Candidates Schmandidates
At work a few days ago, during a discussion about politics (I know- What was I thinking?), someone told me that I should feel insulted by the Republican party, because after all the years that they controlled the White House and congress, they never followed through on their promises to outlaw abortion, shrink government, lower taxes, outlaw gay marriage, and a host of other non-accomplishments.
He has a point. Although I did put up some minor arguments about abortion being constrained somewhat and a few steps toward lower taxes, I completely see what he was getting at. But having conceded that the Republican record isn't exactly impressive, I wasn't persuaded to abandon ship and vote for easier abortions, bigger government, higher taxes, gay marriage, and a host of other "accomplishments". His arguments didn't convince me that the Democrats are a better choice than the Republicans, only that politicians in general don't accomplish much. And he didn't really "convince" me, I already was convinced of that. Maybe he just highlighted the fact that I'm disappointed in our choices for candidates. But still, I know I'll be voting for a Republican for president come November, because what else can I do? I'd rather vote for someone who touts values similar to mine and then hope he (or she) stays true to their word, than to vote for someone who touts values contrary to mine and hope they're lying. ALTHOUGH... Man, that just might work!
Labels: government, politics
2 Comments:
Keeping in mind that I'm not a fan of mixing politics and religion (see Boyd's Myth of a Christian Nation for example), I've been thinking a lot about the election and just the state of America as a whole lately.
Truthfully, we're in pretty bad shape. The dollar sucks, health care is a joke, we've almost doubled the national debt while Bush has been in office, the economy is looking to tank any day now...it's just not very encouraging.
And in the midst of all of this, I can't find a single candidate who I really want to rally around. Hillary's doing her best Martha Stewart impressions lately, Obama's a great speaker, Ron Paul has some really interesting ideas, Giulianni is Bush on steroids...I don't know. I'm seriously thinking about sitting out this election.
I had a friend tell me the other day that if I didn't vote then I lost my right to complain about whoever wins. Are you kidding me? The best reason to vote is so I can criticize our administration for the next four years?
Give me a break. I'm just gonna do a write-in: Steve Jobs. No man has turned around a bad situation as quickly as he has.
Ha ha! I don't know if reserving the right to complain is the "best" reason to vote, but when the next administration makes the current one look good, it would be fun to be able to say, "See, this is why I voted for the other guy!"
Regarding Boyd's "Myth", it did change the way I think about some things but practically, it hasn't changed much that I do. I haven't quite given up on politics the way Boyd has. I think it's still our (civic) duty to do whatever we can to change our society for the better. One big issue for me is abortion: It can be seen as a religious issue, but even for non-religious reasons I think we need to respect life more than that. Restricting abortions seems to be (typically but not exclusively) a part of the Republican platform.
Same with lower taxes. I'm willing to receive less in the way of services in order to pay less in taxes. I think I usually spend my money more responsibly than the government does.
So as far as mixing religion and politics, I don't think we really need to. Our religious views certainly shape our values (or should), but there are plenty of non-religious issues that have a big impact on our society.
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