Politics As Usual! Ugh!

As a follower of Jesus, I am called to love others—fellow believers, neighbors, even enemies. I will admit, however, that I am really struggling in loving one set of people. No, it’s not Muslims or adherents of any other religion. It’s not any particular race or nationality. The class that I am struggling with is politicians, and as far as it applies, political operatives, including those who so often appear on radio and television or write columns in newspapers or on the internet.

Don’t get me wrong about my struggle. It’s not about ideology. I don’t have any particular difficulty in loving those with whom I disagree. If so, I’d be in real trouble. You see, even though I may have more in common with one group’s platform in any given season than another’s, about the only person I agree with most all the time is me—and there are occasions when I’m not even sure about that!

No, my struggle to love people in politics is because of what I perceive as the “ends justify the means” hypocrisy in dealing with issues. Instead of confronting an issue straight on, so many politicians and their advocates simply look to winning points against the opposition or containing damage to their own side.

As one example, we can look to the story of the congressman from Florida who sent inappropriate emails to a page or pages. When this was brought to light, it immediately became an “us” versus “them” issue between the two majority parties. When the opposition party tried to make an issue of the breaking scandal, we saw back and forth finger pointing.

• “What did you know and when did you know it?”
• “Mistakes were made, but why weren’t you concerned when your last president had problems with ‘that woman’?”
• “Well, this issue was with pages, who are much younger than interns.”
• “The page was eighteen when the emails in question were sent, so it was two adults, and, besides, ‘nothing happened.’”
• “The speaker should resign because he knew of the problem and didn’t act.”
• “It seems like your people knew about this in early summer. If you were really concerned, why didn’t you bring it out then rather than wait until right before elections?”

And on and on it goes. Why, instead, wasn’t there a unified voice that condemned the behavior—in this and in previous instances? Why are those who abhorred the previous indiscretions of others now seemingly defending behaviors of the same sort? And vice versa? Such hypocrisy is unbecoming in those who want to lead us. They choose what to attack and what to defend based on who is involved rather than what is right.

Another example is in our own gubernatorial campaign. Each candidate accuses the other of ethics violations.

• “You got a sweetheart deal on land in Florida and a $100,000 tax break that no one else may have gotten.”
• “Your daddy has all kind of business with the state, inappropriately, and he pays you a handsome yearly salary for virtually no work.”

It’s amazing how adept we can be in identifying the nuances of ethical behavior for others but cannot for the life of us see how anyone could question what we do ourselves! It seems like someone once said something about removing the log from your own eye before removing the speck from someone else’s. Instead, we have blind people doing eye surgery on others.

As distasteful as all of this is, it would be great if we could expect such behavior to subside after the coming elections. But I wouldn’t count on it.

© 2006 Fred O. Pitts