Politics Shmolitics: Riding the Fence in a very bi-partisan world

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m so ready for this election to be over.  Really, is all of this necessary?  Everyone already knows who they’re voting for.  You’re not changing anyone’s minds with these commercials and facebook posts, so please, let’s just vote now and get it over with!  Imagine the good that could be done with the money we’d save!

This may be my only pseudo-political commentary ever, so let me preface it by saying that I’m very uneducated in the area of politics.  Save for the casual dose of The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert, I spend very little time or effort seeking to understand much of the nonsense.  As a matter of fact, I’m not even entirely sure where it is that I fall on the political spectrum.  People do like to tell me where I belong though.

A dear Republican friend told me that I must be a morally-corrupt liberal since I watch PBS (darn you, Antiques Roadshow!) and take my aluminum cans to be recycled.

I have another dear friend (also a Republican), who told me that I must be a right-wing conservative due to my Christian beliefs.  You can’t be a Christian Democrat.  That’s an oxymoron.

I’ve always fancied myself somewhat of a Republicrat.  Comfortably in the middle.  This is unacceptable to most people (because, apparently, we live in a country that is divided on nearly every important issue).  It’s not that I have no convictions.  It’s more that many of my convictions don’t seem to fit with either school of politics.

My opinion, should it ever matter –

I think we should all do our part to care for the planet.  I don’t know when this became a political issue.  When I was a little girl, learning about the importance of turning off the water while I brush my teeth and learning how to “recycle, reduce, reuse,” no one was shouting, “Liberal Heresy!”  Isn’t it extraordinarily arrogant of us to think that it doesn’t matter how much waste we create or how we abuse the planet?  We should take responsibility for the mess we make and clean up after ourselves. Our mommas taught us better!

I don’t want anyone to ever have an abortion.  I’m an adoptive mom.  The very thought breaks my heart.  It also breaks my heart that, depending on what statistics you read, there are between 400,000 and half a million kids in foster care in the U.S. right now.  It seems like we should be doing more to make the unwanted wanted.

I want everyone to have the same shot in life.  No matter where you were born, no matter your family circumstances, or the color of your skin, you should have the right to a good education.  You should be able to take your sick baby to the doctor.

I don’t want anyone to be on drugs.  It destroys people.  It turns them in to someone they never wanted to be. I don’t think making anyone pee in a cup to get their welfare check is going to help addicts get off drugs.  In my humble opinion, that is just going to result in a whole bunch of hungry kids.

I know that we don’t have the resources to care for everyone who wants to be an American, but I want us to stop viewing illegal aliens like sewer rats.  There was a time when migrating to this country for a chance at a better opportunity for your family was considered heroic. More specifically, I think we owe something to all of the children who were brought here, not by their own decision, and who were allowed to go all the way through public school, but upon turning 18, automatically become criminals.  They are faced with a decision to either live here illegally or go back to a country they do not know. Do you know what it takes for a poor young adult who is living here illegally to become a citizen?  It’s crazy.  Today I heard someone say, "Just send 'em all back!"  Thanking God that my own little Mexican boy has a permanent home... and praying for all those who don't.

I want it to be pretty dang difficult for you to get a gun into your hand.  I feel this all the more as I send my seven year old off to school every morning.  That's just the mom in me.

I know that there are people who “abuse the system.”   I don’t want welfare to be a way of life, but I want help to be available for those who need it, and who want something better for their lives.  Maybe even for those who don't know that there is something better.

I want the poor to be cared for.  In Deuteronomy 15, God tells the Israelites that there should be no poor among them (just for clarification, they weren’t to kill the poor off, they were to make sure everyone had what they needed).  Later, in Acts 4, the Bible describes how the first century church shared all that they had so that everyone had what they needed, and there was, in fact, no poor among them.  I don’t think that it’s the government’s job to make us share what we have.  It’s our job as the church (and as humans!). But the church needs to step it up.  Because there are most certainly poor among us.  And there are a whole lot of really wealthy Christians (perhaps that’s your oxymoron?).

So where does that land me?  Somewhere in the middle I suspect.  I probably know just enough to keep my mouth shut.

I know a lot about make-up though.  Oh, and Kentucky Basketball.  Maybe I’ll talk more about that!

Kisses