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.
1 comment:
Seems like you are forgetting one fact here. You are NOT here. It feels like you are looking down your nose at those of us that are here. Those of us that tried and prayed hard for God to forgive our lack of interest in Him and bless us once more. Not because of the Republican party - no they are not the ideal- but just because we asked, and had faith He would do what's best. Now we have to LIVE HERE. I am afraid. Actually afraid of the future. I was hoping to hang on by my fingernails to the hope that someday a really good candidate would come along and take hold of this country before it slides into the abyss, but with people like you who don't even live here, and even worse don't even vote what chance do we have! If you really believe that the Republican Party needs to clean up, come home and change it. Don't stand on foreign soil with arms folded over your chest and look down your nose at us. My family has long been involved in the GOP. I agree that it needs reform, but we need leaders who can offer brilliant ideas on how to do that. Not smug ex- patriots who don't even participate in the process. Give me a break.
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