June 01, 2007
I told you so….
I don’t like to say much about politics on this blog. But I am not apolitical. My romance with the Bush administration was just as sincere as it was short. I am not sure that the war is a good war because I am not sure about Bush (among several other reasons). I have voted Republican in the past because, as a citizen with the right and privilege of vote, I am pragmatic. To vote Republican is, generally, to vote for the lesser of two evils.
I thought. I’m not sure what I think now.
But I think Bush and Republican liberals know that Joe Conservative Evangelical thinks that. They know that we are suckers for the “lesser-of-two-evils” pragmatism and, once they get our vote, they take us for a ride.
I can accept that. That’s politics. But I began saying several years ago to my friends that Bush was going to sell conservatives down the river. I wondered why they were so gaga about a “christian” president. It astounded me that Christians were so partisan that they could not see that the liberals’ criticism of his cocky, let-the-world-go-to-hell-in-a-handbasket small-mindedness might actually have a ring of truth to it. I thought that it became increasingly clear that Bush was hell-bent on his utopian fantasy (whatever that is/was). I thought it was obvious.
But I am a contented misfit.
However, some sharper minds really, really get it. Peggy Peggy Noonan, for example, is on the mark. The whole article is worth a read, but I like this part:
The beginning of my own sense of separation from the Bush administration came in January 2005, when the president declared that it is now the policy of the United States to eradicate tyranny in the world, and that the survival of American liberty is dependent on the liberty of every other nation. This was at once so utopian and so aggressive that it shocked me. For others the beginning of distance might have been Katrina and the incompetence it revealed, or the depth of the mishandling and misjudgments of Iraq.What I came in time to believe is that the great shortcoming of this White House, the great thing it is missing, is simple wisdom. Just wisdom—a sense that they did not invent history, that this moment is not all there is, that man has lived a long time and there are things that are true of him, that maturity is not the same thing as cowardice, that personal loyalty is not a good enough reason to put anyone in charge of anything, that the way it works in politics is a friend becomes a loyalist becomes a hack, and actually at this point in history we don’t need hacks.
One of the things I have come to think the past few years is that the Bushes, father and son, though different in many ways, are great wasters of political inheritance. They throw it away as if they’d earned it and could do with it what they liked. Bush senior inherited a vibrant country and a party at peace with itself. He won the leadership of a party that had finally, at great cost, by 1980, fought itself through to unity and come together on shared principles. Mr. Bush won in 1988 by saying he would govern as Reagan had. Yet he did not understand he’d been elected to Reagan’s third term. He thought he’d been elected because they liked him. And so he raised taxes, sundered a hard-won coalition, and found himself shocked to lose his party the presidency, and for eight long and consequential years. He had many virtues, but he wasted his inheritance.
Bush the younger came forward, presented himself as a conservative, garnered all the frustrated hopes of his party, turned them into victory, and not nine months later was handed a historical trauma that left his country rallied around him, lifting him, and his party bonded to him. He was disciplined and often daring, but in time he sundered the party that rallied to him, and broke his coalition into pieces. He threw away his inheritance. I do not understand such squandering.
Whether it was the administration’s stupid notion of liberating the world, the bungling of Katrina, and mismanagement of a quesionable war that is starting to make some conservatives wake up and smell the coffee, I don’t know. But the latest cockamamie pontifications and insults to the Republican base on the question of immigration will seal the deal for many.
Whether one likes the bill or not, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that his treatment of his base is lousy leadership that should, I hope, cost the RNC. He is either very dumb or very savvy. He is dumb if he actually cares about the RNC and the conservative base that put it in power. He is savvy if he is pursuing an agenda he has always had and, now that he is on his way out, can pursue it with impunity.
If he is savvy, conservatives have been suckers. If he is dumb, conservatives have been suckers. And all this to show that American Christians may finally come to the place where their brothers and sisters around the world have been a long time:
Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he? - (Isaiah 2:22).
When will evangelicals desist from looking for a political savior?
Posted by Bob Bixby at June 1, 2007 11:14 AM | eMail this entry! | 908 WordsThis entry was posted in the following categories: Politics and Culture
Wonderful entry!
Posted by: Liz at June 1, 2007 12:44 PMNo doubt American conservatives, if that means the great mass of those who call themselves by that name, are suckers. There’s also no doubt that the great mass of American liberals, or non-conservatives, are also suckers. There’s a sucker born every minute, and said suckers are going to be categorized as “conservative” or “liberal” by the mass of the chattering class as it currently exists.
Nevertheless, if the comment, “American Christians may finally come to the place where their brothers and sisters around the world have been a long time: Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he? - (Isaiah 2:22),” is meant to imply that Europeans (or any other non-Americans for that matter) aren’t also suckers, then I reply with a big old Bronx (that’s in America) cheer.
I offer said cheer not as some provincial hillbilly. I’ve lived out of the country and have many friends who have too. I love much about other countries and cultures. I just don’t buy the “everybody’s sophisticated but Americans” nonsense that (especially Europeans) love to spout.
And finally, I agree with you that everyone (not just evangelicals, but fundamentalists, neo-orthodox, Roman Catholics, theological liberals, etc.) should cease and desist from seeking a political savior. However, seeking to obey the cultural mandate by desiring and working for just rulers (the only standard of justice being Scripture) is not the same thing as seeking a political savior.
Posted by: Keith at June 1, 2007 07:45 PMExactly Right Pastor Bob…
That is why I am voting for the Constitution Party this next time around. Congressman Robert Paul (now of the Constituon Party) has tried to promote some very meaningful issues in the past. He stumbled in the last debate by telling exactly what he thought (much like Goldwater did) and was mis-understood. Allan Keyes is also a part of the Constitution Party (3rd largest party) plus a few others unfamiliar to me. BUT THEY represent MY ideals for US government rule.
The least of 2 evils???? Here is another least “evil” worth considering. Am I wasting my vote? Not in Illinois. Maybe enough wasted votes will signal a disapproval of the system as it now stands. Am I wrong???
Sure, God is in charge. But rather than go along with a national out-of-control government when
I can get my little “peep” in, I feel compelled to do so.
Humbly, me…
Posted by: Gordon Gordon at June 1, 2007 08:24 PMOops…
After reading my previous post, I am embarresed. It appears to be a promotion for the Constitution party. I am upset with the RNC, and had to express my need for this 3rd party. I wish I could erase the previous post. SORREEE…
The real subject matter is GWBush and his dumb or savvy actions. I look at the circumastnces at the time. Saddam had lost the Desert Storm war (BIG TIME), and then ignores the conditions that he was to adhere to that allowed him to stay in power. GWBush went to the Great-and-Powerful UN to get resolutions to force Saddams compliance. Deadlines later as the UN sat on their hands Saddam had time to FEDEX all of his weapons of MD to Syria (or where-ever) and matters of terrorist training cleanup abounded.
I believe that GWBush is SAVVY and principled and will “stay the course” ‘til his last minute in office.
GOD is in control, and maybe GWB is part of the action.
Humbly, me again…
Posted by: Gordon Gordon at June 1, 2007 09:04 PMI agree with you Bob. I am not much for politics either (as far as being hope for our world).
I have been very disappointed in the republican party since George Bush. I do agree with Bill Clinton on one thing though. I believe Abortion IS a litmus test. I am convinced in my mind that I will not ever vote for anyone that supports abortion in any case.
As a result I did not vote for George W. Bush in 2000 or 2004. I will not vote for any candidate that doesn’t understand fundamental morality. If the candidate can’t get it right when it comes to the murder of the weakest amongst us, then how can I have any confidence in any of his other “positions”.
I believe I am called to be salt and light in this world. God is the one who raises up and puts down kings. Somehow we think in America “We” do it. We don’t, but we are responsible for the decisions we do make.
So if a candidate wants my vote then they need to be like Ronald Reagan was “100% Prolife”. And for all those that think this candidate is unelectable need to look at the popular vote Reagan received with his 100% pro-life position.
Do right and risk the consequences.
Terry Riegel
Posted by: Terry Riegel at July 8, 2007 11:40 PMI agree with you Bob. I am not much for politics either (as far as being hope for our world).
I have been very disappointed in the republican party since George Bush. I do agree with Bill Clinton on one thing though. I believe Abortion IS a litmus test. I am convinced in my mind that I will not ever vote for anyone that supports abortion in any case.
As a result I did not vote for George W. Bush in 2000 or 2004. I will not vote for any candidate that doesn’t understand fundamental morality. If the candidate can’t get it right when it comes to the murder of the weakest amongst us, then how can I have any confidence in any of his other “positions”.
I believe I am called to be salt and light in this world. God is the one who raises up and puts down kings. Somehow we think in America “We” do it. We don’t, but we are responsible for the decisions we do make.
So if a candidate wants my vote then they need to be like Ronald Reagan was “100% Prolife”. And for all those that think this candidate is unelectable need to look at the popular vote Reagan received with his 100% pro-life position.
Do right and risk the consequences.
Terry Riegel
Posted by: Terry Riegel at July 8, 2007 11:40 PMI agree with you Bob. I am not much for politics either (as far as being hope for our world).
I have been very disappointed in the republican party since George Bush. I do agree with Bill Clinton on one thing though. I believe Abortion IS a litmus test. I am convinced in my mind that I will not ever vote for anyone that supports abortion in any case.
As a result I did not vote for George W. Bush in 2000 or 2004. I will not vote for any candidate that doesn’t understand fundamental morality. If the candidate can’t get it right when it comes to the murder of the weakest amongst us, then how can I have any confidence in any of his other “positions”.
I believe I am called to be salt and light in this world. God is the one who raises up and puts down kings. Somehow we think in America “We” do it. We don’t, but we are responsible for the decisions we do make.
So if a candidate wants my vote then they need to be like Ronald Reagan was “100% Prolife”. And for all those that think this candidate is unelectable need to look at the popular vote Reagan received with his 100% pro-life position.
Do right and risk the consequences.
Terry Riegel
Posted by: Terry Riegel at July 8, 2007 11:40 PM
