American Politics Are Maddening

As most of the world is probably aware, the United States of America is in the midst of an election year.  And the political stage is down right maddening.  There are two major parties (see definition 5) in the U.S. Electoral system and a number of smaller, organized parties.  There are also several smaller movements that aren’t really parties at all.

Of the two major parties within the U.S. political system, the Republicans are generally thought of as the Conservative Party and the Democrats are generally thought of as the Liberal Party.  Both parties are made up of members that may loosely be divided into camps of fiscally conservative or liberal, and socially conservative or liberal.  And both parties will have some level of mixed membership, meaning a member might be fiscally conservative yet socially liberal.

Within the U.S. political system, fiscally conservatives are generally for smaller government with less government spending.  They tend to concentrate government into holistically government only functions.  Things like defense of the Nation and international trade and commerce.  Whereas fiscal liberals are generally for bigger government with broader government programs.  Things like welfare (see definition 2) and socialized medical care.

Also within the U.S. political system social conservatives tend to want to either limit the government’s power, or at least delegate power to the States, over social issues.  Things like abortion and gun control.  Whereas socially liberals tend to want to have those things regulated at the Federal level.

All parties ostensibly have members from all different world views in them.  Each individual aligns with a party that most closely resembles their own world view for a variety of reasons.  But few (in my humble estimation, very few) actually have considered their own world view closely enough to be able to state why they make the choices that they do.  Everyone is out after their own best interests, but few can articulate what those best interests are or why they even want them.

If your world view is atheistic and you truly believe there is no God, then  you cannot possibly ascribe any meaning to life.  Your only interest in an electoral cycle is what fits your own best interests.  And I believe we are seeing that happen today.  If we are to believe the polls (most of which have been woefully inaccurate this election season), there are an unprecedented number of young people (we’re talking 18 to 30 years of age here.  What might be termed college and career age) that support Senator Bernie Sanders, a liberal democrat.  This is especially odd when you consider the generation gap between these young voters and Senator Sanders.  He is 74 years of age, old enough to be their grandfather or in a number of cases even their great-grandfather.  I’d love to construct my own poll and find out just how many of these young people would support their grandfather for President of the United States.  And yet they support Senator Sanders.  Why?  I believe it is because as a Socialist, Senator Sanders is promising them the world.  Everything is going to be free and fair.  It will be a utopian world.  And because the U.S. Has now raised a couple of generations of godless youth, they now buy into this fabricated utopia because they have no theological basis in their lives to discern the truth and they perceive the utopia promised to be good for themselves.

If your world view is agnostic, you are once again driven by only what is good for you.  Agnostics are slightly different in that they don’t expect (or necessarily want) the utopia, but they do expect to be left alone.

However, if your world view is theistic, then you should at the very least expect that a god somewhere is in control of it all and you should at least consider the part that he plays in it all.

It is specifically Christians within the theistic group that intrigue me the most this election cycle.  For some reason, Christians seem to believe that unless a Christian is elected to the highest offices of the land, they will lose everything they hold dear and consider of value.

Christians should consider history though.  President Jimmy Carter professes Jesus Christ.  So did President Ronald Regan.  And so does President George W. Bush.  All three were radically different U.S. Presidents, and all three presided over the country in events that have led us to today.

As a Christian, I personally believe that God Himself sat all three upon the throne (because His word tells me that he does so).  And yet we continue to lose the moral ground and the souls of millions of Americans (and as I just stated, I believe we have now raised a couple of generations that are both un-churched and that are godless).  This should speak volumes to us today.  If you are doing something because you believe you have to maintain some status quo, or because that status is not being maintained, you might suspect that something is wrong.

And indeed I do believe there is something wrong.  And that is us, Christians.  You see, God doesn’t want leaders.  He wants followers. He doesn’t want us to maintain the status quo, He wants us to follow Him and He will maintain the status quo for us.  It is His plan, not our plan that should be played out.  He doesn’t need our agenda, even if we believe we are doing it for Him.  He simply wants us to follow Him.  And given the split in the State elections and in the rhetoric that is going on, it is clear that we are not following Him or else more of us would be on the same page.

You see, I don’t need a Godly President, I desire to see a Godly people.  And a Godly President doesn’t provide for a Godly people.  A Godly people provides for a Godly people and a Godly Nation.  And that has to start with US, not the President of the United States of America.

If Christians were to render unto Caesar what is Caesars’, and unto God what is God’s, I believe we would see a change in our land.  We need revival in the land, and a man professing to be a Christian as President does not afford that.  Christians need to follow Jesus Christ, not some man they believe to be Godly whom they believe will revive their values or otherwise protect them from further erosion.