Despite the amount of political chatter on my blog recently, I'm still at the place I generally am regarding politics: I don't care.
Yes, call me cynical. I'll own that. But what was once an obsession for me has moved to background noise in my life- an interesting diversion from the stuff that really matters.
Politics doesn't really matter? Not so much.
At least, not so much in our gridlocked, deadlocked system of polarized sides where each party has a vested interest in
not solving any of the problems they bloviate on and on about- guaranteeing they'll still have something to run on next time around. And we wouldn't want to actually solve anything either, because that would require working across the aisle and
that would require the other party getting some credit- how could we attack those we are working
with? We can't. So better to keep things stalemated.
And politics especially doesn't matter when all everyone on BOTH sides is doing is parroting the worst they've heard about the other guy (or gal) and ignoring the true downsides of their own candidate. In that context, it all becomes spin.
I had hoped that an Obama-McCain race would be a more civil one. That these two would avoid, and make sure their campaign surrogates avoid, the kind of smear politicking that Americans seem to respond to. Did you hear? Obama called Palin a pig? Palin wants to take evolution out of the schools and teach creationism instead? John McCain is actually a Manchurian candidate who'll cede our sovereignty to Vietnamese Communists and rename Washington DC "Ho Chi Minhingrad" the first chance he gets!!!
Ugh.
That's all we're getting from both sides.
Same old stuff. McCain is the continuation of GW Bush! Obama is running for Carter's second term!
Please...
The reason why I've focused so much on this stuff recently is not because I care about the outcome. I really don't- I like both candidates. I like Obama a bit better than McCain (they were my first and second choices, respectively, for their parties). And I like Biden and Palin about equally.
What I care about is the process- the process by which reasonable people (like you and me), every couple of years get polarized and spun by the pros. The process which has people like you and me who consider gossip a sin reading everything we can get our hands on about these people- their lives, what they might have said to some guy once or in a church service once- who their pastor is, what their religion really is and what their church affiliation really means, their radical Muslim friends and their radical "Christianist" friends... Obama's love child and the "mysterious" break up of the marriage of Palin's husband's best friend. Did you hear? He tried to seal the records of his divorce? Oooh. Wonder what's hiding there???
Everyone says the Republicans are running on fear. Really? For all the rhetoric of hope on one side and reform (or experience, depending on the day) on the other, I see fear as the main component of both campaigns. After all, isn't that the message behind both the inexperience charge and the GWB 3rd term charge? If "he's going to be worse than GWB" isn't a message a fear, I don't know what is :)
So yeah- I care about the process- it interests me, and I've tried to make editorial comment on it as I could. A lot of editorial comments, actually. Sorry if it's been "grating" to certain musicians out there.
But when it comes down to it, I
do have hope. I have hope that both Mr Obama, probably the most thoughtful politician I've seen in my lifetime, and Mr McCain- the one Republican in the presidential horse-race who had consistently worked across the aisle with democrats and on a number of occasions when it counted had opposed his own party, will make a fine president.
I'm holding out the hope that when the campaign is done (and truthfully- for all the distractions of the past few weeks, this hasn't been anything like the
most rancorous or dirty campaign I've seen), when one or the other takes office, the nation will move past the ridiculous "he's not
my president" sentiments and support whoever we as a people elect and do what we want our politicians to do- tone down the rhetoric and work towards getting something done- even if it means someone not of our "party" gets some credit. I know, I know... that's a long shot. But I feel compelled to balance my cynicism with a bit of optimism.
And I've actually worked hard to see the good in either outcome, the positive qualities in either candidate.I have hope that Christians especially will begin to leave the politics of slander and fear behind and at least try to see the best in those public servants running for office- Democrat or Republican, and will do our biblical duty and pray for whoever gets elected.
The truth is, if all we do is trade our right-wing evangelical hope in the next Reagan for a left wing progressive hope in Obama, we haven't really travelled that far, have we? Recognizing that, I have a hope that looks past human political systems to Jesus- that recognizes that "hope" is good, but not to be found in a politician who will let us down (John McCain's promise not to, notwithstanding). One that hopes that followers of Jesus, who believe (whether you pick the Calvinist or the Arminian version) in a sovereign God who won't be surprised at the outcome of the election and who is still working towards a redeemed community in a renewed creation regardless of who's in office will remember they are ultimately citizens of another kingdom.
Bob Hyatt is the lead pastor of
the evergreen community, an emerging church community in Portland, OR. More importantly he is the husband of Amy and the father of Jack and Jane. He's also the editor of Next Wave
