Analysis. It’s a sobering phrase: a post-constitutional America. But Russ Vought, founder of Center for Renewing America, calls it like it is — and he gives us prayer direction and suggests actions we can take for reestablishing America upon that great document our founding fathers sought God for the wisdom to be able to write.
Have you taken your place on the wall?
For decades, my father has been warning about the collapse of our democratic republic. One of the reasons I was glad to attend IFA’s Policy & Prayer Summit is that it helped us get above the noise of political divisions to see the big picture of why that’s so true. Vought was one of several speakers who brought us a bird’s-eye view.
CRA’s mission statement is: To renew a consensus of America as a nation under God with unique interests worthy of defending that flow from its people, institutions, and history, where individuals’ enjoyment of freedom is predicated on just laws and healthy communities.
Vought, who was acting director and then director of the Office of Management and Budget when President Trump took office, was keynote speaker for the summit’s opening night, Oct. 24.
You can hear Vought’s speech on our podcast. We share highlights below.
Having recently learned about IFA’s emphasis on state prayer groups, he said: “… This is … the beat of my heart — what it takes to save this country.”
Vought notes that Romans 12:2 is one of CRA’s foundational verses: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
“How do you apply a verse like that to the political context? … I believe it comes from a people that are able to discern what’s going on around them and then to be able to … bring it before the Lord. And so, I believe … we save our country with rooms like this, with Intercessors for America.”
The Calling of the Citizen-Statesman Remnant
We can save our country, he asserts, with “people who know exactly what’s going on or [who are] almost statesmen in their local context: They are a select few; they are [a] remnant; they have the trust of the people around them; they know the needs of people in their environments.”
Recalling certain actions from his time directing the OMB, Vought highlights the importance of fervent intercession for our leaders. “We would take a hard position on something like critical race theory, and I remember on behalf of the president, signing … the order to stop and ensure that it would not be funded. And I thought to myself, ‘I’m gonna have a riot on my lawn in the morning.’ And yet, I didn’t. And I didn’t because there were people across the country, around the world, that were praying for Christians in positions of power and interceding on my behalf. And they didn’t know my name, but that’s what they were praying for. And so, thank you for that.”
Concerns About Where We Are
Vought sought to give us a lens through which to identify “the facts as you observe the news and what’s going on in the country.” Here’s where he dropped the truth bomb:
“Number one: I think that we are increasingly living in a post-Constitutional country. What I mean by that is, the country that we love, which is based on a written constitution, with everything spelled out, is now a ‘parchment.’ Understanding it does not mean what it says it means, because half of our country has walked away from it and never told anyone.”
Vought says this has given rise to a “deep administrative state where we don’t govern ourselves anymore. We have these agencies that have lawmaking authorities, they have … SWAT teams, they have the ability to make law. … They have all the ‘experts.’ ”
Citing the COVID lockdowns as an example, he observed: “Things are not debated in Congress. Why are people so frustrated about what’s going on in Congress? It’s because they don’t make laws anymore. The president is not quite the executive branch. … So the very lines of the Constitution have been morphed into something other than what we understand from our high school civics.”
Though we may be doing our best to vote conservatives into Congress, he says, “we haven’t really figured out the degree to which our very terminology is messed up.” Thus, he calls us to “a radical constitutionalism.” We need to go back to the actual words of the Constitution, he insists. “Not just in a way that you might hear in court cases of originalism, where you have great arguments and debates about what meaty words mean. But we actually go back to what the founders would have thought if they were in your situation. They made our system for great titanic battles amongst the branches, here at the federal level, and then, vertically, within the state and local, and state and federal government. We don’t have any of those battles anymore. It’s all party-based. … We are like a marriage that ended 20 or 30 years ago. One party never told the other. … Right now, we have statesmen who don’t understand that we are in a post-Constitutional world, and it doesn’t inform their statesmanship.”
Our Terms Are Upside-Down
“The second reality that I would offer is this: Our very categories of understanding are all messed up.”
He led with the example of media: “Many of us think we’re just talking about the liberal media from Walter Cronkite, and, you know, they’re kind of left of center, but they’re right there with us and supporting the country. That’s not what we have. We have state media right now, and so when they don’t report on anything, we think … it didn’t happen. … There’s ‘no evidence of voter fraud’; and it’s because we’re thinking that they’re rational actors, that they’re part of the team. Right? And state media has a different purpose: It’s regime protection. If you’re in China, and you are a Christian, it’s not shocking to you that there is no evidence of your persecution. You know it exists, and you don’t have to be convinced of that.”
His next example is government: “Government itself is now a regime … in the sense that it is oriented towards the propagation of a particular narrative, a viewpoint of a secular worldview.” Administrative state agencies, nonprofits, and media are all a part of this regime, he says. “This regime is now increasingly weaponized against the American people. We see evidence of that with the FBI showing up to investigate pro-life activists. … The temperature is coming up in this country.”
And some corporations, he says, are now “the arms of the regime. So why is it that Salesforce … Uber … Coca Cola, Major League Baseball … are the ones that, in COVID, are taking away our freedom? They’re the ones that are cracking the whip down on us. … So, at every turn, you see corporations acting as regime enforcers. Folks, that’s not the private market.”
As statesmen, he says, if we do not recognize “that our categories are different, we are not going to be able to solve these problems or address them. Discernment is required.”
Cultural Issues
“The third issue that is of great concern is the degree to which there is a desire to focus on cultural issues. The left … will always be on the march on cultural issues.”
Vought points out that the “great continental divide of all worldviews” is not between political parties, but rather between the belief that God is the measure of all things, or that man is. There is “no road back to save our country except through cultural issues. And these are the issues that are going to get you called racists … a bigot… a Christian nationalist, Islamophobe. I know, because I’ve been called all of them.”
During Vought’s Senate confirmation hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders called him “unfit to serve.” This, Vought recalls, was “because I had written an article defending Wheaton College’s position on the exclusivity of Jesus Christ and salvation. … But the problem that we have is that we have statesmen that are afraid of these issues. They don’t want to be called those names.”
He holds strongly to the belief that the cultural battles are at the heart of our national identity and our future survival. “We have to keep the focus on these cultural issues. … And that’s not just your typical traditional family values that we would talk about, or your pro-life or your family policies. It’s definitely those, but it’s [also] things like, we are a Christian nation; when we talk about “under God,” we are a Christian nation. We were meant to be a Christian nation. We have lost that.”
Optimism!
Vought challenges us to take risks to put an end to the rising tyranny. “The reason why I am very optimistic is [that] for the first time, I see across the country people fully accounting for the cost and the consequences of their activism. … The public school teacher in Virginia … knew he was gonna get fired for asserting the biological reality that a man is a man and a woman is a woman. And that matters. Parents know that … the FBI is considering them domestic terrorists for participating in activities against critical race theory, and they’re going to the microphone anyway. They’re doing it with full recognition of the cost and consequences. … I think … there is no other way out except through the flames.”
Sent Out to Serve
“You have an opportunity to serve … by getting people to pray about their country, to think politically, and to discern what’s going on in politics.” He also called us to be leaders and local statesmen in our areas.”
Vought’s admonishment and encouragement to us going forward: “Be of good courage. Be fearless. Be faithful. And as our founding fathers would say, ‘[the] duty is ours, and [the] results are God’s.’ ”
Find other articles from our series on the IFA Policy & Prayer Summit by searching for #Policy&PrayerSummit on www.IFAPray.org.
Post below your comments and your prayers into any fresh revelations.
Rich Swingle has taught and performed in 39 nations on six continents, mostly with his own one-man plays. He has also performed in about 45 film projects and 25 audio dramas. He and his bride, Joyce Swingle, another contributing writer for IFA, now have 37 “screen children.” They live in New York City. For more information, visit www.RichDrama.com. Photo Credit: Intercessors for America.