“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isa 1:18
We are entering a very interesting time in American politics and culture.
We are clearly in one of the most serious crises in the last fifty years. We are fighting two wars. Our economy is teetering on the brink of collapse. Our environment is close to the point of no return as global temperatures rise. We remain in the cross hairs of a loose coalition of international terrorists. China, India, and Russia are all challenging us economically, militarily, and scientifically for world leadership.
So what do we choose to do?
We elect a young inexperienced liberal African American politician.
How can this make sense in this time of greatest need?
How can we trust someone who is solidly Pro-Choice?
How can we trust someone who is clearly liberal (or maybe even socialist) to the point of being willing to “associate” with folks like Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright, and Saul Alinsky?
Or isn’t even an American citizen?
How can we trust someone who learned his politics Chicago-style at the feet of Emil Jones?
How can we trust someone who represents all we fear – uppity disrespectful black folks?
There are people all across this country right now asking all of these questions and worse.
Here are some of the explanations that I’ve heard and read.
It must have been those young voters who are so easily misled.
It must have been those black folks who couldn’t see beyond race.
It must have been all that money from questionable sources that Obama spent on his campaign.
It must have been Bush.
It must have been the economy.
It is remarkable that people who claimed that President Bush had a mandate and a mission from God, now reject President-Elect Obama who received more votes than President Bush ever did.
The bottom line is that the voting public has rejected the politics of division. They have rejected the politics of bigotry. They have rejected the politics of character assassination.
The problem, though, is that the scorched earth campaign run by the Republicans has left a lot of people with very distorted views.
It will be interesting to see how President-Elect Obama deals with the skepticism and outright hostility towards his presidency that currently exists in this country.
Hopefully it is an opportunity, like the silted stream, to stir up all of the buried issues and bring them to the surface. It looks muddy now, but that is only so that the mud can be washed away leaving a clean stream where a polluted one had been.
We have to find a way to reason together as a one country and one people again. That isn’t to say that we give up our ideals, but rather agree that the survival of our country should be a goal we can all rally around.