Posted on 10/13/2007 9:53:21 AM PDT by wagglebee
There are many instances where pragmatism has its place. In its purest sense, pragmatism is simply engaging in conduct that emphasizes practicality. For example, if I decide to spend $60 for a pair of pants that will last me several years rather than spend $20 for a pair that may not make it past the first outing it could be said that my decision involved the exercise of pragmatism.
That may work for pants but it doesn’t work for principles. Pragmatism may work well in the fashion world but it has no place in the world of public policy. There are many well meaning, passionate, evangelical believers who have reached the conclusion that when it comes to the 2008 race for the White House it is better to vote for a candidate who can win than to vote for a candidate who can truly lead. It is this kind of misplaced pragmatism that has the potential to permanently remove the voice of evangelicals from the political arena. Our seat at the table of ideas should be more precious to us than the results of one election cycle.
Let me be clear…. I do not want to see Hillary Clinton become the President of the United States. I believe her brand of big government socialism combined with her moral sophistry would drastically change the face of American culture. From government sponsored health care to government censored Christian speech another Clinton presidency would lead us into a financial and spiritual bankruptcy that could require decades of recovery time.
If we select a genuine conservative as the Republican standard bearer and lose we will recover to fight for our principles another day. But if we run a pseudo conservative and lose we will find ourselves with no principles left to fight for. We will have sacrificed them on the altar of expediency. And if we run a pseudo conservative and win we will find ourselves with no principles left to live by for we will have sacrificed them on the altar of pragmatism.
For years the blue blood, country club Republicans have resented the fact that they have had to come to religious conservatives with political hat in hand in or order to get elected. The instant they believe they can win without us they will put their hats back on their heads and give us the back of their hand. Rudy Giuliani’s current lead in the national polls gives the blue blood their best hope to regain control of the party from what is in their minds, the “great unwashed religious right.” Even if Republicans lose the White House in 2008 if Giuliani is the party’s standard bearer the establishment Republicans will have won a great victory. They will have successfully relegated religious conservatives to nothing more than a vocal irritant to be tolerated but not taken seriously.
When you examine the biblical story of Jacob, Esau, and Isaac (Genesis 25-27) the parallels to the current political climate in the Republican Party are startling. First, Esau comes home from working in the field to find Jacob slaving over a hot pot of stew. Esau is desperate for a meal and begs Jacob for some of the stew but Jacob sees an opportunity in Esau’s desperation to take something precious from him. Jacob says, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” Esau reasons that his birthright, which was given to him by God, will not do him any good if he dies of hunger so he pragmatically agrees trading what was given to him by God for what was provided for him by man. Rather than stopping to think there might be another way to find a meal Esau, out of pure desperation, exchanges the eternal for the temporal. Perhaps he believed that as long as he would receive the blessing reserved for the first born he could afford to part with his birthright. But later, Jacob dressed up like Esau right down to gluing goat hair on his hands and the back of his neck so that Isaac (who by this time was blind) was deceived into giving away the primary blessing of God.
In the first part of the story Christians who settle for a pro-abortion, pro-homosexual rights candidate as the standard bearer for the Republican Party are like Esau, so desperate for the provision of the momentary relief of our grievance that we are willing to sacrifice the security of holding onto our principles for the future. In the second part of the story the Christian right resembles Isaac, who was blindly tricked into giving away God’s blessings by one who had the appearance of the real thing. And what was the end result for Esau? He lost both his birthright and his blessing; one because of the boldness of Jacob who took advantage of Esau’s desperation and the other because of the blindness of Isaac who had lost his ability to see past mere outward appearances.
May God protect us as believers from trading the birthright of America and the blessings of God for a bowl of political porridge and a bill of pseudo-conservative goods.
You got. I will second that.
Yeah, this poster does not realize how he helps reinforce all the reasons we will not vote for Rudy.
This would be what we would get from Rudy.
Now if I were Rooty, and I was smart. I would tell supporters like him to shut his pie hole.
But then thats just me. LOL
The FRiberals are just like Rooty Toot, they want Free Republic to be just as liberal as WAnkerville.
Don’t know about you guys or gals, but I am in my fifties. Mother of three boys. I have lived long enough to have been bullied, called names, insulted etc.
I take someone like him and think “is that all?, is that it”?
Then I just shrug and chuckle. LOL!
BUMP
Here’s a good question. Why the sense of urgency on their part?
“I have lived long enough to have been bullied, called names, insulted etc.”
Are you familiar with my posting (and posted to) history? LOLOLOL...Someone remarked to me, and then called me yet another name. I told them ‘thank you, I’ll add that to the list’. They thought I had a secret list of some kind, when the list was the invisible yet long list of names I’ve been called here :) Funny how peoples mind can play tricks on them.
On that note. I can typically tell how someone reasons. If I see that I’m not going to change their mind, then I usually don’t even bother.
One thing is true. You don’t change hearts and minds by going in rants insulting the priciples of others and telling them they are stupid.
I wonder how many car salesman would use that tactic? haha
Problem they have is, they have nothing to sell Rudy with. It most likey is more enticing to sell a principle than it is to tear firm principle down.
I don’t think we could change that posters mind. I do think he needs to understand we are not going to browbeat him to our way. We just are not going to vote his way.
Now tell me, who needs who the most?
like=likely
priciples=principles
Now if my typing was good.
“You don’t change hearts and minds by going in rants insulting the priciples of others and telling them they are stupid.”
Yes, I know. I sat back and watched that very thing happening day after day regarding the WOT. There’s that law of diminishing returns that some people just don’t seem to realize when they’ve breached. That simply solidifies the resistance to your views. Ahhh...but so goes life.
This week I made a post which expressed a knee jerk, head bashing response to lighting up the Empire State building for Eid.
My post was angry. I made a crass post.
Another female FReeper was upset by it. Truth is, she was right. When I reread the post, I could understand where she was coming from. So...I apologized to her. We were really on the same page, but my general statement was wrong.
The poster we are talking about would never admit to that. This bothers me.
I feel that Rudy would be this way. His way or the highway.
I cant stop him for voting for Rooty, but I am not going to call him names and insult him if he does. I would like these people to at least, respect those who say they cannot.
Is calling a liberal a liberal name calling?
No, there is no problem calling a lib a lib, but this poster calls conservatives morons.
“expressed a knee jerk, head bashing response”
That sounds painful ;)
“So...I apologized to her. We were really on the same page, but my general statement was wrong.”
That’s likely one of the hardest things for someone to do. What’s more difficult is to actually figure out how to “deal” with people you are at staunch disagreement with. I am able to post to ToddsterPatriot, not because I agree with him, or even like him (lol). I told him a long time ago that I liked ‘not liking him’, and we’ve gotten along great. I completely disagree with him to the very core on several issues, but we manage to even kid around. Some of that is simply not taking things personal here.
I’ll avoid the lighting up thing you mentioned. I’d likely cause myself pain as well (lol)
P.S. Don’t drink Toddster’s Kool-Aid :)
“Is calling a liberal a liberal name calling?”
lol
Let me tell you. My response was angry that people would celebrate a religion that is out to kill them.
I was trying the shock treatment. What I didn’t understand were the very few conservatives in the lib mass that is New York, who have no control in a place like New York!
My advice is “stay away from it”.
Such is life in the US anymore. The more communication we have, the worse we get at it. LOL
I would never promote voting for ‘our’ liberal to beat ‘their’ liberal, but if ‘our’ liberal gets nominated, we should vote against ‘their’ liberal.
“The more communication we have, the worse we get at it. LOL”
That’s classic! :))
You go right on ahead, that doesn’t mean everyone else will. Fact of life.
If you really care, you will help in making sure that is not the scenario.
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