PROPHETS, PROFITS AND POLITICS Mar 2012

THE METAMORPHOSIS
By
ERNIE DELFIN
PROPHETS, PROFITS AND POLITICS

It is raining now in Orange County that is making this day very conducive to work at home. It is also affording me the opportunity to finish this column, a self-imposed obligation to pen at least one column every other week. With another GOP primary election scheduled today (Feb 28) in Arizona and Michigan, during this Lenten season amidst an anemic U.S. economy, I thought of adding my thoughts on these timely and interesting topics on Prophets, Profits and Politics, not necessarily in that order of importance.
As the vast majority of my readers most likely are Christians (many are Catholics like me) this Season of Lent that started on Ash Wednesday when the priests and their Eucharistic Ministers like me put ashes into the foreheads of the faithful, reminding them to “Repent and believe in the gospel” it is quite apropos to take inventory of what we as Christians to take inventory of what we have (or don’t have) particularly during these difficult times and make the necessary fine tunings to make our lives worth living for. Metaphysically, it is healthy to pause and take minute vacations in our hectic lives to stop accumulating perishable “things” and unneeded calories and instead creating or finding some “empty spaces” in our lives to fill up with wholesome and more valuable things that really matter. So for the Christian world, the Lenten Season whose climax occurs after 40 days on Easter Sunday, is indeed an opportunity to be more reflective, generous and kinder to our fellow human beings.
The biblical readings in all the Christian churches this holy season of Lent will center on the teachings of Christ during His public life, His return to JerUSAlem, His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, His passion and his triumphant resurrection. For us Christians these biblical events were not only amazing but incredibly mysterious, considering that they were prophesied by many Prophets, like Elijah thousands of years before Christ was born as a human being, suffered and then crucified and died for our redemption.
It is against this Lenten backdrop that I find it quite inspiring and titillating to analyze and comment as a neophyte “philosopher” on these current events in our world today that is quite preoccupied with the l business of profits and politics especially this presidential election year here in the United States.
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The wide contrast between the GOP (Republicans) and the Democratic parties will be accentuated in the coming months as the Republicans will do their best to destroy the records of President Obama to force him to be just a one time (4-year) president, while the Democrats will scare us, the people, that the Republicans are there only to foster their selfish and vested interest, to remain the in the one percent mega-wealthy at the expense of the 99 percent, reminiscent of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. With the continuing debacle of the real estate industry that has caused millions of foreclosures and underwater properties ( when the mortgage is higher than the market value of said property) and the concomitant high unemployment (still hovering at around 10% nationwide) the victory of one party over the other will revolve on economic and financial issues popularized with that catchy phrase “It’s the economy, stupid!” A pragmatic voter will choose his candidate over the other candidates based on his personal conviction (or perception) that his choice will make his own personal economic condition better than what it is now.
As an Independent voter, I personally like a few of the Republican values of “self-responsibility”, lesser intrusion of the government into our private lives, LOWER taxes, and other conservative stands on some issues. But I also like some of Democratic values of pro-people, the poor and the marginalized. But both parties have apparently gone extreme to my dislike: the Republicans believe that they know it all, that they often appear to be self-righteous in many ways, while the Democrats seem to believe that the government can cure all the social problems of our people, often exacting HIGHER taxes just to dole out to many underserving poor people. The former advocates for limited government and the latter tends to expand government bureaucracies. The Democratic Party has created countless welfare or entitlement programs that many conservatives believe have made millions of American citizens lazier and dependent upon the dole outs of their “rich” Uncle Sam.
Other issues clearly divides the two parties, like the issue of gun control (second amendment rights) where the right (GOP) insists on no gun control, while the left (Democrats) favor some degree of gun control . On the abortion issue, the Republicans generally are pro-life, aka anti-abortion, and the Democrats are generally pro-choice aka pro-abortion. On the death penalty issue, the GOP is generally favor the death penalty despite that they are also pro-life or anti-abortion, while the Democrats are generally anti death penalty. The Gay and Lesbian (gay marriage) issue also divides the two parties, the Republicans generally are against gay marriages but the Democrats are often more tolerant and approve of gay marriages.
These issues are often considered “religious” issues too but they are NOT the only elements or factors why voters vote for one candidate over the other. As a Christian voter, I will factor these issues into my criteria of selecting my candidate but they will not the sole determinants why I will vote for one candidate over his opponent.
Another important factor, I believe, is the candidate’s economic platform or programs to resuscitate or improve this ailing economy that caused millions of people suffering financially. Their economic programs, especially on their strategies how to put the unemployed back to working again, of each candidate will be magnified and scrutinized more closely to find a good match with the voters’ expectations. Of equal importance, I think, are the candidate’s foreign policy proposals particularly in the arena of USA’s being involved in foreign wars (to protect American interests?) that have drained billions of tax dollars the last 10 years. The loss of thousands of lives and the resulting economic catastrophe since the invasion of Iraq and the current Afghanistan war have made millions of American sick and tired of America being the Big Police of the world.
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My vote is only one vote but that one vote will join millions of votes to elect the next president of my adopted country. My fearless forecast is that Mitt Romney (a Mormon) will be the eventual GOP candidate, after months of serious challenges from several candidates, namely: Rick Santorum (a Catholic) and Newt Gingrich (a Catholic convert) and Ron Paul (my underdog favorite). Romney has many good ideas in business, economy and in tax reforms. Unfortunately, he is failing miserably to market himself well to many independents, the working class and the minorities, particularly the Latino voters (ironically he is also an American of Mexican descent) His record in business in making millions of money for himself and his investors is very exceptionally lucrative, but the question lingers: (and could be exploited by the Democrats) did his business success also enure to the common people especially the independents and minorities? Romney’s mantra of “More jobs, less debt, smaller government” resonates very well to the independents, business people as well as the so-called Reagan Democrats. If he can consolidate and unify the Republican base as he tries to go a little bit to the center, he will give Pres. Obama a tough fight this November.
On the other hand, re-electionist Barack Obama has done not- too-good-nor-too-bad a record (considering that the economy started to falter even before his assuming into office, and inherited US involvement in Iraq which many believe was a colossal blunder and in Afghanistan from Republican G.W. Bush) has a fair 50-50 chance to be reelected, provided that the unemployment will continue to go down, the interest rates remaining low and the coming home of American soldiers from abroad continues as planned. Some other factors are going in Obama’s favor: he has more money for his re-election campaign than any of his Republican opponents; the damage brought about by his administration’s birth-control-pills policy that infuriated faith based agencies, particularly the Catholic Church, happened early enough to rectify his political blunder; the successful annihilation of the “poster boys” of world terrorism namely Sadam Hussein and Osama bin Laden; the outster of Mubarak of Egypt in the Arab Spring and the expected fall of Assad of Syria and other despots and dictators in the world. Lastly, his choices of Cabinet members and appointments to the judiciary and military are also considered very good and quite inclusive in the American perspectives of culture and politics.
It will be a very interesting election year to follow and it will be a very close election unlike the landslide victory of Reagan over Carter in 1980. I challenge you, my readers, to follow the election drama and get involved in your own way as it will affect your future, especially if you are a living in this country that is seemingly losing its luster in the world the last several years.
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Email writer: ernie.delfin@gmail.com or drbannatiran@yahoo.com