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commentary on the passing parade Agree? Disagree? Tell me
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Monday, August 18, 2008
WHO NEEDS A CONSTITUTION WHEN WE’VE GOT RICK WARREN? As casual visitors to this page have noticed, I have not been adding commentary on a daily basis. Not that there’s not been sufficiently interesting occurrences about which to comment. There’s been an overabundance of the usual nuttiness that passes for news. But this is not a blog devoted to any particular subject - for example politics - about which there are countless blogs each commenting regularly on the same political figures and events - so I do not feel any necessity to add my two cents to the same subjects on a daily basis. I have other important things to take care of at the moment, so while I am not abandoning my blogging habit, I am reducing it to a manageable level until those other "important things" have been taken care of. Meanwhile a brief comment on - what else - Politics!! I watched a part of the unbelievable merger of church and state as candidates McCain and Obama came to a church and submitted to questions from Rick Warren - the Christian minister of that church - on issues of interest to single issue voters known as evangelicals - people who believe that there really is a tooth fairy who substitutes a quarter for that baby tooth left under a pillow. I can’t see how the combination of the setting and the question master isn’t an assault on the constitution - but both candidates seemed more than happy to be there - Obama in particular expressing his personal friendship with Pastor Warren. McCain may have done so also but if he did, I missed it. This sad affair typified the nonsensical depth to which presidential campaigns have sunk - candidates pandering to an audience who would choose their candidate based on his opposition to abortion and stem cell research and when he believes life begins. All of this plus a sincere assurance that they believe in God and that Christ is their personal savior. Not that it matters to the sane among us, but McCain was the clear winner for the evangelical audience with his crisp "at conception" answer to when life begins and his assurance that his would be a "pro life presidency." I’m not sure what that means, but I would imagine the evangelicals take it as a promise to overturn Roe v Wade and send women into basements and bathrooms to abort an unwanted fetus - perhaps the result of rape or teenage foolishness. I guess no one remembered that Warren would have been among those that McCain once labeled "agents of intolerance." Obama, struggling with the question of when life begins, said that it was "beyond his pay scale" to know the answer with certainty. As usual, most of his answers - no matter what the question - were to some degree "nuanced." Some may view that approach as lacking conviction. Others, me among them, view it as someone who does not see the world in terms of black and white - no pun intended - and who thinks as he speaks. Above all , after eight years of cowboy, shoot from the hip governance - we need a thoughtful man in the White House. I think that description can be applied to Obama more so than McCain.. I have heard pundits say that the election could hinge on the number of evangelical votes a candidate can attract and it seems that McCain is clearly ahead. One can only hope that there are enough evangelicals who discovered early in life that there was no tooth fairy - and even though they continue to cling to other kinds of supernatural beliefs, are practical enough to recognize knee jerk political pandering and answers designed strictly to win their vote - and will give a fair hearing to the candidate who doesn’t give those answers but sees all sides of an issue and tries to do what is best for the most people. At least it was a relief to see McCain appear without a grinning Joe Lieberman at his side. I don’t know about you dear reader, but whenever I see these two together in what has become their standard pose, I think of Edgar Bergen and Mortimer Snerd. And if that doesn’t mean anything to you younger readers - Google it. Maybe you’ll get the point. And maybe a few more evangelicals than might be expected will get the point too. And maybe - if the God they believe in has a sense of humor - the maverick will choose Indirepublocrat Lieberman to be his running mate - assuring their defeat in November. . |