I normally will write about my prayers at my other blog, but tonight I would like to share this one right here. I am at a loss. While the neo-con GOP has done so much to destroy the very foundation of this country it is just indicative of the larger problem. A true democracy cannot rest upon the back of a two party system. It's easy to say, "oh, the democrats can save us." Or "we just need to get those evil republicans out and everything will be better." It won't.
This country will remain sharply polarized as long as we depend on one of two groups to represent us. They can't possibly represent us. Changing campaign finance laws is only a band-aid - ultimately the only thing that will get the corporations out of government for good is to break free of the republicratic system of government. Voting against the "other" guy does not put our interests into the political mind. It is not going to "save" America. This country has survived this long in spite of the system not because of it. To go on this way is to invite the kind of crap that Bush and his puppet-masters have rammed down our throats to arise again and again. We will never get past it until we decide we've had enough.
We must support, not only support but push into the light independents. We need to come out and run for office. We must demand campaign finance reform and demand that the courts enforce it. This is our country - we need to act like it. Instead of voting for a candidate because he espouses a belief in one or two issues we believe in we need to find people who believe in more of what we do and demand they fight for laws accordingly.
The corporations do not vote these candidates in - we do. We must demand accountability. I agree with a lot of different people on a lot of issues but I know very few whom I agree with everything. When our politicians feel that way we need to tell them how to vote. When we become distracted, allow smoke to be blown in our faces we need to take the time to sift through it and find out what's really happening. When our politicians are going to make decisions we need to tell them what we want those decisions to be.
We are on the brink of losing our nation altogether - there are people in power right now who want to keep us stupid. They don't want us to think, they don't want our opinions. They want us to trust them, allow them to decide everything for us. They are using fear to take away our freedoms, they are using wedge issues to divide and weaken us. And they are winning.
My prayer for this country, tonight, is simple. "Dear Lord, please give me the words, give my friends the words, allow their Gods or lack thereof to loosen their tongues that together we can make this a great nation. Lord we are divided, on some things we always will be, but open us up, bring us together that we might fight for our country. The man who calls himself president told us that we must fight them over there so we won't have t fight them here - show us that the fight is here and has been all along. Lord help us fight for the right to all be represented here, allow all our voices to be heard. Let us all make clear that we will not go silently into the night, to be ruled by an elite few, to be cattle. We are human, we have dignity, we are equal in your eyes, let us be equal in every eye. Dear Lord, I am afraid. Help me rise above my fear, to be a man, to demand my rights, and the rights of everyone. It is my prayer Lord, that you would light a fire in the hearts of this nation, our hearts, that we might take this nation back. In your son's holy name I pray this, Amen. . ."
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5 comments:
I'm right there with you.
On Christmas Eve, my hard right-wing brother-in-law told me he hated me.
:(
Not joking either. (But, a little under the influence--)
I'm trying to make sense of that remark -- I don't want hate to dominate. I don't want family members to go after each other -- defending people that have no desire at all to defend us.
Thanks for the link/email.
Hope you had a Merry Christmas.
Bluegirl, It is depressing when I hear that sort of thing. At least the righties in my family just ignore me on the rare occasions we come together. Of course most of my family has opposing views on politics - get 5 of us together and you'll have 9 different opinions about a subject.
DeeJay, The problem with the two party system is that both parties are fragmented. The GOP just generaly has a touch more party loyalty than the Democrats. They often go contrary to their beliefs for "the good of the party" whereas I think more dems can't get away with that and satisfy their constituents. I think that we are already seeing the same backlash among republicans - they see their guy voting the party line when they (the constituents) disagree and their going to get voted out. If these morons would drop the party line and vote for their constituents the pendulum would stop swinging and we could enjoy honest democracy in this country. Keep in mind that the repubs have alienated the nation in a big way - they are going to lose congress shortly. The problem I have with it is that if the dems coalesce they're just going to get knocked off in a couple of years and the cycle begins again. Have you noticed that the country is in it's best shape when we have a congress opposing the president? Think how much better it would be if they all had really opposing views here and there? It would certainly slow down legislation but the results would be stupendous. And even better, what is happening now, would never happen again.
Make no mistake there are just as many parties under the repubs they just had to form a broad coalition to get where they are, and some of that may break when the Supreme Court looks into DeLay's redistricting of Texas. But even short of that the GOP's in shambles and they won't quickly recover. So are the dems as it stands which is why I hope to see an upsurge in indeependents this mid-term, they actually have a pretty good chance of increasing their presence, be aware though that a lot of them will be conservatives, but they will likely be old school conservatives which isn't all bad. Conservative means slow to change, except when there's a mess to clean up which we sure as hell have now.
You have your prayer all wrong, Duwayne. It doesn't matter how many political parties there are, as long as they don't listen to each other and cooperate, our country will decline. United we stand, divided we fall. You want people to speak up? Hell, most don't even go to VOTE let alone call or write their representatives when they want their voice heard. How about praying for people to start doing THAT instead?
Beth - with 2 parties this country will continue to be divided. It will always be us or them with no in between. The pendulum will swing back and forth and never reflect the will of the people who do bother to vote. I first voted in the 2000 election. Before that I hadn't seen a candidate I cold get behind. I voted in 2004, against bush - something I regret. I wish I hadn't voted for president because even among the independents there were no reasonable candidates. I realize that most people who don't vote don't because they're lazy but I know a lot of people who don't vote because they refuse to vote for someone they don't believe in. Personaly I think that people who are too lazy to vote are likely too lazy to learn about those they are voting for and are of no use in the body politic anyways.
For the record I am not pushing a multi-party system - I am pushing for independents. I am not saying parties are necc. all bad but political parties have a way of making voters lazy, and ultimately under-represented. I believe people need to vote for the candidate not a party. It would make it easier for politicians to get along and commit to a stance on each issue individualy rather than committing themselves to voting the same as these people on every issue. They would also be beholden to their constituents rather than their party line.
Even with a lot of parties though, they will have to listen to each other to get anything done. Now they just have to follow the party line and which ever party's in power wins. You can not make two parties listen, you have to make many parties listen - otherwise nothing would get done. In many countries that have multi-party or indees they have to form broad coalitions and those coalitions change with the issues being discussed - thus creating truly representative government. It's not perfect, bullshit still happens but the people are far more effectively represented.
My ultimate question for you; When was the last time you saw anyone running for office on a platform you agreed with across the board? Do you agree with everything that those whom you voted for have done and said? I realize that you will probably never find someone who agrees with everything but wouldn't it be marvelous to vote for someone who agreed with most of what you believe in?
My prayer is not wrong. This country is broken, the system is flawed and if it doesn't change we will never be represented, we will slip quietly in irrelevance. We are nearly there now. The world doesn't trust us, our middle class is slipping into poverty, our middle class jobs are being outsourced to other countries, our health care system is in a shambles, our people are moving into starvation and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. This is NOT the result of the neo-con agenda - this is a result of policies of both the dems and the repubs. Our system is broken and the republicrats refuse to fix it - it is time to throw the s-o-b's out before it's too late - if it's not already.
How interesting. I googled aprayer for this country and yet found the opposite political views that I hold being represented.
The evil is not corporations for they shall not be in line on judgment day.
You rightfully say the system is broken, amnd complain about polarization but blame the GOP when it is the Democratic party that has set us into divisions for power purposes. It has put into special interest groups at the expense of the nation, the blacks, the feminists, the gays, unions, anti-defense, anti-constitutionalists,pro big government(Caesar)anti-life, anti-law,anti-family (now the village)etc.
This democratic primary merely exposed the contradictions of the various groups seeking power. Feminists against blacks etc.
As I say, interesting
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