November 11, 2012 - 12:47 pm
A quote from Sarah Hoyt:
[W]hen people like me stay quiet, when for our self-interest and because the loony left are vindictive harpies (particularly the men) as fond of free speech as your average brown shirt, we allow the other side to define us. As we saw in [a] stunningly clueless comment yesterday, they’ll decide it’s all race, or that we want to control their ladyparts, because that’s the screams from the other side, who would much rather you don’t look at their record, or, OMG Benghazi.
Read it all.
This is not a threadjack, it is related.
Let us state, for point of argument, that demographics are against us. Let us also state, for argument, that much of that change has its base in fraud, deceit, and deliberate illegality. Then which of the two is nobler:
Being willing, if needs be, to abandon principal because under the current system we can no longer win election?
Being willing, if needs be, to abandon system because under the current demographics we can no longer adhere to principal?
Upon the answer to the above question–which is better, more noble, more American?–does much depend.
I had rather abandon the current two party system in favor of transitory coalitions and adhere to principle.
What are you even talking about? There is more than one principle to examine and the issues are much more complex than you make them out to be. To try to distill it down to one principle is to belie your lack of ability to examine issues currently facing all Americans, not just you in your little, narrow world view.
#1 Anonymous
Well stated, and that is the question that is upon us. With perhaps an accessory question as to where the boundaries for being a countryman in this depraved day.
There is a saying, “Beware the anger of a patient man.”
Subotai Bahadur
Countryman implies mutual obligations–I do this because we both agree it is expected, but you yourself must do other things that are expected. When it becomes a system of one-sided obligations–I meet my obligations, you do as you please–then the idea of being fellow countrymen is a farce.
Why? Are you gonna go and git yer gun and shoot all libruls?
If you are not a believing Christian then this does NOT apply to you and you can ignore it.
If you are a believing Christian, why do you waste your efforts trying to save a nation – especially one that has made it crystal clear that your values have less worth that dog dung?
You are commanded to spend your efforts to try to bring other people to the Lord. Let them burn it down and wreck everything. This world belongs to the devil and we can take glory from being persecuted by the sick and demented and trying to prevent the destruction of America is as much a folly as Christians trying to save Rome verses saving souls. We are NOT supposed to help evil along, but, let it go, let it die … it is in God’s hands anyway.
The sooner the world falls into darkness and suffering due to the sins of mankind the sooner the Lord will return to redeem the good and punish the evil. In trying to save America you are really trying stop the Lord’s will. Let it go and work for the King … not for a prince.
Looked at from a different historical perspective, Christians DID save Rome. The Empire lasted for almost another millennium in the East, and the Western rump held on in one form or another, even when only symbolic as the papal seat, into the 20th century (ultimately disappearing only with the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian empire).
Lots of Christians voted for Barack Obama. Didn’t you read the part of the Bible that tells you “The love of money is the root of ALL evil?”
I don’t know how you could possibly have voted for Mitt Romney and call yourself a Christian.
My duty as a Christian AND as a citizen is not always so clear as some claimants would suggest. In telling us to “turn the other cheek” our master did not say we are to abandon the innocent to be slaughtered and brutalized by monsters. Yes, the stories that made a deep impression on me as a kid were those of Jews and Christians who when ordered by tyrants to renounce their faith or die, refused to comply. They accepted their torment and death with joyful song and praise for their God. Jesus walked unresisting to his scourging and crucifixion not meekly but in fulfillment of his purpose to show us we have a destiny that dwarfs the trials and hurts of this life.
Admiral Jeremiah Denton tells of one particular moment during his years in the Hanoi Hilton after prolonged torture when he felt God in his life. In the middle of a rigorous session, he describes a moment when he felt completely at peace, embraced in a loving presence. In the documentary video “Return with Honor” he tells of looking into the eyes of the North Vietnamese soldier tasked with breaking his body and if he could, his spirit. He said the soldier suddenly realized he was facing a man who was beyond his powers. He began to cry and left the chamber.
Seems like Admiral Denton’s suffering and transcendence – by the grace of God – at that moment played out in a way to reach into one person’s heart. It’s personal, Creator to each individual. Maybe I’m over-simplifying, but the resistance I understand there goes far beyond military necessity
Jesus did not abandon or avoid criminals, adulterers, harlots, those who had despaired. He went among them and carried the message of God’s love to any who would listen. Seems to me the charge he left for his followers included the message to do likewise, not withdraw to a separate place and sneer with contempt on the others.
Well, detailed knowledge of God’s plan is not known to me. I can’t see the big picture like some people seem to. But I believe we have a continuing obligation actively to thwart evil and stand in resistance to those who would do evil to the weak and unprotected.
Excellent, excellent.
Your account of that tortured man is much like what dark-skinned people have endured in this country, the United States. From your post: “Admiral Jeremiah Denton tells of one particular moment during his years in the Hanoi Hilton after prolonged torture when he felt God in his life. In the middle of a rigorous session, he describes a moment when he felt completely at peace, embraced in a loving presence. ” Do you not think that Barack Obama has had such moments? (I happen to be white, middle class.) And now we have a president who has dark skin. Those with dark skin have endured discrimination and torture and anguish visited upon them in this nation’s history by people who claim to follow Jesus. President Obama wants to see the middle class survive and thrive. Mitt Romney wants to profit and envisions a nation of workers not unlike China…..where he boasted about a factory he bought where young women worked long hours for a pittance (his words) and slept twelve to a room, sharing one bathroom at the end of the room, and the facility had barbed wire around the perimeter. That is Mitt Romney’s vision for America. To enrich the powerful on the backs of the working class. It really is too bad that you don’t see it. He stated as much and it was caught on video.
Some interesting comments above that shows why conservatives lose the big ones and have done so since the early 1900′s 9especially #3 & 4 above).
THINK: Hegel in the 1880s IvyLeague academia, Dewey in 1920s education circles (and more so, Horace Mann in 1850s Massachusetts), Foucault, Lyotard, Derrida, Rorty in the 1950s.
When you understand that the problem is cultural (philosophic), rather than political, you might just formulate a plan turn around the country. Until then, pop-culture will be the rule in the national elections.
“Until then, pop-culture will be the rule in the national elections.”
Another excellent point.
I’ve been asking myself what I think is a related question: I have an allegiance
to the Republic–but as of Tuesday night, I am of the opinion that the Republic has passed away, as extinguished as the Roman Republic; what obligation or allegiance do I have to what is the equivalent of a foreign country?
Charlie: Kudos and a large thank you for Sarah’s small rant. Her diary and links she provided were most educational,and uplifting to yours truly. Also, they steered me to the Monster Hunter author L. Corriera, and he is now bookmarked in perpetuity.
…..again, Thank You, From waayyy down here: Deep inside myself.
Right now it’s a rainy day, but it doesn’t seem so depressing, somehow……..