The IM Writers Association. We aim to create a community of writers who share a common faith and passion for writing that advances the Life of Jesus Christ. #52: A "Farewell" Post-MortemIDENTITY POLITICS | Mark Boonstra: For the good of America, let us pray that our next and future presidents be more like our first.
Listen to our podcast version: Thank God, January 20, 2025 has finally come and gone. We now have a new presidential administration that can begin the process of righting the American ship of state. And, I hope and expect, of igniting a renewal of the American spirit and character based upon the principles of our Founding Fathers.
MOVING FORWARDHistory is replete with examples of evil ideology and the ruthless dictators who advanced it. Hitler. Stalin. Mao Zedong. But unlike the authoritarian Left, we will not employ tactics of coercion and intimidation. We will leave those tactics to the disciples of Satan. We will instead employ the persuasiveness of truth and sunshine, brotherly love, the foundational values of our Founding Fathers, and faith in our Creator.But as we move forward, we must be reminded of what has been. And learn the resulting lessons of history. So, let’s take a quick look back at the disaster that has just ended. After four agonizing years, President Joe Biden delivered a painful “farewell” address on January 15th. What did it tell us? Let’s talk about a few of the take-aways.To begin, Joe Biden is no George Washington.One could fill a book on the reasons why that is true. Washington, of course, was a respected general who led the nation to independence and was elected by acclamation, and against his wishes, as the first President of the United States. A true uniter of the American people. After eight years, President Washington insisted on returning to private life, noting that “while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it,” and he thus voluntarily established the tradition (later codified by the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution) of a two-term limitation on the election of a president. Biden, by contrast, and with all due respect, was a career politician with a lifelong yearning for presidential power who was eventually elected (under a cloud of suspicion), stoked division among the American people, and was unceremoniously thrown from office after a single term, widely regarded as one of the worst presidents in American history. But I would like to focus on Biden’s “farewell,” again as contrasted with that of President Washington. On September 19, 1796, President George Washington, the “Father of our Country” delivered his own farewell address. From the outset, Washington struck a note of profound humility, deriding the supposed “inferiority of my qualifications.” And he proceeded to call for unity amongst all Americans, from north to south, from east to west, noting that “all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means & efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their Peace by foreign Nations; and, what is of inestimable value! they must derive from Union an exemption from those broils and Wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighbouring countries.” Humbling acknowledging that he may have made errors, Washington reverently offered that “I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend.” And he implored Americans to respect religion and morality as our society’s “indispensable supports” and as the “great Pillars of human happiness”: Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labour to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men & citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man ought to respect & to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private & public felicity. Let it simply be asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure—reason & experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. Fast-forward to 2025.Biden began his “farewell” address not with a note of humility, but by taking credit for a just-announced agreement for the release of the relatively few Israeli prisoners who were still alive 15 months after their inhumane abduction by Hamas terrorists. Biden apparently forgot that it was his fecklessness and demonstrated weakness on the world stage—combined with his re-empowering of the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism—that led, in the first place, to the brutal attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, and to the taking of very those hostages (and to the subsequent rape, torture and murder of many of them). And he apparently forgot that it was Donald Trump—the de facto president since November 5, 2024—who by his threat of “hell to pay” actually compelled Hamas to capitulate. This was, of course, very much akin to the Iranian mullahs’ release of 53 American hostages, just as incoming-President Ronald Reagan took the oath of office on January 20, 1981, in fear of retaliation for 444 days of captivity. And he apparently overlooked that it also was Israel’s staunch determination to defend itself and its citizens—against the best efforts of the Biden administration to prevent Israel from doing so—that decimated Hamas to the point of no return (and to agreeing to release the remaining hostages). Biden moved on to paint a fanciful picture of his supposed accomplishments, apparently oblivious to the fact that Americans know better. After all, that’s why they have banished him to the dustbin of American political history. I suppose you can’t blame Biden for trying to salvage something of a legacy. But Americans know what a disaster the last four years have been. Biden then claimed to have “upheld my duty to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition of power.” In fact, of course, he acted—to the bitter end—to obstruct and impede the incoming administration. “Bitter” perhaps best describes the tenor of Biden’s “farewell” address. Along with “disingenuous.”He sought not to unite, but to divide. He attacked the supposedly wealthy, once again repeating the tired, worn (and discredited) line about “beginning to pay their fair share.” He took jabs at the Supreme Court and even against the members of Congress who had forced him to exit the 2024 presidential campaign. And then it got truly weird. Biden warned that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy.” Now the American Left excels at hypocrisy and projection—accusing others of doing what the Left is itself doing. But really? Just whom did the wealthy, powerful, and influential elites in America support in 2024? Why, it was Biden, of course, and his successor in the campaign, Kamala Harris. And it was to Biden (and Harris) that much of the so-called “dark money” he claimed to deride actually went to support. And it was Biden who, just days earlier, had bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom upon George Soros, the very personification of a wealthy oligarch who threatens our democracy. No amount of disingenuous projection can change those facts. But perhaps Biden’s memory has once again failed him. And then Biden warned of “the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex” that is burying Americans under “an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power.” He groused that “the free press is crumbling, editors are disappearing,” and “social media has given up on fact checking.” He claimed that “the truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit,” and warned that “we must hold the social platforms accountable.” The reality, as we have long suspected and is now being confirmed, is that it was the Biden administration that sought to create a “tech-industrial complex,” that colluded with and pressured our media and social media to engage in misinformation and disinformation, that sought to impose censorship, and that acted to undermine our basic First Amendment rights in a gross abuse of power. And what actually upsets Biden and his handlers now is that the colluders are cozying up to the new administration and appear to be jettisoning Biden’s anti-American and anti-freedom agenda. Farewell, President Biden.For the good of America, let us pray that our next and future presidents be more like our first. As President Washington counseled America upon his farewell: ’Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free Government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? The foundation of America’s fabric may have been shaken. But it is not torn. Let’s heed President Washington’s advice and rebuild America upon its “indispensable supports,” the “great Pillars” of religion and morality.
Identity Politics, with Mark Boonstra & Dr. Stephen Phinney, is an extension of IOM America’s IM Christian Writers Association. The mission of the authors is to restore faith in God & country. -Mark | Mark’s Substack | Visit Mark’s Website
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