I used to love it when Martha Steward would say, “It’s a good thing”.
After worship last night it snowed and rained again and so I am in a bad mood anyway. I am tired and cranky in the midst of Lent and for that I repent. We prayed in the evening prayer for the President (by name) and the congress and those in authority over us. I offer those prayers sincerely and ask that God would bless the government which is, really, one of God’s good gifts – then I watched the news this morning.
After hearing Sheila Jackson Lee talk about the American Constitution being 400 years old, we now have Alan Grayson coming out and saying that the Russian annexation of Crimea was a “good thing”. After all the inanities uttered by Nancy Polosi and Harry Reid’s raspy nastiness I have come to the conclusion that the great issue facing us today is not the politicization of everything that some worry about, but the deification of a political party. The only explanation that I can think of for what is happening today is that a political party has become for about 1/2 the population, its religion.
There is no reason for the election of folks like the ones I have mentioned above unless you have a blind faith in an ideology. Unhinged from a Biblical perspective the new faith is in the progressive vision of life. Unhinged from any historical perspective this religion does the same old stuff over and over and believes that the personalities that they vote into office, no matter how ignorant or void of morality will somehow make things better because they are, well, not Republicans. History means nothing to them because they believe that a new history begins with them. Remember at the inauguration there were words to the effect that this was the day when the ice caps stopped melting and the sea levels retreated and there would be a chicken in every pot and pot in every home, or something like that? So we are at it again. Redistribution of wealth and the government oversight of everything from charitable contributions to contraception; from how much a painter should be paid when he paints wood instead of steel to proposing that college athletes be unionized; from your emails to the way you use your credit card.
They complain about the profits of big oil without ever mentioning the fact that a great portion of the cost of a gallon of gas is their life blood – taxes. They whine about the infrastructure and refuse to tell us where the trillions in taxes that were supposed to go for infrastructure went. They will stop the Keystone pipeline and yet complain about our dependence on foreign oil and tear the tops of hills off to build those hideous windmills. Somehow the destruction of those ecosystems and replacing them with a gargantuan and gross monstrosity is not environmental pollution, but I digress. Of even greater moment up here in the North country is the mess the new religion has made of the hockey world with their ridiculous environmental regulations on refrigerants. Pretty soon all those hometown hockey rinks are going to have to spend thousands of dollars redoing their refrigeration systems or close down. What is going to happen when one religion is pitted against the doctrine of the other? Minnesotans and North Dakotans seem to have both of these religions in tension. I’m sure when these rinks close or have to raise huge amounts of money Al Franken or Heidi Heitkamp will say “it’s a good thing”. Better yet, pass the offering plate and get everyone to pay for it.
They will sue the money makers and raise taxes on things like smoking when the moral thing to do would be to outlaw smoking. That will never happen because they need the money from the taxes and the Government fines. I would love to hear from our female North Dakota Senator where all that tobacco money that was supposed to be spent on anti-smoking education went. I never understood why it should cost a dime to have anti – smoking education, but “just say no” is a dirty concept to this religion. Never say no to anything when you get everyone else to pay for what ever it is you can’t say no too. The only exception to saying no is when someone wants to buy a gun or pay less taxes.
Think of all the “good things” this religion has brought us. More people in poverty today than in 1964 when the religion really began. A health reform system that is not affordable, messes up Care and really is an ‘act” of one party. Government by fiat. Attacks on almost all the “Bill of Rights” – (closed circuit to MS Jackson Lee, those are the first ten amendments to that 400 year old constitution that you mumbled about the other day). Maybe the greatest single achievement of this religion is that several generations of Americans are not alive today to pay for your Social Security, Medicare and eventually Obamacare.
Romney got wacked with a crack about Russia being our enemy and the smart aleck in chief responded that the 1980’s were calling and wanted their foreign policy back. I would have responded that it least in the 1980’s we had a foreign policy. The religion of the 47% bumbles around and seems to think that war has somehow become obsolete and aggression is a good thing, because it keeps us from being responsible for the people that counted on us to actually lead in this world.
Dan Quayle made the mistake of comparing himself to Jack Kennedy and the comparison was about age. The ancient fossil Lloyd Bentsen’s response: “I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” Of course hilarity ensued. I wish Quayle would have said “your right Senator, I’m no Jack Kennedy, I married Marilyn”. Of course the acolytes for this religion, the media, would have bemoaned how awful that was to sink to that kind of mean spirited discourse. (Closed circuit to the 47%, Quayle’s wife was named Marilyn and there were rumors that Kennedy had had a affair with an actress named Marilyn. You might want to “Google” that.)
I still hear the wonderful remarks made by the smart aleck in chief in the debates. I don’t call them Presidential. Presidential to me recalls the far off days when there were giants on the earth. The Roosevelt’s, well at least Theodore, Lincoln and Reagan. The Lilliputians that are in charge today are embarrassing. They can be glib and cool and snide but they are empty suits.
Cool, snide remarks and hanging around with the Hollywood in crowd may pump up the congregation. It doesn’t work in a world where real fanatics and real bad guys want to mess us up. The cool and snide in my experience when confronted with real world realities like having to pass a test, meet a deadline, confront a life or death issue with family or friends, face a bully, of just do the real hard things of life, will revert to form and that is withdraw and pout. Well we are withdrawing and pouting from Turkey to Tunisia and from Iran to Estonia. But if you think about it, according to the practitioners of this religion, all of those are good things.
