My Party, Right or Wrong?
The spirit of party serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; (and) kindles the animosity of one party against another...
George Washington from his farewell address
It's good to go back and read Washington's farewell address: It shows that a public servant can be loyal to his country when he puts aside his political party's interests. It also shows why we need a return to the ideal of public servants and leave the self-serving interests of the politician and his political party. Have you noticed that schools no longer teach Washington's farewell address? The politicians must have outlawed it!
Still, it is refreshing to know that America's leaders have not always placed party interests over the public welfare. It's a bit sad, though, to realize that such leaders are gone and have been replaced with partisan nincompoops whose primary purpose seems to be one of maintaining power rather than sincerely serving the public interest. But how do such unscrupulous people get into office in the first place? We put them there because they are of the party that we belong to. Or, just as bad, we put them there by default because we have given up on the system and let others choose our leaders for us. We realize that things are not right, but what are we to do? May I suggest that we can start by taking God into the voting booth with us. Then, we could take it a step further and only cast votes that we are able to defend on the day of judgment.
But then, we would have to admit, we couldn't always vote for the person on our side, in our party, who would deliver the goodies that we so desperately crave. Why there would even be times when we couldn't vote for any of the candidates, if we had to vote our conscience - WHAT THEN? Then, we would do what people with clear consciences always do - we would sleep at night. And then we would be able to stand to look ourselves in the mirror the next morning. And, if enough people refused to support the scoundrels that their parties so often put forward, maybe a decent candidate would be put forth for our consideration. Then, maybe we could return to an era of public servants who put God and country first, rather than the spirit of party. It is time to stop trusting in our political parties and start trusting that God will take care of us if we will return to a loyalty to Him, rather than some political group.
In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
Psalms 56:11, NIV
