Eight Years Later

I bet the George W. Bush administration did a lot of their transition to the White House with paperwork and fax machines.  Newspapers were giving us the latest details on what was happening, and the cable channels were finally emerging as important sources of information once the morning paper had been read during breakfast.

Now look where we are: constant blogging, a media swarm, the death of the newspaper, the ubiquity of cable news.  And now, eight years later, this: Change.gov

All the transition information right at your fingertips.  Impressive website.  The Obama team had such good design taste this whole election cycle.  McCain’s was pathetic until the Republican National Convention, and a remarkable improvement was made to put the McCain website on par with Obama’s site.  Yet McCain’s campaign ceded the branding and logo design to the Obama campaign.  People resonated with Obama’s branding because it looked cool.  And now the Change site takes it to a whole new level.  It’s so professional.  Wonder if I can make a Wordpress theme that looks like that…

The Illogic of Obama Fear

or “If you are truly scared then start acting like it”

I am not going to drum up support for Obama here.  Thomas Turner never endorses anyone, except for one huge exception, to paraphrase Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush and Shane Claiborne (talk about a mashup).

What I do want to do is lay the cards out on the table and say “don’t act angry and scared.”  And if you answer back, “no, I truly am!”  Then I reply, “well, start acting like it.”

It’s illogical to bemoan a socialist “USSA,” modeled after the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, to start calling people comrade and stuff of this nature.  If you were really, truly, and fervently scared of a reincarnation of Stalinist regimes in the USA then you wouldn’t be saying anything.  Not one word.  Not one phrase.  Not one syllable.

Because you know what happened to people that talked bad about Stalin, socialism, and didn’t say comrade?  They were killed.  Massacred.  If lucky, sent off to Siberia.

So if you truly are scared:

A) Don’t say anything bad about Obama on the phone because we already know the NSA and other security organizations have the legal right to listen into America calls.

B) Don’t write anything bad about Obama on the Internet, because once something is on the Internet it is always on the Internet.

C) Don’t say or write anything bad about socialism, good about capitalism, or forget to address people as Comrade because that one will come find you.

Okay, I jest…but seriously, the illogic of Obama fear is that we are using the freedom we have to speak about the freedom we will supposedly lose.  So every time you complain about Obama or cry out in fear remember that in your very utterance you testify against this fact.

Okay, this may appear a bit cynical.  I am tired of Bush hating and Obama hating precisely because the issues are so complex, so intertwined, so large that it is foolish to pass judgment without time to ponder, consider, and articulate.  This is why the movie W is not going to pass historical muster, because there has not been long enough in time to even begin to pass historical judgment on what really went on in the Bush administration.  We barely understand the full ramifications of the Clinton years yet.

So be patient.  Be happy (maybe not about Obama, but that you don’t have to live in fear if you don’t want to).  Celebrate (maybe not about Obama, but that you still live in freedom and without fear).  Play in the leaves.  And be content that it is illogical to fear a future we do not yet know or realize, for we have nothing to fear about fear itself.

Elections and the New Urbanism

The best thing to come about in this election, as a reflection of greater cultural trends, is the giving of space to food and living and the removal of space from the clutter of consumerism.  Though I am not a Californian I am greatly excited by the passing of Prop 2, which creates a new state statute that prohibits the confinement of farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs (Ballotpedia).  Chickens are getting more room, being treated more fairly, and more humanely, which makes happy and health chickens that lay better eggs (just ask Joe Salatin).

In the New York Times today an article on “The Return of the Root Cellar” highlights one of my prospective projects for next year.  I stored some tomato sauce and salsa this year but it’s mostly run out already.  Next year I want to stash vegetables and fruit all over my basement!  Get rid of the clutter of consumerism in your garage or basement and start saving food and eating healthier!

Reflections After Early Morning Voting

I cast my ballot at 6:15am this morning. I was groggy enough to not even realize that there were two ballot questions on the New Jersey ballot. Oh well.
I spread the wealth this morning and voted for potential officials in three different parties.
There were no lines, no fuss, no worries. Just a bunch of cranky old women in the morning, a happy Hispanic woman who guided me to my booth, and a lonely man who had been assigned the task of counting emergency ballots at the behest of the crank-in-charge.
My voting place is at the 3rd St. Volunteer Fire Department and I live on 2nd St. so it takes about two minutes to walk between my house and the polls. I didn’t notice much on my way to the voting booth, no one was outside yet, but on my way back I noticed ome McCain and Obama signs. That’s when it hit me how we propogate and sometimes overwhelmingly support people we really know little about. We convince ourselves voting records and biographical sketches supply us with enough information to make a good decision but in that moment of seeing signs in the lawns of people who have only seen a candidate on TV, or at best at a rally, it hit me that we don’t really know these people. Knowing incompasses actually meeting, conversing, living in fellowship with a person. Unless you have enough money or clout to hang with the likes of McCain or Obama you end up making a decision based on the information the media and the respective campaigns give you.

For both theological (explained here) and philosophical reasons I think we need to reflect on voting as a best guess, a vote that in reality will do little to influence the political climate of the coming four to eight years.  George W. Bush campaigned eight years ago as a compassionate conservative and through dramatic political events over eight years his administration has been characterized by big-government, debt, big spending, and incompetency.  No one would have guessed that.

We like to make politicians static and stamp them in history as unchanging persons.  They are people, just like you and me, who change their views and ideas about politics as well as sports, food, cars, and movies.  In normal life it everyone is encouraged to have an open mind and make decisions after careful thought and be open to changing one’s mind.  Being open to change is an important part of a person’s mature character, so say pastors, counselors, and psychologists.  Yet when we speak about politicians changing their minds we call them flip-floppers and crucify them.

Whoever wins today will not be carrying out their complete plans for government.  No president ever gets that opportunity.  They may even change their views on government.  They may have held on to those views all along but had their message massaged by dozens of aides, staff, and media-folk.  We don’t know.

We don’t know because we don’t know them.

So relax.  It’ll be alright.  Paul tells us to not worry about tomorrow.  So don’t!  Live for today, becuase we never know what will happen tomorrow in our own lives

Fun With Political Cartoons

Someone at work sent me this cartoon and I created the other version below it.  Must be bipartisan about these sorts of things!

My Thoughts On the 2nd Debate

Not much here because not a whole lot was said.

It’s October, and I am afraid debate has simply flew out the window.  What was aired last night was a mixture of vague puffed-up rhetoric, relentless talking points, answers that didn’t correspond to the questions, and policy that was conveyed in such general ways that it’s hard for any of it to sound bad.

I don’t think there was any substance to the debates last night.  That being said, Obama definitely trounced McCain.  Why?  Because when their is no substance we must fall back on secondary criteria to judge, and the next criteria that is evident is performance and rhetoric.  I think Obama comes off as being far more persuasive, deliberate, and personal than McCain does.  Tonight I think they were pretty even on deliberateness, even though they were being deliberate about sound bytes and generalities.  What really seperated the candidates tonight, and what will clearly make Obama the winner of last night’s debate, is meanness and anger.  McCain is angry and mean.  He is contemptuous and a blow-hard.  He has disdain for Obama that you can see and that turns people off, methinks.

Essential Weekend Reading

This should be must reading for the weekend.  I certainly will be reading all of it:

Q&A with Dave Ramsey on the Economic Bailout.  This Christianity Today article has cemented my respect for Dave Ramsey.

Top 11 Excuses John McCain Could’ve Used to Get Out of Debate.  These are all super funny.  Culture11 is the best site for snarky, young, and rational conservatives.  This is like Crunchy Con mixed with The Daily Dish.  No Religious Right or ignorant rhetoric to be found there!

McLaren Emerging and The Ironic Faith of Emergents by Scot McKnight.  McKnight has a two’fer in Christianity Today.

A Canadian Look at American Politics

James K.A. Smith presents a look at American politics from a Canadian perspective:

Take, for instance, the shape of federal politics: an American presidential campaign is basically 2 years long. In short, an elected president is just barely halfway through his term before he needs to begin campaigning for re-election, kicking into gear a massive PR machine that will run for two years, eating up unbelievable amounts of time and money. In contrast, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper just announced that Canada will have a federal election this fall–October 14, as a matter of fact. While the American press is focused on the “60-day homestretch” of the years-long American presidential campaign, the Canadian federal election will be announced, contested, and resolved in 38 days–total! And, of course, as a parliamentary system, the election is not so completely fixated on the election of a chief executive. In fact, Canadians can’t select who will be Prime Minister; instead, they vote for members of parliament whose party they believe will best lead the country. (In fact, if the party leader–say, Harper–fails to win the seat in his riding, he can’t be prime minister.) (Permalink)

I think this points to the idiocracy of American politics. We must remember that we were the first version of the democratic republic, and that we should be humble enough to admit that the system has begun to burst at the seams and show it’s holes. We can’t put new wine in old wineskins anymore. Time for a change. Or for all of us to move to Canada.

Robert Frost Prophesies of Dr. Strangelove

With him the love of country means
Blowing it all to smithereens
And having it all made over new.

—Robert Frost, “A Case for Jefferson”

The Cool Green Party Platform

I am a really big Wendell Berry fan. I am delivering a paper at the Fordham Graduate English Conference in October on “Wendell Berry’s Poetic Against Industrial Agriculture.”

My political views on my Facebook, instead of the usual Conservative, Liberal, Moderate variety, are: Local Economies, Agrarianism, Micro-capitalism, Post-Colonialism, Pacifism, and Fair Trade.

I have found it hard to label myself a particular persuasion. As I read from the Anabaptist tradition I found myself drastically changing my political outlook and the reason I was political. Most people are political for their advantage…that’s why so many demographic categories swing one way or the other, because one candidate will help them reach their goals more than the other one.

I no longer see my vote as an endorsement of a candidate. It’s a contract. In a political environment that doesn’t include Jesus, choosing a candidate or platform is always the lesser of two evils scenario.

I am not endorsing the Green Party here, for I say along with Shane Claiborne: “I want to be an adviser to every politico that asks, and an endorser of no one but Jesus.” But I will say this, the Green Party Platform is cool. Here are the 10 Key Values of the Green Party: