Fish or Cut Bait

I am registered to vote as a Republican.  There are several reasons, but these are the two most important.  The biggest reason I “align” with the Republican Party is that its platform and candidates for office match my values as a Christian and a Conservative more closely than any of the other alternatives.  A secondary consideration is that I live in Southwest Idaho, which is predominantly Republican.  If you want a voice about who is going to be elected, you must vote in the Republican primary.  If you vote in the Democratic primary you may get to help pick the Democratic candidates, but in most cases, they will not be the candidates that are elected. 

Occasionally, I send the Republican Party a small financial contribution.  I am caring for a disabled wife, and I am not able to do volunteer work.  We are “retired and on a fixed income,” so we cannot give very much.  It is like the Biblical story of the Widow’s Mite in Luke 21:1-4.  What we give comes out of what we have to live on.  They send me cards that say I am a party member, although I never asked to be. 

We elect U.S. Congressional Representatives every two years, a President every four years, and U.S. Senators every six years.  During the time before each election, the candidates and the political pundits on the news programs tell us that, “This election is the most important election in history.”  We are given to believe that the future of the United States, and even our very existence as a nation, rests on the outcome of that very election. 

We are told that the opposition party will destroy the country, provoke World War III, and turn our government from a democracy into a totalitarian dictatorship - or at least into an oligarchy.  We are urged to elect Republicans, or Democrats as the case may be, in order to save the country from the forces of evil on the other political side. 

The need for the cable news program “hosts” to have something interesting to talk about for 24 hours a day, seven days a week encourages exaggerated rhetoric that is dividing our people in ways they might never have dreamed possible before the Vietnam War.  Our enemies fund extremist groups that exploit our divisions by organizing “peaceful” demonstrations that somehow always become violent. 

Like Chicken Little, we become convinced that the sky is falling.  Stimulated by political deceptions, our angst overrides our common sense. 

Without giving sway to panic, I honestly believe that the Democrats have gone off the rails.  I think that in some weird, misguided effort to remake America into a Socialist society, their policies put our future at risk.  We Republican voters elect our fellow Republicans to national office because we want them to stop the Democrats from destroying the American way of life. 

After they are elected, however, the Republicans squander the opportunities we give them to restore sanity to our government.  Rather than fixing the problems, or at least preventing the Democrats from doing more harm, the Republicans spend their time and energy devouring each other. 

I am imploring all Republicans to hang together like the Democrats do.  Find common ground, and then honor the agreements that were made to achieve consensus.  When you do the public’s business, present a united front.  It is time for Republicans to fish or cut bait.