History was made tonight. Put simply, a major shift has been made in the thinking and philosophy of the nation as a whole. We, the United States of America, have voted for someone that is not white.
While I cannot say that I am thrilled about the election of Mr. Obama as president I cannot help but be thrilled to be alive at a time like this. No, I didn’t vote for him. But it is still historic. It is still a great learning lesson for my kids. It is still an opportunity to pray for our leaders. And regardless of whether it was McCain or Obama I can feel good knowing I did nothing to elect him. However, he is my president so he is deserving of my family’s prayers.
1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-4
I love how Timothy did not leave any wiggle room when he wrote this. He did not say that if you approve of the king, or agree with those that are in authority, or if you voted for the new president that you should pray for that person. No, he said that we should pray for, intercede for and make supplications for all people, kings and all those in authority. Make no mistake about it, president-elect Obama is a man in a position of authority.
I do not agree with him. And he was not my choice for president. And all of my children knew my position on Obama (Adriannah almost cried when they announced Obama was the winner - and they were not tears of joy). But I do want him to be saved. I want him to think in a manner consistent with how Christ would think when he makes decisions. To that end the first thing we did, as a family, when it was announced Obama had won, even as Senator McCain was giving his concession speech, was pray for Barack Obama, his family, his appointees, our congress and our country. That is what we are supposed to do, regardless of our feelings for the man. Have you prayed for him yet?
To my new president I have only this to say to you: Congratulations on shattering a line that has desperately needed to be shattered. Please use discernment, wisdom and conscience in office rather than partisan ideology. We have had more than enough of that.
Yesterday I wrote about why I could not vote for Barack Obama. To offer an alternative I am going to post why I cannot vote for John McCain.
I hope this also offers some insight as to how so many people can still be undecided at this point in this very hotly contested presidential election. I truly believe that there is a part of the population that knows choice is being hidden from them and as such know that there are alternatives to two men being offered to us as our next potential president. I also believe that there are people in this country that think that there are only two choices for president and know that neither man is qualified to be it.
A with yesterday, let me say that I am not a supporter of John McCain. While he does line up more closely with my ideals that Barack Obama does, he is still miles away from where I want my next president. And as with yesterday, let me also add that my unwillingness to support him as a viable candidate for president rests on his values and the promises he has made during his campaign as well as how he presents himself as a leader in the various debates and television appearances he has made.
Here a few of the reasons that I cannot vote for John McCain:
Economic policy
John McCain has said that his plan for economic stimulation revolves around offering significant tax breaks to very large corporations and businesses while offering smaller taxes to middle class tax payers. Lower income earners kinda get the screws put to the while the government ends up sacrificing an enormous amount of revenue from taxes while the large corporations benefit tremendously.
One thing that I do not fully understand about this plan of McCain’s is how this is going to grow our economy? Giving tax breaks to companies is all well and good as long as there is some sort of give on the part of the companies. In McCain’s tax plan there are no gives. Companies get to keep more money without any reason to bring jobs back onto American soil.
This is fundamentally flawed and stupid. To bring jobs back to Americans you need to give companies an incentive to do so. Giving them a tax break and hoping they employ Americans is lame. McCain dropped the ball on this one.
Education
While McCain’s education plan does seem better than Obama’s plan it is still lacking in many declarations. For one thing neither candidate mentions anything about a parents right to homeschool their children. If education is the responsibility of the parents first, which it is, then parents should have a choice to educate their children themselves. There should be no distinction between a public school, private school and home school as it relates to choice or options for a parent.
McCain’s plan still puts a lot of government into the education of American children and offers nothing in the way of alternatives outside of an institutional setting for education. And while both attempt to cover the cost of a college education as an issue neither really cover the issue of an education. McCain plans to offer parents a choice. And?
Energy and environment
Seems to me that every choice a president makes is “the hard choice”. At least that is what McCain would have you believe. And though he does make some attempt at trying to make you believe that he will ween America from foreign oil he does not really offer a plan to do that other than off shore drilling and forcing public transportation into alternative fuel use.
How exactly does that solve our energy crisis? He has offered nothing tangible in terms of a solution when it comes to getting America free from Middle East oil. He has done nothing that says he will try to protect the environment while reducing our dependence on foreign oil. He has offered nothing except long sentences that use a lot of words I am not sure he understands himself.
Healthcare
How can you even consider taxing healthcare as a benefit? This is the single stupidest thing that John McCain has put on his campaign ticket. How are American families supposed to survive when the money we earn now is not enough to get us through and we have to pay taxed on a benefit offered to us through our employers.
McCain is totally missing the mark on this one, apparently looking at healthcare as something that should be easily covered by taxing those financially stable enough to have it. Shame on you John McCain. People are already forgoing medical treatment because they cannot even afford the premiums. Making them pay taxes on it is just too much.
Iraq
One of the most heartless and cruel things I have ever heard John McCain utter came in response to a question he was asked about supporting President Bush’s decision to go to war with Iraq. The question was “Would you still support the president’s decision if he war lasted 50 years?”. His response was something along the lines of “If it lasted another hundreds years I would still be happy with it.” Moron.
As I said yesterday there is no right answer to this situation. Keeping our troops there without good cause is just plain hostile and stupid. If there was one thing that makes me not like John McCain as a person it is his stance on Iraq. It just sucks.
So there you have it. A republican’s take on John McCain. I appreciate that he served our country as a soldier and prisoner of war. But we are not back in the jungles of ‘Nam John McCain. There is a battle to fight, you can be sure of that. But it cannot be fought with the weapons you bring to the table.
The American people cannot afford to have you as a president.
With much talk swirling around about who is voting for who and why I thought it only appropriate to post my thoughts about this. It would seem that many people are split between a McCain/Obama decision. Since there are more choices out that for president than just those two I thought I would make my preference known like everyone else.
Let me say this first off… I am not a supporter of Barack Obama. It is not because he is a democrat. It is not because he is black. My unwillingness to support him as a viable candidate for president rests on his values and the promises he has made during his campaign as well as how he presents himself as a leader in the various debates and television appearances he has made.
Here a few of the reasons that I cannot vote for Barack Obama:
Economic policy
Obama has stated repeatedly that he intends to give 95% of working families a tax break. What he hasn’t said yet is how he intends to pay for it. What it looks like, and what he has inferred, is that the wealthiest people in America and big corporations would end up footing the bill for this idea. While I like getting money back on my taxes, it seems eerily socialistic to rob from the poor to give to the middle class.
Obama has also stated that he intends to offer tax cuts to small businesses and start ups. But he has very quiet on what he intends to do for established businesses and medium to large size companies. From what he has said it seems clear that big businesses will get pinched even more on their taxes so small businesses can be given relief. I am not a financial expert but didn’t American business start off shoring work because it is do darn expensive to do business here? Just asking.
Education
Obama is promising to put more government into the educational plan for our children. This scares and saddens me greatly. There is so much government intervention in the education of children as it is now and our kids are suffering all the more for it each year.
More and more kids are failing, getting pregnant early, dropping out and generally not getting the education they deserve. There is not enough money for schools or for quality teachers. Nor is there enough money for material for instruction. What you end up with is fewer teachers teaching more kids with less resource. And his plan involves putting kids into school even earlier than they are now.
Since when has government been responsible for teaching our kids?
Energy and environment
Renewable energy is a major buzzword in this election because of the recent spike in fuel prices. Dependance on foreign oil, environmental issues surrounding the use of fossil fuels and cost of filling up a tank have given the candidates a wonderful field of competition for votes.
Obama’s position that he will invest in alternative fuels and increase energy efficiency in America while creating new five million new “green” jobs sound wonderful. In theory. In practice there is no way to do any of this without significant government money. Money the government does not have. The only way for the goverment to get this money, outside of just printing it, is to raise taxes. Which seems oddly contrary to his plan to cut taxes. Unless he plans on having big business foot the bill for this one too.
Almost makes you want to NOT be rich, huh?
Abortion
Barack Obama, though he has evaded this question repeatedly, has finally came out and said that he supports a woman’s right to choose. In other words, he is for maintaining a woman’s right to abort an unborn child even to the extent of late term, partial birth abortions.
This does not sit right with me at all. I support a woman’s right to choose as well, just not choosing whether to abort a child. Conception starts with sex. Most anyone that has gone through an American public school knows this either through classroom education or street education so there is no excuse for getting pregnant when the number one cause of pregnancy is sex. A woman can choose to not have sex (in most cases - yes, rape and incest are edge cases but we are not talking edge cases are we?). When a woman chooses to not have sex she is in essence choosing to not be pregnant.
Abortion issue settled.
Healthcare
Universal, government supplied healthcare sounds wonderful. The big warm fuzzy gubment taking care of its peeps. But in a system where our veterans are getting screwed for medical attention I cannot imagine a universal healthcare plan doing much better for us.
Not to mention the fact that something like this would need governance and oversight, which means expense and cost. And again, Mr. Obama has said that he is going to give 95% of Americans tax cuts. So are the wealthy 5% supposed to cover this one, too? And if they are, can a brother get a little of that action up in here?
Iraq
This is a hot topic right now. It has been for the past few years. It is an ugly situation in which American men and women are getting killed by people that really hate Americans. We went into Iraq because there was cause to go into Iraq.
Now the enemy has moved into Pakistan and Obama believe that our work in Iraq is handled and we can just come home. That seems counterproductive for a few reasons. First, if we chase the enemy into Pakistan the same thing will happen there that is happening in Iraq. Then, when we are all out of Iraq the enemy will just go back there, or Afghanistan once Obama gets our troops out of there.
There is no right answer to this situation. Leaving Iraq to run to Pakistan is a monumental risk that will ultimately end up in epic failure. Just saying.
So that is it in a nutshell. I think Obama is a great orator and public speaker. He knows how to communicate to a crowd, he knows how to politic the media, he knows how to evade questions, he knows how to appear sincere. He has all the makings of a top tier elected official.
In today’s political world it is very easy to be swept up in the hoopla and hype that comes from politicians opening their mouths. Moreover, America today is vastly different than it was just a decade or two ago. The one constant we have faced over the years is change.
So I find it rather puzzling that we would be listening to a collection of politicians, some looking for the highest elected office in our land, talk about the need for change. Maybe talking isn’t the right word. Observe:
I actually found this video by way of Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. He made a stop by church today and delivered an amazing message of change and how the message of the church has always been, and continues to be, change.
Jesus was preceded by John the Baptist whose message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Jesus’ first message was the same message. And the message He gave the disciples when going out to minister was “Repent”.
However the more I look at the message of repentance that Jesus taught the more I realize that the message of change that we are seeing now is not anywhere near repent. It is more of a “Close your eyes, hold on tight and hope that if you elect a candidate of change that things may work.”
Mr. Perkins made a very good point about the message that is being “preached” to us from our politicians: change is not elected it is invoked. Change starts at home, in the heart, and can affect the world when shared in the proper manner. It is this proper manner that many Christians struggle with as they appear sometimes to take ought with people as opposed to principalities. Inasmuch as Christians are supposed to embody the compassion and love that Christ personified we have, as a collective, largely failed to do that opting instead to pick on people as opposed to the ideas that some people have that might clash with the notions of the church.
It was a lot to take in, but it was presented very well. Mr. Perkins has a way of conveying his message that makes it very easy to understand and follow. It was this gift of speech that allowed me to really take to heart what he was saying. And the more I think of what it is he was saying the more I realize that our politicians have it so wrong. There is nothing that they can do as people that will make this nation change except change their hearts in a way that makes people want to follow.
When you have something that someone else wants they will follow you to get a piece of it. And so far all of the candidates have dropped the ball in this area in my opinion.
Quite often I thank God that we live in a democracy where we, as a people, get to choose who governs us. It is somewhat empowering to know that those people that make the laws are drawn from the same pool of people who need those very laws in order to survive. Continue reading »
Thank you God. After months of campaigning, spending, collecting, slandering, complaining, misstepping, traveling, speaking and everything associated with a campaign, we can finally put the Democratic half of all that mess aside and welcome Barack Obama to the fight for the presidency against Senator John McCain.
I am so so so so so so happy. No more HRC vs BO ads. No more HRC period. That is the best thing ever.
To celebrate this momentous occasion my wife came up with the best quote ever for a campaign:
If I was a Clinton donor I would so be asking for a refund right now. Thanks Hilary.