But for context you'll need to visit the link: Random Election Day Thoughts
And there's another link mentioned in the comments that I also commented on.
5 Christian Responses to the 2012 Election
The author is someone I often disagree with. Ironically I used to attend his church several years before he took over. Reformation21 doesn't allow for comments, hence the discussion thread over at Green Baggins.
Here are my comments, which you can also find if you visit the Green Baggins link.
#1
Meet the new boss, same as the
old boss. Obama's policies haven't proven to be very different than his
predecessor.
The United States spends more on
its military complex than the rest of the world combined. Until that spending
is vastly cut, discussions regarding the deficit are a waste of time.
I did vote, but I didn't vote
for either candidate representing the establishment duopoly. Local elections
matter. I definitely wanted to vote for the House of Representatives and the
one Senate seat that was up for grabs in my state. But with the Presidency,
I'll vote for just about any 3rd party. Only when a 3rd party tops the 15% mark
in the polls can we start having some real discussion.
Until then they are excluded
from news coverage, the debates and the establishment-approved candidates can
go on with their sound-byte style campaigning.
Our system is hopelessly broken.
Our elections are about money, not issues. Our stupid winner-take-all electoral
system makes the system un-reformable. A parliamentary system is actually much
more favourable to democracy and we would do well to borrow the French model
for how to conduct an election.
Rather than waste my vote by
voting 3rd party, I could just as easily argue that those who vote for the
establishment parties are wasting their vote. Regardless of who wins the status
quo is supported....and nothing changes. There are differences between the
parties but the differences are not that great. Campaign rhetoric quickly
transforms into a pragmatic equilibrium. We would realize this except for the
fact that past presidents such as Reagan have been mythologized. Reagan's
record is not that conservative and I doubt he would make through the
Republican primaries today.
#2
BTW, no surprise but I disagree
with RPhillips points.
1. Christian Sacralism has
helped drive many of these wedges and caused social divisions that are
unnecessary. There will always be antithesis between 'us and them' but this is
exacerbated when the 'Christian' position is about employing the government to
'force' (which is violence) people to conform to our way.
2. Though this ex-military
officer may hate Socialism he lived under government health care for many years
while serving in the Legions. Our tax money supports abortions in the military
and has for ages. He was part of the system. Part of this country's problem is
the employer-based health care system. Your health care should never be tied to
your employer and thus this issue wouldn't even arise.
Military officers and
homosexuals? Wow, wouldn't want a homo killing someone, but if they're straight
that's okay? The military is such a morally bankrupt organization to begin
with. This kind of reasoning, attaching concepts like morality and honour to
the military defy all moral sense and are divorced from social, historical, and
geopolitical reality.
3. How about the Church? Or has
Phillips confused America with the Church? Somehow unregenerate people are
going to understand the Law of God?
4. We should have been doing
this all along. But instead Bush was all too often praised and treated in
messianic terms while Clinton and now Obama invoke imprecatory responses. Obama
is a wicked guy...but no more than George Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Nixon, LBJ, or
Wilson.
5. This is the only point I
believe he got right.
I realize 99% of the readers
here will disagree with what I've said but I urge you to step back and
reconsider some of these fundamental issues. The Dominionist experiment
re-energized by Schaeffer, Rushdoony and the Moral Majority has reached a point
of crisis. The demographic realities have been against you for some
time...hence the frantic urgency to turn the tide before it slips away.
This election demonstrates that
time has arrived. This election should have been a cakewalk for the
Republicans. They picked a terrible candidate but despite that to have lost
this....is stunning.
I am greatly concerned by the
rhetoric coming from the Right. The government is being delegitimized, fear and
conspiracy abound. I'm starting to hear whispers of something I have feared for
a long time. This is going to lead to violence. Watch out because some unhinged
member of the Christian Right will not heed the pacific advice Phillips rightly
gives. Someone will take up the sword and I fear this country will before too
many years have passed be once more praying for peace in the streets.