By L.A. Williams
Christian Action League
Although our nation, at times, seems to be pulling apart at the seams, President Trump on Tuesday called on Americans to “rekindle the bonds of love and loyalty and memory that link us together as citizens, as neighbors, as patriots.” His State of the Union Address, the third longest in U.S. history, attracted 46.8 million viewers.
“I think the President gave a stupendous speech, and afterward I asked myself how any reasonable persons could oppose the objectives he outlined,” said the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League. “Furthermore, the President offered an olive branch and called upon both parties to work together, not for their own interests, or that of their political party, but in the interests of the country.”
Creech said the speech, which touched on everything from trade and taxes to criminal justice reform and school choice, included three matters “of grave importance” — border security, a late-term abortion ban and the renunciation of socialism.
“These matters clearly define the way the President better represents the policy initiatives that are in line with who we’ve been, who we are, and what we aspire to become as a nation,” Creech said.
Trump called efforts to secure the border a moral issue.
“The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety, security, and financial wellbeing of all America. We have a moral duty to create an immigration system that protects the lives and jobs of our citizens. This includes our obligation to the millions of immigrants living here today who followed the rules and respected our laws,” the President said.
He said wealthy politicians and donors “push for open borders while living their lives behind walls, and gates and guards” leaving working-class Americans to pay for mass illegal migration.
“Tolerance for illegal immigration is not compassionate; it is actually very
cruel,” Trump said. He said one in three women are sexually assaulted on the
journey north and that smugglers use migrant children as pawns to gain access
to the U.S.
“Tens of thousands of innocent Americans are killed by lethal drugs that cross our border and flood into our cities, including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl,” Trump said as he made his case for increased border security including “humanitarian assistance, more law enforcement, drug detection at our ports, closing loopholes that enable child smuggling, and plans for a new physical barrier, or wall, to secure the vast areas between our ports of entry.”
He described the barrier as a “smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier — not just a simple concrete wall.”
Creech said the President’s commitment to sufficient protection on the southern border demonstrates an America-first policy.
“We are a compassionate people, but we cannot put the needs of another country above that of our own. To do so is immoral,” he said. “To do so would make us an infidel people.”
He also applauded the President’s pro-life push.
“Few statements by an American President in support of the unalienable right to life, the born and unborn, have ever been any stronger,” Creech said.
Trump chided New York lawmakers, whom he said, “cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments from birth,” and he called out Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s recent endorsement of infanticide.
“These are living, feeling, beautiful babies who will never get the chance to share their love and their dreams with the world,” the President said. “To defend the dignity of every person, I am asking Congress to pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb.”
Interrupted several times by applause, he called on the nation to “work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life” and to “reaffirm a fundamental truth: All children — born and unborn — are made in the holy image of God.”
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On Monday night, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) had asked fellow senators for unanimous consent to pass the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, but Democrats blocked the request. In the House, they blocked a similar request from Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
But in the wake of the State of the Union Address, House Republicans have vowed to request to vote on the Born Alive bill every day for the next 30 days after which they can file a petition that would bring the bill to the floor for a vote over speaker Nancy Pelosi’s objections. Further, pro-life leaders have heralded Trump’s unwavering statements as a significant moment in the history of the movement.
Another significant stance for which his address will be remembered is his repudiation of socialism.
“Here in the United States, we are alarmed by the new calls to adopt socialism in our country,” Trump said. “America was founded on liberty and independence, and not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.”
Creech said he was more than disappointed by the response of some lawmakers to the President’s praise of a free society.
“Democrats didn’t stand in support of the repudiation of socialism. I find that not only disturbing, but frightening,” Creech said. “Socialists want us to lose ourselves in the mass will. They claim to be warriors against income inequality. The end result of their sympathy with and pursuit of socialistic policies can result in nothing but an equal sharing of misery.”
In closing his speech, President Trump challenged lawmakers to “reignite the American imagination.”
“We must keep America first in our hearts. We must keep freedom alive in our souls,” he said. “And we must always keep faith in America’s destiny that one nation, under God, must be the hope and the promise, and the light and the glory, among all the nations of the world.”