The Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention are officially over. For my politically-minded friends, this is a very exciting time. The 2016 Presidential Campaigns now officially begin with the two major party candidates officially having the nominee. We have our two nominees and you know who they are by now. This election has already been nasty, and now it is only going to get worse.
I can't take this election anymore. It is not because I dislike the two candidates. It is not because I’m bitter the one candidate I liked was barely talked about during the primaries. It is not because of any of that. It is because of all the hate that is in the United States.
This is a very telling time for our country and in a very sad way. The RNC was a democratic bash and the DNC was a republican bash. The two conventions each had one major theme from the little bit of both that I watched. That theme was unifying the party. The sad thing is that the more parties unify, the more the country is thrown into disunity. It is very clear that our country is far from unity at the moment.
I can no longer go onto social media without seeing some kind of political fight (not debate.) We get so caught up in the tangle of our own political rhetoric and ideologies that we forgot that we are talking to other human beings.
The amount of anger that is in the rhetoric of the 2016 election is depressing. Why do we need to be so angry? Why do we need to be be sharing yelling young blondes on video to get our point across on Facebook? Why do we need to one up each other on Twitter like it is a middle school diss fight? The only way America can ever be great is if the American people are great, and, at the moment, we are far from.
Hate is not great.
The saddest thing about the current election season is that we actually think that a candidate can fix the world. News flash: they can't. They are just as human as you and me. They are just as flawed as you and me.
If the candidate you like gets into office, it will not fix your life. I’m sorry, but it just won't. We put so much hope into humans and forget that they are humans. Humans are flawed. The two candidates are flawed. I am very flawed, so why do we think this will fix the country? There are a few hundred million people in the United States, one of them and their few dozen advisors can't change the lives of millions.
The kind of things that can change your life are making everyday little decisions that better this world. We can love our neighbor instead of trying to be better than them. We can humble ourselves instead of being prideful. We can be compassionate instead of being selfish.
The cliché is that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If every human in this country is a link in that chain, it doesn’t matter how “strong” or “perfect” the chains leader is if those links in the chain keep disconnecting from each other. True unity in this country is a pipedream, but if we give up nothing will change.
America needs to turn to God to fix this country instead of turning its leaders into gods. A politician will not bring us to God because only God can do that, so we need to stop thinking they will. As I watched the conventions they looked like a worship service. A sad, depressing, hopeless worship service that put modern flawed idols on a platform built upon hope that will never be fulfilled. A faith in the flawed only turns to failure, but a faith in the flawless leads to fulfillment.
I am not saying don't vote. I will vote. This is my first election being able to vote and I am looking forward to it. All I'm saying is that if the only thing that is propelling your life right now is your vote... something needs to change.
Psalm 118:8-9
