It’s not rare for me to find myself at odds with my Christian brothers and sisters over politics. When Bush was in office I was just as asleep as many of the people I now know. Luckily, I snapped out of it (Someone who didn’t know is reading this in horror right now). Of course, by then we were already living under the Patriot Act, which helped usher in one of my all time favorite things – the TSA. Too bad I can’t sleep through that.

I think there is a good-thing-gone-bad at work. People, on whatever side of the aisle, want to believe that their leaders have their best interests at heart. They want to have faith in people. If, in the beginning of their political leanings, the Republican party seemed to match up with their ideals, than that is where they chose to stick their faith. If they generally continued with the same belief system, they assumed that the Republican party also still shared that belief system. Unfortunately, there ended up being a whole lot of blind faith going on. It’s gone way too far. I have more personal experience on the conservative side, but I think we can all say that this goes either way. I know people who will fight tooth and nail for Obama, no matter what crazy thing he does. The reason would be the same vice versa if Bush were in office – they can’t be wrong. They especially can’t be wrong if that means the other side is right.

Here’s the thing; our leaders don’t have our best interests at heart. In general, today, they mostly have greed at heart. Why not? We have, after all, created a system which rewards them for recklessly spending other people’s money. Some on the left may be more awake to this fact at the moment, because their guy is in office and he isn’t necessarily living up to all they’d hoped for. Maybe they still don’t want to vote for Romney, but at least they are irritated. On the other hand, those on the right can currently blame all of their woes on Obama, which means that all they have to do is get him out and all will be well, right? This is the sentiment. I don’t share it. If we elect Romney in November, then what? How long will the right sleep, assuming that their guy is working on their behalf? The better question for me is; will they ever wake up? I have to confess that I sometimes have my doubts, especially after the RNC antics, including rule changes that will cripple the grassroots in future elections. And still, they cheer. I am reminded of the stubborn Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years.

Romney and Obama have precious few differences, and even some of the supposed differences – abortion being one – we can’t really be sure about. Romney has openly stated that he also supports the NDAA , which includes indefinite detention of American citizens, AND the unconstitutional practice of presidents declaring war without congressional approval. Republicans supposedly care about these kinds of issues, along with small government in general. Despite this, they let a terrible candidate be foisted upon them, and the cycle of craptastic-ness at the federal level continues.

It occurs to me that our biggest problem is our absolute inability to accept fault. To admit we were wrong. To take responsibility. If we were to do such a thing, then surely we would be giving all of the power into the hands of those other people that we don’t agree with. We can’t do that! So instead, we blame every problem on them. Things work out much better this way with both sides using the other as a scapegoat. Meanwhile, the economy continues to spiral downward, more civil rights disappear every day, and our soldiers (along with countless civilians abroad) continue to die in endless wars.

Whoever is really running this show – if, in fact, someone out there is – they must be wild with glee over the effective way they have gotten us to fight with each other like some stubborn, five year old children. “He did it!” “Nooo! She did it!” Of course, it’s never our fault that we’re in this mess.

The Republican party is supposed to contain a large number of Christians. Christianity is founded on a guy who came as nothing. Born in a smelly, dirty place, his followers wanted to make him a king but instead he let himself be led to a horrible death. I wonder what would happen if Christians actually identified more with that guy they are supposed to be followers of, and less with their government?  Christianity also preaches repentance. Repentance isn’t just a nice word for “I’m sorry.” It also means to turn around. That means that we don’t have to keep going in the same stupid way we are going. That means that we don’t have to keep murdering citizens of other nations because we are afraid. We can go in a different direction. Is it irony that right now the Republicans seem the least likely to find the humility to do so? You can’t even be allowed to vote your conscience for someone other than Goldman-Sachs backed Romney without someone crying; “You’ll split the party!”

That’s right, it’s all on you.

If we were wise enough to realize it, our Founders actually foresaw the possibility for all of the troubles we now face, and gave us principles for fighting back. We could learn from them, and try to go a different way, recognizing the corruption of centralized power and this sick focus on king-like presidents who know the people with the money. We could focus on principled government at a local level. Unfortunately we haven’t done this, because we continue to try to justify everyone and everything that we agreed with before. If we stop doing the same things it’s like admitting defeat. We have to keep setting up puppets so that we don’t have to face reality – we allowed ourselves to be mislead. This is our fault.

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