Friday, September 16, 2016

Hillary’s Daily Crisis – What Does It Say About Us?

Hillary’s Daily Crisis – What Does It Say About Us?

 by John Schroeder

Hewitt tried to categorize all the crises that confront the Hillary Clinton campaign this morning, discussing her crisis of health, credibility, and character.  I have simply come to think of it as a crisis-a-day situation.  Even if it is new revelations regarding an older crisis it just seems like there is something else I need to read and deeply digest on a daily basis and frankly, I can’t keep up.  Unlike Hewitt and his journalistic colleagues, I have a day job.  I just don’t have the time to cement the names of the various service companies she used regarding the server(s) into my already very busy brain.  I’ve never worked for the federal government so the various classifications of secrecy are just something I have had no necessity to master.  I am not a doctor so the various types of pneumonia is not information that I have had to deal with routinely.  I am not a lawyer so the difference between the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and ITAR regulations are not in my daily stew.
But I do know enough to know that Hillary’s got a problem – a big one.  Why?  Because every time I do manage to break free from my normal routine and look into something, she has a problem there.  Now, while I am no expert in any of these fields, I certainly look into all of it more frequently and in greater depth than the average American.  So if I see “Hillary’s in trouble,” every time I look up, what do you think the average American is seeing?
It can’t be good.  And yet, at this writing, she remains a viable candidate.  That says more about us than it does her.
Sometimes I wonder if the nation now views the election campaign like one big reality show.  Let’s face it most of reality television comes out of the same mold as slowing down to see a train wreck.  From the Kardashians to Honey Boo-Boo, it is big television to watch people screw-up and make complete fools of themselves.  Sometimes watching this campaign seems to be the same thing.  This woman has screwed up so badly, the FBI Director’s credibility is now in serious question!  We often watch our “favorite” reality stars lie their way out of awkward situation “A,” so we have almost come to accept it from our presidential candidates.  The only difference is when “The Situation” tells girl X he’s cool while he is, um do I have to say it?, with girl Y, there are only personal consequences.  When Hillary lies to us, the whole nation is on the line.  Which indicates that what happens on TV may be more consequential than we think, but I digress.  It would appear we are unable to tell the consequential from the inconsequential.
When I listen to the spin that comes rolling out after each day’s crisis, it becomes clear that like reality TV is not the least bit real, truth and reality simply do not matter to Clinton and her supporters.  This is deeper than simply lying to cover up some fact that you do not want exposed.  This is more like people are saying there is a “higher” truth (Hillary MUST be the next president) that the reality in front of us (Hillary put the national security at serious risk.)  Most people when they lie, know they are lying, and understand there is a truth apart from the lie they told.  But people in this mess seem to believe they define the truth.  And it seems like a lot of Americans are right there with them.
That Hillary Clinton is a viable candidate for the presidency after all that we have been treated to is a testament to a nation that is experiencing its own crisis.  We have a crisis of character because we give high ratings to TV shows about infidelity, and then take permission from them for our own infidelities.  We have a crisis of credibility because we go on these spin journeys with the talking heads rather than analyse the information for ourselves.  We have a crisis of health because a democracy that functions this way is not functioning in a healthy fashion.
Of course, this national crisis stems from the nation’s general move away from faith.  And I think those of us that retain our faith are more to blame than anyone else.  My father was  a serious Lutheran, Missouri Synod.  He spend his adult life in the Presbyterian church because of his love for my mother, but he never lost touch with his Lutheran roots and we sang Lutheran hymns at his funeral.  I was many, many years an Evangelical before I would every acknowledge my father’s deep and sincere faith.  See, he never did say the words “I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior on Date X.”  Oh sure, he memorized Luther’s Small Catechism as a child and could recite it to me well into his senior years. He donated countless dollars to churches and Christian organizations.  He was a man of deep moral character devoted to his wife and children at times to the detriment of his material success.  But I always considered his faith suspect because he did not follow the formulation I was taught was right.  What a fool I was.
So many people in this nation held Christian values and lead Christian lives but never professed Christianity in the way someone like me saw fit.  So many of them were marginalized in faith communities because of that lack of formulaic profession.  Is it really any wonder that the nation has moved away from Christian values?   What fools we have been.
And so here we are.  The project before us is immense, the nation as we know it is at risk.  How do we start on this immense project?  I think we need to start by giving up our own foolishness.

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