02 September 2008

Barney Smith, or Smith-Barney

Many people have been asking me if I watched the Democratic National Convention, what I thought of Obama's speech, what I think of McCain's VP choice and whether or not I believe Obama to be the antichrist. So, here's my political rundown.....as if you care what I, the average middle-class, middle-aged unemployed white guy father of two, cynical disenfranchised christian voter, thinks.

Honestly, I don't remember much about Obama's speech. It was for-par for him, the only thing I remember was his call for finding common ground on issues of abortion and gay rights. I'm not sure why that stuck out to me, other than these are really the core issues creating a "christian" republican party. He delivers an excellent speech, and seems genuine in what he says. This he has all over McCain......but we shall see.

Regarding famous moments of the DNConvention, leave it to a Hoosier to steal the show. And not just any Hoosier-not Roemer or Bayh, but, yes, Barney Smith. And he was the epitome of Hoosier. In case you missed it-Barney, a now unemployed factory worker in Marion, Indiana, got his 10 minutes of fame by addressing the crowd. It seemed like he struggled through his speech, evidently proof of Indiana's sliding position in education, to get out the message that he had lost his job to cheap Chinese labor (thanks WalMart). Proof of an economic system in shambles, much to the chagrin of Bush and his former budget advisor........Mitch Daniels. Yes, I meant to say "system" because I believe our poor economic situation is not really a result of people having less money to spend, but rather the effects of a shabbily built economy on service jobs and corporate greed.........but that's a story for another time. So, back to Barney Smith....he concludes his speech by saying America needs a president more interested in Barney Smith than Smith-Barney. Sweet! Barney for President!

The DNConvention quickly took a back seat to McCain's choice for VP. Governor Palin, a young woman from Alaska, seems to fit the bill in terms of strategy for the McCain ticket......but she certainly doesn't bring a great deal of experience or confidence to the ticket. She seems like a smart woman, don't get me wrong.....but ready to be president? Much less so than the critics of Obama want you to believe about him. The selection was strategy, nothing more than that. But I don't believe it will really result in a heavy move of voters to the republican ticket. At best, it will shore up the pro-life vote among women for the party. I didn't see a strong migration to the D camp in that anyway.

Now, some of you know exactly what I'm talking about when I referred to Obama being thought to be the anti-christ. My own mother had this conversation with my wife, and I've heard it mentioned in other circles as well. When I first heard it, I just rolled my eyes. First of all, these people promoting this kind of thought are nothing more than fear mongers, trying to instill a sort of gravity to this election as to call to arms the right wing in Christ (wow, that's an interesting and loaded term, I'll have to dissect that sometime). Should we be so bold as to think that the anti-christ is going to come out of america......I have some thoughts. The Bible says that he will deceive many, leaving the faith. Well, many fundamentalists already believe the Democratic party IS the devil, so I doubt the anti-christ will be a Democrat. More likely, I believe he'll be a republican........one who will swoon christians into believing that through him morality will be restored to our government and to our land. Then, christians will march in droves saying "vote for this guy" televangelists will tell their followers to "vote for this guy" and from pulpits, pastors will say "vote for this guy". And once this guy wins, we would see him re neg on his promises of ethics and begin to turn over the control of our country to "the beast", which, if I understand scripture correctly......will be all about controlling the financial markets....even more of a reason to believe he could be a republican!


But, two good things should this silly idea of Obama being the anti-christ be true. 1) fundamentalists no longer have to fear catholics! and 2) even so, come lord Jesus.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So why are fundamentalist so determined to "pin" someone or thing with the Anti-Christ label??? If you have been living a "born again" life there should be nothing to fear...heaven awaits!! You and your readers may not like this but someone is hiding bigotry behind this "fear".

hoosier reborn said...

the Bible says to be aware of the times in which we are living. I think trying to guess who is the antichrist or a date for the return of christ is foolish. And I agree wholly that much of this stems from bigotry.

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