One more thought about politics before I go back to happy things

My good friend Matt, a diehard Broncos fan, used to root for Denver to lose every game a couple seasons ago. Why? Back then, Jake Plummer was the Broncos' quarterback, and Matt knew that as long as Plummer was running the offense, his team was doomed to good-but-not-great-itude. He also knew that coach Mike Shanahan would never realize this unless the team totally tanked. In the end, he got his wish; the Broncos got really bad and Plummer was traded. (They haven't gotten much better since then, but I guess the future is bright or something.)

This is exactly how I feel about the Republicans this year. I admit it -- I wanted Obama to win in a landslide. Not because I like the guy -- I distrust and disagree with him on a lot of topics, most notably gay marriage and abortion -- but because the GOP needed to be sent a message.

These jokers have co-opted Christians all over the country, and now it's almost like Rush Limbaugh was made an apostle. If you go to church, you vote Republican. And what did the church get out of this exchange of trust? Did the party back true Christian values against all odds? Uh, no. We got a decade of compromise, power-grabbing and pork-barrel spending. That's because the Republicans know they can appeal to the evangelicals as their "base" even though they have failed to represent us. They've failed to represent anything, really. Except themselves.

And now that failure has come home to roost. All that back-patting and home-state lily-gilding brought us a disgusting national debt. Genuflecting at the altar of Wall Street brought us a colossal credit disaster that exacerbated a cyclical recession. If the party had actually delivered on the hopes invested by Christians everywhere, the worst that could happen is they'd lose the next election, but they'd sleep at night knowing they fought for what's right. Instead, they're booted out of power and they know it's their own fault.

Maybe now the folks who run that party will get the train back on the tracks. Remember what you stood for. Remember what it was like to stand for something. And then deliver on it, even if CNN and Stephen Colbert make fun of you for it.

If not, maybe a new entity will emerge that Christians can get behind, to which we can give the support and trust of which the GOP proved unworthy.

In the meantime, we've got four years of Democratic rule. That thought doesn't excite me, but it won't keep Jesus from reaching anybody's heart. That can only happen if we choose to be bitter and depressed and discouraged. Look up, open your eyes and fight on.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

I'm at work now, waiting for my first class of the day, and entertaining the occasional student who drops by to talk, so this post will be brief. But important. Important to me, anyway, because I've gotta get this off my chest.

America. You're bringing me down. I've been lucky enough to have some good friends, people working hard on both sides of this election, and people who firmly believe in candidates from each party. Great. Good. But the way you guys talk about this election makes me seriously ill. Ill enough to where I chose not to vote this time. That's right. I sat this one out.

To my conservative, Christian, Republican-voting friends: Did you seriously think John McCain was gonna accomplish anything for Christ in the next four years? What did George W. Bush get you? Are we any closer to being a Godly nation than we were when Bill Clinton was in office? I like tax breaks as much as the next guy, but God isn't calling our nation to a trickle-down economic model. He's calling us to our knees, and piling up a golly-gojillion dollars in debt is not the way there.

To the blue staters: You guys holler about the McCain campaign being too negative -- and it was -- but be aware of your own words, especially in victory. I read one message from my close Facebook friend that said "I'm so tired of the Republicans calling people dumb. They had their eight crappy years." Do you not see the hypocrisy in that comment?

The deal is, like it or not, this election was between two people who truly wanted what they believed was best for their country. You can disagree, you can say their ideas would have bad results, but what's with all the slinging words like "stupid" and "evil" and "hate" around? Let's save those for when they're truly deserved, like describing the KSU athletic department.

God's in control here, guys, and nothing ever takes Him by surprise.