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Sunday, March 14, 2010

Hot Button Topic: The Political Stand of Thinking People

Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Tea Party, Conservative, Liberal, Progressive, Regressive, Socialist, Communist. Moderate, Extremist, Disestablishmentarianism, Right, Left, Fanatic, Apathetic, American?



The seeds of another American Civil War are among us. The lines are drawn, the sides set. On one side you have the Absolutists Demonizers who see every action of the other side as an evil attempt to destroy every living human on the planet. On the other, the Progressive Egocentrics who view any deviation from their desires to be a narrow minded obstruction from simple minded idiots. The sad truth is that these two camps fall into the same category, Blind Fanaticism.

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject" Winston Churchill

George Santayana defines fanaticism as "redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim"

The church has had a long storied history of Blind, or half-blind, Fanaticism. “Let’s bring those heathens the Gospel, and if they don’t accept it we will slaughter them all” The Crusades. “Those Abortion Clinics are killing millions of babies. We have to protect the sanctity of life and kill the doctors who are performing abortions”. This is just one group on one side of the fanatic farm. The other side of the fanatic coin has equally incomprehensible logic. “All Americans have the right to free speech, we need to make the Christians stop speaking” “Everyone has the right to believe how they wish and no ones belief is more valuable than anyone else’s, That is why Christianity needs to be illegal” I actually had someone use the last one on me in a conversation. Blind Fanaticism is the enemy of modern society. It drives us to the illogical in the attempt to do the incomprehensible. The scariest part is that the extreem fringes of the fanatics are willing to die for their unqualified opinions. They have no basis in truth or the truth they once had is now twisted to serve their purpose.

“Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.” Romans 1:28 NLT



We, as thinking people need to sit down and consider our words and actions. Are we doing and saying what we think is best for our families, country, or state? Or is it that we are parroting the hate filled rhetoric of a few talking heads. Do we honestly believe that an entire political party wants to eradicate Christianity? Force Religion down unwilling people’s throats? Destroy our economy? Let the poor go hungry and die? And the list goes on for miles. We have two sides of the same fanatic coin screaming accusations at each other and we get sucked into their little war of little minds.



The problem with our current political system is that those people who deserve to be in power, by nature of character and competence, do not want it and those who want it, by the fact that they want it, do not deserve it. We, as Americans are left with the second string talent our society has to offer (By optimistic calculations, in reality they are probably the 3rd string for the Jr. Varsity team). The only way to fix it is for a large group of good men, and women, to stand up and sacrifice their time and effort to go and be Senators, Congressmen, and Presidents. People who do not want the power but would do the right thing with it and cannot stand by idly while evil flourishes. People like our founding fathers.

Excuse me while I pick my soapbox up and return to the actual point of this little diatribe. What should our political stand be as thinking people? The short answer is: Your moral core. What do you hold dear? Sanctity of life? Freedom of speech? Strong economy? No person can tell you what this is but you have to sit down and figure out what you believe and want. Then you need to figure which beliefs are nonnegotiable and which are flexible. Next find a candidate who has a track record of supporting as many of those beliefs. Notice, I made no mention of party or what the candidate says he supports. We need to be looking for the best person for the job. Parties change, candidates switch parties, people stop wearing this horrendous white wigs and life goes on. All the while politicians say what you want to hear and then vote THEIR core values. A persons History is a good indicator to their future. Look up your candidates track record. This includes their personal life that has overflowed into the public arena. People who have trouble that big are hiding things that are larger than what you can see. Do we really want more drama in our offices of power? Issues must drive our choices not political treachery and mindless party line holding.



By finding and voting our core values we can, as Americans, change the very fabric of our political system to one of integrity and sacrifice instead of the greed centered horde mentality that now prevails. We must relegate the hateful rhetoric to the ignored fringe that they should have always been and restore the meaningful dialog that was lost many decades ago. By doing this we will silence the drums of war that we all hear and replace them with the call to diplomacy. It is my opinion that the majority of both sides are good people who wish for a better world for their children. The only way for thinking people to reach that goal is for us to incrementally work our way back of this cliff to a place where we once again stand as a UNITED America.



If we won’t do it, who will?

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