniously kicked out of the runaway vehicle that is U.S. government by the Deep State.
What we are dealing with is a lawless government whose policies are dictated by greed rather than necessity, and to make matters worse, “we the people” are so gullible, distracted and out of touch with reality that we ignore the warning signs all around us in favor of political expediency that will save us in the elections.
But Americans are not the only ones who bow down to the political gods.
Promised power and religious control in the elections, evangelical Christians have become just another tool in the politicians' toolbox.
Evangelical Christians, for example, have repeatedly been duped into believing that Republican candidates from George W. Bush to Donald Trump would save the church, turning the ballot box into a referendum on morality—but in doing so, they have demonstrated a willingness to support totalitarian tactics just like the left.
This is exactly what theologian Francis Schaeffer warned about: “We must not confuse the kingdom of God with our country. In other words, 'we must not wrap Christianity in a flag.'”
Equating religion and politics and allowing the ends to justify the means only empowers tyrants and lays the foundation for totalitarianism.
This path leads to insanity and surely the loss of our freedom.
If you must vote, then vote, but don't make the mistake of treating the ballot box as sacred.
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and its fictional companion, The Diary of Eric Blair, it doesn't matter what religion a particular candidate claims to practice: all politicians submit to their higher power: the Deep State.
About John and Nisha Whitehead:
Constitutional lawyer and author John W. Whitehead is founder and director of the Rutherford Institute. His latest books, The Diary of Eric Blair and Battlefield America: The War on Americans, are available at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at (email protected). Nisha Whitehead is executive director of the Rutherford Institute. Information about the Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
