Skip to main content

A Political System Predicated on Hate

In the United States we have a polarized political system predicated on hate.  Now, this is nothing new, and I'm sure that this is not a malady that is unique to our nation, but this issue has become more pronounced in the Age of the Internet.  

Republicans and Democrats, from elected officials to commonplace voters, openly declare that they do not like their own candidate--they simply hate the other candidate.  

Consider sitting President, Donald Trump.  With few exceptions, his supporters generally do not view him as a man of virtue or truth, but, rather, as a vanguard against the forces of Liberalism, Marxism, religious persecution, etc.  

They don't love Trump; they simply hate the alternative to Trump.   

The other side of the aisle is even worse.  

There are essentially zero human beings on this planet who truly believe that Joe Biden would lead this nation effectively. Rather, his own party views him as a vanilla candidate, the elder statesman who, once in office, would be pliable, liable to manipulation.  They are willing to put him into office because they are confident that he would tow the party line, reversing the policies of the erratic Trump, for whom their hate is sometimes literally driving them to riot.

Regardless of where you stand on social and political issues, and no matter what happens in November, I think we can all agree that choosing our leaders based on hatred of the alternative is not a sustainable model.  That is, after all, how we arrived to our current position.






Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Real Presence & Paedocommunion: A Deeper Rift Between Reformed Churches

You're going back to Rome! Theological disagreements within the Reformed world, especially those of the last half century, often devolve into these sorts of accusations.  As controversialists like Doug Wilson and Peter Leithart began to break away from the larger conservative Presbyterian and Reformed denominations, it became clear that the rift was deeper than semantics and systematic minutiae.  Much like the Reformation four centuries before, the Table was a primary point of conflict.   What does it mean?  Who may partake?  What do we call it?    These questions, along with a few more, divided Reformed brethren as the physical elements of our religion reflected deeper conflicts.  Good men began to understand that the problem wasn't just in our logos, but in our pathos and ethos, as well. Paedocommunion (hereafter PC) has been one of the hottest points of contention.  PC has always been normal to me as I grew up with it.  I underst...
Post a Comment
Read more

Anglicanism, Paedocommunion, & Being Reformed

I consider myself Reformed.  I was baptized as a baby in a PCA church.  I grew up in a Reformed microdenomination that allowed its member churches to subscribe to any of the Reformed confessions (we subscribed to the Three Forms of Unity).  In many ways, whether I like it or not, I still think and act like a Reformed Presbyterian.   Some, however, would seek to deny me that label.  I suspect there are many reasons for this, but paramount among them is that I hold to Paedocommunion (hereafter PC), which, for some reason, is absolutely the worst thing ever to these people.  Some would go so far as to say that PC makes me a heretic, but they all agree that I am certainly not Reformed .   My recent engagement with these opponents of PC has caused me to reflect on what it means to be Reformed and what it means to be a Christian.  This online jousting has dovetailed well with some of my recent study, particularly  An Apology of the Church...
Post a Comment
Read more

Some Thoughts on the 2024 Election

So, we had an election earlier this week.  Perhaps you heard about it. I have done my best to remain mostly silent on political issues this time around because I have found that fixating on such matters does little for my mental or spiritual health.  Also, no one cares what I think.  Nevertheless, here are a few thoughts on our recent election. 1) I didn't vote for Donald Trump, but I'd be lying if I said I'm not glad he won.  To be clear, that says more about Kamala Harris than about Donald Trump. 2) This election seemed much cleaner--much less suspicious--than the sordid affair we had in 2020.  This election didn't feature any poll workers tallying (discovering? conjuring?) votes behind closed doors in the wee hours of the night, messy mail-in voting, or voter turnout beyond plausible expectations.  The 2020 election had me convinced that we would never see another peaceful, uncontested election, but, as contentious as things were this year, it seems like...
Post a Comment
Read more