Newsgroups: soc.culture.netherlands
Subject: Results of US Elections
From: <ISSCCK@BYUVM.BITNET>
Date: Friday, 6 Nov 1992 13:02:13 MST
Organization: Brigham Young University


Adopted from: <LDS@Pa.dec.com> Resent-From: <ISSJEM@VM.BYU.EDU>

I know a lot of conservative Christians supported George Bush in this recent
election, and I know that some people actively claimed it would be a sin to
vote for someone who was pro-choice on abortion.

But some recent articles here, and some commentary from TV preachers like
Pat Robertson, make it sound as if the US has just elected Diocletian.  I
hate to break it to you, but Bill Clinton has no plans to throw any of us
into an arena full of starved lions.  We're not going to be hunted down and
rousted from our houses, at least not yet.  (Indeed, I'd worry more about
somebody like Pat Buchanan rousting me from my house.)

Some are saying that they hope we don't find out Bad Stuff about Mr Clinton,
lest we have elected an immoral leader.  I hate to belabor the obvious, but
here it goes: with exceptions that can be counted on one hand, no sinless
person has ever lived on earth.  Of those exceptions, not one was a US
citizen, and none ever served as President either.

We might consider the people who cheated on their wives (like J.F. Kennedy),
broke the law and lied to Congress (like Richard Nixon), and who actively
ridiculed the Bible (like Thomas Jefferson).  The verdict's still out on
George Bush's involvement in the Iran-Contra trade, but let's just say that
I'm glad we won't have to impeach him in a few years. The US has survived
immoral leaders, and will survive more immoral leaders.

Pat Robertson said if this homosexual rights bill passes that God may well
judge, that it is a sort of "last straw" before judgement.  Perhaps a bit
of history will put this in perspective:

200 years ago, when this nation was founded, human lives were traded as
property.  Children were sold from their parents, people were kidnapped
from their homes, and owners regularly had sex with female slaves, forcibly
if need be.  Those who tried to escape this system were executed, often
without any kind of trial. We had a big war to end it, but (surprise) the
country is still here.

If God didn't wipe us out for allowing rape, murder, child molestation,
kidnapping, and breaking up families, I'm rather astonished that anyone
thinks a homosexual rights bill is going too far.

>I also find it depressing that many believe that Bush lost simply because
>his campaign was mismanaged and that something was said at the last minute
>about the Iran affair.

So far as I can make out, George Bush abdicated the Presidency through his
campaign. An incumbent president should say "During the time I've served,
these are the things I've done to address your problems: [list of things].
Ronald Reagan said that, and variants on it, when he ran for re-election.
George Bush did not.  The Republicans attacked the Democrats as "soft on
family values," called them "liberals," and said "who do you trust?"

That kind of stuff doesn't work AT ALL on anyone who can think, neither
work well on people who are worried about eating tonight.  If Mr Bush had
started talking and acting on domestic issues a year earlier, focussing
on the economy, healthcare and jobs (instead of insisting that there was
no recession for two straight years) he might have won.  Also, I think
he got a bit of backlash from negative campaigning this time.  In 1988,
he trashed Michael Dukakis pretty badly and got away with it.  This time,
there were more people keeping an eye on the attack ads, and they didn't
work so well.

(I personally got a kick out of "who has the character to be President?"
 as the main refrain of someone whose campaign so frequently twisted
 the truth about the opponent.  Mr Bush doesn't have much character to
 boast about so far as I can tell.)

So far, the best thing posted on this election was "what about November
4th?"  The world is still spinning, and sinners are still dying.  And it
is up to us to do something about it.

I'd like to observe to the Christians who supported Oregon's Measure 9
about creating state opposition to homosexuals), who opposed Maryland's
abortion rights measure, and who supported trying to make the country run
on "Christian principles" by electing pro-life presidents, is this: it
hasn't worked.

Twelve years of pro-life Presidents, and abortion is still legal everywhere
in the US.  Thousands of dollars spent in Oregon, and Measure Nine failed.
Millions spent on Mr Bush's re-election, and he won't be around much longer.
Maybe the lesson in here is that the government is not a proper tool, or at
least not one that is going to work very well.  If all that money spent on
electing pro-life presidents had been used to fund clinics to help women
carry children to term, a lot more children might have been walking around.

Casper.    isscck@byuvm.bitnet