well, i did something today that i’d never done before–i voted green. that’s right, i voted for the green party’s candidate richard whitney in the gubernatorial race in illinois. why? you may ask… well, it’s simple all the other candidates suck… so why not.
it’s my hope that mr. whitney gets at least 5% of the vote because then the green party will get included in debates in the future as well as able to run statewide primaries for their candidates.
although i’m not a big fan of a three-party election (i’m not even a fan of a two-party election–party’s should be outlawed), i felt that it was in the best interests of the state to have a third-party throw a wrench in the best laid plans of the other two… hopefully that’ll be the case in the future.
mid-term elections suck… but at least i got a sticker out of the deal.
well, it seems that the dems are poised to take control of not only the house, but the senate as well. i know there are a lot of depressed people out there regarding this “horribly unspeakable” concept, but i think it could actually be a really good thing. we talk all the time about how absolute power corrupts absolutely. well the repubs had absolute power, controling the executive and legislative branches and nothing has really happened with our government trying to move the country forward. now there is a divided power in our government and hopefully bush will seize on this opportunity to work hand in hand in a bi-partisan fashion, like he and the dems have said, in order to really do something good. unfortunately, i don’t see it happening. not with this president, and certainly not with the dems leadership (pelosi in particular).
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I vote for a single-party system. I did not vote Green. I don’t even think a Green candidate was on my ballot. I voted mostly for losers except in the extremely local races–and some of those people may be losers without my even knowing it.
I got a sticker as well. The sweet lady at the polling place was really excited about it. She led me over to the table covered in stickers, smiled, and told me to pick one out to wear proudly on my shirt.
“well the repubs had absolute power, controling the executive and legislative branches and nothing has really happened with our government trying to move the country forward.”
The repubs did have absolute power, and I won’t even try to argue that I like what they did, but what were you hoping that they would do that would “move the country forward.” or what COULD they do that would “move the country forward.”?
the biggest thing that i believe the repubs could have done to move the country forward is to unite the country… but they were too concerned about retaining power to do anything positive. not only am i speaking specifically of iraq, but the foreign policy in general, not to mention dealing with education–which continues to go down the toilet (because of school vouchers siphoning money away from public education–yes i agree with randall balmer’s assessment) and immigration policy.
it’s been 6 years of republican controlled government and none of these things–very important things–have happened because they were too busy bickering with each other and with democrats in order to get anything done.
i remember when i was touted that because the repubs controlled congress and the presidency, that great changes were in store for the country and that it was the countries stamp of approval for them to do what they wanted… well, they squandered it big time, and we’re no better off today than we were 4 years ago. we’re still a dumb, divided country full of illegal immigrants we have no idea what to do with.
(btw, that’s a good question eric. i’ve heard the dems say that america hasn’t moved forward under republican leadership, but i haven’t heard any of them give any answers why.)
Well, I think we all have very different ideas of what progress is. While amnesty to illegal immigrants and more money to public schools is progress for some people, enforcement of current immigration laws and deunionizing the public schools would be progress for another.
And while these next two years will likely be fairly inactive regarding major legislation, perhaps unemployment being down and average household income going up is enough for GW to feel good about himself, sit back and say, I did alright.
i agree with you that the economy is doing great… but i’d rather not live in a country full of dumb rich people.
in the end my thoughts on government are very pragmatic… whatever works, then do it. even though i don’t think unions are the problems when it comes to schools–except in suburbia, i do think that the school voucher program is. it takes students out of public school and takes thousands per student out of the school district leaving it to have to raise property taxes to make up those funds–and when property taxes go up, everything else goes down.
Where do you guys come up with these opinions? I’m not sure how you come to some of these thoughts.
First, the economy is doing terrible. The Federal Reserve has been creating money out of thin air since 1913 — if your wages go up, the value of the dollar has gone down, so you’re earning less. Inflation isn’t a market reality, it only happens when the State creates more money out of thin air (as it has been doing in overdrive since 1971). We are poorer today than our parents were 20 years ago. We may SEEM wealthier because we have easy access to credit, but it will take more than our lifetimes to pay off all that debt. Both spouses have to work now in order to battle taxes and the high cost of living compared to the hours worked — we’re almost 100% poorer than we were 20 years ago.
The idea that Congress and the Federal Government will stop for 2 years because the Democrats and Republicans each control a part of the legislature is false. Democrats and Republicans work hand-in-hand to give in to the other side so they can get what they want: more government. Republicans love the military because it expands their income, the Democrats love the welfare state because it expands their income. They both give in to one another because they both win in the end.
You have to realize that a politician is always a politician regardless of their label. All they want is more power for their position, not less. They say they’re against something or for something, but in reality, government has always grown — and always costed us more. Eventually, the cost of government will be so great that mom and dad have to work AND send the kids to work just to pay the bills.
This is what voting brings you — less God, more irresponsibility, and more sin. Thanks for voting, chaps.
i’ve thought the same thing about your theology…
sorry for trying to make a difference with 30 minutes of my time by filling in a few little dots on a ballot. i guess i’m not as enlightened as you, and didn’t realize that i was a part of the problem by submitting to such godlessness and creating more irresponsibility and sin.
While I see the parody in the statement, I also understand how Christians don’t equate voting with repudiating their responsibility to be good stewards of God’s Earth. When you vote, you give someone else responsibility for things you should be doing yourself. I don’t see how anyone can debate that voting means something else.
When brothers congregate together to agree on something, it is that something that THEY want to do THEMSELVES that God will bless and will uphold in Heaven. It isn’t when they agree to force someone else to act a certain way that is blessed — that is obvious in the fact that the State grows and grows, and our own ability to serve God is diminished more and more when we give up our responsibilities to warmongers and robbers in general.
Thankfully for me I work very hard to work around all the unjust laws and just serve as best as I can. I laugh when Christians e-mail me about “family values” and “Christian values” when they can’t even see that the way they want to uphold those values is by forcing others to live them. I definitely laugh.
Come on now. Aaron, I don’t think you have anything to be apologizing about. You post what you post on your blog, and open up the floor to comments & criticism. Adam does the same on the blogs he publishes. While I can barely understand what either of you guys are talking about sometimes, I really enjoy watching all the ideas get unfolded, debated, dicussed, agreed with, sworn at, and so on, and so on.
While I know that you were being somewhat sarcastic in your response in saying “sorry”, I just hope that no one on either side starts resorting to cheap shots towards each other personally, and to me there’s already this hint of ugliness floating around.
I know I can be overly sensitive at times, and maybe I’m reading into the comments to seriously, but that’s just my take on the whole thing.
wow, you are the true individualist! fortunately for you i can disagree with that statement!
i agree that when you vote you are empowering others to do a task… but what is wrong with that? there are things that we cannot do on our own on a large scale because we cannot do everything and be everywhere at the same time. take for instance ministry–i can’t be everywhere at once, and i can’t do everything that everyone does in the church, so i empower others to do it so that it can get done–and sometimes better than i could have ever done. it’s a release of control as we entrust others to do something. (it’s a leadership technique called delegation–and it is biblical, look at jethro.)
i agree that we can’t force others to live by our values, but that’s not the point of voting, and that’s not the point of democracy and government–even though the religious right tells us differently.
Dada are you saying that ultimately it is your responsibility to pave roads, organize trade agreements, provide welfare checks for millions, and defend our country from hostile forces? In that case, I’ve got a pothole on the road in front of my house that the city of Oronogo is ignoring.
The problem is that the US isn’t a democracy — at least Constitutionally it isn’t. We’ve had democracies for thousands of years, and they’ve always been against God. The Roman Empire was a Democracy — it was Christ who was democratically elected to die on the cross by the Jews (of course, we all know it was our sin that caused it, but just to point to the process).
The U.S. was supposed to be a “Republican” form of government (note: nothing to do with the party). It was supposed to be 50 (or whatever) independent States (meaning nations) that worked together as a union of states (not a nation!) to make sure that the rights of the individual were not trampled by any form of government.
Today, the country is run in a democratic fashion — 50.1% of the people can tell 49.9% of the people basically what to do, how to live, how much money they must give of their income, etc. It isn’t godly in the least.
The fact that 50.1% of the people can “run things” shows us where we’ve ended up — with the worst economy we’ve ever had in U.S. history (worse than the Great Depression but masked very well because of our warmongering), the impossibility of the average Joe to get ahead of the rat race, and a distance from the true meaning of living per the Bible. The average Christian can’t handle stewardship for God’s Earth because we’re focused on paying 50% of our income to taxes to fund the masses who also don’t want to be responsible.
All I am asking is for freedom from the mess. I won’t send my kids to public school, I won’t use the welfare system, I don’t want health care forced on me, and I definitely don’t want anyone telling me what I can do with my land, my body, my home, my mind or my speech. The Constitution is not what gives us our rights (read it, it doesn’t). The Constitution is designed to prevent the State from taking those rights that God gave us. Without having those rights, we can not be good stewards — it is an impossibility.
The problem with the Body today is that the leaders are all powermongers — all of them, from Wallis to Dobson to Stanley to Bell. They’re all out for dominion through force — it is obvious in the words they preach/teach, the actions they make, and those they support to dupe the average sucker citizen into believing it is for the better of society.
Nazi Germany was a democracy. Rome was a democracy. That is not what we want. Hans Herman-Hoppe wrote a great book called “Democracy, the god that failed” that goes into great detail on how we’ve been duped, and what things won’t get better in any way. In fact, they’re getting worse, but the average voter thinks they’re getting better because they make 10 times what their parents made in income. Too bad the dollar has fallen 15 times what it was worth back then, too.
Voting IS forcing others to live by your values — rather than being a good example, you want men with guns and jails to tell me what to do. That is voting, and it is ungodly in every way. I’d rather be an example of why NOT to do certain things than force someone to jail because they won’t listen.
So Bell’s message which is Love Wins. in every sermon and book and so on I have ever read, if that message is “out for dominion” then damn, I guess I am not following the right rabbi in Jesus, because that was His message.
I am not suggesting any human is Jesus, I am simply saying I have yet to hear him specifically be “dominating through force”
I think most of us can respect your views on economy and voting and knowing you personally I think we can both say at the end of the day we love each other in Christ and can agree to disagree on many issues….whether it’s masked or not, the economy is strong and my taxes are lower thanks to GW…$20 is $20 to me. In the business world, our company is soaring with record profits and so on..the stock market is higher than ever, unemployment is at decade lows…granted NOTHING is ever going to be perfect, and we can argue politics much like the dems & repubs do now already…the bottom line for me is serving Christ with love and serving others with the same love He has shown me…everything else is “just icing on the cake” as far as I am concerned….conspiracy theories, and masked economics arent going to win anyone over to Christ, so while our govt corrupt and wrong in so many ways, I am blessed to be living here…I have seen what other countries deal with and no thanks I am thankful to God to be here.