politics of FEAR!

Evidently, taking a cue from this scary time of year, Republicans on the national scene are counting on politics of fear in order to right their cause. Which requires yet another political rant from me. Sorry, I'll get back to more serious topics soon, I'm sure.

Ed Charbenneau, state senator, has probably run the ugliest, most deceptive campaign I am aware of. We have received three or four negative mailers from his campaign which lead you to believe his opponent, Balmer, has been running attack ads against him. The fact is, until just yesterday, Balmer had run nothing but a positive campaign, not even mentioning Ed. This is a new low....getting the public up in arms over negative attacks that never occurred against you. Is he running scared? I don't get it, with Ed I was a toss up-it seemed he's done all right by our district, but he has lost all credibility with me......anyone who would knowingly run deceptive and misleading ads clearly hasn't the integrity to serve in public office. (this can also be applied to Mitch and mayor river city).

But hey, we Christians, we're gonna vote for those guys 'cause their republicans so they must be more moral than the dems.......I mean, just because they lie, what's that?

Speaking of mixing religion and politics. I don't know if anyone has caught the email circulating about Dobson's 2012 if Obama were president prediction letter. I got it and was absolutely sickened. This guy's gone off the deep end. I'd include some of his quotes, but I don't want to add any credence to his hate-mongering fear tactics. Shame on him, shame on him. My feeling is that he's pimping out the church for McCain votes, when only a few short months ago right wing Christians, and conservatives, were denouncing McCain for not being right enough. Politics of convenience. Not to say we shouldn't vote, but Christians should be ashamed to admit they voted for either candidate this year.

I got a mailer from the state republicans also. This was kinda funny because it said in bold print "Our values are taking a hit" and "vote your values". First of all, uh, aren't the republicans in charge of the state and presidency? So, if our values are taking a hit, I would suggest they are being undermined by our current leadership. Which, in fact, I believe they are. I don't think the GOP understands how true a statement they made on the flyer. I will be voting my values.

It's also interesting to me that McCain and now many others are talking about a balanced government-that we don't want the Dems to control every branch. Well, that didn't seem to bother them when the Republicans controlled everything. Nor does it seem to bother the state republicans.........and certainly not our county and city republicans.....to control everything. I'm taking some advice from McCain this year......we need a balance in our state and local governments!

Finally, I am in quite a political exchange on Facebook. It's a dangerous place for me really. My sister-in-law is the latest to get me going. But I've seen a lot of talk of "praying Obama out of office" and "how can a Christian vote for Obama?". You know, I'm not saying he's the answer, nor do I believe McCan is the answer for what ails our country. I do believe that Christians modeling Christ, is.....we've only ourselves to blame for the mess this country is in.

The Bible says that when the wicked rule, the people mourn....if that doesn't describe the last 8 years, I don't know what does (and Bush, I believe, probably does seek God). The Bible also says that God places people in authority over us and that we should pray for our leaders (regardless). Oh that Christians, myself included, would have been praying this whole time! Do you actually believe that God is somehow going to honor your last minute prayers against someone when you haven't bothered all along? My S-I-L got it right when she quoted scripture "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways-I will heal their land". Change begins in the church, with Christians.....WE must humble ourselves, WE must turn from our wicked ways (note: abortions are largely done by nonchristians - I offer up greed, hate, pride, self-indulgence as some of the wicked ways Christians need to turn from).

I'm sure there will be more....still a few more days before the election.