Election Reflections
I wish President-elect Obama the best. In all sincerity, I hope his presidency advances the common good. I pray most of all for the unborn children who will continue be killed unjustly because our Constitution does not protect their right to life. I pray for their mothers and everyone involved in such situations. And I pray President-elect Obama has a change of heart. If he is truly a liberal, perhaps he will support expanding the community for which we are held responsible; perhaps he will grant civil rights to that currently dehumanized segment of our population, the class of unborn human persons. I have to at least have the hope.
As for those who have supported President-elect Obama, I hope they maintain the same level of enthusiasm they exhibited throughout his campaign. I hope they pay attention to the news; I hope they read; I hope they become thoughtful, civic-minded citizens. Complacency and indifference are a great evil, and I hope President Obama is able to shake people out of it.
For those who share my great sense of defeat, I implore you not to move to despair. Conservatives know that politics is not everything, and it is certainly not the first thing. While our country may suffer greatly, we know that life’s important battles are fought in the quiet of the individual soul. We must pray for the conversion of one heart at a time. Remember St. Augustine: “One loving soul sets another on fire”. Let us continue this truly important work, remembering that in the end it isn’t in our hands anyways.
14 Responses to Election Reflections
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Good, sincere post.
Zach,
I like St. Augustine’s quote.
Let us hope that we change those hearts around us with our faith.
“For those who share my great sense of defeat, I implore you not to move to despair.”
Despair! Never! On to 2010! In politics there are no final victories and no final defeats. Defeat, although painful, is always a grand teacher, and there is much to learn from tonight. More on that in future posts.
On to 2010.
We should reflect on the causes of defeat and remedy the situation.
We need stronger pro-life candidates and unapologetic Christians.
A candidate who offers an actual agenda would be nice. And while s/he’s at it, perhaps it could offer something substantial to the middle class… kinda hard to win if you don’t address their concerns. Doesn’t mean you need to pander to them, but not addressing their concerns squarely doesn’t do much.
Yeah, a positive conservative agenda will be very much needed, not just opposing things ranging from abortion and gay marriage to tax increases and invasive government programs, but a positive vision of what a conservative society ought to look like.
This is where we’ve been hurt by Bush not being a conservative on issues other than basic moral ones, and McCain not being comfortable discussing conservatism much at all.
(The popular wisdom, and indeed mine, was that McCain was a good candidate for this year because he was a moderate — but in the end I think that boiled down to not being able to articulate a clear vision for the country)
One lesson to learn from this campaign is that a Republican who relies upon free media to get his message across is begging for defeat. McCain made the classic error of assuming that the media would stay in love with him after he became the Presidential nominee. No, they loved him when he was bashing his fellow Republicans, and fell out of love with him the moment he became the nominee.
To be fair to McCain however, he probably ran the best campaign any Republican could run in the face of a financial meltdown, the stunning unpopularity of President Bush, the 600,000,000 spent by the Obama campaign and a media totally in the tank for the Messiah. The public was determined to punish the Republicans and now they have. McCain and Palin deserve a fair amount of credit for making it any sort of contest at all.
I agree, the GOP needs a ‘positive’ agenda. A well articulated positive agenda.
…and throw out Peggy Noonan.
Donald, I broadly agree, with this caveat (echoing my comment above): McCain simply didn’t offer much of anything for a domestic agenda, which isn’t surprising, given his lack of comfort there.
I wholeheartedly agree with you about complacency. It will kill the competitive edge this country has. This radio show is about what is truly at stake in this election, and what we are TRULY voting for. This election can change the mindset of the entire country and could have an effect for years to come. Most people don’t think of it in this way. It’s very surprising. And either way you decide, you will at least be aware and understand the unspoken implications. If you like what you hear, please pass the link on to others who you may think might like it.
http://tinyurl.com/5znubc
Well, there were a thousand things that could have been done differently, but I am not sure that any of them would have changed the result. I have my own litany of complaints as an arm-chair pundit.
At the same time, I do think it is remarkable that 50 years ago Barack Obama would not have been permitted to attend many of the schools in this country, eat at some of the restaurants, or stay at some of the hotels. Tonight, he will be our president-elect. It seems to me we should be thankful for this sign of hope that the U.S. is capable through God’s grace of overcoming its blindness to the humanity of its most vulnerable members, even though, regrettably, Barack Obama is unable or unwilling to recognize the humanity of unborn life.
Nobly done, Zach–but I would have held out another hour or two before posting, if only out of orneriness!
“The public was determined to punish the Republicans and now they have.”
Thereby illustrating “cutting off your nose to spite your face.”
“Thereby illustrating “cutting off your nose to spite your face.””
Indeed. It is time during the next few years to “appeal from the people drunk to the people sober”. I honestly feel sorry for many of the Obama voters. Outside of a hard core of leftists I think many of them have no idea how their votes yesterday will radically impact their lives.
haha cminor,
Perhaps you’re right, maybe I jumped the gun. I was trying to prevent myself from freaking out.
thank you for the comments all