Religion is playing a large role in the 2008 presidential election. Recently:
- Mainstream media has noticed that Mitt Romney is Mormon and is doing its best to alert everyone that Romney’s great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather had more than one wife. (By the way, it’s interesting to note that candidate Romney has had only one wife, while McCain has been married twice and Guiliani has been married three times.) Polygamy in Romney’s family tree is about as relevant as Barack Obama’s ancestors owning slaves. In fact, it’s less relevant because polygamy is just not that big an issue these days. White guilt over slave ownership is. Obama might be able to bring a different view to the issue.
- Hillary Clinton and Obama preached in Selma. While the faked southern accents of both garnered respective (but not respectful) blogstorms, their presence in a church would not have been overlooked (crickets here) had they been Republicans. Or not, but that’s my perception. Please prove me wrong.
- Obama’s membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ and his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. has attracted attention with its “liberation theology.”
- John Edwards channeled Jesus this week. Okay, that’s a little strong. He attempted to answer for Jesus. His answer was actually pretty good–Jesus would be appalled at the selfishness in America in light of the incredible wealth of some individuals. But who am I to judge? The blogosphere handled that one as well.
My prediction? Expect to see the Democrats continue with more public displays or religion while Republicans distance themselves from the issue. Don’t be fooled either direction — watch to see how their proposals align with their (non)displays, their parties’ platforms, and your values.
Actually, the Far Left has a better handle on Jesus’ teachings. Didn’t he say that we are supposed to sell everything we have and give it to those who are less fortunate?
OK, OK! I know. The Far-Left wants somebody to take everything you own and give it to the poor. But that’s closer to the Left’s position than letting you keep everything so you can purchase another Hummer that’ll burn more gas while you flip off the homelss that are begging along the freeway entrances.
I didn’t realize Jesus advocated stealing from the rich to give to the poor.
Both the Republicans and the Democrats are concerned about the plight of the poor. They just have different methods to fix the problem. The Democrats believe in forced redistribution of other people’s money. The Republicans believe in economic growth and voluntary charity.
I wish it were truly that simple. The Republicans have cut social programs for years now, and things have only gotten worse for the poor. Our emeergency rooms are flooded with people who have no insurance, which only exascerbates the problem, because emergency room care is much more costly than a routine visit to the doctor. Just the other day I heard on the news about an 8-year old boy who died because he got an abcessed tooth and the infecton went to his brain by the time his mother (uninsured) took him to emergency. Tlhle worst of it is, cases like this are now fairly routine.
We have the homeless begging on street corners, just to get a bite to eat; our food banks are giving meals to people who are underemployed, just to keep enough mourishment in the kids’ stomachs so they don’t end up with learning disabilities because of malnutrition. Apparently, trickle-down isn’t working very well, but we still have a hundred million dollars a day to spend on killing people overseas while merely putting a bandaid on our porous ports of entry, keeping our fingers crossed that another 9/11 won’t happen again.
Hope the weather’s nice in your parallel universe. But in this one, unemployment has been dropping for the past four years and health care options continue to get better each year. Poverty in the U.S. has been fairly steady with it dropping below 10% just prior to 9/11.
Most of those you see beggin on street corners aren’t employable. Most are seriously handicapped mentally, physically, or both.
The unemployment rate is a deceptive statistic. It doesn’t include those who are no longer drawing unemployment checks because their benefits have run out. It also doesn’t include those who have never been able to find a job, or haven’t found one long enough to draw benefits when they got laid off or fired. And, it doesn’t include the underemployed who are flipping burgers or doing yardwork when they have been laid off from a much more technical job.
Health care options are getting better, huh? Better for whom? The unemployed? The underemployed? Those who have accepted jobs out of desperation that are part-time, making them ineligible for coverage?]
We really don’t do a very good job of helping out our less fortunate naighbors in this country. But that doesn’t stop the filthy rich from using their tax breaks to build castles that are adding immeasurably to the depletion of our resources, not to mention what it is doing to global warming.
“Filthy rich”? Now there’s a telling phrase.
I recommend your reading Neal Boortz’, Somebody’s Gotta Say It, linked on my Books page under “recently read.”