Why I Choose Not To Run

I am far more interested in politics than I ought to be; the Kingdom of God should be enough.  Theologically I am convinced that there's a lot more God-directed movement when it comes to leaders than we acknowledge in our secular world; this comes in that sometimes God moves for our good, but also he allows us to go our own way when we are doing evil.  In this day and age, I think the second is far more likely to be what's going on...we want a society of evil (even as we call it good), and God grants us our wish by giving us evil leaders (who far too many people want to call great). 

Every once in awhile I think about running for some kind of office.  But in truth, I know for certain that I could never, ever be elected.  Why?  

-I have the looks of a brute and the charisma of a rock.  

-I come from a religious background that has basically denied the equality of women in practice if not in theory.  While some from Churches of Christ have held office, I gotta think this would be a problem, even if I have become increasingly convinced that we are wrong (at least in part).  

-As a Christian who believes in the word of God and the love he shows for all creation, I also am certain that many people I would be wanting to vote for me are likely doomed to hell.  That might be a problem.

-My anger with many 'evangelical Christians' when it comes to the fact that 4 out of 5 still continue to support Trump will alienate me from those people who should be my base.  Preaching Biblical morality and righteousness ought to be a slam dunk; unfortunately, many of these evangelical Christians wouldn't recognize Biblical morality and righteousness if it hit them with a body slam.  

-I despise most country music.  There goes 30% of the vote.  

-I think that many social programs are likely counterproductive and cause as much harm as good.  I also think that there's not a single social program ever created that can fix lazy and stupid, and there are more lazy and stupid people in this country each day.  Saying that might offend a few people.

-I believe that the environmental crisis facing this country (and planet) might be existential.  As such, that might be a primary aim of any kind of action I might want to take.  Considering that a. many think this is a hoax and b. true and effective action will likely cause short-term economic pain and discomfort (even if it ensures long-term survival), likely I would alienate a lot of people, even as I will be shown to be a hypocrite in my actual life. 

-You'd think that after 30 years in ministry I would be good at handling people and making them feel important.  You'd think wrong.  This is the same reason being a hospital chaplain is likely never in my future either.  

-I would piss off every donor and supporter and voter that comes within earshot of me within 10 minutes.  Telling people what they want to hear has become harder for me as I approach late middle age.  

-Israel and the Palestineans can keep destroying themselves for all I care. We should stop sending aid, both military and humanitarian to these places. Christian supporters of Israel who keep misrepresenting Scripture to fund Israeli atrocities cannot be taken seriously. 

-I am both pro-choice and think that abortion ought to be rare.  Likewise I also believe that LGBTQ people have the right to live as they choose, but that their 'rights' are also sinful.  I'm guessing that both of my positions would make nobody happy.  

-Most immigrants to this country are better at being Americans than native-born Americans.  

-MAGA is an atrocity.  The Democrats aren't much better.  

-I don't think I'd be a very good representative of the people.  I'd like to be thought of as more a spokesman for the truth.  That will come across as arrogant.  

-Basic health care in this country ought to be guaranteed and the system to pay for it should be overseen by the government.  Also, fatties and druggies and people who live inherently unhealthy lives should have to pay more for their livestyles. 

I could go on, but you get the drift.  It may be that I'm putting this out into the Internets so that should I ever be dumb enough to decide to run for anything, the oppo research by my opponent will be so, so easy.  But here I stand, I can go no other way.  

What's Next

Summer 2023.  Much of the country is locked into a heatwave deathcycle brought on by climate change, or it's just a hot summer.  I don't really know, but it feels like nothing ever seems to change this time of year.  We're just hanging on until the start of the school year, hoping that then we'll be so busy that when the inevitable cooldown happens, we'll not even notice.  

Of course, like the hellish summer we have endured so far we're continually stuck in the cycle of Trump.  He never went away, not even after trying to get his armed acolytes to ransack the halls of Congress because he got his butt kicked in the 2020 election.  The indictments are piling up, the force of law and order are finally breathing down his neck, yet his 38% continues to hang on and glorify his Orangeness.  It's pathetic to be honest, but I don't really fear the man.  I fear what comes next.

A year or two ago I read a book about Mussolini, the awful fascist dictator of Italy who came to power in 1922.  He was a horrible leader but probably not as horrible as he could have been.  Filled with personality and charm, he made some great speeches to bring out the worst in people but seemed to more content to bang a series of mistresses before going home to his overbearing wife every night.  His squad of thugs would beat up dissenting fellow Italians for the sheer pleasure of it and used nationalistic and Catholic fervor to give a voice (and some substance) to antisemitism.  But for his incompetence, he could have been far worse.  

Perhaps one of the biggest legacies about Mussolini was that he was an inspiration for one Adolf Hitler.  Hitler liked Mussolini's style, as well as his fervent nationalism that saw Jews and other minorities as objects belittle, persecute, and eventually destroy.  Eventually he started a world war that led to the death of millions and destroyed his own nation, all because he lived in a world of Aryan resentment that found nothing constructive to create.  

Mussolini was bad, but it took Hitler to take fascism and transform it into a wholly destructive Nazi movement.  It took Hitler's 'competence' (I hate using that word as it sounds like I admire him but it's just descriptive of the effectiveness of his evil ideals) to grow this rage into something beyond a bunch of Angry White People with no outlet.  I wonder if history is repeating itself, not across international boundaries but in the United States itself.  Trump is the Mussolini in this analogy, something of a clown who screams a lot and glorifies himself and talks about the 'greatness' of America...but in fact he's not really serious about anything but his own power.  Just like he never could be bothered to actually march ahead of his minions on January 6th, neither did he really take seriously his power.  He was too busy playing golf and humping a flag and rage-tweeting while watching Fox News to really do all those things he ranted about.  Part of me believes that he never really believes anything he says; he'd parade with the Gay Rights people or feed the homeless if he thought it would be politically advantageous.  His incompetence, always real, found the full force of its might during the COVID pandemic as he mismangaged what could have been a triumphal event of his legacy and blew a winnable election against Mediocre Joe.  And even though he's trying to make a comeback, he's becoming an increasingly old man who even with his 38% is being marginalized for the things he has done through his legal troubles and through a death by a thousand cuts.  One of these days he'll have eaten one too many Big Macs, have a massive heart attack,and he'll be gone.

But my fear is that his movement will be taken over, just like Hitler eventually ursurped Mussolini.  There's already a gang of fools trying to position themselves now to be the Next, people like MTG or Ron DeSantis whose own idiocy makes Trump look reasonable.  These are people who scream and plot and stoke various resentments among people, but they just don't have IT like Trump.  Instead, they're transitional figures, whose weakness amplifies the stupidity of this whole movement rather than strengthen it and make those of us who groan at the thought of the Democrats ultimately vote for them.  One of these days, though, somebody else is going to come along and know what to do with this unruly mob.  The red hat dummies will be organized effectively into a modern version of the brownshirted thugs, who will actually have the discipline and organization to do those things that Trump could only dream of.  

I don't know who that person is going to be, but I'm guessing it's somebody who either we haven't heard of yet or is still totally unknown.  Maybe a Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, who leads a state small enough that she isn't well-known except in political circles.  Maybe somebody like Elise Stefanik, a congresswoman from New York who started off as a reasonable republican but quickly turned into a Trump die-hard.  What both of these women have in common is that they are young, attractive, reasonably smart, and likely savvy enough to not tip their hands.  I fear that the Hitler that is to come will be somebody whom we might not expect, somebody young and attractive and seemingly a reasonable alternative to the madness we have seen.  But once they arise and seize their power like Hitler in 1933, their true evil will come out.  And when that happens, this country will really be in some deep s*it.  

Over the holiday breaks my sister and I were talking how neither of us feel like we have a political home.  Neither of us consider ourselves liberals, nor think that we really belong with the Democrats.  But the GOP has go so far into lunacy, and mainstream 'conservatism' is now so intellectually and morally bankrupt, that we can't ever think about going back to what we were raised to be.  I'm guessing that there's a lot of people in our position as well, because the conversation and media coverage of politics has so been geared towards the extremes for years that many of us who are in the middle feel as if we don't have a voice anymore.  

Somewhere in our conversation, however, one of raised the question, why isn't there any push for a centrist party?  Why isn't somebody filling this vacuum?  I've been thinking about that conversation for awhile.  What would a centrist party look like?  

First of all, I think we'd have to lay down some ground rules for this party.  One of those rules is that we are not a party for those looking to amplify their Trumpist extremism.  After the horrible events of this week when the domestic terrorism of Trumpism finally became clear, we don't want these people.  And so maybe we institute a simple rule: nobody may run under this banner who has run for political office under another party's banner in the past five years.  This has been a problem with a lot of fringe parties like the Libertarians...they simply bring in a name brand leader that is above their station in another's party.  This would help develop new leaders...maybe more slowly than some would like, but it's not enough to simply gain power.  It's about doing and being what is right.  

The second thing is to realize that we should take pride in moderation.  What gets the headlines is extreme positions, but political reality is that effective government comes from the center.  It recognizes the grievances of both sides, but it knows that most people simply want good government.  We support and honor our police, but we also realize that there are some police that are bad and should be retrained to other jobs and we realize that there are some systemic issues of police enforcement that need to be eliminated.  We recognize that nobody wants to pay taxes, but we proclaim that as a society we must properly fund schools, infrastructure, national security, and other programs that benefit all people, not just a few.  We are proud to have a generous and effective health care system, but we realize that continually enabling those who refuse any form of healty lifestyle.  We recognize the need for 2nd amendment protections, but we also demand that those who choose to have weapons store them responsibly and undergo regular safety training.  On these, and many other issues, we recognize that the daulistic and extremist positions are not what we need. Rather, we seek what is best for most Americans so that we are able to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  

I really believe that there has to be a place for a new party after the failures of the extremes.  I wish we could all be independent and make up our minds on each and every issue, but this is not realistic.  People join together as part of human nature.  I don't think I'm the right person to carry this out...I'm not charismatic enough, and too controlling in myself.  But surely there has to be a better way than what we are doing now.  

The election is...19 months away?

Hmmm.  Checked in on Facebook today for the first time in awhile and it appears that people are getting excited about the election that is still far, far, far in the distant future.  Either they are sticking with their boy Trump (judges! the economy!), or they are hashing through the 2-dozen different democratic candidates.  Can they win?  Are they female?  Are they good Americans?  Will they support the military?  And on and on and on...

Excuse me while I yawn.  I think that part of the brokenness of our system is the fact that so often we can do little more than talk and give money, and neither of those are really good ways to get good candidates.  Because consider my very real voting situation as regards to the presidentia election: 

-I live in a state that is not early in the primary system, so by the time the primary schedule gets to me most of the candidates are already long dead in the polls and have dropped out.  By the time I would cast my vote, the party candidates are basically decided on. 
-I am not a member of either major political party anymore, and I live in a state with a closed primary system, and so even if there was a close race and my vote might count, I can't really vote my preference anyway. 
-By the time we get to the general election, I live in one of the reddest of the red states.  A president could continually lie, be in legal trouble, be caught with various mistresses, be married three times with five children, and be filled with so many stupid things on his record that were he be of the other party he'd have been sunk long ago, and still win...in case you aren't following, that's the situation we find ourselves in and Trump will still win our electoral college votes without a doubt. 

So why do I get all riled up about a system in which I really do not have a genuine voice?  Why give my time and my frustration (and even my money!) to a cause that ultimately will fail?  I don't really believe in American electoral politics anymore.

But many people do, and my job over the next few months is to steer clear of them.  I don't need that in my life. 

Alexander Hamilton

I finished reading the Alexander Hamilton biography today, 800+ pages by Ron Chernow.  I had loved listening to the soundtrack of the recent musical for some time, but this book was really well written and described how Hamilton really helped build what the United States was going to become.  Hamilton was perhaps the most realistic in his assessment of what the new fledgling country needed to be, not just an agricultural collection of states looking only for their own self-interest, but a nation held together by laws and institutions. 

What really stood out to me, however, was the context of political intrigue in which Hamilton did all these things in such a very short time.  Hamilton was in his early 40s (younger than I am now) when he started to fade from American life; before that he was a boy wonder whose touch was golden in almost everything he did.  All the while the Jeffersonian Republicans of his day fought him, spread whispers that he was a traitor, and did everything they could to undermine his policies, even though after they finally took power in 1801 basically left much of what he did undisturbed because it had been so well-done. 

Reading this book with our current political situation, it would be easy to contrast his competence with the foolishness of the current administration.  Indeed, Hamilton recognized that as a nation we must be held together by certain American institutions, or we will fall apart.  I don't know that the current administration (which echoes American individualism expertly) understands this, so tied they are to the "Screw you guys, I'm going home..." mentality of Eric Cartman in which it is everyone for themselves.  Hamilton, I suspect, would be both fascinated by the development of American governmental institutions and appalled how they have been allowed to flounder. 

Yet it's a bit dangerous to read too much into the current situation.  We all want to think that 'our guy' is the only one that is really good, while everybody else is either incompetent, short-sighted, or corrupted.  If there was one flaw in this book, it's that the author held Hamilton in such high esteem that when Hamilton's flaws were exposed, it's almost as if he had to apologize for them.  Anybody who got in his way (Adams, Jefferson, Madison for starters) was a lesser being in the author's eyes.  But that's not real.  Everybody is flawed, and while you can see that some are better than others, that nobody ever gets it totally right.  That's why we need a Hamilton to go along with a Washington, and a Madison to go along with a Jefferson.  Competence and character is not a one-person show; it's something that happens when we work together. 

I really loved this book.  Not sure that I'll ever read it again (it took two hard weeks of reading to finish), and likely I won't be writing any hip-hop musicals as companion pieces.  But it may be one of the best insights to my country ever written.