Let me preface this by saying that I am decidedly anti-Bush. I think he (and when I write “he,” “him,” and “President” in this discussion, I am often talking about his administration as a whole, not just the man himself) is the worst President we have had in quite some time. I also want to mention that I am only pro-Kerry in the sense that he isn’t Bush. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Kerry, but there’s not much particularly right either.
Too much of American politics turns into high school level ad hominem attacks, and I want to try to avoid that very tendency in this post. Nevertheless, I find it very troubling that our current President has a criminal record and that in the 2000 election, both candidates’ school records indicated that they were a far cry from the intellectuals that I would prefer to be running this country.
Read this. I saw it mentioned over at AKMA’s. Normally, consciously not-voting has been my stance, and though it is a very unpopular stance, I disagree strongly with the fervent “Vote or die” and “It is your duty to vote” rhetoric that flies so freely around election time. This year, I felt conflicted between my ideals and my strong desire to remove President Bush from office. What did I do? None of your business.
Every vote counts? Then why are we declaring winners before every vote has been counted? Why is the electoral college system still in place? Here’s my two cents: America is broken. The 2004 Presidential Election is the second presidential election in a row to evidence this (no matter how it ultimately turns out).
We are being presented with a choice between what I like to call Vanilla number one and Vanilla number two. They are both rich white men supported by two parties that instead of working to bring our country together, work actively together to split our country in two, keeping us arguing against each other, and preventing us from taking the time to notice how horribly they are all screwing us over. It’s a sham and a scam. It’s a structure that has become too big with too many deep pockets in industries that stranglehold any attempts at any real change.
Notice that the most recent polling says that the number one topic on most Americans’ minds when they went to vote was morals and values. Now, that’s a fine reason to vote, but just as most American politics falls into the trap of ad hominem / “against the man” rhetoric, most voters in America, I think, confuse important issues having to deal with morals and values with their personal evaluation of the man, the President or Presidential candidate. This is a “for the man” boosting of the candidate that is just as powerful a mistake. Bush has been winning in America because despite whatever actions he takes, many Americans think he has a good heart with good Christian morals and values.
If Christ were here right now, in the midst of either of these candidates’ posturing, I think his reaction would be much more revolutionary than most Americans would expect. The Christ I know turns over tables in the temple and scatters money across the ground and tells people hard things like “…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24; RSV). So, in rethinking America, I wonder, quite seriously, “What would Jesus do?” I don’t think he’d vote for either Bush or Kerry. I don’t know if he would vote at all.
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