The weekly Daley: Had enough politics? Nah

By Chris Daley
From page A6 | 5 Comments

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of channel-flipping for me. Baseball, football and political conventions all happening at the same time nearly every night have just about done me in. I mean, how can I concentrate on sports when there’s so much free entertainment going on elsewhere?

Since I mostly watch cable rather than network news programs, I probably see and hear a lot more politics than I would otherwise. I know, for example, that the Democrats first took the words “God” and “Jerusalem” out of their party platform on Tuesday. Something about Americans using their “God-given potential” was deleted by the platform committee. And Jerusalem being recognized as the capital of Israel was also removed, because Jerusalem maybe isn’t really the capital of Israel.

By Wednesday, however, the words had been reinstated to reflect the president’s preference and to keep the platform’s language consistent with its 2008 version, we’re told. Israel says Jerusalem is its capital, but almost the entire rest of the world considers Tel Aviv to be its capital and that’s where they put their embassies.

Although I recognize the volatility of the issue for Israelis and Palestinians who also lay claim to Jerusalem, I guess I’d come down on the side of letting the majority of citizens of a particular country decide what they want to call their capital. That one’s an easier do than the other platform plank.

Is the American people’s potential really “God-given?”

Evidently, that was the only reference to “God” in the whole document (the Republicans had 12) and apparently without it, it was feared that people might assume and believe that Democrats don’t believe in God. That is, some people might assume and believe that Democrats don’t believe in Allah or Buddha or Vishnu.

And that would be pretty damaging to Democrats, it must have been determined.

I saw a cartoon recently. I think it might have been in The New Yorker magazine. Anyway, it depicted “God” telling His assistant not to bother Him just then because, “I’ve got to help this guy make an 8-foot putt.”

Painting the “other” political party as God-less or inhumane has been fairly popular among top speakers in both conventions. It’s often been the conclusion to an otherwise positive sounding statement.

“Gov. Romney seems like a pretty nice guy, but you know… (he and Paul Ryan would sell your daughter to a heathen Chinese sex-slaver to make a 10 cent profit.)”

Or:

“President Obama is a really solid family man, but you know… (he hates America, and he wants four more years to complete the sale of this great country to an international, godless Marxist cartel.)”

It’s next to impossible to know, to really know, whose side God is on. But I’ll keep paying attention to the ads and the speeches and the debates over the next two months, and I’m sure I’ll be enlightened eventually.

Chris Daley is a staff writer and columnist for the Mountain Democrat. His column appears each Friday.

Chris Daley

Chris has written a weekly column for the Democrat for more than 20 years and has Master’s Degrees in Russian History, Psychology and Career Counseling. He has been a staff writer for a number of years and enjoys it because he "learns so much about so many things."

View all my stories Email Me CDaleyMtDemo

Discussion | 5 comments

The Mountain Democrat does not necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy

James E.September 07, 2012 - 1:30 am
In WWII, belt buckles on German soldiers said, "God with us." Well, it was in German, but I don't remember the German words so translation is necessary. Hmmm, if God was with Germany in WWII it does make one wonder whose side "she" is on.
Report abusive comment
James E.September 07, 2012 - 3:14 am
OK, looked it up: GOTT MIT UNS
Report abusive comment
CatherineSeptember 07, 2012 - 2:30 pm
I laughed out loud over the finger-pointing---and then what looked like rather undemocratic capitulation---over g-d and Jerusalem in the Democratic platform. Our political parties are responsible for defining the capital of Israel? Huh? And if we do that, then which God should we have in our platforms? "Big-G" God, or "Little-g-No-o" g-d? Or maybe Allah (PBUH) since we all know the Democrats hope to form a Marxist-Socialist-Sustainable-Caliphate. It's all pretty funny. But in spite of the packaged nature of the conventions, I thought the DNC did a good job of explaining what many of us see as important differences between the parties.
Report abusive comment
Jack MartinSeptember 07, 2012 - 6:10 pm
Actually, the most humorous part in the turmoil of re-instating the words was the means by which it happened. Chairman Anthony Villagaroisa appeared to go through three "spontaneous" vote calls and on the third one, declared that the "ayes" have it. But video captured showed that the exact words he spoke were already loaded onto a telemprompter he was reading from, seen here: http://www.therightscoop.com/predetermined-photo-proves-dnc-teleprompter-loaded-to-affirm-23rds-vote-regardless-outcome/ The sweet irony in all this is that recently it has been the Dems screeching that the Republicans are trying to deprive people of their right to vote! LOL You can't make this stuff up...it just writes itself.
Report abusive comment
CatherineSeptember 08, 2012 - 10:32 am
The 3 rounds of voting decided by teleprompter was hilarious. But it's quite a stretch to equate the Dem party bosses driving through two politically cosmetic line items with an organized effort to deny certain types of people the right to vote in real elections. Not really a lot of similarity. But I can see how someone might dismiss voter ID issues. I didn't understand the problem until I dug in and learned more.
Report abusive comment