My title is a reference to the fledgling nation of Israel in their journey from Egypt to Canaan found in Deuteronomy 2:3. God told the nation, “You have circled this mountain long enough….”  I can apply that to the mid-term elections in 2022 and many other elections and ask, “Did, has, or will the GOP learn anything from the elections?” 

Sadly, too often, they repeat the same mistakes, take the same path, and produce lackluster results snatching defeat from victory.  Yes, I said, snatching defeat from victory.  Too often, they cower in fear hiding in the shadows, afraid that the media and Democrats will call them some hurtful name.  This is not a time to be thin-skinned and cowardly.  It is a time to be strong and very courageous; liberty and the republic are at stake.  It is time for a little less talk and a lot more action.  It is time to stop circling the proverbial mountain and chart a path to the promised land of Freedom.

The Red Wave that many were predicting sounded much like previous predictions that failed to materialize.  With the horrible state of the economy, the infringement upon our liberties and inalienable rights, the lunacy of gender blending, the disaster at the southern border, and more, one would have thought the mid-terms would have been a slam dunk. 

When members of the Republican Party’s establishment endorsed Democrats to defeat conservative Republicans and spent enormous amounts of money to help RHINOs get reelected while ignoring winnable seats, you had to know there was a problem.  The best possible scenario in the Senate was a 50-50 split, but instead, we were handed a 49-51 split in favor of the Democrats.  The House was a squeaker, and with the razor-thin majority, little is likely to be accomplished, especially if the RHINOs and Establishment Republicans maintain control of that chamber’s agenda.  If something does not change quickly, we are looking at another lap around the mountain politically.

In Obama’s first term, the Republicans handily won seats in the Senate and House.  This time with a President even less popular than Obama and had created a worse situation on virtually every front, the Donkeys staved off that type of embarrassment.  The mid-terms were eerily like the 2020 elections, with many questionable happenings.  I cannot believe that the voting public would rationally vote for their personal and national decline, but if we believe the election results, they did. 

Joseph Stalin said, “It is not the people who vote that count; it’s the people who count the votes.”  That is so relevant to our political condition; it is almost frightening.  The deafening silence and weak-willed protests by the GOP indicate that we are heading for another lap or two around the mountain.  The question of the past should have been the question of the present – “Are you better off now than you were two years ago?”  Almost nobody could have answered that in the affirmative.  Sadly, the Establishment Republicans focused more on embarrassing Trump than winning a solid majority. 

When the Rasmussen Reports Poll told us that only 28 percent of likely U.S. voters thought the country was headed in the right direction, how can you not have a Red Wave?  When 57 percent see a depression looming and likely, how can you not have a Red Wave?  When 57 percent of the voters believe that the outcome of the elections would result from cheating, how can you not have a Red Wave? 

If the Republicans hope to win in 2024, they must take advantage of the majority in the House and take dramatic steps to fix the election process.  We do not have two years to fix the problem; we have months.  The damage that has been done and will continue to be done is colossal if the GOP does not find a spine and have the courage and willingness to do what is needed. 

If they fix the electoral process and give us verifiable one-person-one-vote elections, the message of Reagan must be articulated.  The case must be made for national sovereignty, national security, prosperity, freedom, and liberty.  It is an easy case to make and an easy precept to be articulated. Still, the Republicans in Congress seem incapable or unwilling to make the case and articulate the principles.  Failure to do so will mean another lap around the mountain if the mountain even exists after the destruction.

The question that needs to be asked and answered is, “Are You Freer Than You Were Before Biden?”  The dirty laundry of the Democrats needs to be aired to give a side-by-side comparison of their charges against Republicans.  Do not give innuendo but factual evidence of the corruption, please. 

The Democrats try to run on the character of some Republicans while engaging in incredible deviousness and practicing colossal unethical behavior.  The Democrats use fearmongering, telling susceptible seniors that the Republicans want to and will take away their Social Security.  A lie that should have been easily debunked, but all we heard were the crickets.  Sadly, even less than crickets and certainly less than articulate and detailed counter was what the GOP gave us.  The lies about abortion and the failure of the GOP to articulate the reality of the ruling simply returning the constitutional decision to the states were less than articulate.

The Democrats project on the Republicans what they are doing, and every action moves us one step closer to totalitarianism and loss of freedom.  But their branding of the Republicans resonates with the low-information voters and those moved by their emotions.  The inane charge that the Republicans, especially the conservative constitutionalist, are somehow a threat to our ‘democracy’ seemed to stick in the minds of too many.  Personality became more important than the economy, freedom, or the republic.

America was founded as a Light Shining on the Hill and the Land of the Free.  There have been enormous sacrifices to keep us that way.  Benjamin Franklin warned regarding the Republic, “if you can keep it.”  We have not kept it as we should have.  Madison warned that we should take alarm and action at the “first experiment or infringement upon our liberties.”  Jefferson characterized the possible attitude of people as follows, “Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.”  They foresaw the dangers that we have ignored.  Thus, we seem destined for another lap around the mountain.

A brief lesson in history reveals that federal spending in 1901 (a lifetime ago) was $588 million.  It remained level until 1917, and then in 1919, the post-war spending drove it to a staggering $5.13 billion.  Spending decreased under Harding and Coolidge, but when FDR took over, it took off like a rocket and increased to $44 billion in 1945.  By 1970 the spending was $159 billion (pocket change compared to today).  It reached the trillion-dollar mark in 1995 and will be over $6.27 trillion in 2022.  This insane spending will not only cause another lap around the mountain, but it will also consume the mountain and the republic.

If you extrapolate that and do the statistical calculations, you realize that spending has increased by a factor of 11,000 over the past 120 years in America.  The only outcome will be the government consuming all the income of the citizens and more and will have control of our lives completely.  Jefferson called it despotism, and, in our day, it can only be called totalitarianism.  The laps around the mountain are unacceptable, and we need to chart a course to restore our Freedom and Liberty.  It is time to awaken from our slumber and cease allowing politicians to handle politics.  We must become the overseers of our government.

I pray you will join the effort to pray down the destruction and pray in the favor of God.  We must pray.  We must work.  We must become involved.  We must vote.  We dare not vote for personality but for what is right. 

God bless you, and God bless America.