It is Saturday, November 1, 2008, and in three days we will conclude the election process for 2008.  I have my preferences about who I want to win but I have also become increasingly disillusioned about the election process and what it says about “we, the people.”

We have not yet voted for the people who will lead us for the next four years yet we are already discussing who will be running in opposition in 2012.  And as the present campaign comes to a conclusion, the issues seemed to get pushed to the side.

It could be that both the Democratic and Republican Parties have run their course and that new parties should come forth.  Andrew Jackson, developer of RedBlueChristian.com, has put forth a call for a new political party, the Christian Independent Party.  It has a nice ring to it but I am wondering if it can survive the polarization that has dominated the present political process.  And quite honestly, I am wondering how those who do not know what “Christian” means will perceive such a new party.

First, there are a number of political parties in Europe who have Christian in their name.  What will the insertion of the word “Christian” in a political party name do to its ability to influence and change public policy?

Right now, the very word “Christian” implies a particular set of thoughts and values.  And by the same token, the word “liberal” also implies a particular set of thoughts and values.  Each of these sets of thoughts and values seem to be mutually exclusive; in other words, you cannot be a liberal if you are a Christian and you cannot be a Christian if you are liberal.  And I would add that it seems that you cannot be an intellectual and a Christian as well.

The problem isn’t what one believes on a particular day of the week; the problem is that one day of the week is the most many people think about their faith.  There are those who do live their faith and I have respect for them, even if I do not agree with their faith, just as I hope they have respect for my faith and how I live it.

The problems facing this country are greater than one’s individual faith.  Unfortunately, it appears that it is what one believes, be it because of their faith or otherwise, that will determine the outcome of this election and elections in years to come.  And what one believes is based on what one knows and understands.

We have forgotten the history of this country or we have changed the history to reflect what we wish it to be.  And our ignorance of this country’s past is reflected in our actions today.

Do we understand what it means to be a citizen of this country?  In one sense, we are supposed to have this knowledge because we all, or so it is believed, studied the Constitution in high school.  But where was the outcry when Dick Cheney or Sarah Palin told us that the Vice-President is not part of the executive branch or has duties not enumerated in the Constitution or allowed by the rules of the Senate?

Where was the outcry when Congress passed laws that threatened to take away the rights and liberties of all people, not just those suspected of terrorists activities?

We, as a collective body, did not respond because we, as a collective body, did not understand.  What we knew years ago has been lost in the mists of time and has been replaced by what we think happened.  Revisionist history comes to mind.  And, in our ignorance, our fears have increased.  And those who seek the glory of political leadership have long known that it is our fears and how well that they can feed those fears that will get them elected.  (I wish that this were a modern phenomena but it has been going on almost since the beginning of the first political parties in this country.)

The problems of this country require long-term thinking, not short-term responses.

What is the role of taxes in this country?  Are our taxes too high?  Or is it that people just don’t want to pay them?  Let us suppose that there were no taxes at all at any level.  Then how would things get done?  How would we maintain the vast defense system that we have in place right now? 

How would roads and bridges be built or maintained?  We could have private companies build our roads and bridges; after all that is the way it was done in the beginning of this country. But these roads and bridges were toll roads; so we paid for them. Do we want to return to that system? Yes, we still have toll roads and toll bridges throughout the country and that money is supposed to be used for maintenance and improvement.

Again, we have all studied American History and we remember the problems this country had in the period between the end of the American Revolution and the development of the Constitution.

Whether we have taxes on the local level, the state level, or the national level, we have to have a way to pay for the services that the people demand (be it trash pickup once a week or the maintenance of a national defense force).  And I don’t think that too many people would disagree with the notion that we are responsible for our own support. 

I have stated before that I have no problem with any individual earning any amount of money.  But should the money be earned at the expense of others?  Should one earn a salary that is more in one year than many others will ever earn in their lifetime?  What can a person do with more money than they will ever spend?  It is not the role of any government to answer such questions but how will we, the people, determine what is each person’s fair share? Somewhere along the line, be it through town meetings or legislative bodies, we have to have a government that represents the people.

But such thoughts bring forth the question of who will support those who cannot, for age or health reasons, support themselves?  What shall we do with those individuals?  Shall it be that those who have keep what they have and those who have none be blamed for the lack of what they don’t have?  That was society’s view two thousand years ago, it was society’s view two hundred years ago; it was wrong then and it is wrong now.  But we think that poverty is caused more by sin and personal choice than by economic and social reasons, so we perpetuate this belief by not examining the root causes of poverty.

We will not improve the schools in this country because most voters think the money is wasted.  To some extent, I agree with that evaluation.  Money should be put into the educational process (teacher salaries and classroom processes), not into educational administration.  If my memory of American history is correct, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (one of the few laws from the American Confederacy) maintained the public support for education.  Yet, we are not willing to support education anymore, believing that what was good for us should be good for our kids.  But an uneducated populace is one incapable of thinking in the long-term and while the results may not be immediately evident, the cumulative effect of ignorance will only be known when it is too late.

What we need to do right now is not be concerned with who will be running for elective office in 2010 or 2012.  We are three days away from deciding who will lead this country for the next four years and that needs to be our immediate focus.  What we, the people, need to do is individually and collectively decide how we will address the issues and work individually and collectively to solve those problems.  If we do not do that, the road ahead will be very bumpy; if we do decide to work individually and collectively to solve problems, the road ahead could be smoother.

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Cross-posted to RedBlueChristian