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I just leaned about Uncle Jay tonight. This is his year in review for 2008. You can check him out on a regular basis at www.unclejayexplains.com
Category Archives: politics
President Obama, Electoral College, and Where Republicans Went Wrong
UPDATE: This post was written shortly after Obama won four years ago. If does not relate to the current election cycle. Try this.
One year ago I was certain Hillary Clinton was going to be the next president, and there was nothing Democrats nor Republicans could do about it. It’s 10:30 on the east coast, and if CNN is right then Obama will accept winning the 2008 Presidential race sometime between now and tomorrow morning. This has been a historic election year in every sense. Continue reading
In The Beginning, The Story Retold
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more about “In The Beginning, The Story Retold“, posted with vodpod
This video was created by our friends at nrl4prop8.wordpress.com. This is a link to the original post at their site. You all know my take on same-sex marriage: if you want to have some sort of “civil union” recognized by the state, I’m fine with that. Just don’t call it marriage.
Catholic Vote 2008
No, I am not Roman Catholic. CatholicVote2008.com has put together an excellent video to remind us all that it’s not as important who you vote for as it is that you vote. I believe all Christians should be able to agree with the message of this film. It’s a good way to spend the next 3 1/2 minutes.
My video quit working, watch it here on InternetMonk.
Biden vs. Palin, VP Debate
The debate is actually ongoing, so I’m not going to speculate who the winner is. I’m sure the media is already prepared to announce Joe Biden won and tells us why, with the exception of Fox News. I would like to point out the obvious to anyone carefully listening to each question and answer: neither candidate will answer the questions being asked. Continue reading
Where’s the Middle?
I’m not the only one that has noticed the extreme polarization of our nation’s politics. There used to be a middle. In the primaries, Republicans leaned to the right, Democrats leaned to the left, but once the nominations were made by each party the candidates “danced” to the middle to attract voters. The majority of our populace were not way over to the left or right, but somewhere in between. Only a small percentage of people were extreme liberal or conservative, and there were several different degrees of each. It seems to not be that way anymore.
The 2000 Presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore was decided by only a few hundred votes in one state. Many are unsatisfied that we know the actual results. Our Congress is split nearly 50/50 right down the middle between Republicans and Democrats, and nearly every vote is decided by a margin of 51 to 49% (or less). There’s a lot of talk about “crossing the aisle” on particular issues, but when all is said and done there is often more said that done.
We used to find middle ground. There used to be shades of grey on issues, but that’s not what Americans are looking for these days. We want everything black or white. It’s right or it’s wrong, and not just a little right or wrong. Each opinion, each decision we face is either a panacea of wonderful or the worst mortal sin every to face a legislative body. It seems like extreme positions on every issue are the only positions acceptable. This leads to a lot of finger pointing, name calling, and the application of labels that often don’t apply. It has brought our political process to a near gridlock. Just this summer the movie Swing Vote set the stage for an election that was to be decided by one single voter. How close are we to that becoming reality?
The only solution is for people to work together and find some common ground. We need a large number of Americans to realize that McCain and Obama have strong points, and that neither is the anti-Christ. Both candidates have ideas to solve the same problems. The election campaign doesn’t have to be Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Our Congressional leaders don’t have to cast a ballot for Y or N based on the R or D next to their name, and we as the voting public need to let them know that. That’s not the message they’ve been getting. We’ve been taking sides on every issue for years like we’re fighting a war, but in a sense we’re all on the same side. I’m not proposing we do away with the two party system, we just have to find common ground somewhere. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, we must join or die.
McCain/ Obama race in dead heat.
John McCain has a slight lead over Barack Obama in the latest polls, but it depends on which you poll you ask. I’m getting my data from this site, which tracks the results of several different polls at once, from Gallup to Fox News. None of the spreads are greater than the margin of error, so statistically the two candidates are in a dead heat.
So who will be the next president? I predicted back in the spring that Clinton and Obama would continue dividing the Democratic Party by beating each other’s brains out, such that McCain was guaranteed an easy victory. About one third of Clinton voters said at that time they would not vote for Obama if he was nominated. It’s no longer a sure thing for McCain, but I’m still predicting a Republican victory in November.
What effect do the VP nods have on the polls? Obama’s party line is about change, but Joe Biden has been in Washington nearly as long as John McCain. His campaign doesn’t seem to be hurting any since adding Biden to the ticket, however. Much more attention has been focused on Sara Palin. She’s more conservative than McCain himself, and many Republicans feel better about the ticket with her on it. There is some question if this will help get the vote from women. Maybe women will vote McCain/Palin that were sad to see Clinton leave the race, but there is also the criticism that getting Palin as the VP candidate was a cheap ploy that women voters will see through. I personally feel better about voting for McCain with Palin on the ticket, because if he dies in office I’m okay with Palin being the first woman president. McCain’s wishy-washy on abortion, for instance, but Palin is as conservative as the come. She’s pro-life, pro-NRA, but most importantly has crossed the isle and gone against her own party in the name of good common sense. I hope that appeals to all voters, regardless of the color of state they’re in.
What about the faith issue? This topic has been done to death. No I do not believe Barack Obama is a Muslim, no matter how many right-wing Christian bloggers and spammers say so. And what if he was? You don’t bring down the nation by serving in Congress and then running for president. Obama loves this country, and wants to change it for the better. ISLAM IS NOT A RELIGION FULL OF TERRORISTS. That’s a misconception. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I will not allow comments that attack anothers faith, so don’t leave them. I’m not voting for McCain because of his Christian testimony. Having a person of faith in the White House makes me feel better, but we’re not electing the Pope here. In the Republican primary I voted for Mitt Romney. Yes, he’s a Mormon. Again, I’m not looking for a Sunday School teacher, but a person to run the administration of our national government. I think the values of Christian character – honesty, integrity, work ethic, etc – make any person a better worker, including the President of the United States. But the issue of faith has gotten way too much press in this campaign. Let’s let it go people.
What’s the bottom line? I think the bottom line is that the economy is headed down a long road that’s a little scarey, and I’m not sure how long it will take to make it back. Neither candidate will be able to do half of things they promise, no matter which one is elected. I’m disappointed every four years by who our choices get narrowed down to. Are either one of these guys the very best we can find in the U.S.A. to lead us? I don’t think so, but that’s who we have to pick from. So much of what people complain about has to do more with Congress than with the President anyway. Neither man can do a blasted thing without the 535 members of Congress backing him up, and it’s nobody’s fault but our own that we have split Congress 50/50 down the middle on party lines. Diehard support of one’s own party is destroying this country, and we’re all responsible. I called the race a dead heat. Gridlock may be more appropriate. The political process bears an eerie resemblance to I-75 traffic at 4:30 p.m. in Atlanta to me.
Also read Where’s the Middle?, a post about how there used to be political middle ground.
Update – separation of church and state
If the image of the cross appeared on every license plate that South Carolina produced, that would be unconstitutional. Unwilling drivers would have religious symbols thrust at them by the state. But if you don’t want an “I Believe” plate on your car, all you have to do is not ask for one. Why should it be illegal for the state to sell me one? In our society of free-market capitalism, consumer sovereignty says the buyer decidies what get produced and sold, not the government.
This post is an update to my original article Separation of Church and State. There is a lively discussion going on over at Americans United for the Separaton of Church and State about the South Carolina lisence plate issue. Here’s a link.
Let’s also keep this in perspective: Christians in China would probably find the heated debate over this issue laughable. Any underground church, hiding from their government in order to meet, has bigger issues to actually worry about. We are so spoiled rotten by being blessed beyond measure in this country, we don’t know what persecution is.
UPDATE, AUG 12 – Denise Gibel-Molini has written one of the best articles on separation of church and state I’ve read in a long time (yes, including mine). It’s about the War in Iraq, and is a little long, but is very well researched and I believe historically accurate.
Separation of Church and State
I recently posted this article about the state license plates in Florida and South Carolina that have set off recent separation of church and state arguments. I basically assert that to protect the division between church and state, we sometimes compromise our first amendment rights, namely freedom of speech and also of religious expression. Again, you can click here for that article; for this post I have some new information.
I was discussing the establishment clause over dinner with my department head (it’s a small town). I mentioned that “separation of church and state” is nowhere to be found in the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, etc. He asked me if I knew where the statement did in fact come from. I honestly did not. I have been informed – by a history teacher with more education and experience than myself – that the term separation of church and state was first used in a private letter written by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence, the document that first declared there was a United States of America. A Baptist church was concerned that the Federal government was going to institute the Congregational Church as the state appointed church, and Jefferson wrote a letter to their minister saying there was enough “separation of church and state” that it wouldn’t happen. That letter was lost to the ages until sometime in the 1950’s when someone dug it up. Since that time, because of that letter, the establishment clause of the Constitution has been interpreted to mean separation, and the Supreme Court favors that document – a private letter between two citizens – over the Constitution wording and other legal documents.
Here’s a good link for further research: http://everynation.wordpress.com/2007/04/09/is-separation-of-church-and-state-in-the-bible/
Licensed Believers
The “I believe” license plate was not approved in the State of Florida, but representatives in South Carolina have approved a similar plate for their state, also depicting a cross. The Lieutenant Governor is even willing to put up $4,000 of his own money in order to begin production. This raises new arguments about separation of church and state, which I believe most people do not clearly understand correctly.
The U.S. Constitution says that the government shall pass no law regarding the establishment of a religion; a statement also known as the establishment clause. The words “separation of church and state” or even just the word “separation” never appears. Many of the original colonies were founded on principles of religious freedom and/or tolerance. The framers of the Constitution did not want a government sanctioned religion. The establishment clause is simply meant to prevent the U.S. Government from creating a state religion, one imposed by the government on its citizens. Separation of church and state has come to mean something totally different. So much so that I believe in many cases our First Amendment rights of free speech and religious expression are violated.
Allowing students in school a time to pray is not the same as the school system requiring prayer. The monument placed in the Alabama Supreme Court building recognized one of the oldest written law codes in ancient history, but it did not impose Christianity or Judaism on the people of Alabama. Even people in government have a right to express their religious views withous forcing everyone listening to them to believe the same way. Since when does “freedom of religion” equate “freedom from religion.” If a person chooses to not believe, that is their God given and U.S. government protected right to do so. By the same token, however, no one has the right to tell others they cannot profess their faith; to do so violates the believers First Amendment rights. It seems today we swap the misguided “separation” clause for our legitimate First Amendment rights.
Will the S.C. plate be struck down as well? Was Florida right or wrong to try to create their religious plate? Do you agree/ disagree with my assessment of the establishment clause? Let me hear from you.
The Master's Table 