Chasing the Wind

I never intended to blog politically, but that’s sort of the way it turned out over the last few months. I guess that’s normal, given the elections. As I get older, I get more opinionated.

I read many of my favorite blogs the last couple of days; some are gloating, others are purposefully not gloating. I’m mixed – gloating that people like Michael Moore and MoveOn.org didn’t sway many people despite their millions of dollars is easy. But the fact is there are many people on the Left that just want what’s best for America. They just have a completely different idea about what that is.

My hopes for the next four years are simple. They’re also probably almost impossible to achieve:

I’d like to see the erosion of Christian values stop in our culture. No, I don’t want to see a religious government, but the values taught in the country for two centuries are Judeao-Christian. Too often the mainstream media and leftist groups like the ACLU want to tear those values down without putting anything in their place. For instance, removal of any display of the Ten Commandments. What’s so wrong about espousing “Love thy neighbor” and “Thou shalt not kill?” If those commandments are removed, what takes their place? If the answer is “nothing,” then that’s leaving a vacuum in our society.

Related to that is the perception that religious conservatives are engaged in “gay bashing” because we don’t support gay marriage. I don’t think that’s true – I certainly don’t feel hatred. Live your life any way you wish, and I don’t have any problems sitting down and having a beer with you. I won’t preach to you about your lifestyle (unless you want me to). I believe marriage is sacred, though, so I don’t want your lifestyle munged up with my lifestyle. So “no” to gay marriage. I’m a lot less opposed to a “civil union” and if you’re a gay and perceive problems with seeing your loved ones when they’re in a hospital, then let’s deal with that issue without redefining marriage.

The left pundits like Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground are blaming the election loss on Kerry because they say he wasn’t liberal enough. I don’t think those people are dispensing good advice – I think Americans as a whole are very tolerant of far left liberal ideas, they just don’t want tp promote it. If Kerry had stayed left (gung-ho on abortion-on-demand, gay marriage for everyone, massive taxes to pay for socialist-like government run healthcare), the vast middle of the country would have had an allergic reaction Gay marriage, for instance, was soundly banned in 11 states by huge margins. Americans don’t want that as part of our culture.

The leftist pundits are also saying that now is the time for George Bush to move more to center and reach out to Democrats. I think that’s a mistake. The country voted overwhelmingly to move more right. Besides, Bush tried this at the beginning of his first term, letting Democrats write the education bill. Then the Democrats voted against the bill the created and blamed Bush. I think it’s the responsibility of the left to move more to center since that’s where America wants them.

In the meantime, Radical Michael is settling back down to his normal, less rabid self. There are other things closer to home that need attention. Hayden is much, much worse than I mentioned this weekend, my step-father is ill, my son comes into town this weekend, my birthday is next week, I get my Ultima Online game expansion this week, I have to figure out what I’m going to do for Thanksgiving, Jo thinks I need to be medicated, I have to figure out how long to wait for Lori to settle down before I setup a “Lost Lions” outing, I need to start Christmas shopping, and I’m still overloaded at work.

One day at a time. 😛