Over the past several years, the word change has proven to be an effective political ploy. This ploy cleverly provides a sidestep for the true intentions of the politicians that proclaim it. Since many of their constituents are innately unhappy with their life experiences, they view change as a something that will improve their standard of living. However, the clever politician skillfully neglects to define the change he or she is promoting. Therefore, the citizen is free to read into these undefined campaign messages whatever makes them happy.

Barack Obama’s hope and change

Barack Obama used this nebulous term to beguile the Black community that believed his skin color automatically gifted him with an understanding of their personal plight, as well as a dedication to make things better. They failed to understand that his experience as a Black man living in the United States differed from theirs – both ancestrally and during the culmination of his years living an affluent lifestyle. After the near completion of his two terms in office, the changes in their communities have escalated their problems at all levels imaginable. Rendering the promising historic presidency a colossal nightmare. Not only didn’t he help them, he enraged them and fanned the flames of anarchy which will do nothing to let any message they may have be heard by those that would otherwise be their champions.

The word change merely means to become different or to substitute or replace something – or to go in a different direction. As the American experiment began to unravel under the stress of over-regulation and crony capitalism, Americans all across this country knew change was needed. Our government was failing. All of us – regardless of the color of our skin – understood that. But like so many within the Progressive Movement that believe all change is good, Americans failed to demand that the change agents define the change they championed.

And so, America got change – change that divided a nation that was on the road to healing from racial discrimination and abuse; change that turned our representatives into our sovereigns, change that supplanted our Rule of Law with judicial ideologies. None of these changes were good. They only served to burden the average citizen, demonize those in distress, and create a ruling class of career politicians.

America must go back

As we come to the end of a contentious political season, America still needs change, but not to go in a new and unknown direction. America needs to find her ancient paths, just as ancient Israel needed to do before it went into bondage. This is not a progressive type of change; it is a redemptive type of change – a change that buys back the ideals we have prostituted at the feet of career politicians and their special interest financiers; a change that values liberty and freedom over the comforts of servitude; a change where government exists only to facilitate our ability to pursue happiness on equal footing for all.

These were the ideals that our country was founded upon but never completely realized. These are the ideals that need to be redeemed and built upon. Just as our sinful souls need to be bought back by our Savior, our country needs to be bought back by its patriots. True national redemption does require change – but a change that brings us closer to accomplishing the vision of freedom that this country was founded upon. The Bible tells us that without vision, people perish. Clever words used by politicians to tap into our unrest and promises that government can fix the problems it created are not part of American’s original vision.

More government…

As we hear politicians promising to fix our problems, it is clear that for many of them their fixes include more government. To make matters worse, few Americans understand our foundational principles of freedom and limited government as enumerated in our Constitution. Although many parents complain about their children’s ignorance of America’s history and civics, their voting record is an indication that their ignorance about what we are losing is comparable to their children’s. Additionally, they have been content to leave the education of these young minds to the government’s educational system. And in so doing, government’s free reign to indoctrinate students into government dependence has continued nearly unabated.

Without knowledge of what we once aspired to be, the reality of what change we employ as a nation is haphazard at best. Redemptive change is only possible if those that understand what is being lost once again heed the admonition of Scripture to personally teach their children. For without the passing of knowledge from one generation to another, our children won’t know what they are losing, and neither will they care.

…or less?

Donald Trump may be doing his best to solve our national problems by helping government get out of our way. But Hillary Clinton’s changes include elaborating on the status quo. Should she succeed, America may never recover from the steroids she will administer to an already monstrous federal government. Furthermore, our memory of what we once aspired to be will be in danger of being stricken from our national conscience forever. American parents and American churches can stand in the gap by teaching children what they will not learn in school. After all, it is OUR job to educate our children and to provide for them; not Uncle Sam’s. A government that facilitates ignorance, metastasis ignorance; and a government that makes dependency an entitlement, metastasis dependency; and ignorance and dependency once metastasized become a one way street from which there are few U-turns.

Reprint from The Daily Rant, copyright 2016 Mychal Massie, by permission