Is Wokeness Dying?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the possible demise of wokeness. According to the Blaze TV Staff, the “woke agenda is finally starting to fail in Washington, D.C.” Noelle Mering, author and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy was interviewed by Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson of “Blaze News Tonight” and said the following. 

“I think that we’re experiencing a real transition now with the woke movement. Not in defeat, we need to be cautious but also optimistic. But there’s a lot of people who have broken through the spell of the woke possession” ….

“I think what’s happening is it’s an inversion of reality. It’s been telling us for years everything that’s good for us is actually really bad for us. You know, like your faith is bad for you, your family is bad for you, marriage is bad for you,” she continues….

“What’s transgressive today is going to be boring tomorrow. And you can’t keep pushing the envelope further and further, trying to make a king of your own pleasure,” she explains. “It’s a bit like coming out of a narcissistic personality spell where you’ve been distrustful of your own ability to perceive what’s true.”

“You’ve been manipulated, and once you realize it, you really can’t unsee it any longer,” she continues. “So I think that’s a good source of optimism for us now.”

“I mean, it’s almost as if you’re saying people are awakening, right? I mean this is happening, is that right?” Peterson asks.

“Far more awake than we were a few years ago. I see a real, major sea change of the last couple years, and certainly with the election that is an incredible victory,” she answers, adding, “But, you know, the movement does not take its ball and go home. Real ideologues are power-hungry, and they just reinvent themselves.”

So, wokeness may be down and struggling, but we should not count it out. Those with wokeness syndrome have a lot of power, and power-hungry people do not give it up easily. We must stay alert, but we can hope that wokeness will die soon.

Does Pete Hegseth Deserve All the Support for His Nomination?

Tomorrow Pete Hegseth will go before the Senate, so he will be either confirmed to be the new Secretary of Defense or not. However, no one can ever claim that Hegseth did not have support from veterans who wanted him to be their leader. They know Hegseth personally, and they know his character. They have worked with him in both foreign and domestic situations. They know that they can count on him in both good and bad situations.

According to George Caldwell, one man who has stood up for Hegseth is his long-time friend and Medal of Honor recipient David Bellavia. In an interview with The Daily Signal, Bellavia argued that Hegseth “has been the victim of a smear on the part of “grifting frauds.” It is true that “the legacy media has published countless articles accusing the veteran and former Fox News commentator of rampant alcohol abuse, sexual assault, and incompetence in business.” 

But David Bellavia, a retired sergeant of the Army who received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Iraq War and worked alongside Hegseth on the board of the nonprofit Vets For Freedom for years, completely rejects this characterization.

“We were looking for someone that was young. We were fresh home from the war and we were looking for someone that could articulate what we were doing to the country,” said Bellavia.

“And Pete did it, and he was brilliant at it. So I’m proud to say that helped get him the job at Vets For Freedom and we’re super happy with his leadership,” said Bellavia, who will appear at Tuesday’s Senate confirmation hearing to support Hegseth.

Bellavia explained that he has given numerous interviews – NBC News, The New York Times, the New Yorker. None of the media shared Bellavia glowing praise of Hegseth, and only one used a direct quote. CNN published Bellavia’s comment “calling the criticism of Hegseth’s management of Vets For Freedom funds ‘absurd.’” Bellavia had the following explanation for the media’s behavior.

“Everyone’s reached out to me,” he recalled. “They haven’t used my statements because I’m unapologetically telling the truth. That seems to be in conflict with the people that have their agenda. I’ve talked to everyone that’s called me, and I tell them what I’ll tell you, which is the truth, and they obviously have a problem with that.”

Bellavia is disgusted at the way that the media portrays Hegseth, which is shown in his comments to The Daily Signal: “The grifting frauds that have come out of the woodwork that are taking swings at Hegseth, it’s just so – well, it’s Washington – but it’s just gross to me.”

Bellavia’s view is that Hegseth’s former associates are defaming his character simply because Donald Trump nominated him. [If Biden had nominated him, they would have been praising Hegseth.]

“I’ve been at multiple events where Margaret Hoover and all these other folks that were a part of the right-wing cabal, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, you name it – they were all neocons. And they all said, of our generation, Pete Hegseth is the guy that will be a U.S. senator, governor,” Bellavia added.

“They all wanted him to defeat Amy Klobuchar in that Senate seat. They all said this guy’s future is as bright as the sun. Now all of a sudden he’s a Trump appointee. He’s appointed by Trump and we’ve gotta shut this thing down. It’s disgusting.”

But in Bellavia’s view, Hegseth is not only innocent of these charges, he’s the right man for the job.

“There’s one thing that we currently do not have running the Defense Department, and that’s an intellectual,” said Bellavia.

“What’s the future plan? Lloyd Austin doesn’t think about these things,” he added. “Moreover, we’re gonna have a Secretary of Defense [in] Hegseth who respects the civilian authority under the Constitution in which we should run our Defense Department.”

Why is Biden Making Life More Difficult for Other Democrats?

 Joe Biden is being called the worst President of the United States in history. As if he wants to cement his position at the bottom of the heap, Biden is poisoning the land on his way out of office. In addition to making the transition as difficult as possible, he is impacting the Democrat Party. In the words of Tyler O’Neil in an article published in The Daily Signal, Biden “seems not to care about how his words and actions will impact his own party as he leaves the Oval Office.” 

As Jan. 20 approaches, Biden has taken drastic actions that will likely harm the Democrats long-term. He has suggested that he was wrong to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, set ignominious precedents on pardons, and revealed how the woke elites call the shots on the Left.

These moves may help him achieve his goals, but they demonstrate political recklessness.

1. Trashing Kamala Harris

This week, Biden told USA Today that he  would have defeated Donald Trump, while his own vice president, Kamala Harris, historically fell short….

Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race kicking and screaming. While conservatives had rightly raised concerns about Biden’s health even before he won the 2020 presidential election, much of the legacy media and the White House had repeatedly brushed aside any concerns. The denials reached a fever pitch early last year, when White House staff tried to make Americans think Biden was secretly doing cartwheels between his doddering public appearances.

When the president froze and stumbled through a debate with Trump in late June, the jig was up. The legacy media turned on a dime, letting loose the floodgates of concern about the health of a man they had recently sworn was vigorous and spry.

Even so, Biden insisted he would remain in the race….

Even if it were true that Biden might have beaten Trump, the president does damage to his party by saying it. That keeps the party focused on recriminations, rather than charting its path forward.

2. The Ignominious Pardon of Hunter

Biden also weakened his own party by pardoning his son Hunter.

The president didn’t just pardon his son, however. He issued a blanket pardon not only for crimes Hunter Biden had been found guilty of, but also for “offenses against the United States which he … may have committed or taken part in” during a nearly 11-year period.

This pardon didn’t just enable the first son to avoid prison time; it also aimed to prevent the incoming Trump Justice Department from bringing any other case against Hunter Biden during the time in question….

Biden made history in the worst way with an overbroad pardon, but in doing so, he also managed to highlight the serious corruption questions involving Hunter Biden – and some of those questions also implicate Joe Biden himself.

For a party that claims to care about democracy and the rule of law, defending all of that is a horrible look.

3. Honoring George Soros

The Democrats touted Biden as the moderate option in 2020, but it is no secret that the president has governed as a hard-left ideologue.

The Biden-Harris administration’s woke record was arguably the major factor in alienating voters last year. Biden launched “whole of government” efforts to push transgender orthodoxy, climate alarmism, and “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” His administration pressured Big Tech to stifle dissent on COVID-19, prosecuted pro-life protesters while turning a blind eye to pro-abortion vandals, and spent lavishly on “green” initiatives while Americans struggled to make ends meet amid inflation.

That record helped Trump defeat Harris in November, and Biden is doubling down on it.

Last weekend, Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian honor – to none other than George Soros. Soros, a Hungarian American billionaire, notoriously funded the “rogue prosecutor” movement, supporting soft-on-crime district attorneys who have emboldened criminals by refusing to charge certain crimes. Soros has also bankrolled much of the activist Left through his Open Society Foundations, which his son Alex now runs. Fittingly, Alex Soros received the medal on behalf of his father….

By awarding Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Biden was making clear what many Americans already suspected – that Soros is one of the ones really calling the shots in Washington

According to O’Neil, Biden has taken other actions that could damage Democrats future prospects. He “banned offshore drilling across more than 600 million acres of water” – something that will benefit Soro’s activist groups.

O’Neil reports that other Democrats are warning against “efforts to enforce transgender orthodoxy, especially when it comes to men in women’s sports.” However, Biden is making it more difficult for them.

Whether Biden is acting intentionally in revenge or with other intentions, he “is making life more difficult for his party” in his final month in office.

Who Is Brandon Gill?

My VIP for this week is Brandon Gill, Republican freshman representative from Texas. According to George Caldwell, Gill introduced his first bill in Congress last week. He intended his legislation to reinstate “Remain in Mexico,” Donald Trump’s policy for would-be immigrants. 

The bill would restore a policy from Trump’s first term that required all asylum-seekers coming through Mexico to remain there until their asylum hearing in an American court. President Joe Biden immediately reversed that policy upon taking office in 2021.

In an interview with The Daily Signal’s Bradley Devlin on “The Signal Sitdown” podcast, Gill reviled Biden’s reversal of that policy, but also argued that Trump’s policies must be enshrined into law if they are going to last into the future.

“We had border security under President Trump. Joe Biden got rid of it. Why is that It’s because everything’s been done through executive order,” said Gill.

Ryan Walker, executive vice president of Heritage Action, voiced his support for the legislation, telling The Daily Signal, “Enough is enough. Republicans campaigned on the promise to secure the border, and in November, the American people gave them a mandate to deliver. The Remain in Mexico Act is an important step to protect American citizens and begin restoring stability to our broken immigration system.”

At just 30 years of age, Gill is a young face in one of the oldest Congresses in history. As his first introduced bill, the Remain in Mexico Act serves to position him as a firm ally of Trump on immigration, one of the central issues of the 2024 campaign.

“I think we all recognize this is his mandate,” Gill told The Daily Signal.

“We have a majority in the House because of President Trump, not because of anybody else. We have a majority in the Senate because of President Trump. So, that is the vision that President Trump has cast for the party, which is an America-first agenda. That’s what we’re going to be focused on passing.”

Can Border Security Be Restored?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns illegal immigration. The Biden administration erased the border for all intents and purposes and allowed somewhere between 10 million and 12 million illegal immigrants.

According to Victor Davis Hanson, at least 55 million people living inside the United States were born in a foreign nation – about 16 percent of the people living within the borders of the United States. In addition to the substantial number of foreign-born people living here, there has not been enough “assimilation, integration, [and] civic education.” Hanson then listed several tasks that must be accomplished immediately after Donald Trump is inaugurated. 

·         We need to stop “catch and release.”

·         We need to make entrants, legal entrants, go back to their country if they’re applying for refugee status.

·         We’ve got to finish the walls.

·         Whatever your status is, if you are sending money back to a foreign country from the United States that is singled out as a source of illegal immigration … then the United States government should put a 10% to 20% or 30% tax on all the remittances … around $20 billion.

·         Look at the countries that are the source of illegal immigration in terms of security…. Why would we let them send people here that we have no background checks, have not adjudicated their status? So, we should have a travel ban, an immediate deportation, and immediate consequences for the mother country that knowingly sends these people here.

·         Look at anchor babies. The 14^th Amendment didn’t really ever say … that if you’re born in the United States, then you’re an automatic citizen. It says if you’re born in the United States, and not subject to the laws of another country. All the people coming, in some sense, are subject to the laws of another country.

·         Redefine [citizen status] either through legislation or renewed attempts in the courts.

·         Put a 10-, 20-year ban on people who have been detained here illegally and stop them from applying for a green card or legal readmissions for 20 years.

·         Announce sometime in February: “We want all of you to know, all 12 million who came here during the Biden administration, to take the first iteration of cohort, you have 30 days to go back. If you do not go back to your country, and you are detained, arrested here in the United States, you will be deported, but you will not be given any chance to get a green card for 10 to 20 years,” depending on how the courts or legislation adjudicates it.

·         Look at how we deport people. [For] the first 500,000 who have committed a crime, it will be no problem. There’s unanimous consent, [and] they should be deported immediately.

·         The next iteration, the 1.5 [million], 1.7 million people who have already gone through the system, they’ve been adjudicated, they failed to show up for the court hearings. Or they left detention when they were facing deportation. Those would be the next group that would face deportation.

·         The third group of people… from terrorist countries or terrorist-supporting countries, no one is going to sympathize with their [residence] here.

·         The fourth group is a little trickier, but I think we could pretty easily find hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of able-bodied residents who are on public assistance and who have not been here five years. If you haven’t been here five years, you came during the Biden open-borders era. You were on welfare of some sort, and you’re able to work. You should go back home.

·         That would leave a large group of people who have been here five years. They’ve never committed a crime. They’re not on public assistance. And they want to get a green card, not citizenship, a green card.

Hanson ends with the following: After deporting the worst offenders [10 to 12 million], then we could work “in a bipartisan fashion” to “work out a system for the law-abiding, the productive, and the long-residing American residents and allow them to pay a fine to recapture legality and stay in the United States.”

Even though it will “be a tough road to restore border security,” Hanson believes that with Republicans controlling the White House, the Senate, and the House that it is “absolutely possible” to “quickly” “restore border security.” 

Why Should We Hearken to the Voice of the Lord?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Doctrine and Covenants 1 in a lesson titled “Hearken, O Ye People.” The lesson was introduced by the following information. 

In November 1831, the restored Church of Jesus Christ was just a year and a half old. Though growing, it was still a little-known group of believers living in relatively small towns, led by a prophet in his mid-twenties. But God considered these believers to be His servants and His messengers, and He wanted the revelations He had given them to be published to the world.

Doctrine and Covenants section 1 is the Lord’s preface, or introduction, to these revelations. It clearly shows that even though the membership of the Church was small, there was nothing small about the message God wanted His Saints to share. It is a “voice of warning” for all “the inhabitants of the earth,” teaching them to repent and establish God’s “everlasting covenant” (verses 4, 8, 22). The servants carrying this message are “the weak and the simple.” But humble servants are just what God calls for – then and now – to bring His Church “out of obscurity and out of darkness” (verses 23, 30).

The lesson included the following principles: (1) “Hearken, O ye people” (Doctrine and Covenants 1), (2) The Lord speaks through His servants, including latter-day prophets (Doctrine and Covenants 1:4-6, 23-24, 37-39), (3) The Lord uses “the weak and the simple” to accomplish His work (Doctrine and Covenants 1:19-28), and (4) The Restoration helps me face the challenges of the latter days (Doctrine and Covenants 1:12-30, 34-36). I feel prompted to discuss the last principle.

In Doctrine and Covenants section 1, the Lord explains why He restored His gospel. How many reasons can you find in verses 12-23.

12 Prepare ye, prepare ye for that which is to come, for the Lord is nigh;

13 And the anger of the Lord is kindled, and his sword is bathed in heaven, and it shall fall upon the inhabitants of the earth.

14 And the arm of the Lord shall be revealed; and the day cometh that they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants, neither give heed to the words of the prophets and apostles, shall be cut off from among the people;

15 For they have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant;

16 They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall.

17 Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments;

18 And also gave commandments to others, that they should proclaim these things unto the world; and all this that it might be fulfilled, which was written by the prophets—

19 The weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones, that man should not counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh—

20 But that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world;

21 That faith also might increase in the earth;

22 That mine everlasting covenant might be established;

23 That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers.

The first reason that I see is that Heavenly Father loves all His children, and He wants all of them to return to His presence. He knows and understands that no one can return to His presence without listening to His prophets and apostles, keeping His commandments, receiving His ordinances, and making covenants with Him.

Heavenly Father accepts those people who repent and come unto Him and His Son Jesus Christ. Then They send some of the people who accept the gospel out to share it with those who have not heard it. God gathers His children one by one individual and one by one family.

Another reason for God giving this warning is that He knew that our day would have serious challenges (see verse 17). He wants all of us to increase our faith in Jesus Christ, repent of our sins, and make covenants with God.

President Russell M. Nelson used the example of Captain Moroni, commander of the Nephite armies, who “faced opposing forces that were stronger, greater in number, and meaner.” Knowing that his armies were disadvantaged, he prepared his people in three essential ways. (See “Embrace the Future with Faith,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2020, 73-76,for more information.)  

First, he helped them create areas where they would be safe – “places of security” he called them. (See Alma 29:5; 50:4.) Second, he prepared “the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord.” (Alma 48:7.) And third, he never stopped preparing his people – physically or spiritually. (See Alma 49-50.)

Why Should We Keep Personal Journals?

Families and communities are stronger when individuals maintain personal journals. My family has much more information about my father than we do about my mother because Dad wrote his personal history, and Mom did not. Much of the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was written and corrected due to personal journal entries about historical events.

President Spencer W. Kimball is well-known for his journal keeping, and he spoke or wrote about keeping journal on several occasions. In his article “The Angels May Quote from It” (New Era, Oct. 1975), President Kimball wrote the follow to remind us of the importance of keeping journals. 

“The Lord Jesus Christ Himself emphasized the great importance of record keeping to the Nephites and Lamanites.” Christ asked the people why the fulfillment of Samuel’s prophecies about the resurrection had not been recorded. “And Jesus said unto them, How be it that ye have not written this thing, that many saints did arise and appear unto many and did minister unto them? And it came to pass that Nephi remembered that this thing had not been written. And it came to pass that Jesus commanded that it should be written; therefore it was written according as he commanded.” (3 Ne. 23:6-13; italics added).

In the same article, President Kimball gave counsel about how to start journal keeping, something even young children can do.

Get a notebook, a journal that will last through all time, and maybe the angels may quote from it for eternity. Begin today and write in it your goings and comings, your deepest thoughts, your achievements and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies. Remember, the Savior chastised those who failed to record important events.

President Kimball again wrote about keeping journals in his article “President Kimball Speaks Out on Personal Journals,” New Eras, Dec. 1980, 27). He cautioned us about discounting how important the details of our lives that we consider to be “monotonous” will be to our posterity. 

People often use the excuse that their lives are uneventful and nobody would be interested in what they have done. But I promise you that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations.”

The life of every individual is valuable to someone. It may be parents or siblings, children or grandchildren. Wise parents will keep their own personal journal and then encourage their children to do the same. By doing so, they can strengthen their extended family and their community.