I was dumb, and America needs to know it
Blind too. I was also blind.
Sometime this week I’m going to see if Not the Bee will publish a portion of what I’m writing to you all about today. I’ll edit it and pare it down, just to make it more succinct for a wider audience. But for you guys I want to dive a little deeper and give a little more application.
I used to live for politics. I really did. It was everything to me. I believed that if we just elected the right people, supported the right causes, embraced the right movements, voted in the right ways, that we could then enact the right laws, that would effect the right changes, and bring about the happiness and prosperity we all so desperately want.
I really believed it in my soul. I was young and dumb I suppose, but I really did.
I suppose that’s what made me so excited about teaching U.S. History and government in a public high school. I could train up kids to see things the right way. I know that’s what made me start a radio show. I could use my wit and intellect to persuade people in an entertaining way to look to the right side of political conflict. I could influence the masses to see things the right way.
I was so blind. Passionate, yes. But so very, very blind.
And frankly, it makes me feel really stupid sometimes. I think back on some things that I wrote and said, and I praise God for the fact that my newspaper column appeared only in a few local papers and was far from being nationally syndicated. I’m eternally grateful that the radio station I was on wielded the transmitting power of a microwave oven, so those that heard me were greatly limited in number.
Imagine, after all, fervently demanding people swear their allegiance to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in order to reach the promised land.
Imagine telling people to believe that Sarah Palin was “Reagan in a dress,” and that her addition to the McCain presidential ticket might end up changing the course of American history.
Imagine rallying folks to show up to shout down ObamaCare advocates at Congressional townhall meetings in order to save our society.
Imagine belittling the patriotism and the heart of people who failed to see how desperately our culture needed John Boehner to wield the gavel of the U.S. House of Representatives.
So stupid. Well-intentioned, yes. But so very, very stupid.
It’s the singular message I wish I could shout to Americans from the rooftops today: “learn from my blindness, from my stupidity.”
No matter what Barack Obama tells you, there’s no “hope” to be found here.
No matter what Donald Trump says, there’s no “greatness” to be achieved this way.
No matter what Kamala Harris claims, this isn’t close to real “joy.”
I saw this absurd montage featuring so many voices in our news media, all dutifully acting as campaign surrogates for their preferred presidential and vice-presidential candidates. All I could think of as I watched it was how intense my feelings of secondhand embarrassment were on their behalf.
Click the image to play the annoying “JOY” montage…
I’d love to believe all that was just acting, that it was performance art, that they were characters being paid to play a part on TV. But I’m afraid way too many of them are believers like I was. Promoting a counterfeit joy, a cheap imitation of something so powerfully transformative – real joy – it’s shocking we humans settle so easily for impotent, worldly forgeries.
But we do.
We dedicate our energies and attitudes, base our friendships and relationships, direct our finances and investments towards fighting this futile battle for fleeting, earthly power and dominion. We do so knowing it won’t last.
Every two or four years, we pretend the fate of our society hinges on the outcome of national popularity contests, somehow forgetting that we live in a world that Nebuchadnezzar once ruled, that Augustus once dominated, that Ramses II once controlled. Those men once wielded power that left their contemporaries trembling in paralyzing fear, but that disintegrated and dissolved in the same winds of time that are blowing through our feeble institutions, grinding down our frail foundations this very hour.
Am I suggesting that our engagement in the public square, our efforts to build a more perfect union are immaterial or unnecessary? Not at all. I’m not advocating for us to abandon the great civic privilege we possess to participate in efforts to best facilitate the orderly procedure of man in a fallen world. I am saying we need to be reminded how best to do that. And for those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ, we must understand the best way to secure a better future for our posterity is to urgently campaign for the King of Kings.
Mankind needs to know He reigns eternally over whoever it is that temporarily wields the spindly scepters of earthly kingdoms. They need to know that true joy is only found in a proper fealty and adoring worship of the One who grants us access to His paradise not for any work we have done to earn it, but because of His great, unfathomable love for us. They need to know that men and women of every party, every race, every religion, every ethnicity, every language, every background will slouch towards sin, will let us down, and will prove themselves unworthy of our trust.
Yes, I will vote in November. But I will do so knowing that the answers for our people, the hope of our civilization, the greatness of our country, the joy of our souls come from a King who is not on any ballot, but who is knocking at the door of every heart. Urging men to answer that knock must be the top priority and the most urgent desire of anyone whose priorities are properly centered. That’s where my energies are now focused. I can’t fathom why anyone would choose differently.
So where do we start? Here are my initial suggestions: