The guiding light of freedom so dearly exemplified by the United States of America’s free elections and peaceful transfer of power will be hidden behind chain-link fences, razor wire and armed combat military on inauguration day. This signals to the world that the torch of liberty is not so bright as it once was, the hope of self-rule on the decline. What once separated America from other nations has deteriorated to the appearance of either having to protect authority for fear of a coup d’état or having to defend authority because of a coup d’état. What a horrible optic for the inspiration of freedom around the world to be under military lockdown for the “peaceful” handover from one president to another.
The extremists on both sides of the political spectrum are getting what they want. The Capitol Hill riot of Wednesday, January 6 gave the Democratic Party self-justification to lock down the capitol city and display immense authority and power not only to American citizens but to the rest of the world. They are demonstrating that no domestic terrorist, translated as anyone who disagrees with their agenda or political religion, has any right to dissent and that they do so at their own peril. The DC lockdown emboldens the conservative delusionists that the outgoing Administration will invoke the Insurrection Act, declare martial law, and arrest the traitors–defined as anyone who disagrees with their agenda.
Both rely on tyranny as the means to their end. One is based on the historical evolution of socialism and communism to a military state as catalyzed by some form of crisis. The other based on conspiracy propaganda sowing false hope and confusion that the socialists will get their due. Now, the left, through the Mayor of Washington, DC, is telling people to shelter in place and the conservative side is warning its loyalists to stand down and stay inside their homes because something big is going down. Either way, the result is the same for all–citizens are being locked down, their freedom suspended by force or by suggestion. And the big thing going down is that we are all being conditioned to accept a new normal of Liberty Lost.
Now Washington DC is under military rule for the inauguration. Those on both sides of the extremes–by fueling anger, advocating conspiracy theories, proffering misinformation and media lies–have created such distrust and animosity that America looks like a third-world military state while transferring power from one president to the next. Irrespective of what happens on Inauguration Day, we as citizens, especially Christian citizens, of this nation have much self-examination ahead of us. Psalm 20:7 says, “Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” Who do we really trust? If we choose God, then we need to live in such a way to inspire and attract others to do the same, that our way of life might be preserved and proven acceptable unto the Lord.
