Thoughts on Uniting

(Yes, this post will be political. Read accordingly.)

So, over and over again, we hear the Democrats calling on President Bush to unite the country. Heck, there were lots of complaints because he didn't unite us in his first term. Kerry brought up the idea of unity in his concession speech. Other leaders have called on Bush to unite this country in the week since then.

And yes, President Bush does have a responsibility to reach out and work with everyone in government to do what is best for the country. But there are some things it doesn't mean.

This does not mean that Bush needs to scrap his agenda for the Democrat agenda. He was elected because of what he said he'd do, so he now needs to follow through and try to do that. Yes, work with Democrats to get all sides of the issue and pass the best bills/reforms possible. But don't surrender what got him there in the first place.

But let's look at the other side. See, unity, like everything else in life, is a two way street. And I'm holding the Democrats to a much higher standard then Bush for his second term. After all, it was the Democrats who filibustered every single one of Bush's judge nominations for the past four years. That's hardly doing anything toward unity.

And, frankly, it's people like this who are helping divide our country. (Warning, there are some very graphic signs here, at least for what you'd normally find on my blog.) I mean, really, will these people ever unite with Bush over anything? I think if he came out and did the opposite of everything he's done for the last four years, they'd think he was still evil.

Then there's this article. I'm sorry, but that just sounds like a bunch of whiners. Who again, will not be uniting with Bush even if he were giving $1 million to every person who voted against him.

Then there's the talk of succession. States in this country tried that when they didn't like the outcome of an election. In 1861. Remember studying a little thing called the Civil War? And in this case, there are lots of people in the blue states that wouldn't go along with it. CA went to Kerry with only 54% of the vote. That means almost half of the people voted for Bush. That's a lot of your fellow citizens who would resist a move to take us away from the country because of Bush.

Or those talking about moving to Canada. I'll believe that when I see it. And I'm sorry, but that's just petty and childish.

You see, it's called a Democracy. That means that majority picks it's rulers. Ok, so we're actually a Republic (happy now, Matt?) where we pick leaders to make the rules for us. But the majority still picks the leaders. That means sometimes you win and sometimes you loose. When you loose, you need to be gracious about it and work toward the next time. Power will shift yet again. It's happened time and time again in this country.

But it will not help anything to call those of us who voted for Bush (you know, the majority of the population) stupid, moron, idiot, or worse. How is that going to unite anyone? We both looked at the same facts and the same candidate and reached different conclusions. That doesn't make either one of us smarter or dumber then the other. Just different.

I had originally intended to lash out at this point in my post and say I was going to start taking these comments personally. Fortunately, God whacked me upside the head with a reminder from the Sermon on the Mount about praying for those who persecute you. So, God helping me, I will continue to work at my friendships with those who agree and disagree with me.

A comment for my friend "The Truth." This was an American election. We were electing our leaders. I didn't tell you who I thought should be your leader nor did I insult you after the results. Please extend the same courtisy to me.

One final point. I have never called anyone who disagreed with me unpatriotic. I reserve the right to do so in the future, but then it will be for something truly outrageous like calling for another attack on our country or some such thing. It will not be for simply disagreeing with Bush. This country has lots of room for disagreement and I will always support that. Encouraging the enemy is unpatriotic. Disagreeing with our government isn't.