Yesterday, as some of you may know, was midterm election day. Or, in other words, the day the pendulum would shift dramatically in the GOP's direction, much like it did the DFL's four years ago. You see in, midterm elections back in 2006, a nation so fed up with George W. Bush's politics (and it only took six years!) fell into the Democratic Party's lap. I recall I was rather excited [“http://amidthenoiseandhaste2.blogspot.com/2006/11/views-on-recent-events-election-day.html”] at the time. I don't know if it was because I was at that point a Democrat, or if I just hated Bush's guts, or what.
But, no matter. I'd done some research and prayed as to who to vote for, and among the ones that I really paid attention to, I found myself voting across party lines. And in spite of most of the individuals I voted for losing (meaning, the Democrats I voted for were defeated by their Republican opponents, and the Republicans I voted for were defeated by their Democratic opponents... boo...), I look at the national scope and found that my voting represented much of the nation. The GOP, much like the Democratic Party four years ago, expected the outrage against current president Barack Obama to turn into a similar landslide in their favor. Not so much. Both parties split the difference: the elephants grabbed the House, and the donkeys held on to the Senate. You'd think I should be reasonably happy. I suppose, except the person I voted for lost every time.
[* I should amend that. As I'm writing this, the Illinois governor's race is still too close to call, and its outcome will be determined by the results of the absentee ballots. And, there were a couple folks I voted that ended up winning. So, not a total loss.]
So why am I not encouraged? Because, even though yesterday's pendulum swing was hardly that of what took place four years ago, I don't have faith that either party as a whole really knows (or cares, depending on which one you look at) how to do what the citizens want. The Republicans, as a rule, want to feed the rich (they're already rich). The Democrats want all power and money to go through the federal government (i.e. they too are rich/they want to be rich). Given that I'm not rich, period, and that I'm neither a rich citizen nor a rich politician, I've found I don't like either party.
Thing is, what frustrates me the most is that the US has really become two nations: one of the Democrats, and one of the Republicans. If you watch TV and you've watched a decent amount of it over the last month, you probably would have watched at least a decent number of the political ads. But instead of encouraging voters to vote for someone, a culture of fear has been instilled and commercials tell voters to vote against people. I even got multiple pieces of mail from the Republican Party of Minnesota telling me why I shouldn't vote for Democrat David Bly (firstly, I don't even live in Minnesota (which they know, because they sent it to my Chicago address); secondly, I've never registered with the Republican Party; and thirdly, I've never voted for David Bly). People in power are complaining about either how money is spent or how much money is spent, and yet they think it's OK that millions of dollars are being thrown at attempt to defraud and defame other people. Depending on the party, I would either call them hypocrites or use it as a direct example of their irresponsible spending.
Yesterday I did my part to try and bring the US back together when I voted for members of both parties. When I did my research I looked at each of the candidates to see not only what they were for and against, but also their characters, and how they would treat others. [I don't vote for parties; I vote for people.] But, like I've said before, I fear it may be too late. I may not love the US (stopped loving it since I was attacked in England for being an American citizen), but I'd rather not let it die if I can help it. The day each and every member from both parties from every level of government, past, present, and future, learn how to compromise and shut up and listen to the people first, is the day the US can again be one nation. Until then, the Pledge of Allegiance is nothing but a lie.
(I'll tackle the "under God" aspect some other time.)
Oh, right, I never explained the title of today's post. To be fair, there was never really a moment where I "officially" became a moderate. But over the last year, as I've focused my understanding about things from a Christ-centered standpoint, politics have become less and less personal to me (this is not to say any less important, mind you). Given that I did actually have experiences relating to two other posts (here [“http://amidthenoiseandhaste2.blogspot.com/2005/04/night-i-officially-became-liberal.html”] and here [“http://amidthenoiseandhaste2.blogspot.com/2009/06/night-i-officially-became-conservative.html”]) in the series, I felt that it was only a matter of time before I would need to give an update.