Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Post debate musings of a policially-mixed couple

Post debate musings of a policially-mixed couple

Last updated on: September 29, 2016 at 6:54 am by Christy Thomas

Post debate musings of a policially-mixed couple 2016-09-29T06:54:23-05:00 Christy Thomas

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

First, this article sums it all up: The world is still almost irredeemably sexist. Anything Hillary has done, or even has been accused of doing, would have been celebrated or ignored if she had been male.

It’s time to stop pretending that this is about substance. This is about an eagerness to believe that a woman who seeks power will say or do anything to get it. This is about a Lady MacBeth stereotype that, frankly, should never have existed in the first place.

Second: I think Donald is showing signs of brain damage.

Thoughts of my father kept coming back to me after the debate last night. As he grew older, my dad suffered some tiny strokes in his front temporal lobe. His normally cultured, highly intelligent and thoughtful self turned mean, paranoid, unable to remember things he had said or done, incapable of taking in new information.

I see much of this with Donald except he didn’t have my father’s history of culture and inbred politeness as a foundation, exacerbating the problem. I wondering now if his consistent lying has much more to do with brain damage than with the fact that he is, at his core, a fundamentally dishonest person.

Don’t get me wrong: I still think he’s fundamentally dishonest. But consider just a few factors:

The extraordinary paranoia (The mic didn’t work right, the debate was rigged).
The almost immediate insistence he didn’t say some things he did (like how smart if was for him not to have paid income taxes for so long).
His inability to take in new information (consistently re-visiting the same, tired message of how awful America is without acknowledging the amazing progress that has taken place here, especially the long-awaited recovery from the financial crisis of 2008).

Donald, the wind-up doll. Image courtesy of Wikipedia

He’s like a wind-up doll with only a few phrases he can access.

All these sure look like signs of real issues within the neural synapses.

Hillary, however, blew me away. She was calm, competent, in control, knowledgeable, and unruffled in the face of Donald’s endless attempts to interrupt, dominate and bully her.

So it looks like the electoral public face these choices.

One: elect a person moving into dementia who has no fear of using nuclear weapons and shows fewer and fewer restraints upon his impulses. However, he MIGHT appoint conservative Supreme Court justices and maybe would do something . . . OK, I’m thinking of something good he might do, but can’t come up with it.

Two: elect a person who is seasoned on the world stage and knows how fragile the world actually is, understands the complexity of our governmental system, has practice in getting things done in Washington, continually studies and learns and seeks to understand but who will more than likely appoint Supreme Court judges that could scare the bejesus out of conservatives.

It really comes down to the justices. That’s the big push behind the sick, compromised Evangelical bloc voting for Donald. They are scared to their core that they may not get their way in the court and that their message will have to stand on its own merits, not on some special privilege within the US. (I’m not talking here about the racist white supremacist who are solidly behind Donald. Nothing to be done about that. He’s their man.)

As I mentioned yesterday, my “anyone but Hillary” husband and his “anyone but Donald” wife agreed to watch the debate on separate TV’s, breaking our normal pattern of never having the two of watch TV in different rooms.

I went upstairs to our library and shut the door. What I didn’t know was gone by 30 minutes in and went to bed.

Besides the separate TV’s, we agreed that we would not talk with each other on this subject. But he appeared clearly unhappy about it this morning making, at one point, a comment that suggested to me he thinkgs that Hillary will probably win the general election.

I stuck closely to my side of the bargain and chose not to wade in. He is too important to me as husband, lover, friend, and life-companion to even go there.

We did talk further about the nature of so many political appointees enriching their pockets at the expense of the American people. I completely understand why he wants this cleaned up and why, at this point, the idea of another career politician at the helm frustrates him no end.

I’ve seen the issues up close by learning what he has to deal with as a business owner. He’s got my sympathy. I just wish there were a better answer than Donald. For that, I blame the disgusting dysfunction in the Republican party.

They are darn close to succeeding in bringing this country down by their unbridled ambition and unwillingness to deal with the extremist elements in the party. But Donald is their chosen candidate. He’s their guy. How sick. How sad.

Reader, I married him

This is a series of the ongoing saga of a newly married couple with radically different political views. Part one is here. Part two is here. Part three is here. Part four is here. Part five is here. Part six is here. Part seven is here. Part eight is here.

Previous Post

September 27, 2016

Ask the Thoughtful Pastor: Social media took over our minds!

Next Post

September 29, 2016 The strong woman problem for Evangelicals and Republicans

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category " obedience abortion accommodation accountability administration adolescence Advent advice an ordinary death anxiety apology apportionments Ash Wednesday ask thoughtfulpastor baptism betrayal Bible bondage calling certainty change character charity children Christianity Christmas church church as garden clergy clergy credentials closure comfort compassion competition compromise Confirmation conservation conservative conspiracy theories consumer conversion coronavirua corruption courage covenant cultural context death Deconstruction discipleship discord divorce doctrine doing good drugs dysfunctional Easter Easter; Resurrection education election entertainment envy escape evaluation evil exclusive church exercise faith faithfulness family fasting fear feast featured film review finances first world problem food forgiveness fundamentalist garden gay marriage General Conference generosity giving thanks GLBT glory good government grace guilt habit happy harmony hateful acts healing health health care heaven hell hello/goodbye heresy hidden agenda holiness homelessness homosexuality humility hymn hypocrisy Imago Dei In training inclusive church indulgence injustice innocents insurance intolerance itinerancy joy Justice kindness Kingdom of Heave kingdom of heaven language laughter laundry lawsuit leadership Lent LGBTQ liberal life Little Things Matter longform meandering thoughts memories mercy metaphor metrics miracle misfortunes morality Mormon Muslim mystery worship natural disasters New Category Name nutrients older adults oppression pain Paleo paperwork partnered pastor peace pension pharmaceutical placebo politics poverty prayer privilege public schools questions quiet racism rain reason reconciliation religion repentance requirements rescue respect rest resurrection retirement Sabbath sacrament sacred salvation same-sex marriage sanctuary schism schooling science SCOTUS secrecy separation of church and state sexism sexuality short cuts silence sin sleep soil spiritual journey stillness suffering surgery sustainable church teacher technology thank you theology therapy thinking tolerance TOS trust truth Uncategorized welcome Why Easter? wisdom women worship

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 December 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 March 2025 February 2025 December 2024 November 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 October 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 January 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 July 2007 March 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz