In December, I was sitting on my front porch when my phone lit up with a message from Rush Limbaugh.
He and my wife have variants of the same type of lung cancer, though hers was caught very early, and her treatment has thus far contained it. Rush knew she had an older iPhone with touch-ID, and he had been chiding me to upgrade her phone. He didn&#8217;t quite understand my wife&#8217;s resistance to technology and insisted I was neglecting my wife by failing to give her a state-of-the-art phone.
Undeterred, he now wanted me to know he was sending her a new iPhone 12 Pro Max because he was convinced her chemo would screw up her fingerprints and make unlocking her phone difficult, which it already had been. My wife now has a better iPhone than me, thanks to Rush.
That is the sort of guy Rush was. In the midst of his own far more serious battle with cancer, he was insistent my wife have a better phone.
I was not alone in benefiting from his generosity. He was generous with advice and with iPhones, and God help you if you offered to buy lunch at a restaurant. You&#8217;d inevitably wind up aggrieving the wait staff, who knew Rush was the best tipper in the restaurant. The Erickson household has had several generations of iPhones show up thanks to Rush. At one point, Rush and I would race each other to buy the phone and email to claim victory. Then he started letting other people order for him, and it wasn&#8217;t a fair fight anymore.
Back in 2010, as Herman Cain was preparing to run for President, Cox Media Group offered me Herman Cain&#8217;s job. I was running the website RedState and also on CNN and served as a city councilman in middle Georgia. I was not sure I should take the job, but Rush told me he would never speak to me again if I said no.
A decade later, having filled in as a guest host for Rush along the way, I&#8217;m now doing five hours of radio — my own syndicated show and local drive-time radio in Atlanta on one of the most listened to talk stations in the country.
I owe much of my career to Rush.
When I was a teenager making obligatory college visits with my dad, we stumbled on Rush&#8217;s program while driving through Alabama. My dad was searching for Paul Harvey. We developed a shared affection for Rush, and even when we couldn&#8217;t talk about other things, we could talk about things Rush had said on air. I&#8217;d stay up late at night and watch Rush&#8217;s TV show, which Fox News head Roger Ailes had produced.
The day my parents finally stopped suggesting I should probably hold onto my law license was the day I filled in for Rush the first time. Years before, Rush had referred to me on air as &#8220;my friend Erick Erickson,&#8221; and it was the first time I could remember my dad calling me to say how proud he was — not that it was the first time, but it was the first memorable time, because he just about ran off the road when he heard it and was out of breath when he called.
Rush Limbaugh pioneered a model of radio, and a lot of us would not be doing what we are doing but for Rush. He created an industry that did not exist before him. All of us in this business know none of us will ever be as good as him. Rush Limbaugh was the best and will perpetually be the gold standard by which everyone else in talk radio is measured.
There&#8217;s a public caricature of Rush Limbaugh that was formed by those jealous of his success and contemptuous of his views. Then there is the real Rush Limbaugh — a friend, a mentor and now the man who gets to personally deliver his talent back to the God of all creation from whom Rush got it and who Rush knew, loved and served.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Rush Limbaugh

ERICKSON: My Friend, Rush

Conservatism

In December, I was sitting on my front porch when my phone lit up with a message from Rush Limbaugh.

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Sixty-one Republicans in the House voted to oust Rep. Liz Cheney as Chair of the House Republican Conference this past Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said that those opposed to Cheney had the votes to oust her. Earlier in the week, some House conservatives claimed they had over 107 votes and possibly 120 committed votes.
In public, the House GOP engages in performance art for former President Donald Trump and Trump voters. In private, they&#8217;re still more the Bush-Cheney party than the Trump party.
The problem for the GOP is they can&#8217;t govern behind closed doors. One thing they have going for them though is that the Trump wing of the party spends so much time performing for cameras that they don&#8217;t seem to be able to count votes.
It is worth paying attention to some history.
Dick Cheney served as the first White House Deputy Chief of Staff, a position created for him by President Gerald Ford. He went on to serve as the seventh White House Chief of Staff. From that position, he ran for the United States House of Representatives and served Wyoming from 1979 to 1989. He ended his tenure in the House as Chairman of the House Republican Conference. He left Congress to serve as Secretary of Defense before departing Washington and then returned as Vice President of the United States.
Fast-forward 30 years from his tenure as Chair of the House Republican Conference. His daughter, the current House Representative from Wyoming, took on that position in 2019.This is an ongoing problem for the backbench conservative fighters in the House. They can sometimes scuttle things, but they cannot necessarily advance their agenda without Trump.
The Cheney family knows politics and policy. They know how to count votes.
What the Trump wing of the party needs is Jim DeMint&#8217;s Conservative Partnership Institute. With word that Trump&#8217;s Chief of Staff and former North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows is joining DeMint, if Trump supporters want to invest in growing their movement, they should look there.
What DeMint understands is conservatives need congressional staff who know the rules, can maneuver and build coalitions, and can count votes. They need to understand that, often times, you can&#8217;t undo things, but you can stop things from happening. Occasionally, you can even advance sound policies.
The establishment dislikes DeMint. They hated him while he was in Congress, and they hated him at the Heritage Foundation. But DeMint has persisted in a commitment to finding and training not just good conservatives but also staff for conservative members. He understands it is not just about getting a right-of-center staff; it is about getting a committed conservative staff that is also competent.
As much as a lot of the GOP would like to be rid of that meddlesome Trump, just as they wanted to be rid of that meddlesome DeMint, Trump actually showed there is a path to Black and Hispanic voters that runs through cultural and economic issues. There is a place for an ideology that is less Wall Street and more Main Street. There is a place for cultural, pro-life conservatism that understands the plight of workers with big ideas against an elite who tilts the playing field toward their large donors.
DeMint has long understood this and that a congressman is only as effective as his staff. Couple him with Meadows in finding good candidates to run for office, and they have the potential to build out conservative operations that can count the votes and know when to advance and when to hold.
Last week, the Trump wing of the GOP tripped themselves up, and Liz Cheney called their bluff. I think the party needs both sides. I firmly believe the GOP needs more like DeMint, who long made sure his own party was held accountable. I firmly believe the Trump wing of the party, if it starts training staff and working with the with people like DeMint, will be able to ensure the party holds the line on public policy and will give life to what so many now call Trumpism.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Capitol

ERICKSON: A Moment For Jim DeMint

Liz Cheney

Republican Party

Trumpism

Sixty-one Republicans in the House voted to oust Rep. Liz Cheney as Chair of the House Republican Conference this past Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Rep.

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One of the attributes of the American dream is that the little guy can become the big guy. Or rather, through the creative destruction of the free-enterprise system, a small entrepreneur may destabilize and replace a larger competitor through innovation, cost savings and better ideas.
American history is full of stories of small entrepreneurs with good ideas displacing preexisting giants in the marketplace. Over time, however, that has become less the case. Now Goliath hires an army of lobbyists who help shape the regulatory code and the tax code and draft legislation to provide competitive advantages for themselves or disadvantages for would-be competitors.
The little guy cannot become the big guy, because the big guy has lobbyists. It is no coincidence that Democrats are decrying the wealth gap and the inability of the little guy to become the big guy at a time the big guy is engaged in shaping federal policy and funding the Democrats. The Democrats&#8217; solution is to make the little guy more comfortable but also punish him if he dares to get too successful. The Republican solution has largely been to prop up the big guys and bail them out when they falter, equally ensuring there can be no competition.
Whether it is the 2008 financial crisis or now, the government has created more moral hazard in the economy by bailing out and propping up a lot of financial institutions and other companies that should be wiped out in the creative destruction of the free market. A correction is coming, if only because the government has intervened so often to prop up so many that should be dead or left to die.
Likewise, major corporate Goliaths are now advocating government policies that stifle the David competitors. Amazon can embrace a $15 minimum wage and major online retailers can support an internet sales tax because they are billion-dollar companies. The would-be competitor does not have that money.
Along comes the GameStop saga. First, let me explain at a very basic level what short selling is.
Short selling is when someone or some entity borrows stock, not money, from a brokerage. The short seller thinks the stock is going to go down. So, Short Seller X borrows 10 shares of Company A from Brokerage for 30 days. X then sells the stock at $100 and pockets $1,000. Within 30 days, the stock has fallen to $50 a share. X then buys back the shares at $50 and returns the shares to Brokerage, and X has profited $500.
Hedge funds love to do it. Along comes a hedge fund that sees GameStop and thinks GameStop stock is going to go down. So, the hedge fund borrowed shares and sold the shares, and the public got wind of it.
A group of day-trading gamblers on Reddit operating under a subreddit called WallStreetBets decided to buy up GameStop, which would force the hedge fund to buy even more before the price got too high, in order to minimize its losses.
In doing so, both the financial press and many regulators treated the &#8220;redditors&#8221; as the bad guys. Robinhood, a popular trading app backed by major Wall Street financiers, stopped allowing people to buy GameStop and other stocks involved. CNBC hosts and guests excoriated the regular stock traders having the audacity to drive up a stock price and hurt a hedge fund. Goliath, yet again, had the elite rally to protect him from David.
If the system always protects Goliath, then at some point, David is going to try to not just slay Goliath but also burn the system down. The system turning on the regular guy pushes the regular guy to find their own Goliath, which may look like Trump 2024.
David does not need big government, a social safety net or a nanny state. He needs rocks, and he&#8217;s starting to throw them at whichever party tries to protect Goliath. Yes, people will lose money. Some people may be financially ruined. But risk-taking by regular Americans is essential to the American dream. David must be allowed to slay Goliath.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Robinhood

ERICKSON: Let David Slay Goliath

Stock Market

Wall Street

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F. F. Bruce is one of those scholars I have had to spend a lot of time reading in seminary. He researched and wrote some of the best material on the history of the Bible and its accuracy. In studying the ancient texts that we have, Bruce has noted that there are only around nine or 10 manuscripts of Caesar&#8217;s Gallic War, which was composed between 58 and 50 B.C. The oldest manuscript we have originates from 900 years later.
Bruce writes: &#8220;The History of Thucydides (c. 460-400 BC) is known to us from eight (manuscripts), the earliest belonging to circa A.D. 900, and a few papyrus scraps, belonging to about the beginning of the Christian era. The same is true of the History of Herodotus (c. 488-428 BC). Yet no classical scholar would listen to an argument that the authenticity of Herodotus or Thucydides is in doubt because the earliest (manuscripts) of their works which are of any use to us are over 1,300 years later than the originals.&#8221;
Take, as well, something like Homer&#8217;s Iliad, which people passed to one other over the centuries by oration, until it was finally written down. Until the 19th century, most people presumed Troy a myth. Then, archeologists found it. The &#8220;rage of Achilles&#8221; was probably true. In the centuries before the printing press — even before monks and script — people preserved their histories through accurate recitation over generations. Apply this all to scripture.
Regarding the Old Testament, it is perhaps the most accurately reproduced ancient text in the entire world. Scribes took great care, because they were writing God&#8217;s word. We know the accuracy of the text has been beyond reproach for at least 2,500 years. The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls confirms this.
Regarding the New Testament, we possess enough of the writings of early church leaders who wrote within about 100 years of Christ&#8217;s resurrection to be able to reproduce the gospels and letters of Paul and John. There are over 20,000 handwritten manuscripts of the New Testament from the first few centuries of Christianity, written in Coptic, Greek, Latin, Syriac and other languages. There are 5,700 New Testament Greek manuscripts known to exist, and some of those were written within about 100 years of Christ&#8217;s resurrection.
We do not, to our knowledge, have the original New Testament texts as actually written by Luke, Paul, John and others. But we have the copies of them from very close in time to the originals. The scribes of the New Testament — sometimes working at a furious rate to outpace Roman soldiers — made occasional errors. But those errors were mostly in grammar and punctuation, not errors of substance.
Bart Ehrman is one of the scholars on whom Biblical skeptics rely. Ehrman was a fundamentalist Christian but now considers himself an agnostic atheist. He studied under Bruce Metzger, who, like F. F Bruce, is noted for his scholarship on the Biblical texts. Ehrman writes that though he has textual criticism of scripture, his criticism &#8220;does not actually stand at odds with Prof. Metzger&#8217;s position that the essential Christian beliefs are not affected by textual variants in the manuscript tradition of the New Testament.&#8221; When an agnostic atheist like Ehrman agrees with a highly respected Christian scholar like Metzger — who was Ehrman&#8217;s professor — that &#8220;the essential Christian beliefs are not affected by textual variants,&#8221; you should pay attention.
One of those essential Christian beliefs is the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. It is as foundational a belief to the Christian faith as the resurrection. In fact, I suspect the very people who doubt the miracle of the virgin birth also doubt the resurrection. I believe both are true. We celebrate Christ&#8217;s birth this Christmas season in communion with more than 2 billion other Christians globally who accept the virgin birth as true. &#8220;For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.&#8221;
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Nativity

ERICKSON: The Authenticity Of The Virgin Birth

Christianity

Christmas

Jesus Christ

F. F. Bruce is one of those scholars I have had to spend a lot of time reading in seminary. He researched and wrote some of the best material on the

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Let&#8217;s take a break from the election. &#8220;Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong,&#8221; said Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, in A.D. 156 before climbing onto a pyre where Roman authorities would burn him to death. Eyewitnesses reported the local authorities respected Polycarp and begged him to recant his faith in Christ. He would not. The Romans did not even tie Polycarp to a post because they knew he would not flee the fire. Polycarp fed his captors, prayed over them and then climbed the pyre to die.
Authorities carted off Polycarp&#8217;s friend Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, and fed him to wild beasts in the Circus Maximus on July 6, 108. Ignatius had refused to renounce Christ. Histories of the time, their personal writings and the writings of others tell us Polycarp and Ignatius were students of the Apostle John. They vouched for him as the author of his gospel. John installed Polycarp as bishop of Smyrna, and the Apostle Peter placed Ignatius in charge of Antioch.
In A.D. 99, the Romans drowned their acquaintance Clement in the sea tied to an anchor for the same reason. Paul mentioned Clement in his letter to the Philippians, and history shows Clement interacted with Peter, Paul and John.
Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp were one generation removed from the direct eyewitnesses of Jesus. They were students of the Apostles. They vouched for the veracity of the apostolic letters that form the New Testament. They died refusing to reject Jesus as the Christ.
Some skeptics say Jesus did not exist, but by any historic standard, the man known as Jesus of Nazareth existed. If he did not exist, then neither did the Greek philosopher Socrates. We have no writings from Socrates himself. We only know of his existence through the writings of other people. But no one would doubt Socrates existed. We actually have more eyewitness accounts of Jesus&#8217; existence than of Socrates&#8217;. Some, however, argue that because Jesus made claims of divinity, there must be extraordinary evidence — perhaps as to his divinity, but not for his historic existence. We have to wipe a lot of people out of history to wipe Jesus out of history.
The Apostle John was Jesus&#8217; best friend. We know this from Scripture. We also know this from Polycarp, Ignatius and others. They studied under John, recounted his stories of being with Jesus, including stories not in Scripture, and confirm John, Peter, Paul and others as eyewitnesses to Christ&#8217;s resurrection.
According to John, Jesus&#8217; own brothers, perhaps like some reading this, rejected Jesus&#8217; claims of divinity. At Jesus&#8217; death, John had to care for Jesus&#8217; mother because none of Jesus&#8217; brothers or sisters went with Mary to the crucifixion. John, Luke, Paul and others tell us Jesus&#8217; brothers then became leaders in the early Christian church.
Histories of the era recount that James and Jude, the brothers of Jesus, wrote the New Testament letters named after them. Both were executed for proclaiming Jesus as the risen Lord. In fact, the Romans ultimately exterminated the entire earthly blood line of Jesus&#8217; family.
The leaders of Jerusalem respected James. The oral and written histories of the early Christian church recount that they asked James to publicly push back against claims of his brother&#8217;s divinity. Instead, James proclaimed his brother Jesus, who he had rejected prior to Jesus&#8217; death, was Yahweh. The leaders of the city, enraged, carried James to the top of the temple wall in Jerusalem and threw him off to his death.
Jesus could have been a conman surrounded by other conmen. They, in turn, were willing to die to keep the con going and got others to die keeping the con going. Or there is something else. Dozens claimed to be the Christ, but only Jesus is remembered and worshiped as the Christ. Why?
Perhaps because it is true. I, however, cannot convince you more than that the historic evidence for his existence and the willingness of many to die for him are true. But if I am right, you can ask Jesus yourself. Take to your knees, and embrace the wonder of this season.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Cross and stained glass

ERICKSON: An Evidence-Based Faith

Let&#039;s take a break from the election. &quot;Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong,&quot; said Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, in A.D. 156

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Four hundred years ago, the religious dissidents we know as the Pilgrims began arriving in New England. Just as The New York Times has decided to engage in revisionist history of our nation&#8217;s founding with its &#8220;1619 Project,&#8221; this past week, USA Today tried the same with Thanksgiving.
In all the revisionist readings of American history, what the progressive reeducators of our history downplay is that great marvel carried into the New World in New England after the brutal winter of 1620 into 1621.
William Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth Colony, wrote his history of the period called &#8220;Of Plymouth Plantation.&#8221; Bradford claimed the Pilgrims intended to share &#8220;the gospel of the kingdom of Christ&#8221; with the people who resided in America.
The Pilgrims came intent on establishing their new colony like the early church. Acts 2:44-45 note of the early church, &#8220;And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.&#8221; The Pilgrims, based on the demands of investors back in England, organized themselves along the same lines. The key difference was the early church did it voluntarily, and the Pilgrims would use their colonial government to enforce it. Property, housing, cattle and everything else would be communally shared.
Arriving in November of 1620 with 102 people aboard the Mayflower, half the ship&#8217;s population was dead within months. By 1623, in desperate straits, Bradford determined their communal living arrangements were failing them. The Pilgrims were learning that some worked harder than others, and all of them knew everything would be divided equally.
Bradford documented the decision to abandon communal living in favor of private property. He wrote: &#8220;At length, after much debate of things, the Governor (with the advice of the chiefest amongst them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves; in all other things to go on in the general way as before. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number.&#8221;
The establishment of private property for each family to tend for themselves provided incentive for not just self-improvement but for community flourishing. Those with excess could trade with those whose labor was not as successful. Eventually, even the housing and farm animals in the colony were divided up and pulled out of the &#8220;common good,&#8221; as Bradford described their communal arrangement.
By providing each family land and corn, from which that family could then grow their food, harvest and replant from their harvest, the Plymouth Colony grew and prospered. The experiment by that religious colony after their first Thanksgiving helped pave the way for what is commonly called the &#8220;Puritan work ethic.&#8221; Through one&#8217;s own hard work and initiative, a person could make a living for himself.
Now, here in the 21st-century, some seem to have forgotten that lesson, and others are intent on writing it out of the history books. Socialism is all the rage with some, and even more have decided the government should pick winners and losers in our society. The survival of the Pilgrims should teach us better lessons.
Private property, commerce and free enterprise are good things. The further a country moves away from them, the worse those countries perform. Even China, while trying to preserve communism, is allowing its citizens to embrace free enterprise, though not private property. Our private property system gives us advantages, including an entrepreneurial spirit.
Unfortunately, on a bipartisan basis in Washington, our regulators and legislators are increasingly propping up systems that are not fair or level. David cannot slay Goliath, because the tax code and regulatory structure favor and subsidize Goliath while driving up competitive costs for David. We should be thankful for the many blessings we have in this country, and we should, as a matter of policy, remember the Pilgrims and recommit to the ideals of hard work and private ownership to allow all Americans access to the American dream.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire. 
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Pilgrims

ERICKSON: The Puritan Work Ethic

Capitalism

Thanksgiving

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Last week, on my syndicated radio program, I told my listeners that even though there was probably fraud in the election, it would not be enough to overcome the margin of Joe Biden&#8217;s victory. Joe Biden is President-elect.
I think there probably were some acts of fraud. In Pennsylvania, however, President Donald Trump&#8217;s legal team has abandoned their fraud claims. In Georgia, while new votes have been discovered, it is not enough to overcome the margin of Joe Biden&#8217;s victory. In Michigan, Biden&#8217;s victory is over 147,000 votes, and the fraud claims as alleged amounted to only around 1000 votes cast.
After telling my listeners Biden would be President-elect, I said scripture calls for us to pray for our leaders. Peter and Paul, both soon to be executed by the Roman Emperor Nero, exhorted the early Christians to pray for the emperor and honor him nonetheless. Their admonishment to pray was not to pray against the emperor but to actually pray for his well-being and that God might work through him.
One of my listeners said she would not do this, and if scripture said to do that, then scripture might not be the inerrant word of God after all. I was flabbergasted. Elections do not always go as we want. Whether through fraud or legitimately, President Trump will end his term on Jan. 20, 2021, at noon, and scripture tells us this is part of God&#8217;s plan.
In fact, Christianity teaches that no leader comes to power without God&#8217;s providence. Rulers come and go, and God never leaves his throne. God works through rulers. During the Roman persecutions, though the pagan emperors were slaughtering Christians, God was using that persecution to strengthen the church and grow it. Christianity tends to thrive in persecution. Christianity at the tables of power often gets sclerotic and vapid. Earthly power tends to make shallow Christians.
A week ago, I saw someone wonder where were all the Christian pastors who people wanted to kill. Most of those pastors, frankly, had been getting pilloried for admonishing Christians about the President&#8217;s character and behavior. These pastors have not fared well in the past few years in conservative churches.
Now, Christians will have to get used to being on the outs again. But scripture provides encouragement at times like these. A friend strung together a few passages of scripture that I mediate over often, and it seems appropriate to pass them on to people of faith coming to terms with an election wherein many convinced them God was on their side, so their candidate could not lose. The reality is that God has a plan, and we only glimpse a part of it.
The passages go like this: We do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with have the power to demolish strongholds. For our war is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil. It is God who arms me with strength. He is the God who avenges me &#8230; who saves me from my enemies. Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified or discouraged, for the Lord Your God will be with you wherever you go. Do not be afraid of them for the Lord Your God himself will fight for you. Seek the welfare of the city in which you are in exile and pray for it, for there you will find your welfare. Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. The Lord is my strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my shield, my stronghold. No weapon forged against you will prosper and you will refute every tongue that accuses you — this is the heritage of the Lord&#8217;s servants. For the battle is the Lord&#8217;s. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Bible

ERICKSON: Hope In Dark Times

2020 Election

Last week, on my syndicated radio program, I told my listeners that even though there was probably fraud in the election, it would not be enough to

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&#8220;On November 7, 2000, American voters went to the polls in what turned out to be one of the closest presidential contests in U.S. history — an election campaign during which there was a notable absence of serious discussion of the al Qaeda threat or terrorism. Election night became a 36-day legal fight. Until the Supreme Court&#8217;s 5-4 ruling on December 12 and Vice President Al Gore&#8217;s concession, no one knew whether Gore or his Republican opponent, Texas Governor George W. Bush, would become president in 2001.
&#8220;The dispute over the election and the 36-day delay cut in half the normal transition period. Given that a presidential election in the United States brings wholesale change in personnel, this loss of time hampered the new administration in identifying, recruiting, clearing, and obtaining Senate confirmation of key appointees,&#8221; according to section 6.4 in the 9/11 Commission Report.
On Nov. 3, 2020, the nation went back to the polls, and 20 years after the contentious 2000 election, we find ourselves in a new one. For all intents and purposes, Joe Biden is President-elect of the United States. To overcome this, President Donald Trump&#8217;s team must show enough widespread voter irregularities to cast doubt on the election. That does not mean the Trump campaign must simply show a lot of fraud. It means they must show enough improper votes were cast to erase the margin of victory between the President and President-elect; in addition, they must show that enough improper votes were cast to be equal to the number of votes not cast in the race.
At the time of writing, in Michigan, Biden leads Trump by 146,137 votes, and 37,706 people in Michigan refused to vote in the presidential race, even though they voted on Election Day. They left that line blank. That means the Trump campaign must show 183,843 fraudulent votes were cast. Then they must do the same in Pennsylvania, Georgia and any other state they want to contest.
Trump&#8217;s campaign team asserts that it has 234 pages of affidavits alleging voter fraud. In a review at the conservative outlet The Blaze, Leon Wolf wrote, &#8220;the 234 pages contain affidavits from 101 individuals. The majority of them appear to be handwritten impressions of the counting process.&#8221; Further, he writes, &#8220;The testimony contained in these affidavits clearly pertains to fewer than 1,000 total ballots.&#8221; That is not enough to throw out the election.
While this is going on, the current administration is denying the incoming administration national security briefings. Trump has every right to challenge the election results. The Electoral College does not convene until Dec. 14. There is time for this to play out. But the odds are slim that the election will be overturned. Every day this administration does not brief Biden is a day our national security is increasingly jeopardized.
Biden used to be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He served as Vice President of the United States for eight years. He can keep a secret. Trump may pull a miracle out of a hat and preserve his presidency. But the odds are against him, and so long as he is not willing to at least aid in briefing the probable winner, the odds are against the nation&#8217;s security.
&#8220;During the long contest after election day, the CIA set up an office in Crawford to pass intelligence to Bush and some of his key advisers. (CIA Director George) Tenet, accompanied by his deputy director for operations, James Pavitt, briefed President-elect Bush at Blair House during the transition,&#8221; according to the same section of the 9/11 Commission Report.
The Clinton administration began providing briefings to President-elect George W. Bush while the contentious legal battles of the 2000 election were ongoing, just in case he really was the winner. The Trump administration is not currently doing that for Biden.
I understand Trump&#8217;s unwillingness to concede until every allegation is addressed in court. It is his right to pursue challenges. But the President owes the nation a national security transition that can catch what the chaotic transition of 2000 missed: evil stirring in the shadows.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Hacker

ERICKSON: Evil Is Watching

Donald Trump

Joe Biden

&quot;On November 7, 2000, American voters went to the polls in what turned out to be one of the closest presidential contests in U.S. history — an election

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Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States. Contrary to some highly irresponsible claims, Biden will not win by theft but by people actually voting for him. It frustrates me to see my own party demanding lawfully cast ballots not be counted.
I am opposed to counting ballots that show up after Election Day. I think ballots need to be in by Election Day. Those that arrive by Election Day need to be counted, and those votes will hand Biden the presidency. There are issues for which the GOP should force accountability in the vote, including the Pennsylvania Supreme Court wanting to accept all ballots, including those that show up after Election Day. But the GOP should not be so willfully trying to claim a stolen election. Democrats are not out manufacturing tens of thousands of votes, and Republicans who think that need psychotherapy.
Hanging on to that grievance and playing the victim also will cause the Republicans to lose sight of just how well they did. President Donald Trump may have lost, but Republicans held the United States Senate, added seats to the House of Representatives, gained a state legislative chamber while holding all their others and picked up a gubernatorial seat. Republicans will control redistricting for congressional and state legislative races in most states for the next decade, despite losing the White House. That is a very good thing.
That success also is more evidence the election was not stolen. Stealing the presidency and not the Senate so the Republicans can block the President&#8217;s agenda and deny him his judicial picks really would be a waste of time. Stealing the presidency while ensuring the GOP can control the majority of redistricting for the next decade would be silly.
Trump clearly brought more Black and Hispanic voters into the GOP than prior Republican nominees. They came for two issues: jobs and education. If Republicans are able to show nonwhite voters that they will give their kids good educations and help them compete on a level playing field for jobs, the GOP can cement itself as a part of the working class across racial and ethnic lines.
Starr County, Texas, is the most Hispanic county in America with a 95.7% Hispanic population. Hillary Clinton won it in 2016 with over 79% of the vote. Joe Biden won it, too, but only by 5%. In Florida, Hispanic voters and young Black men turned out for the GOP. Certainly, it was not a majority of young Black men, but it was a significant enough number to help the GOP. There is a realignment coming as secular, rich, white people leave the GOP for the Democrats and more culturally conservative Hispanic and Black voters leave the Democrats.
All the data points to a few things. Trump&#8217;s policies are broadly popular. The nation just ensured a Republican Senate can block President Biden. The nation rewarded Republicans who would advance the President&#8217;s agenda down to the state level. The President himself was a flawed and undisciplined messenger for his message, and the nation rejected him. Likewise, the nation rejected the progressive agenda that many Democrats want Biden to pursue.
In the month prior to the election, Democrats began openly bragging that they would scrap the filibuster, pack the Supreme Court, enact a government-run health care scheme, pass the so-called Green New Deal and end fracking. So convinced of Biden&#8217;s win, they were boastful of these things. Concurrently, they blocked a COVID-19 relief package assuming they&#8217;d be able to use the failure of a deal to gain the Senate.
American voters have flat-out rejected all of that. Americans have rejected the socialist revolution progressives called for. Americans have rejected court packing, government health care schemes and silly environmental proposals. They embraced Biden as a President they would not have to think about every day and rejected ever passing his and the Democrats&#8217; agenda.
Voters rejected the Republicans&#8217; messenger. Voters rejected the Democrats&#8217; message. Though the American political press has long cheered the end of a viable Republican Party because of demographic shifts, the GOP is more viable now than the Democratic Party.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire. 
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Trump & Biden

ERICKSON: The Message Versus The Messenger

Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States. Contrary to some highly irresponsible claims, Biden will not win by theft but by people

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This election is almost over. Its end cannot arrive soon enough. Americans are exhausted. Many of them have already voted. Some states are reaching or exceeding their 2016 presidential turnout. If the polls are correct — and there is reason to think they are, given the fixes employed in 2018 that produced mostly accurate polling — Joe Biden is going to win the presidency. However, that does not mean President Donald Trump will not win reelection. It just means Trump is running a defense play from a position of weakened incumbency, even if that weakening is due to a virus from China.
At this point, tensions are remarkably high on both sides, as is the stress of the situation. The reality, however, is that people should calm down and remember not a lot will fundamentally change, even as many people tell themselves and everyone around them that doom is coming if their side does not win.
No matter what happens, God is sovereign. The God who gave us Barack Obama and Donald Trump could choose Biden or Trump. God&#8217;s will be done. The God who brought bread from Heaven and water from rocks and raised you from the dust of the Earth and stitched you together in your mother&#8217;s womb is going to still be on His throne ruling the universe the day after the election.
Too many of you are convinced the country is going to hell in a handbasket if your guy does not win. Well, I have read the end of the book, and I don&#8217;t mean this to be a spoiler alert, but everybody is going to hell without a handbasket, except for those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, not a politician or a political party.
So, calm down.
Yes, you have a civic obligation to vote and participate in the process. But God has a plan and is sovereign and is in charge, and His will be done, not yours. So, calm down, and trust in Him. Politicians are going to disappoint you every time.
The way people are acting at this point, you would think both sides are looking to election night as the approach of a messiah. The extent to which you might be freaked out by the election is the extent to which you are putting your hope in men, not God.
I was told if Obama got elected in 2008, it would be the end of America. I was told the same thing in 2012. The nation is still here. We&#8217;re supposed to believe that this time, really and truly this very time, if your guy doesn&#8217;t win, the country is over — and I say it that way because Democrats and Republicans are both saying that.
Really?
George W. Bush&#8217;s election and reelection did not destroy the country. Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats in 2006 didn&#8217;t either. Neither did Obama&#8217;s election or reelection or the rise of the tea party or the House Freedom Caucus or the election of Donald Trump.
The country is still here, and if we are really honest about it, things have not changed a ton from one administration to the next. Yes, health care for some is different. For some, it is better. For some, it is worse. That is from Obama. Most Americans now have more in their paycheck. That is from Trump.
But this time, it&#8217;ll be different, they tell me. This time, just you wait — this time, the Democrats really will do all the terrible things, or the GOP will impose their terrible totalitarian regime.
We&#8217;ll hear the same rhetoric again in 2022 and 2024 and 2026 and 2028, and each time, it won&#8217;t be true, but each time, many of you who believe it now will believe it then and be mad each time for me telling you it is not so.
I&#8217;ve got something better to believe in — Jesus. He reigns supreme, and whatever happens in the next week is all part of His plan. So, put your trust in Him. He won&#8217;t let you down, even when people, parties, voters and policies do. God has never lost an election.
So, calm down.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Cross

ERICKSON: Calm Down

This election is almost over. Its end cannot arrive soon enough. Americans are exhausted. Many of them have already voted. Some states are reaching or

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In the RealClearPolitics polling average, Joe Biden has a 4.2% lead in the battleground states at the time of this writing. That is more relevant than the national polls. Had 2016 not happened, we&#8217;d all be writing the obituary of the Trump campaign right now.
By any normal metric, President Donald Trump is toast, and the GOP is losing the Senate.
But these are not normal times, and 2016 showed that there is an undercounting of Trump voters out there. There are also some pollsters who just excel at really poor polling that skews polling averages. For example, I don&#8217;t know any pollster this year on either side of the aisle who is putting any stock in Quinnipiac&#8217;s polling, but that poll skews the polling averages. It is, however, offset with Rasmussen, another bad pollster who tends to go toward the GOP. That is why the polling averages matter.
Likewise, a lot of Republican and Democrat pollsters I have talked to have taken to adding two points flat-out to the President&#8217;s numbers. So, for example, the Florida polling average at this writing has Joe Biden up by 2.1%. Add two points to Trump and Florida is a tied race. So, too, are North Carolina and Arizona.
The problem for the President is that Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin still have a Biden lead by adding two points to Trump in the polling averages. That, of course, comes back to the question of if the polls are right. I fall back on the position that no, the polls are not right, but the polling averages do a good job of sorting out what is happening, and the polling averages and their related trend lines suggest a few things.
First, the polling average suggests this remains Biden&#8217;s race to lose and all the speculating about taking days to determine a winner could very easily be a moot point by 1 a.m. on election night.
Second, the polling average suggests the Democrats are on the verge of taking the Senate, but it is too close to call with states such as Iowa suddenly looking more favorable to the Republicans.
Third, the polling trend lines suggest Republicans who were wayward are starting to consolidate behind the President, and that is helping him in a few key states, including Pennsylvania, where the President&#8217;s trend lines are headed in the right direction. This also means the Democrats have wasted a ton of money in places such as South Carolina that could have helped them in places such as Montana or Iowa for Senate races.
Fourth, if the race continues in its present trajectory, the GOP could very well see itself lose a few state legislative houses, which will set back the party for a decade in trying to recapture the House of Representatives.
Fifth, the Democrats are set to pick up more seats in the House of Representatives.
Sixth, all the bluster in the press about the early vote is ignoring that these are mostly passionate voters and not new voters. These are people who would have shown up on Election Day and whose minds are made up, so don&#8217;t think the President cannot overcome a wave of early voting to win.
But, and this is what you must understand, the President has had relentlessly negative media coverage, but had 2016 not happened, the coverage of his campaign would be even more relentlessly negative in these final two weeks of his 2020 campaign. The question no one has an answer to is: Can Trump defy expectations twice?
If you like him, you think he can. If you don&#8217;t like him, you think he cannot. I have no idea, but at the risk of pissing off my readers, I think the GOP is running from behind and time is running out to change the trajectory of the race. It is possible but increasingly less probable that they can do it. The tsunami warnings are still sounding for the GOP, and behind the scenes, they know it, even as they paint rosy pictures in the media.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Voting

ERICKSON: The Final Full Week

Polls

In the RealClearPolitics polling average, Joe Biden has a 4.2% lead in the battleground states at the time of this writing. That is more relevant than the

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On Monday of last week, to use the phrase &#8220;sexual preference&#8221; was completely acceptable. As recently as last month, multiple gay rights publications used the phrase. Leon Panetta had used the phrase in the past couple of years. Joe Biden has used the phrase this year.
Merriam-Webster considered &#8220;sexual preference&#8221; to be just another version of &#8220;sexual orientation.&#8221; But then Tuesday happened.
On Tuesday, the village idiot from Hawaii masquerading as a senator, Mazie Hirono, attacked Amy Coney Barrett for using &#8220;sexual preference&#8221; instead of &#8220;sexual orientation.&#8221;
By Tuesday evening, the employees of Merriam-Webster had changed the phrase in their online dictionary to note it was offensive. No, I am not making that up. The dictionary company literally changed it after Barrett&#8217;s exchange with Hirono. Steve Krakauer, a former CNN producer who now produces Megyn Kelly&#8217;s podcast, documented the change on his social media feed.
Gay rights publications such as The Advocate went on the attack as well. In just 18 days, &#8220;sexual preference&#8221; went from acceptable to a hate crime. On Sept. 25, 2020, The Advocate tweeted out a story from its publication with this quote: &#8220;To come from that history to be able to now, as a director, be telling these stories (&#8230;) about young people who are just comfortable with who they are, no matter what their sexual preference is. It&#8217;s just glorious and so satisfying.&#8221; On Oct. 13, 2020, The Advocate ran a story with the headline &#8220;Amy Coney Barrett Blasted for Anti-LGBTQ+ Term &#8216;Sexual Preference.'&#8221;
Incapable of winning the hearts and minds of the public on most social arguments these days, the Left has decided to police the language and make common phrases used by even Democratic politicians a few months ago verboten. Progressive activists now routinely condemn anyone who supports or ever supported traditional marriage but will give a pass to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and others who held those positions.
Then there is the matter of the New York Post&#8217;s Hunter Biden story. One of the most widely distributed newspapers in America has a major scoop about Joe Biden and his son, and Twitter not only blocked access to the story but also locked accounts trying to share the story and blocked people from even sharing links to the story.
Twitter was fine with a McClatchy story about Michael Cohen going to Prague, even after Robert Mueller specifically said the story was not true. Twitter was fine with BuzzFeed sharing the Steele dossier and rumors about the &#8220;pee tape.&#8221;
But Twitter would not let a legitimate story from a legitimate publication about Biden be circulated because the material was obtained through alleged &#8220;hacking.&#8221; It actually was not hacking. Whoever dropped off the laptop, which allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden, for repair never bothered to pick it up. It became the property of the store owner.
Even if hacking were the case, Twitter has let loose multiple stories damaging to the President based on hacking and other information, including The New York Times obtaining Trump&#8217;s tax records.
The American Left and their tech comrades are trying to win by suppressing information they do not like and twisting language to suit their ends. They have dragged us into George Orwell&#8217;s nightmare vision.
Progressives feel emboldened by what they see as a Biden win shaping up. They are revealing their own authoritarian nature with a heavy streak of totalitarianism where dissent is not permitted, language they deem hateful is not allowed and the news stories they find inconvenient are buried.
If Twitter&#8217;s handling of the Hunter Biden story is not proof enough, consider Portland, Oregon. The national press has stopped covering the riots, but they are still happening. Last week, local businesses publicly began pleading for the riots to stop. The American media moved on from the story the moment it appeared to be impacting Biden.
Tech giants, mainstream media outlets and Democrats unable to win fairly have chosen to ignore stories that could damage Biden, block conservatives from sharing those stories and even alter the dictionary to advance their cause.
These are dangerous games they are playing, and they will end badly for everyone if they continue.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Future tech

ERICKSON: Orwell Rears His Head

Amy Coney Barrett

sexual preference

Social Media

Supreme Court

On Monday of last week, to use the phrase &quot;sexual preference&quot; was completely acceptable. As recently as last month, multiple gay rights publications used

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Erick Erickson