Anti "Anti" Campaign

We are in the midst of the presidential election and the Republican National Convention just finished up.  I didn't watch it but have caught bits of it on different online news sources, also caught the reactions on social networks, and what I am noticing bothers me.  On both sides of the political aisle, the chatter is all anti-other-party and I don’t recall any political person being “pro" anything.

Can it be that we’ve come to a point where all we really have is a two-party government run by people whose main drive is solely to be against the other party?  Yes, I know each side has a platform with talking points, but that’s not what I’m hearing or seeing.  And isn't it the rhetoric and behavior which truly defines what a party values?

I'll be upfront and disclose I tend towards the liberal side.  (Friends and family are at this point sarcastically saying, "Really?")  So I tend to follow more liberal news sources, blogs, twitter, etc.  One source I started following is written by a Christian Democrat.  After my Inherit The Wind post, I became more interested in the Christian Democratic perspective, thinking maybe a Christian who was Democrats would have positive things to say.  Well, it was more of the same; negative; us vs. them.  I don't think I have seen a single positive or constructive comment coming from that writer yet.  The Christian Democrat writer’s sole purpose seems to be to spew the same negative rhetoric back at their opponents that their opponents are spewing.  Which doesn't strike me as very Christian-esque.

But, before I start throwing too many stones, I’ll admit that I trend towards behaving in the same negative way.  It is so much easier and maybe more exhilarating to be angry, to be against something, than it is to be for something.  A fight is always exciting and easy to get emotionally caught up in.

But it doesn't take a huge intellectual leap to see the flaw in this approach, not only in our government, but our lives, too.

I was talking to someone about this recently, and they gave me a Mother Teresa quote, "I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there."  And I thought, That’s it!  That’s the direction I want to go.  That is the rhetoric of the party I want to vote for.

Isn't the idea of being positive and pro-something-- pro-anything-- better than being against everything?

And before you say it’s only semantics, let me point out that “war” is life-destructive and negative, and “anti-war” is angry and negative, but “pro-peace” is positive and life-affirming. Just think about what the two rallies would be like.  An “Anti-war” rally would be lots of loud angry slogans and hate-filled speeches, whereas a “Pro-peace” rally could be equally loud, but it wouldn’t be angry or hateful.  Nobody can focus on peace and remain angry or hateful; anger and hate are the opposites of peace.

When I heard a Republican congressman say, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term President", that closed the Republican door for me.  If, instead, I’d heard, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is to work with the current administration to achieve our platform objectives for the betterment of America and our constituents," I’d have been on board.  I like many of the Republican platform points.  I like many of the Democrats platform points.  But I almost always vote third party because I don't like how either party behaves. 

I don't think Mother Teresa would have liked seeing America’s current “anti” political campaigns, and she may not like an anti-anti campaign but that's the catchiest title I could come up with.  What I’d really like to see is a political system that-- instead of being focused on defeating the other guy at any price-- is focused on what’s good for our country and its people.

Inherit The Wind

My wife and I went and saw the play Inherit the Wind a little while ago.  A friend of ours who we have both done many plays with was in it.  It was an outstanding show which fictionalizes the Scopes Monkey trial.  Our friend played Matthew Harrison Brady, the three time presidential candidate and adamant prosecutor of the teacher who broke the Tennessee law by teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. 

As I was watching the play I wanted to know more about the real life characters and story, so I pulled it up on my Android.  Isn't it great we live in a time where knowledge is instantly available?  What I learned surprised me.  The character, Matthew Harrison Brady, a deeply religious, famous high power lawyer, who so personally took issue with evolution being taught in a public school that he himself took the part of prosecutor, was portraying the real life William Jennings Bryan. Wikipedia says Bryan was a "dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party."  So, what was a left wing Democratic Christian ideology is nowadays a conservative right wing Republican Christian ideology?  This shocked me.  How did ideologies move so far?  I had heard before that the Democratic party used to be the party the Christian would go to but now it is the Republicans.  This got me thinking more about that shift.

I have never understood the alignment of Christianity with the Republicans.  While growing up it was explained to me that Republicans were the pro-business party and the Democrats were the pro-people party, protecting us from big business. Yes, I know those are simplistic categorizations but that basic teaching from my youth still plays a role in defining the parties.  But even with a broader look at the parties, what platforms align better with Christian values? James 1:27 says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  That sounds a lot like helping the poor and needy, a pro-people party's values.

Granted, our social welfare system is a mess and I believe it enables some people to live lives off of a system without returning anything to that system.  It needs to be rethought and revised but at the same time, it does help many people who need the help.  I have had friends and family who have been on food stamps and other programs to get them through rough times and now they are working again, paying taxes and supporting the system that supported them in a time of need.  What a blessing that was for them.  I quit teaching because it didn't pay enough (that is a whole nother topic) and went back to college and my wife went back to college at the same time.  We got Pell grants and low interest student loans.  And now I have a much higher salary and can give even more to the system that helped me take a positive step forward. What a blessing that was for me and my family. So the system can be used by the people that truly need it but it can be abused by some that don't.  Sounds as humanly flawed as any system we have ever come up with.

When I ask Christians aligned with the Republican party why they support it, inevitably the first answer is abortion.  I think abortion is a terrible thing also, and let's just make a blanket statement that abortion is something we should avoid and move to the next most popular answer I have heard from Christian Republicans: morality.  Stop right there!  Whose morality are we going to legislate?   There are some white areas, murder, stealing, but it gets very grey very fast. If we are going to legislate morality then we can get to the point that burqas are required.  That is a moral issue in many people's views so it is as valid to legislate that as it is to legislate on same sex marriage.  But let's move to the third issues that the Christians I have spoken to give to align to the Republican party.  Well, the list ends there.  Many can't even give reasons other than emotional ones. "The Democrats are destroying the country." Refer back to reasons one and two for the how on that.  This devalues the Republican party to a one issue party or a marginal two issue party.   Personally, I like much of the Republican platform, I just don't like the Republicans.  I like much of the Democratic platform, too and the Democrats are marginally more tolerable than the Republicans.  Personally, I usually vote third party because of the senselessness of the main two parties.

The title of the play mentioned at the start comes from Proverbs 11:28. "He that troubles his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart."  As I see it, we have many calling themselves Republicans who are inheriting the wind.  This presidential election is straining my understanding of human's ability to reason.  The Democrats have Obama, United Church of Christ (aka: Christian) and Biden, Catholic (aka: Christian).  The Republicans have Romney, a Mormon.  I have plenty of friends and family who fall into the right wing conservative Christian category and up until recently, if you asked if Mormons were Christians the answer would have been an adamant  "Hell no!"  Now we have Paul Ryan, his VP running mate, who is a Catholic (aka: Christian) but a strong follower of Ayn Rand.  Ayn Rand, an atheist, is know for a philosophy directly contrary to any Christian teaching.  Take the sermon on the mount, turn it 180 degrees and you have Ayn Rands teachings.  Yet this is who Paul Ryan sites as his main influence.  More disturbing is that the conservative Christians are still on board with the Republicans and still calling Democrats immoral.  The party helping the poor, orphans, widows, environment is the the immoral party and the party enabling the rich, driving a destructive energy policy for corporate gain, restricting personal rights is the moral party.  Friends, we are inheriting the wind.

I do not pretend to be right or have all the answers.  Where you see I am wrong please calmly and rationally explain why.  I will truly listen to what you have to say.  I encourage a civil discussion on this because I am beside myself in disbelief and would like to understand the rational driving what I see as insanity. Please avoid terms that set people off and just explain your position.  If I have used terms that are offensive and may set you off please look past my ignorance and do a better job than I have of civil discourse.  I look forward to having a deeper understanding.