 |
| Z Richards |
When I was in my 20s, and somewhat of an activist on various issues, pushing political campaigns, and whatever the latest flavor of "religious conservatism" that was being offered at the time (after having decided I wasn't a very good Democrat and opted for Reagan's Republicanism if spurred even initially --and maybe shallowly--by the fact that the guy knew Bible verses and didnt use them out of context).... But I finally had my fill and gave it up altogether at one point and just concentrated on living. I left South Dakota and headed to Colorado with nothing more than what I could fit in my Buick and worked on my career. Some of it fueled by just a need to get away from the rut I had gotten into in South Dakota (mired in politics), but maybe somewhat fueled by a life long plague of actually being "Bi-Polar". (I mention that here because it is an issue that has affected a large part of my life, but it's for another discussion at another time...and as "the devil is in the details," I dont have time nor would it really be on subject to relate all the details right now )
But I digress. After Colorado I went to Omaha and then Kansas City (Independence, Mo to be exact) but still my political involvement was limited to what I read in the paper and an occasional letter to the editor.
Then Sept 11, 2001 happened and I just had this awful gut feeling that things were going to change.
It was slow, but also fast, as the climates changed in the powers at large and claiming to be in charge, though I never thought for a minute that they had the final say in anything as that has belonged to God from the beginning and He will never relinquish it. The left became more left and the right became more right........and though that "religious right" I remembered from the 80s was still there, it wasn't as prominent as it was before.........but the second election of George Bush made it clear it was still there. The pollsters were so certain that John Kerry was going to win that election, but they failed to account for the "faithful" who showed up to the polls in record numbers to vote against many state amendments to oppose same sex marriage...and Bush just happened to be on the ballot also. That's my observation about that and I am sticking to it. Not that Bush wasn't OK, but he was no Reagan, and in my mind was just more conservative then his dad.......but I was glad he won, and Kerry didn't....but clearly, God decided. But mainly I was glad that "Christian" majority was out there...if even under the radar.
In recent years, with the advent of social media, a political climates have changed. But quite frankly the rights and the lefts are beginning to be blurred as it seems they have one thing and one thing only as a common goal: Get reelected. There are many exceptions to that rule, but they are far outnumbered by the "Lets Get Reelected" crowd. As for me, if I am anything, I am just a watcher. I watch cultural trends. In short: I watch the powers. They dont sway so much back and forth from Republican to Democrat as they do on the wave of a finally crafted "phrase." Lots of Semantics. Lots of sound bytes. The actual subject is usually lost....but that doesn't stop people from sounding their "bytes."
I came across an article today that was written back in about 2007 that kind of capsulized, if even just for now, my thoughts and realize I'm may get lost sometimes, but I ain't that lost :
The author wrote:
- .............Conservatives are often lamented as incorrigible pessimists, as crabbed and bitter old men whose only solace in a crumbling world is to wail against the iniquities of their age, like the prophets of old. It is a mistake for the observer to suppose this. Sure, there have been and still are some of these sad and romantic figures; but they are rare even in Conservative ranks. In truth most Conservatives are grateful men; and the misjudgment of them (when it is not borne of simple mistrust and malice) derives from an overestimate of the importance of politics. The Conservative often has, admittedly, a low opinion of politics, especially modern politics with its feverish Rationalism; but only with men whose estimate of the importance of politics is wildly inflated could this admission lead naturally to the conclusion that the Conservative has a low opinion of life. The Conservative, in other words, may indeed be deeply pessimistic about politics, may indeed be given to the suspicion that politics in a democracy often resolves itself into authorized plunder and choreographed vandalism; but he is certainly not so morbid an optimist as to imagine that politics is life.
- The Conservative, it must be remembered, does not despise but rather honors and cherishes tradition, custom, habit, even prejudice — all constituents of, if you will, non-political life. He has not forgotten Chesterton’s aphorism that tradition is the “democracy of the dead,” which gives votes to “the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors” and “refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who just happen to be walking about.” He is firmly opposed to the strange modern compulsion to drag every principle or institution we have inherited before the tribunal of a narrow rationalism and lay out an indictment against it.
In short..leave it alone and they wont hear from me. Mess with something thats not broken and I am forced to play.
