Skip to content


2012-366 Day 54 – Politics I

If you lean too far to the right or left, I don’t know that this is the post for you. I’ll understand if you just come back tomorrow. The rest of you, duly warned, may proceed.

So here we go, our first foray into politics here. I’ll be revealing my stance on things over the course of this blog, so I won’t lay it all out ahead of time to avoid coloring your views ahead of time. I will say this: I’ve gotten to the point where pretty much all political news angers me, and here’s why:

1) You act like your political party monopolizes something.

Instead of admitting that each side is made up of a variety of viewpoints and no two people inside that party likely have exactly the same beliefs, you paint everyone in the party in broad strokes. Even the same issue is claimed by both sides, with the Democrats claiming a War on Science by the Republicans, but the Republicans going “uh-uh, it’s you who is against science.” I’m certain there are Democrat scientists and Republican scientists, and, rather than painting one entire group as anti- this or pro- that, we should acknowledge that science should exist independent of politics. Just as there are environmentalist Republicans, there are Christian Democrats.

2. Us versus Them

Look, I understand that it feels good to be on a team and to celebrate your team’s victories, but politics shouldn’t be a team sport. Political parties used to represent a platform to start from, now they are the end all and be all. “Republicans are idiots.” “Democrats are hippies.” It goes back to the earlier point of lumping everyone in the party in as one. Sure, there are some Republicans who are idiots, but there are some Democrat idiots too. If this were a race of people we were talking about, it would be just about the most racist attitude you could find. Instead, since it’s a political party, you can set up people on both ends who make a living generalizing and marginalizing the other side. It’s actually rather sickening to me.

3. Separation of Church and State

Never have so few words been more bent and twisted by both sides than these. Rather than attempting to set straight what the original intent was and what it means for our country (a task I am woefully unqualified for), I instead want to discuss a specific aspect. There seems to be a large group of people who believe that laws should be made to govern individual morality, the two most hot button topics right now being gay marriage and birth control (due to the government health care provisions). Taking the second topic first, there are people who believe we must restrict/outlaw birth control because it will encourage promiscuity. I actually agree with Ron Paul’s quote, “But sort of along the line of the [contraception] pills creating immorality, I don’t see it that way. I think the immorality creates the problem of wanting to use the pills. So you don’t blame the pills.” In both these topics I see it like this, God has created the universe and set down the Law for us to follow, but at no time does he prevent us from making a choice that is immoral. Likewise, when laws are created they should not be created with the mind to outlaw immorality that doesn’t infringe upon someone else’s free will (murder, rape, child abuse and the like are obviously wrong and should always remain so). Our job as Christians is to point people away from the cliff, not duct tape them to the nearest tree so they can’t go hurtling off it. The very act of forcing someone to do something against their will is going to do more to drive them away than telling them there’s a better way that doesn’t involve all the damage falling off a cliff entails. Many people are still rallying against the birth control issue even though the churches have been given a compromise that does not force them to pay for something they don’t believe in, and it is the fact that we live in a country where such a compromise is made (and said churches also are allowed to exist tax-free) which demonstrates how out of touch someone who claims the church in America is under attack really is (ask the churches in Africa what being under attack really is like). Here’s a final possibly surprising opinion on the subject: the government (at all levels) should stay out of the gay marriage issue.

We’ll leave that here for now to let people process. I believe more and more that the two party system is broken beyond repair. For the time being I am registered as a Republican, as more of their values align with mine than the Democrats, but I will vote for whoever I believe will do the best job and matches my convictions the best. I believe the time is nearing where we have to reboot the workings of the United States for its own survival, the path that we are heading down is one of a fallen empire. “A country divided against itself cannot stand,” whether that division be physical or ideological, and we are doing more to divide ourselves every single day.

A co-worker was sworn in as a citizen of the United States yesterday, so we had a party for them. We thought it would be fun to wear red, white, and blue, so I chose to wear this to work for the second time. Picture of the Day:

Weight: 233.4 Max: 240 Min: 233.4 Body Fat %: 24.7
Yearly Mileage: 33.4 miles (+4 miles)
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange – Next Test Date: 3/3/12
Fitocracy Level: 13 (18409 points, 640/3000 to next level) – ID: disciplev1
Soccer – Next Game: 2/26, 7:30 pm

Posted in Matt 2012-366, Matt General. Tagged with , , .

3 Responses

Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. Uncle Lance said

    Love the shirt!!! Nice essay I agree with so many of your points.

  2. Andy said

    Matt, I share your frustration when it comes to political topics. What annoys me more than anything is that people act so sure of themselves when the situation is far from simple. A lot of laypeople seem to have all of the answers!

  3. Tony Lewis said

    yeah, I’m pretty much where you are exactly. For many of the same reasons. The “us versus them” attitude of both parties and both wings. Should be “we” with more cooperation on both sides. An attitude of realizing you won’t get “everything” you want, being content with getting “some”. Give and take. But that is not what it is about. More about “getting re-elected” than “serving” the people. Hence the lack of cooperation of the Republicans to give Obama ANYTHING that might make him look good to the electorate (tax cuts, improving economy, etc.) More about getting him out than helping the people. And the Dems were no better with a GOP President. Screams for a middle ground 3rd party, but that will never happen as there is too much invested by special interests in the extremes. I think the whole health-care/contraceptive flap was less driven by “faith” as it was by ANY thing having to do with Obamacare. Could have been podiatry or dental and the GOP would find a way to criticize it just because it is HIS. The system is broken and I see little hope in the future.

Some HTML is OK

(required)

(required, but never shared)

or, reply to this post via trackback.