Romney and Obama: Thou shalt be nice

Like it or not, we’re in the thick of America’s presidential election season.

You’d have to be lost in the Himalayas or drowning in the Amazon to avoid it.

At least for now, I want this space to remain fairly unpolitical. Maybe that will change in the future – I don’t want to bind myself to any promises. But I also can’t divide my life into neat little compartments and pretend that it’s not all overlapping.

Politics, motherhood, faith, family, my work, my friendships, my passions, my convictions. It’s all connected in a very deep, very real sense.

I’ve had an interest in law and politics since high school, and as I’ve grown and matured, my interest has only expanded. I’m perhaps not as vocal as I once was (unless you’re asking my husband), but that’s only because my perspective has matured (I hope) and my respect for others has become more genuine.

I bite my tongue a lot more these days. A lot. And I rarely–if ever–rant in public forums.

In saying that, I have very strong views. Always have, always will. I make no apologies for that.

I love a good debate. I love to discuss ideas. I love to be challenged in my thinking. And I love to think that I can sometimes challenge others.

Of course I disagree with certain positions, but I’m okay with that. I have absolutely no problem with agreeing to disagree.

What bothers me are two main camps of people:

1) Those who are indifferent – who don’t take voting seriously and have no clue that hundreds of millions of people around the world would give almost anything to have a voice in their nations. Sometimes individuals within this group avoid the polls all together, or sometimes they just blindly cast a vote according to what political party the majority of their family, friends, or circles affiliate with. Oh, how this grates me. Words can’t articulate.

2) Those who refuse to listen – who base all of their opinions on what “he said, she said” but have taken no time to actually listen to the candidates themselves. I realize this is a tough one – there is so much rhetoric, so much hearsay, and so much gossip surrounding the election process and it can be hard to discern between all the voices. I enjoy listening to analysts and commentators and reading political blogs, but if we are willing to listen to people talk about what these candidates say, then shouldn’t we also be willing to listen to what the candidates say for themselves? Let’s stop putting words in their mouths, stop quoting them out of context, stop passing ridiculous rumors around facebook, and start listening a little more. This is hard – oh yes, I know. But we really need to try.

There’s an old proverb* that says,

“It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.”

There’s another old proverb* that says,

“The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.”

At the end of the day, our two main political parties have put forward who they believe are the best candidates to lead our nation – Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. These are educated, intelligent, moral men who are capable of shouldering leadership in measures that most of us could never dream of. (Nor would most of us want to dream of.)

Both have stated that they are qualified for the job, both have the support of their wives and families, both passionately declare that they care about America and her 300,000+ million people, and both are willing to put themselves out there on our behalf in order to move our nation forward.

So… why can’t we just believe them?

Even if our strategies, standards, and moral codes differ in certain areas, they still deserve our respect and {gulp!} even our kindness.

Yes, I believe that one of the candidates is more suited for the job.

But I also believe that America is much more than one guy. Let’s remember that we the people have the ability to be the nation that we envision.

Don’t leave it to Romney or Obama, the right or the left to determine the fate of our people. That’s a fatalistic worldview that will get us nowhere – que sara sara (“what will be will be”) – and that’s certainly not what our founding fathers had in mind when they laid it all on the line to forge a new way of life for their families and future generations.

The state of our nation is a direct result of the people in her fold.

Some of those people are born here, some are not. Some live within our borders, some live abroad. Some are Mormon, some atheist, some Muslim, and some Catholic. Some are gay and some are straight. Some are unfathomably rich, and some are woefully poor. Some consider themselves “elephants”, some “donkeys”, and some prefer to stay out of the zoo entirely.

Our responsibility is not only to our nation, it’s to one another.

On October 6, 1774 John Wesley (founder of the Methodist movement) wrote in his journal:

“I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them, 1) to vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy; 2) to speak no evil of the person they voted against; and 3) to take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.”

Almost 250 years later Wesley’s words are still incredibly potent… and exceptionally relevant.

Let’s be a people that don’t take lightly the privilege it is to have a say in the way our nation is run, but let’s also be a people that “speak no evil” and who “take care that our spirits aren’t sharpened” against those we disagree with.

Let’s be nice.

And if you don’t have any friends on the other side of the aisle, perhaps you might consider reaching out to others who see life from a different perspective? Some of my dearest and most respected friends have extremely different political views, but we make each other’s worldview wider, and–hopefully–we help each other’s take on life to be a little bit more gracious and forgiving… and promising.

Now, if you haven’t already, go register to vote. And then… do a little homework. For all of our sake. Seriously.

Dear friends, how are you feeling this election season?

p.s. That photo is my baby brother, dressed in his cheesy 4th of July shirt. Along with my husband and dad and father-in-law, he’s probably the nicest person I know. (Seriously, the men in our family are just niiiiice. And I’m not just saying that to be nice.)

*Proverbs 19:2 and 18:17 quoted from the Holy Bible.