Decisions: Blue Jeans, God, Kerry & GWB
This is my first political post. I have had several conversations recently with people who apparently choose their president the same way they choose their cars, jeans, what grocery store they shop, and the color of paint for their living-room walls-- that is, they buy emotionally and back it by logic. Every politican on the planet knows it. (Okay, I am visiting my inlaws) That is the reason I hear certain people say what I consider to be extremely outrageous comments. I don't care who one votes for, that is his/her right, but I find myself saying, "Please spare me the the emotional rhetoric." I would just rather the person be honest and say, "I don't know crap about politics and I am choosing to vote for Kerry or Bush because I vote purely on personality and not issues". I would have much more respect for them. It's like the $140 jeans... of course it doesn't make sense logically, why attempt to act as if one made a wise decison when it was purely an emotional decision? Arguing with my wife's mother's husband, it dawned on me he had already decided who he is voting for based on personality and not issues, yet he was attempting to argue issues. I realized I could no longer hear him.
This is the same person who tells me there is no God. (He is entitled to his opinion) He had the same resolve for God as he did the candidate he dislikes. Same guy who actually said to me the other day, "Screw God." I asked him what God he didn't believe in for there was a good chance I didn't believe in that God either.
8 Comments:
Well...
We're all waiting to hear who your choice is and what logic you used to arrive at that choice...
Rick
http://www.brutallyhonest.org
Insightful post! I feel torn myself about who to vote for. I feel like it's voting for the lesser of two evils.
"Screw God." That's kind of funny, actually. I wonder what his image of God is, you know?
Truly, I confess that I'm very influenced by my father's conservative outlook on politics. That's why I keep my mouth shut and listen a lot. This whole flailing of words and postures at election time is a gauntlet between my convictions and my vote.
That's the beauty of our political system. You can vote for someone because you like their haircut and you don't have to know where they stand on any issue.
John C.
Yes, I guess we can vote for someone because we like their hair. We just don't know how blessed we are that many have reduced their greatest right and voice down to a hairstyle. I find that very sad.
Sure, Rick, but who do you *like* better?
:0)
I actually spoke to someone who said that it did come down to liking Bush but not liking Kerry. I had to reluctantly agree, because fitness for the office, honesty, and policy decisions eventually fall by the wayside. The real question?
Which one could I see myself having over for tea and cucumber sandwiches? That's why I'm picking Kerry: Bush would probably eventually say something really awkward, and there would be this silence, and somebody would have to say something to change the subject, and it would be all contrived, and everybody would end up feeling very uncomfortable.
It's not a hard decision, really.
Rick,
Brother, I feel your pain. As for you wife's mother's husband, I don't think I believe in that God either. That last statement blew my mind. I have to give you props for that. Feel free to check out my new post. It's a different side of the political arena. Keep the faith, man.
Peace,
Josh
Well, it's good to see that the 2nd step of recovery is not a problem for you, bro. God, evidently, *can* restore you to sanity...but just hasn't made much progress with it. Else, why would you be arguing with the husband of the mother of She-Who-Shares-Your-Life about *politics*? (Much less expecting some clear-thinking and resolution?) Hmmm...
:-)
The folks who vote based on hairstyle or how "friendly" they look on a TV ad are not nearly as scary as the folks who decide everything based on exactly one issue. The war; the economy; the "gay thing" (as I heard one avowed Republican call it today); nuclear weapons; abortion; you name it. Pick one, and decide *everything* based on that one thing. It makes me crazy.
Where I struggle is that both candidates can *claim* to have "faith-based" opinions or policies. But neither one's voting or actions support that, in the litmus test of "love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself."
Paul Simon (whom I would have voted for president in a heart-beat) once declared that most organizations (churches, governmental agencies, you name it) should be judged based on Matthew 25:31-46 ("I was hungry, you gave me to eat; thirsty, you gave me to drink..."). The problem with using that standard (at least in electoral politics) is that you'd still be left with a coin toss, for the most part. As far as I can tell, the last presidential candidate since FDR who campaigned honestly and forthrightly was either Bill Cosby or Pat Paulsen.
But I know this - whether a candidate wraps themselves with the flag, or wraps their arms around the cross, the desired effect is the same (and my suspicions of their actions peg my BS-ometer). Both seem to be motivated by a desire for a given impression, not by reverence or a desire to protect what they represent (other than the status quo).
My struggle, too, is that there is much that Bush has said and done that I violently disagree with - but Kerry has been like quicksilver: tilt the table one way, that's the way he runs. The real danger is that it becomes a choice between "damned if you do" and "damned if you don't." Dear God, send us a couple clues, wouldja please?
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