November 3, 2004

The disappointment is crushing.  The emotions are confused. I know many others who are still in shock and disbelief.
 
Sad for our country and the world that we have 4 more years of something far short of what the best could offer.
 
I felt so sure that we were going to have new leadership and a fresh start.  I could see Kerry being a great president of compassion and a fabulous leader of the free world.  Hence, I am disappointed and cynical that the Republican propaganda filled with hate and division and half truths seemed to work. 

I am almost brought to tears for the gay population.  As bad as I feel, I know that I do not feel the personal rejection that they must.  Where is the love of our brothers and sisters that Jesus taught.  The marginalized were what Jesus was all about.  There is a cute bumper sticker that says The Christian Right is neither.  Unfortunately, they are Christian and they do represent the conservative coalition that is on the ascendancy.

I am angry that nasty Rove techniques using groups like the Swift Boat Veterans or Cheney's hatchet job are not perceived as immoral. I remember watching Chris Mathews challenge one of the leading Republicans such as Gillespie about these techniques.  The response was totally unapologetic and said that if Kerry can't handle this, how would he handle the terrorists.  How does a draft dodger (Bush) and another man that never served (Cheney) get away with insulting and impugning a man that volunteered for Viet Nam? 

It is hard not to look down on the kind of populism stoked up by the Republicans. In fact, aren't the Republicans really cynically exploiting people's good natured values and faith for their own ends? How can people connect with such a boob who has borrowed and spent us into a deficit.  He is the first president to take us to war and not raise taxes.  Instead he cut them.  Isn't it immoral to spend and borrow today and leave our children in debt?  How are the misjudgments and miscalculations of Iraq ignored?  For some it is because they feel he is like them and shares their values.  He doesn't like the TV culture.  He objects to the immorality of the media in general as evidenced in stories about not letting his daughters watch Beverly 90210.  He uses the religious language of the evangelicals.  Prays about his decisions  and then goes with his gut and is certain that he is right.  I usually try to be understanding with the Baptists, evangelicals, fundamentalists, since my wife and I met in just that context.  I try to connect with where they are and where I once was, but not leave them there.  Let them know that it is all not as black and white and as cut and dried as they think it is.  But they tend to be anti-intellectual and like it simple.  Simple like George.  Don't tell me about literary criticism of the Bible that just might enlighten they say.  I don't care about oral traditions, retelling and rewriting of the stories. Don't tell me that the New Testament is theology and not history.  It makes them uneasy in their easy faith.  I am reminded of simple superstitious peasants.

Yet it is that very arrogance I just displayed that creates solidarity in these people who feel that we don't get it.  I see this same arrogance in many of my democratic brethren.  We sit in our two camps self righteously looking across a deep chasm of misunderstanding.

I feel like Catholicism was rejected by the population.  We don't wear religion on our sleeves.  It is quiet faith of action.  Kerry talked about loving god with your whole heart, mind, soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself.  He talked about living your faith and showing it by what you do.  Clothe the naked, feed the hungry.  He stated the Catholic principle of conscience.  Namely, whether what you do is right or wrong comes down to what you and God determine is right in that most hallowed and holy place of your informed conscience.  That was his answer on abortion.  All of what he said was Catholic through and through. 

The evangelicals have never liked the Catholics and I am reaching the point of having my fill of it.  Evangelicals pride themselves on saying it is your faith that saves you.  Forget any legalistic rules of right or wrong. They rightly focus on a spirituality that is based on a relationship with the Lord.  Yet they seem to forget that we relate to our Lord through one another.  The Lord is present in the Other people we deal with every day.   Yet they do not trust others in the their relationship to God.  Hence abortion is a nonnegotiable issue.  The only one that matters.  Forget about the rest of a Judeo-Christian culture that embodies a respect for life.  We are told in genesis to be stewards  and caretakers of the Garden of Eden, our beautiful, Mother Earth.  So what if Bush guts the clean air act and the air is not as clean as it could be.  So what if he is clear cutting the forests.  The list goes on and on as far as a horrible environmental record.  But he is against abortion.  So what if the Lord said Vengeance is Mine.  There is nothing wrong with capital punishment in their minds.  Let's gut all the social programs that take care of our poor and elderly even though I am my brother's keeper.  Have we forgotten the moral underpinnings of those programs?  Let's preemptively invade Iraq for a variety of reasons that are no longer valid and some that are such as it has oil that we need and so what if somebody else's kids die.  Mine won't.   Oh but he is against abortion.  So what if his v.p. tells Senator Pat Leahy (an Irish Catholic) to get fucked on the floor of the Senate.  Bush and Cheney are the ticket of values!

Cardinal Bernadin spoke of a consistent Ethic of Life.  Abortion is one part of it not the whole of it.  I can accept it if an unbeliever or a Christian looks at abortion as the removal of tissue or as the removal of something which is not viable and therefore not human.  I do not personally.  But if a dispassionate scientist or a reasonable person is comfortable with that, then maybe I should not impose my belief on them.  I am not certain that that is the right answer.  I am certain that we need to be humble before god and others about what the truth is.  It is possible in my mind for 750 million Catholics to have it all wrong.  All people who seek god or the truth in a sincere spirit of pursuing the light and truth are my brothers and sisters.  These days I feel closer to a scientist seeking the truth than I do to the evangelicals.  I feel closer to Galileo than the Church that condemned him.

There is much talk of Bush winning because of values.  What does that mean?  Moral values?  Have we forgotten the moral underpinnings of the social programs. Yes indeed. The very people that benefit from the social programs are now voting for a philosophy of less government and taxes. Do they miss the connection?   The elderly went for Bush.  How does that make sense?  If things continue as they are for me, I won't need social security or HUD financed housing,  why should I care?  But I do.  Somehow it seems Christian to me.  I am willing to take some of my hard earned money and pay taxes for that purpose.

I wish I could say that I feel better for having written this. But I don't.

Where do we go from here?  Do we need some Democratic Rush Limbaughs on the air waves….distorting and twisting the facts….repeating and repeating a message eventually gaining converts?

Do we need an evangelical candidate who speaks their religious language?

Do we need to organize better in a few of the red states such as Florida and Ohio and pick them up next time?

Do we need to figure out who the right candidate is a few years in advance and have a huge war chest of money ready to go?  That's what the Republicans did in 2000.  They did not have 8 candidates nobody knew.  Bush had 50 million dollars before the primaries started.

As tempting as it may become if the war drags on, we should not resort to violence as happened in the 60s.  King and Gandhi brought about change through nonviolent civil disobedience.  We need to stay positive and keep our heads up.  One of my personal breakthrough moments was when I was able to pray for Richard Nixon who continued a war 7 years (until 1975) after saying he had a secret plan to end it when he was running for office in '68.  One of our responses has to be to pray for our country, the world, and our leadership. May the Lord be hallowed on earth, Her loving and good will that wants only good for us be done, may all of us receive daily bread that physically and spiritually nourishes us,  and may we learn to forgive others since we too need their forgiveness.  May she deliver all humankind from evil.  May we all be open to the promptings of love and God's call and word so that this world can be a better world for us and innocent children everywhere.  God help us and George Bush.