As a Christian, I am met with frequent queries as to the peculiar nature of my political ideology: am I just trying to be different for the sake of being different? Am I just young and naïve? Did I dab LSD on my tongue one too many times before watching “An Inconvenient Truth”? Am I really a Christian at all? I have decided to build this blog to 1. Explain/define my beliefs/dispel myths to my friends, 2. Be a voice to other “closet” liberal Christians, 3. Develop my opinions by getting feedback from you guys.
Let me clearly proclaim my thesis here: The ideology of the Democratic Party in 2008 more closely suits my faith.
The financial crisis of late embodies the reason why I believe this. In a nutshell, Greed powers free market capitalism-->Republicans champion free market capitalism (Christian Republicans too, oh my)-->I don’t like greed (neither does Jesus)-->the democratic party more closely embodies my faith-->I am a democrat-->Period. Argh, and I find myself watering down the above statement by inserting “free-market” above where I feel like myself (and Jesus) think that Capitalism on a whole is silly, but alas, I digress.
The bank bailout of late is designed to address precisely what happened in the 30s before the great depression and avoid it; kind of like a “learn from our mistakes” type of deal. What the government has done is, among many other things, buy chunks of the leading banks because they are “too big to fail*” (see note below on this one). When banks resisted this move, the fed wouldn’t have it, and forced the banks to comply in order to save them. Now, the banks have been partially “nationalized” (although I may argue that they have been “socialized” [gasp]), and all this was done because the federal government was forced to do so... In case italics are inadequate in expressing accented written words, I shall reattempt using caps. The federal government, Pioneered by Reagan into Free-Market-Regulation-Free Capitalism, Captianed by our very own George Dubya, bought huge portions of unable-to-regulate-themselves-banks because it WAS FORCED TO DO SO!
*Don’t we have anti-trust laws to prevent this?
I’ll skip the commentary about Bush’s embarrassingly failed presidency-which-will-go-down-in-history-as-the-presidency-of-the-twin-towers-and-of-the-twin-trillions (the trillion lost in Iraq and the other trillion on the banks due to his failed and inept policy) save this hyphenated parenthetical sentence that I simply could not bear to contain, for now. Sigh, I’ll stick to the title of this blog: why I’m a democrat.
I currently live in Los Angeles county, which is running a deficit of nearly $1 billion, within the great state of California running a deficit of roughly $14 billion, looking for assistance from the federal government, which has a massive (understatement)… deficit of approx. $438 billion (just for this year); and they are looking for help from (irony here, pay attention) CHINA. If you’re not laughing here, you’re a republican. Here is my Mini sub-thesis: American Culture as a whole is deeply rooted in a pandemic, over arching, all encompassing “buy now pay later” mentality. That is, it is the way of the United States of America to consume as much as possible without facing the consequences until we are forced to do so (FORCED TO DO SO). You see it in our health care, how it’s focused on treatment rather than prevention, you see it in our governmental debt on every single level, and now, you see it in the bail out!! Government, to a large extent, sets an example to its people, and this republican led administration is setting a (understatement #2) bad example.
Republicans are doing this, somehow they feel like fighting for lower taxes and lower regulation is somehow Christian, but it's contrary to scripture and, regardless, it has all throughout history caused catastrophic social and civil problems! It boils my blood that Christians, CHRISTIANS, God’s people, followers of Christ, put Republicans into power (off of non-political moral issues like abortion and gay rights: more on this later); and these republicans champion this credit-card-governing mentality. This anger and disappointment in my brothers and sisters keeps me awake at night. We should be the first ones volunteering our wealth, our comfort, our time… for the sake of others! The Republican Party is founded on the principle of allowing people and governments to consume and consume until they are sick and vomiting and they have to binge on the medication they should have been taking gradually to prevent this! If you want to argue this, look at Wall Street and read a transcript of Greenspan’s confessional. We need a government that will regulate us, and prevent this disaster, like my God regulates me, and prevents me from disaster.
However, when I meet disaster in my spiritual life, there is grace, there is correction, and there is renewed strength. When our country meets disaster, there is Obama. After years of enduring inept leadership by way of botched and dishonest voting booths, party line supreme court rulings, vote persuasion via fear mongering, and a re-election via an opaque and dismal war, the American people will do the ultimate “bail out” using the constitution, we will vote democratic.
Let me clearly proclaim my thesis here: The ideology of the Democratic Party in 2008 more closely suits my faith.
The financial crisis of late embodies the reason why I believe this. In a nutshell, Greed powers free market capitalism-->Republicans champion free market capitalism (Christian Republicans too, oh my)-->I don’t like greed (neither does Jesus)-->the democratic party more closely embodies my faith-->I am a democrat-->Period. Argh, and I find myself watering down the above statement by inserting “free-market” above where I feel like myself (and Jesus) think that Capitalism on a whole is silly, but alas, I digress.
The bank bailout of late is designed to address precisely what happened in the 30s before the great depression and avoid it; kind of like a “learn from our mistakes” type of deal. What the government has done is, among many other things, buy chunks of the leading banks because they are “too big to fail*” (see note below on this one). When banks resisted this move, the fed wouldn’t have it, and forced the banks to comply in order to save them. Now, the banks have been partially “nationalized” (although I may argue that they have been “socialized” [gasp]), and all this was done because the federal government was forced to do so... In case italics are inadequate in expressing accented written words, I shall reattempt using caps. The federal government, Pioneered by Reagan into Free-Market-Regulation-Free Capitalism, Captianed by our very own George Dubya, bought huge portions of unable-to-regulate-themselves-banks because it WAS FORCED TO DO SO!
*Don’t we have anti-trust laws to prevent this?
I’ll skip the commentary about Bush’s embarrassingly failed presidency-which-will-go-down-in-history-as-the-presidency-of-the-twin-towers-and-of-the-twin-trillions (the trillion lost in Iraq and the other trillion on the banks due to his failed and inept policy) save this hyphenated parenthetical sentence that I simply could not bear to contain, for now. Sigh, I’ll stick to the title of this blog: why I’m a democrat.
I currently live in Los Angeles county, which is running a deficit of nearly $1 billion, within the great state of California running a deficit of roughly $14 billion, looking for assistance from the federal government, which has a massive (understatement)… deficit of approx. $438 billion (just for this year); and they are looking for help from (irony here, pay attention) CHINA. If you’re not laughing here, you’re a republican. Here is my Mini sub-thesis: American Culture as a whole is deeply rooted in a pandemic, over arching, all encompassing “buy now pay later” mentality. That is, it is the way of the United States of America to consume as much as possible without facing the consequences until we are forced to do so (FORCED TO DO SO). You see it in our health care, how it’s focused on treatment rather than prevention, you see it in our governmental debt on every single level, and now, you see it in the bail out!! Government, to a large extent, sets an example to its people, and this republican led administration is setting a (understatement #2) bad example.
Republicans are doing this, somehow they feel like fighting for lower taxes and lower regulation is somehow Christian, but it's contrary to scripture and, regardless, it has all throughout history caused catastrophic social and civil problems! It boils my blood that Christians, CHRISTIANS, God’s people, followers of Christ, put Republicans into power (off of non-political moral issues like abortion and gay rights: more on this later); and these republicans champion this credit-card-governing mentality. This anger and disappointment in my brothers and sisters keeps me awake at night. We should be the first ones volunteering our wealth, our comfort, our time… for the sake of others! The Republican Party is founded on the principle of allowing people and governments to consume and consume until they are sick and vomiting and they have to binge on the medication they should have been taking gradually to prevent this! If you want to argue this, look at Wall Street and read a transcript of Greenspan’s confessional. We need a government that will regulate us, and prevent this disaster, like my God regulates me, and prevents me from disaster.
However, when I meet disaster in my spiritual life, there is grace, there is correction, and there is renewed strength. When our country meets disaster, there is Obama. After years of enduring inept leadership by way of botched and dishonest voting booths, party line supreme court rulings, vote persuasion via fear mongering, and a re-election via an opaque and dismal war, the American people will do the ultimate “bail out” using the constitution, we will vote democratic.
