Election 2010 Postmortem

First of all, I have friends that are happy, I have friends that are sad, but most have some sort of mixed reaction to the results from last night. I am proud to say that I have friends I disagree with, and that no matter where we stand on any of the issues, we can still be friends. (Just like a lot of people don’t like the fact that I am a Laker fan, but they’re still my friends, right?) However, that is the hardest thing for me to see during these election cycles, my friends, the people I love, divided over this person or that person, this proposition or that proposition. The great thing about this country is that we are free to see things differently than somebody else, but that in all reality we are a lot more alike than we are different.

“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.” -Jon Stewart

Certainly, many think that one solution is better than another, and we should be able to have a certain amount of civil discourse to discuss the merits of each other’s proposals. However, neither side is generally willing to complement some one from the other side of the aisle. Pardon my opinion that the concession speeches I hear seem utterly disingenuous. It is hard to hear that LOSING CANDIDATE wish WINNING CANDIDATE well and think that it is genuine, especially since we have heard the two candidates bash each other’s heads in with their negative advertisements for the last six months. (This is an another issue I despise, and am sad that it is the most effective strategy. Negative advertisements work, which is why they get used most often.)

I hope and pray that we as a people rise up and make this statement from then Sen. Obama ring true in our hearts.

“There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America”

If we join together and work for the welfare of all people, and we all get together and push, the United States of America will be “One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” However, if we are going to allow our partisan politics divide us, we will not progress as a nation, and will fall short of the ideals to which we cling.

As for me, I will pray for these leaders. Not that they personally succeed or fail, but that we as a nation are able to bring hope to those that lack hope or options, and that we as a nation succeed together, not by standing on the backs of others. I truly believe that a non-zero sum is possible, and that through honest leadership, and the leading of the Holy Spirit, we will be blessed. I am not going to wait until my team wins to pray, I am not going to bicker, I am not going speak poorly of my leaders, but I will pray, I will fight for truth, and through it all I will strive to be a voice for the Kingdom of God in this place.