Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Politics

Preface: I hate politics as they currently are. I love the idea of politics. The idea that someone can truly get a feel for the people, and serve them with their best interests at heart. I long for America to have this, but I acknowledge that it will probably never happen, and if it does happen, will only appear on a local level. That said, as it currently is, it is a necessary evil, and i feel it my duty as an American citizen to become informed.

Last night, after Bible Discussion Group, the group stayed over to watch the Presidential Forum on Faith, Values, and Poverty. It was an interesting watch, especially with the company I had (which ranged from conservative to liberal). I consider myself a slight-right leaning person, but I strive to be a centrist deep-down inside.

I was blown away by a few things:

1) That anyone would consider a person's stance on abortion and/or evolution to be critical the decision making process in electing the next President of the United States of America confuses me. Exactly what role will the stances taken on these two issues by our President influence our country?

I know the pro-life (and probably the pro-choice) crowd will yell about the task of appointing Supreme Court Justices. But, isn't the better question about how you view the Constitution, not about how you view abortion? I am pro-life (pro-innocent life, at least), but I would rather see a pro-abortion strict-interpretation of the Constitution judge appointed than an anti-abortion interpret-the-Constitution-a-new-way-every-month judge!

And I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out something plausible for the evolution issue. Maybe because our nation has to have a Christian/intelligent president and you can't be a Christian if you believe in evolution, and you can't be smart if you don't? I know many Christians who believe in the plausibility of evolution, and I know a lot of smart people who reject the theory of evolution. So I'm still stumped. Anyone able to help me?

2) Why can't politicians just give straight answers? Why does everything have to be longwinded? Why can't the answer be "sometimes, I have to rely on what I call divine inspiration, but what you might call a 'gut feeling' over advisers and data" instead of "you know, sometimes you have to look at the big picture, look at how you're praying, when you're praying, what the people of the nation think, you have to ask yourself if it's possible to effect the nation for 20-50 years with your decision or if it's something that will be forgotten in a couple of months, and then you need to examine it case-by-case, and when you do that, sometimes you get a different answer than you expected, and sometimes it's hard to tell if what you have gotten is an answer of a hypothesis, and then you need to consider the difference between the two, and is it right to move forward on a hypothesis instead of an answer, or is it wrong to sit there on an answer and do nothing when the answer really is in front of you, and then you decide that you just need to be like the common man!"

(Yes, I'm look at you Obama!)

(Although this is not restricted to just the three Dem front runners. We flipped over the a GOP debate after the one we were watching ended, and saw every one of them make a point (or ramble), and then get cut off, only to ramble more and more. Even Rudy Giuliani, the person I support most right now among fully declared candidates, gave a very good, quick, coherent answer to a good question, and then rambled some more after his cut off.)

3) As I stated above, I'm a right-leaner (love low taxes and small government), but I try to be open-minded coming into political debates and elections, because deep-down I really do want to be a centrist. But if that's really the best of the Democrats, I'm not impressed. The only one who said anything worthwhile was Jon Edwards, and I'm pretty much morally and philosophically opposed to him. So, it looks like I'm probably voting GOP again next year, unless major changes happen or something really stupid happens.

Anyone else watch this and have thoughts on it, and the process in general?

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