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A Letter to Senator McCain

This is a letter I sent to Senator McCain's Campaign. Whether he read it, or takes heed, I don't know.

Senator John McCain:

My name is Daniel Krenzke. I am a registered Republican in the State of North Carolina. Born and raised in Wisconsin, I joined the Marine Corps in 1987 and served for ten years. I respect and thank you for your service in the US Navy and your trials in the war lost by our enemies at home. One does not achieve what you have by chance or luck. It is by skill, perseverance and the grace of God. Your victory in becoming the de facto nominee of our party is an accomplishment that will be remembered by historians for many years to come.

However, I write this to you to tell you I cannot in good conscience vote for you in the November general election, and I will not mark your name on the ballot merely to vote against the Democratic nominee, whether it is Senator Obama or Senator Clinton. I am a Reagan conservative. You ask me for loyalty that you have not shown our party. You claim that the differences between you and us conservatives are small. I strongly disagree. Those are the same differences that separate us from the socialist in the Democratic Party.

You voted to inhibit free speech through McCain-Feingold. Why should any individual or group be prohibited from printing or airing political ads for or against any candidate at any time? That is the core of Freedom of Speech. Why should any person or group be prohibited from giving any sum of money to any political group or candidate? That is the essence of the Freedom of Assembly as well as Speech. You violated your oath to uphold the US Constitution by your support and passage of this bad law. I equally blame President GW Bush for signing it into law and the US Supreme Court for upholding it. But, it is your name that you proudly attach to it that earns my ire. You never should have brought it to the floor of the Senate.

You voted to sacrifice our national sovereignty through Comprehensive Immigration Reform that you co-sponsored with Senator Kennedy. The general amnesty of 1986 came with a promise of vigorous enforcement of border and employment law. We never got the enforcement. You and our political enemies cobbled a piece of legislation together with no debate, no committee hearings, no openness with the same empty promises of enforcement. If you never enforced the first set of laws, then how can we trust you to enforce the second set? We can’t. That piece of legislation would have destroyed our party and our nation. Until the border is sealed and employment law is vigorously enforced we cannot not revisit any change in immigration law. I cannot trust you to do this.

You stand for the shackling our economy through the belief in unproven science by implementing dubious environmental regulation. Man-made global warming is a myth. While the climate of the world maybe changing, to think that it is caused by the daily activities of our lives is a philosophy of pure hubris. While I agree we need to be good stewards of what God has given us, we can and should use the resources we have to ensure the vibrancy of our economy. If we fall into the fallacies of the global warming prophets, we will find ourselves at the mercies of the rising economic powers of Asia, particularly the People’s Republic of China. They are not going to put the breaks on their economy by strangulating it with useless regulations. Why should we? As with so many other decisions you put political expediency over thoughtful, fact-based judgment.

On tax cuts, you sided with our political enemies and used their rhetoric in defense of your position. On judicial nominees, you sided with our political enemies to prevent many strict constructionist judges (in the mold of Thomas and Scalia) from being sat on the bench at the district and appellate level. On spending, while you have been consistent with core conservatism in your words and actions, you never bothered to capture the spotlight on this like you have on the issues of campaign financing, immigration reform, or climate change. For all I know it is done with calculation to manipulate the party’s conservative base.

On these major issues you have abandoned our party’s conservative philosophies and ideals. There was no compromise, only capitulation. There was no loyalty to party and country, only loyalty your own selfish ambitions. The only issue of major importance that we agree upon is the War against Islamo-fascism. It is the only issue that separates you and your Democratic opponents. And with your record of political pragmatism I would not be surprised if you were to abandon us on that issue too.

I have judged you on the whole of your record, not just on your words but by your actions. I find you wanting.

With your ascension as the leader of the Republican Party I find myself without a political home. I have been asked once too many times to compromise conviction for victory – a victory I never get to share in. Reagan left the Democrats, because they left him. I find myself leaving the Republicans, because they left me – and, unlike Reagan, I have no where to go to have my voice properly heard at the federal or state level of government. All I can do is stand back, allow the corruption of the political class to have its affect, and watch the country God has blessed me to be citizen of crumble to the ashes of history.

Enjoy your fame, fortune, and glory. It will be a fleeting moment never to be as sweet as it is now.

Yours in dissatisfaction,



Daniel W. Krenzke

Romney, Religion, & Politics

As a Christian I do believe Mormonism is a Christ-based cult that does not adhere to the Gospel message of the Old & New Testaments, but as a Christian I honor the grace God has given us to choose or reject His message. That is the liberty of freewill.

While I disagree with Mormonism core doctrines in the Book of Mormon, I affirm the truths that are taught and practice by Governor Romney and his brethren, that of service, charity, family, and integrity.

Would I vote for Governor Romney? As that I am undecided in this primary election, he has my ear. It is good that his religion gives him a foundation upon which to build a quality character. It will be his vision of a future America and how he will achieve it that will sway my vote. That is the test I apply to all candidates, not that of lockstep theology.

Civics Lesson: Part VI (The Pursuit)

Now, we come to the last of the rights Jefferson specifically enumerated in our nation's Declaration of Independence; the Pursuit of Happiness. But, what specifically is the Pursuit of Happiness? If one were to actually do some basic digging into our nations founding, one would find that the three rights colonial Patriots demanded were Life, Liberty, & Property. Our Founding Fathers understood that in order to pursue happiness one needed to acquire property and have the right (and responsibility) to keep it.

Why did the slogan "No Taxation Without Representation" become a major battle cry in the 1770s? Because, what the Founders knew is that taxation deprives people of property. While they knew taxes were needed to run any government, the fact that the colonies had no say in the implementation of the taxes the English Parliament imposed upon them. If the colonies had members in Parliament advocating their position, there might not have been a Boston Massacre or Tea Party. It was the fact that the farmers of western Pennsylvania had representation in the new federal US Congress that allowed President Washington to federalize the militia and quell the 1790s Whiskey Rebellion.

Colonial Patriots viewed English taxation as a confiscation of property without due process protections that those in the Mother Country were entitled. If taxes could be imposed without the consent of the colonist or through their colonial legislature, then what other abuses would King or Parliament enact if the colonist had no recourse to address grievances?

The Pursuit of Happiness, the acquisition of property, is the culmination of having the right to live and the responsible exercise of liberty. It is the equal access to the opportunity to excel as best as our talents and ambition will allow. Unfortunately, some people look at the inequality of outcome as a wrong to be corrected. (Are we all created for equal outcomes?)

There are people that have not learned that it is God that dispenses blessings. They are easily duped by those that promise to use the force of government to take care of them. They have not learned the lessons of the apostle Paul to be content no matter one's circumstances (Philippians 4:10-13). These poor people are robbed of the Pursuit of Happiness and are enslaved to a welfare system that does not bring happiness, just misery that comes from the lack of effort to better themselves.

And just because you have acquired property and wealth does not mean you will have achieved the happiness we all are trying to pursue. Money does not buy happiness, and merely acquiring wealth and property does not bestow contentment. Just as Paul found contentment through God in want or plenty, rich and poor can find discontentment in their situation because of the selfishness of the human heart each of us is born with.

God has given us the right to acquire possessions and property. The amount should be based on the talent, knowledge, blessing, and some would say luck that has been given each individual. But as with all rights, the right to Pursue Happiness has its responsibility. What do we do with the wealth and property we obtain? Jesus put it as simple as possible, "Rend unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." (Matthew 22:15-22 & Mark 12:13-17). Pay taxes, because God has blessed us to be citizens of a great nation. Give to church and charity, because God has blessed you, period. Either way - Give. Give with a grateful heart without the spiritual cancer of selfishness.

Civics Lesson: Part V (Liberty)

The next right that Jefferson enumerated is Liberty. What is Liberty? Many use freedom and liberty interchangeably. This is a misnomer. Freedom is merely a component of Liberty. So, what is liberty? It is a fine balance between freedom of choice (freewill) and objective morality.


When one has too much freedom without the constraint of objective morality, ones life will descend into anarchy. When one is constrained by too much morality with out the ability to freely choose between right and wrong, ones life will descend into tyranny.

What is objective morality? It is the laws of nature and nature's God that our Creator has given us in Holy Scriptures - a form that the finite mind of fallen men & women can understand. These laws are apart of the self-evident Truths that Jefferson alluded to in the Declaration of Independence. Subjective morality (each individual defining their own moral laws) is the same as the relative truth of secular humanism (See Part I). When a society that operates in subjective morality, it operates in unbridled freedom that leads to anarchy. When anarchy becomes unbearable, one person's or group's subjective morality becomes the standard (instead of God's morality). It is the subjective morality of the few that becomes the objective morality for the rest of society. The only way for it to be enforced is by corrosion. A tyranny manifests itself where the rule of law based on the objective morality of God is replace with the rule of personality based on the subjective morality of the tyrant.

We must beware that we don't use the objective morality that was lovingly give to us by God as a religiously legalist tyranny. While the Truth of God's morality is good the use of this truth to tear people down to build yourself up is just as evil as the imposition of another person's subjective morality on the rest of us. Liberty is not license to sin, but freedom to make our choices and reap the consequences for them (for more on the tyranny of condemnation).

We see the basis for liberty in the Creation Story in Genesis. God's love for humanity (consisting of just Adam & Eve at the time) was demonstrated by the freedom given by God (eat of any tree in the garden) and the morality set by God (except for the tree of the knowledge of good & evil) with the consequences spelled out by God (life for choosing not to eat, death for choosing to eat).

When Eve chose to listen to the lies of the serpent, when Adam chose not to protect his wife from the serpent, when they used their freewill to choose to eat from the forbidden tree, they reaped the responsibility of the right of the liberty they exercised. The consequences we are still reaping today.

Liberty is the freedom to choose between what God defines as right and wrong, and to be awarded the consequence of those choices - in the here & now and the hereafter.

Author Note & Edit: I just saw this quote and thought that is summed up what I was trying to say in this article:

"We can breathe the air of liberty only to the extent that we are ready to bear the burden of moral responsibility associated with it."
—Wilhelm Röpke (1899-1965)

Civics Lesson: Part IV (Life)

When Jefferson began to enumerate the rights given to us by God, he first said the these rights were "among" other rights granted us from a gracious Creator. But, it is these rights that are the most important in the existence of humankind. The first of these rights is the greatest of them. It is Life.

Without Life the other rights mean nothing. If you are not living, you cannot exercise liberty, you cannot pursue happiness. But why is the life of a human that precious? Because, all of us are made in the image of the Creator. That is reason God places great value on the life of each of us, and we should place that same value on each other.

When anybody murders another person, aborts a baby, creates an embryo merely to harvest cells, euthanizes the infirm, commits suicide, even rapes, assaults, or maliciously maligns a person, they show an udder lack of respect for life. If we are endowed by a Creator with life, then that Creator has known all people, knows all people, and will know all people from before they were a thought in another person's mind until long after people have lost all recollection of them (Psalm 139:14-18, Jeremiah 1:4-7).

Then what is the difference between someone murdering another person and the government executing the murderer for his crime? The taking of the life of a murderer is a just punishment. Nothing more is demanded of the murderer than what he took (Leviticus 24:17-22). Plus the execution of a murderer sends a message that innocent life is valued highly. It is valued as much as that of the condemned. When we do not allow for the death penalty, we add more value to the life of a murderer than that of the murdered.

What about Jesus' words on turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-42)? Remember that what Jesus is talking about individuals forgiving other individuals, especially if we are His disciples. He does not absolve anyone of the responsibility of their actions (Matthew 5:17-20). (I'll be discussing more on this in the definition of Liberty.) What Jesus wants of us is for the victim and/or their family to forgive the murderer as God has forgiven us, but He also wants the murderer to pay the full temporal price for his actions.

Life is a precious gift from God. Each human being is created in the image of God. Each human body contains the breath of God. How we take responsibility for this right and how we respect another's right to life tells a lot of our character.

Civics Lesson: Part III

The next self-evident truth our founding fathers is the all people are endowed by God with certain inalienable rights. This rights are not given by people to other people. They are gifts of grace from a loving and merciful God. Anyone that would deprive another person of these basic rights is evil - period - plain and simple. For anyone to take the life of an innocent, for anyone to remove the ability of a person to make a freewill decision, for anyone to rob another of morally, legally, ethically earned wealth and property it is a slap in the face of God. It is one person's sinful desire to set themselves up as god in their life as well as in the lives of others.

What we must remember that with rights come responsibilities. We are responsible how we live our life. We are responsible how we use our liberty. We are responsible how we pursue our happiness. We are responsible to each other. That is why we have laws against murder, theft, sexual indecency, lying, etc. That is why we have laws for honoring authority, honoring honest work, remembering our national past (good and bad), upholding right and rectifying wrong. We are responsible to God. All of us, whether we believe in God or not, must give an account of the use of our life. Life is a gift from God. What we do with it is the gift we give back.

We live in a day and age where people are more interested in the acquisition and selfish exercise rights all the while trying to duck the responsibilities that come with the way they exercise their rights. The great mistake that we make is that we are due these rights merely because we are Americans. The only thing we are due - every single one of us - is hell's fire and damnation. What has been given to us are gifts of a gracious God to give to others and bring glory to Him in the way we use our rights and accept responsibility for the use of them.