HOW TO TREAT YOUR POLITICIAN: What Christians Should Learn From The ‘Gay Lobby’
“I have accepted a seat in the [Massachusetts] House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and the ruin of our children. I give you this warning, that you may prepare your mind for your fate.” – John Adams, to Abigail Adams, May 1770
Congress should be a burden. It should be like Joe Arpaio’s tent jail. I’d even say that when in session, congressman should have to wear the pink boxer shorts and when not, they should be picking up litter with a stick and a basket, on the shoulder of the beltway.
There has never been a collection of genius, so directed by courage and humility, as America’s founding generation. The obvious implication of the senior Adams in his letter to his wife is that he was thrust into the political realm out of a sense of duty – a public servant. He anticipated hostility and ruin, not privilege and plunder. The idea that “Even if you don’t respect the man, you must respect the office,” would sound absolutely ludicrous to a generation that threw tea in a harbor and tarred and feathered agents of a king over a tax on their breakfast drink. In colonial America it was just the opposite: respect was earned by men, and offices were viewed with suspicion.
“When the people fear their government there is tyranny; and when the government fears the people there is liberty,” has been forgotten. Our founders preached that the government should fear its citizenry. If that were actually the case, politicians wouldn’t want to be in Congress for a lifetime. We must make the ruling class fear us.
Politicians are a necessary evil that should be held accountable and barely tolerated above one’s cable provider. The fact that they’re treated as celebrity messiahs just may be why they stay in politics until the reaper comes. We should be the reaper, and they should feel the heat, not the warmth!
A politician that fears the party leadership, his committee chairman, the big donors, or a hostile media, more than he fears his constituents, will fall in line to please them and screw you. This is why around 15 of the 35 “Tea-Party” Republicans that went to D.C. in 2010 rolled over for the establishment. When their party leaders told them to “sit, beg” and “stay” they did, only to come home and urinate on our carpet.
Treat your politician like you would a used car salesman. If a politician sees you coming and smiles (without faking it), it’s a sign that you’re a sucker and you’re being taken. They should pull their hat down and try to disappear in the shadows.
Reagan was wrong about one thing: it shouldn’t be “Trust but verify”; when it comes to Communists and politicians it should always be “Verify and then trust, but always have your hand on the hilt of your pistol.”
We should treat our representatives like the eighteen year old who shows up in our driveway to pick up our daughter . . . in his van with the tinted windows: muster your best Jase Robertson, throw him a shotgun shell, and tell him, “It gets much faster after 10 pm.” Politicians, like my daughter’s future courtiers, should all get a chaperone and some of them – just a kick in the ass!
Politicians are sheep dogs, the important thing to remember is that our founders set “We the People” as the shepherds, not the sheep. If you don’t bare the rod and the staff then ACORN, the NEA, NARAL, foreign money, foreign governments, Myth McConnell or John Boehner will. Are you more like a lamb in relationship to your representatives? Do you not realize that they are supposed to work in your behalf?
My mother was the type of woman who could find something good to say, even about the devil himself: “Well, you have to admire his persistence.”
In that vein, the “Gay Lobby” can teach disgruntled Christians and conservatives a few things about success in the political realm. Gay activists understand better than most, that politicians respond, they rarely lead.
While a true public servant will act out of duty, the vast majority of politicians respond out of fear or greed, and if they do the right thing, it’s because they are dragged there – kicking and screaming. (Then when they arrive, they take credit for it in the first place.)
The truly foolish are those that treat politicians like they’re rock stars. Those that do, end up being roadies or groupies: either they carry the luggage or they leave with the stained dress. In either instance, they live on their knees. Both parties know this and both encourage it.
Looking back on the successes of the tea-party movement in 2010 and the GOP antipathy toward them ever since, political analyst Carol Ann Parisi says, “It was like a political booty call. They love it when we’re collecting checks and signatures, walking precincts and passing out signs; but once they’re in Washington, it’s ‘out of sight – out of mind,’ until they need us again.”
No one will fear you when you submit to the same old abuse, election after election. So why do politicians, corporations, and institutions fear the Lavender Mafia? Because crossing them comes with consequences. Dire consequences.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling for fascism, I’m just pointing out that they operate in a block and they refuse to be trifled with. Politicians don’t think that way about Christians or conservatives because they are used to us laying down. They don’t respect our bark because we never bite.
America was founded by men who only regarded God as a celebrity and who built a nation that admired laws and not personality. Ideas are heroes in a free land, and men, especially men with power, are to be regarded with suspicion.
For Christians, expecting spiritual results from the political class is like hoping that the Cubs win the Stanley Cup. We must stop bowing to the promise fairies. We must put them on notice that our vote is not to be expected but to be earned. And if they betray us, they must know that they will pay dearly.
As for me, let no more be heard of Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Tea-Party. I am not a Libertarian or an Independent – I am a Christian. And I will live my life in the pew, in the public square, and in the polling booth, as a follower of Jesus Christ.
No exceptions! No apologies!
Image: Courtesy of: http://apushistorycase.wikispaces.com/The+Events+that+Led+to+the+
American +Revolution+1763-1775