Oh Politic Where Art Thou?.

If you weren’t paying attention to my Asides feature, you may not have noticed that me and my conservative, house-church nemesis (tongue-in-cheek) Derek got into a little tiff this weekend over some political stuff. I actually really like Derek and have gone to a movie with him, his brother, and a friend. As a complete side note, he’s been hosting a rather insightful collection of posts on some of Frank Viola’s older work over on his site that you should probably check out.

Anyway . . . he made a couple of comments in the comments (ha) that assumed I was voting for Barack. And while I have blogged about my affection and interest for the Senator (here and here) . . . I also haven’t written much here about what I think of the process and the election, outside of why I won’t give money to a campaign. I thought it might be therapeutic for me to get a few things off my chest about the whole political process.

Let me begin with what might be a bit of a surprise. I actually like John McCain the person. I definitely don’t jive with his thoughts on war. Nor do I think his rhetoric involving “enemies” is very helpful in the short or long term. But as a person . . . I think we could be friends. I find him to be honest. I find him to be fairly engaging. And I find him to be pretty straight-forward and honest. I think he has backbone and dare I say virtue, although I did make the backbone comment in the past about a current 2 term president. All that to say, I still wouldn’t vote for him. But I think I just might like him as a person. He stands up for what he believes in. But not in a creepy, twisted logic kind of way. He explains his perspectives like a gentleman. And I don’t think he’s full of BS like some of the other political candidates (Clinton, Romney, Huckabee, Edwards – hell everybody but Obama, McCain, and Paul). But again, still wouldn’t vote for him unless you paid me handsomely. He still relies to heavily on the Straussian need for an enemy.

Now to Barack Obama. I stand by my earlier statements that he might not be the most seasoned candidate for President (Hillary’s “ready from day one” rhetoric is a joke) and I might not agree with all of his policies (even if they are still in their infant stages), but I think he’s the best person for what our country needs right now. Namely, a military withdrawal from Middle East conflicts, and secondly, someone who will be diplomatic enough to repair our image across the globe and do so in non-military ways. I also think he brings about a certain energy/hope/bipartisanship that engages people who normally wouldn’t be engaged in the political process. For example, Anna is currently downloading Barack Obama wallpapers and screensavers. Seeing her face and excitement after voting in the Georgia primary gives me hope that civil engagement doesn’t have to be complicated or detached. It can affect everyday people who don’t like to read huge economic or political works. The biggest concern that I see for Obama is letting other people influence him and in turn allow his policies to evolve into a diluted down, mash-up of his cabinet or advisers, in effect a politician.

However, with all that being said, I’m growing increasingly ambivalent towards the political process. I’m not sure if it’s just in my indie jeans to dislike anything that becomes popular or if it’s something more substantial. Lydia over on the Emerging Women blog asks some interesting questions as well about these crushes that we have for Obama. I really like the guy. I voted for him in the primary, but just barely (I almost didn’t vote at all). But he’s not superman. He’s not going to save our country. Or even fix it. He is but a man. And a politician at that. To think that he’s going to fix everything is to deceive ourselves.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that a President has less and less of a real impact on the “state of the world”, although you could certainly convince me otherwise with Clinton’s NAFTA, Bush’s war mongering, and Regan’s reversal of the New Deal as evidence. I guess I just contradicted myself.

But I’m just so apathetic to this whole process at this point. Perhaps it’s the length of the contest. Perhaps it’s the insane amount of money that gets spent. Perhaps it’s what you have to become and lose in order to move forward. Perhaps it’s my tiring of reading every blog that comes into my RSS praise the golden boy from Illinois.

Perhaps it’s just that I’m afraid that we are putting way to much stock into Obama getting elected and fixing everything.

Maybe he will. What do I know?

I also think that a couple of hours of talking with Chris Haw about Thoreau, Hauerwas, Yoder, and the Amish, to name a few, has completely clouded my hope in the American political project.

In the end, I’m just not sure how relevant politics is. Or rather, how relevant we should desire to be in the political process. This is not to say that Jesus wasn’t interested in the politics of Rome. Or that he didn’t attempt to subvert Rome in his own way. But that his methods of doing so was based on an effort at irrelevancy as opposed to relevancy.

Anybody still reading my ramblings at this point?

Hmmmnn . . ..

This is what we call an ass-kicking momentum swing where I come from. 8 in a row now.

Immigration, Obama, & The Social Politics of Being Political.

Sometimes I think family is the best place to have conversations about politics. When you’re within the safe confines of your family, everyone is more willing to say what they want without fear of personal attacks.

Other times I think they are the worst place to have these types of conversations.

For those who don’t know how to use context clues, Alabama is a pretty conservative state. After all we are the state that voted “no” to the lottery on the back of the Christian populace here. Slight disclaimer, I may or may not have boycotted the lottery with picket signs during the late 90s. I can still remember those sermons about the dangers of hell coming to our front door. Good times.

The other night we went to a fish fry with my parents at their friend’s house. It was a birthday party for my dad’s friend. And to say that the company present was conservative would be an understatement. There was my parents. A Southern Baptist deacon. A retired railroad operator. A lady who worked in the regional prisoner work release program. And an insurance lady who worked in a rural hospital.

This is no exaggeration when I say that it only took 2 minutes from the time their butts hit their chairs until they started in on immigration. Ironically enough, my dad made some snide comment about Mexicans. To which the ex railroad guy transitioned to his commentary (directed towards the hospital lady) about all the Mexicans getting to have free babies and her giving away his tax money to help these Mexicans (no one ever used the term immigrants which is what our ancestors were, instead it was a slang term or Mexicans). Then the hospital lady said that we have no idea about what goes in the hospitals. Which inevitably led to health care and how the communists are gaining in power again and trying to make medicine communist (unlike our parks, libraries, roads, and other government programs that they took advantage of). Which of course led to how Barack Obama was a Muslim and raised by some Muslims and a pack of wolves in a cave.

What bothers me about all of these things is not their opinions. But rather how they came to their opinions. Nobody at that table had read a book on immigration. Nor tax reform. Nor immigration. Nor minimum wage. Instead, because they get dumped on by the government (they complained about taxes, healthcare – ironic, and retirement) they look for the only others that they are above economically. And take their aggression out on them.

It’s the classic problem. Kid A gets bullied on and picked on by his parents or older sibling. Has no voice, no power, no opportunity to express himself. Kid A goes to school and takes it out on Kid B with bullying words and fists. Kid B goes home and beats up on his brothers. And the cycle continues.

Everybody needs somebody that makes them feel better about themselves. And fear makes an excellent enemy. With these two combined, middle class Americans, instead of placing a critique properly on those above who siphon off the wealth and the bureaucracies (governmental and business) that empower it, we look for a scapegoat. Which just so happens to be Mexicans at the moment. That is of course only because we’re tired of using African Americans as projections for our frustrations.

The problem comes in for me when you try to engage people in these social situations. Their is unwritten social rule about being political . . . don’t do it unless you agree with the majority of the people who are in the room.

To have a rational discourse with anybody . . . to have intelligent conversation with someone without resorting to scapegoating or using rhetorical propaganda . . . is nearly impossible.

I mean this as no disrespect to Republicans but as broad generalization . . . the more uneducated you are . . . the more you love Bush. There was not one college diploma in that room besides my mom . . . and yet everyone extolled the praises of his politics. There was not one person who read a book about any of the issues that were discussed . . . and yet everyone extolled that politic. There was not one person who had even a cordial relationship with a Mexican or African-American . . . and yet they extolled that politic.

To be more than fair, it’s not much better for the Democrats. The more educated they are the more they like to talk and do nothing.

It just bothers me that people will listen to media spin and believe that Obama is a Muslim and was raised by al-Qaeda. Meanwhile, they won’t read his autobiography or read in of his early writings where he expresses clearly his Christian beliefs.

It bothers me that when you talk about having a local, small, natural economy you get labeled as a communist when in fact local, small, natural economies are the most conservative in nature.

It bothers me that when you talk about the immigration problem the easiest (and most unimaginative) answer is to ship them back to where they came from or as my brother put it . . . sit at the border and shoot them when they come across.

It bothers me that these lower middle class friends of mine would be such staunch, uncritical proponents of a politic that exploits them and moves money away from the bottom and towards the top.

It bothers me that when I man up and confront these contradictions and issues with sound, intelligent, informed, diverse facts . . . that an awkward silence fills the air.

Lasting only long enough for everyone to process how liberal and communist I am before they ignore facts and go back to propaganda.