Jack & Jill Politics

Most Christians will agree that religion ought to be apolitical. And Saddleback showed the promise of a reconcilliation between the apolitical aspect of the movement and the rational language of pluralist politics. But Sarah Palin has essentially interrupted the reconcilliation, and has reassured all America of what it means to be a Christian in our Great Nation: Guns are good, wealth is virtue, Sex is shame, war is holy, and there is no need to Discuss It Any Further. Sin brings suffering, so let's trounce the sinners and ignore the existence of the suffering sinners. Sladerous campaign speeches become cathartic pressure-valves for backwater imaginations. The greater the bloodshed, the more rapturous the ejaculation. No insult can cut deep enough. But every attempt should be made -- in the name of freedom.

The same Evangelical leaders -- Warren, Wallis -- who made Saddleback possible ought to be taking a good, cold-eyed look at what the Palin nomination has done to their community. They should look keenly at the ignorance and intolerance it brings to light.

And they should do something about it.

We are out here - the Republicans or ex-Republicans who will no longer tolerate the racist, despicable slime machine that the right wing and the John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign has become. I know, for I am one of them. I am not your typical progressive, being an ex- Air Force officer (9 years), evangelical Christian, card carrying conservative, Rush/Hannity listener - an now an Obama supporter in John McCain's home state of Arizona.

And I know I am not alone - for one, my grown sons are with me. My older, now in college, proudly rides around with Obama stickers on his scooter. He, also, was raised an evangelical Christian, and goodness knows I subjected him to a conservative worldview.

So what gives? Why are we out here - the Rebublican Obama supporters, the ones you don't expect.

ROTC Cadet, Air Force Captain, Free Republic diarist, James Dobson quoting conservative, 2 time Bush voter. Church worship leader. These all describe me. And there are more just like me. My evolution to progressive awareness has been a slow one, but is has never gone faster than in the last 3 or 4 months. How do I describe myself now - a progressive conservative, of course (if there is such a thing)!

So why am I and those like me out here? I am out here because I see through the hysteria that the right wing has become. I know the abandonment of principles when we see it. I despise in today's Republican Party what I was always told were the worst traits of the 'left' in years past. I know better these days. I have come to the realization that in many ways I left my brain turned off for far too long. I listened to those I was supposed to agree with, and never tried to be, as Rush Limbaugh says, a 'truth seeker'. Well I am a truth seeker now, I find truth much more often when I listen to Rachel Maddow that I ever did on Rush. I am able to see (on the right) political opportunism, shameless lying, rampant political positioning, and a party leadership that has forfieted all claim to trust.

Nothing has shamed me more than the evangelical groupthink around the Sarah Palin pick. People I used to respect for their strong stand on the family and values have completely abandoned their principles to back someone whom they think offers a slim grasp at victory. I will not participate in it, nor will my church, for which I am thankful. Trust me, the groupthink on the right is not as rampant as you may think.

This short piece is so insightful! It addresses why so many of us have been disturbed and eerily repulsed by the Republican pick of Palin as VP. Here is a young, attractive, smiling mother who is anti-nature, anti-woman's rights, anti-intellectual ,and anti-global in her views. There is not a shred of compassion in her message.

It's easy to feel confused and off balance by this contradiction in message and messenger.

This is a fascinating read.....READ ON..............

Deepak Chopra on Obama and the Palin Effect

Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City . By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.

She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence, his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms, the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other."

Obama is calling for us to reach for our higher selves and, frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message.

In her acceptance speech, Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision. Look at what she stands for:

-- Small town values -- a denial of America 's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.

--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America 's image abroad.

--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.

-- Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.

-- Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.

--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal- radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too
much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is."

The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.

Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do.

So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.

"Virtual dap" to ya!!

"Before we begin today, I want to say a few words about the latest made up controversy by the John McCain campaign. What their campaign has done this morning is the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics in this country. They seize on an innocent remark try to take it out of context, throw up an outrageous ad because they know that it'is catnip for the news media. I'm assuming you guys heard this watching the news. I'm talking about John McCain's economic policies, because it is more of the same - you can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig - and suddenly they say "Oh you must be talking about the governor of Alaska." (LAUGHTER)

See, it would be funny except - of course the news media decided that was the lead story yesterday - they'd much rather have the campaign - this is the McCain campaign - about phony and foolish diversions than about the future. This happens every election cycle. Every 4 years this is what we do.

We've got an energy crisis, we have an education system that is not working for too many of our children and making us less competitive, we have an economy that is not creating hardship for families all across America, we've got 2 wars going on, veterans coming home, not being cared for, and this is what they want to talk about.

This is what they want to spend two out of the last 55 days talking about. You know who ends up losing at the end of the day? It's not the Democratic candidate, it's not the Republican candidate, it's YOU, the American people. Because then we go another year or another 4 years or another 8 years without addressing the issues that matter to YOU. ENOUGH! I don't care what they say about me, but I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift boat politics. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! (HEAVY, LONGTIME APPLAUSE)

These are serious times and they call for a serious debate about where we need to take the nation. We can't take another 4 years that are like the last 8, where family incomes are going down at the same time as costs of everything are on the rise, where we keep on spending 10 billion dollars a month in Iraq at a time when our own infrastructure here at home is crumbling and the Iraqis have a $79 billion surplus that they're not spending. We can't take another 4 years of the same trickle down, on your own, special interests first approach to economics that is killing the middle class in this country.

Now John McCain has supported these policies for the last 8 years. He believes in them, and when you scratch the surface, there's not a dime's worth of difference between what he's offering and what we've already got. When he's done giving tax breaks to companies that ship our jobs overseas, or $300 billion to the biggest corporations in America including the oil companies that are already making money hand over fist, the only change you're going to get are some pennies in your pocket. So spare me the phony outrage, spare me the phony talk about change.

We have real problems in this country right now and the American people are looking to us for answers - not distractions, not diversions, not manipulations - they want real answers to the real problems that we are facing. That's the kind of debate that I intend to have because that's the kind of debate the American people deserve. That is what you deserve and that is what you are going to get for the next 55 days."

Be careful of the words you say, keep them soft and sweet, you never know from day to day which ones you'll have to eat.

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that [it is] good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched [wo]man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Rom 7:14-24