Have you ever been genuinely enthusiastic about a presidential candidate? is there anyone you would look forward to supporting in 2012?It is safe to stipulate I was excited in general to cast my first ballot ever in 1996, yes? I doubt Bob Dole sent a Chris Matthews-esque tingle up anyone’s leg at the time. He certainly did not thrill me. But you always remember your first. In that election, I was like most voters--I voted against the other guy rather than for my guy. Does everyone not pretty much settle for a candidate more often than not?
Keeping in mind I am only 34 with only four presidential elections I have been eligible to vote in, the only time I have ever been excited for a candidate was George W. Bush in 2000. He seemed like a genuine Christian conservative. These days, I do not doubt his Christianity, but his conservatism is in question. By 2004, I voted for him out of respect for his efforts in combating terrorism, but mostly was voting against John Kerry.
The deal was that I had been interested in politics from an age when virtually no kid is. I first seriously followed the 1988 presidential election when I was eleven. It was all because of the influence of my Bob Jones affiliated school. You may recall I have mentioned the constant Antichrist watch we were all on. There was something about the religious undertone of the election--pat Robertson claiming God told him to run, Bush saying atheists ought not be citizens, and the general scandals among televangelists creating an air of declining Christian values made the election feel like a spiritual battle. Besides, Michael Dykakis was a Massachusetts progressive. The epitome of all that is evil in the world, as it were.
The notion a presidential election had spiritual consequences sticks with me even now. Considering how the religious views of candidates are a major deal, it must concern a whole lot of people, whether they will admit it or not. It is evidence God exists. We feel His influence in such matters the same way the moon pulls the tides.
Back to a more personal level, the BJU Christians panicked when bill Clinton won election in 1992. Here was a pro-choice, pro-guys rights, pot smoking hippie who acknowledged Elvis Presley sang more than Gospel songs. These folks did not like jimmy Carter, either, but at least the ex-peanut farmer had a moral compass. I do not recall anyone claiming Clinton was the Antichrist, though I do believe there were some who thought his uncanny ability to make people genuinely believe he could feel their pain was unnatural. Regardless of his demonic status, there was certainly a sense our country was beyond god’s blessing for having elected him.
Beating him in 1996 became a holy cause. Literally. Jerry Falwell peddled videos at the time claiming Clinton had murdered political enemies in his rise to power in Arkansas. Pat Robertson credited the GOP takeover a congress in 1994 to god blessing the Republican party in its battle against Clinton’s evil progressivism. I was not particularly skeptical of any of this, either at the time.
I entered the university of South Carolina in 1995 and soon ingratiated myself with the College Republican crowd. I may be heavily criticized for this, but young republicans in South Carolina very much resemble Bill Mahers smear of the GOP in its entirely as Bible thumping Civil War re-enactors. I was already beginning to purge a lot of fundamentalism by this point, but Clinton’s defeat still resonated as a holy cause even though I was more in tune with the yuppie aspects of being a pre-law student involved in politics. If dole was not all that exciting, at least no one had spent the better part of four years convincing me he was eager to turn the united states into a modern day Sodom and Gamorrah
All that to explain why an overtly Christian presidential candidate like Bush was in 200 was an exciting prospect, particularly since al gore had two strikes against him. One, he dropped out of seminary, which raises paranoid suspicions he has rejected Christianity whether he actually has or not. Two, he was big into environmentalism. Anything beyond reasonable conservationism is flirting with pagan nature worship where I am from.
Regent university reminded me of the worst aspects of Christian fundamentalism, I think I largely dropped any spiritual concerns during the 2004 election. Strange, because it was largely about the clash between Western, Christian civilization and Muslim barbarism. Yeah, there was none of that religion of peace political correctness stuff at Regent. I still relatively unenthusiastically supported Bush on national security grounds.
John McCain in 2008…ugh. I was definitely voting against Barack Obama that time around, I referred to McCain as Otto von Bismarch from the moment he started campaigning. I must admit Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate did make the deal sweeter, mostly because progressives hated her. You can judge a person well by their detractors. Then again, there was a great deal of enthusiasm for her christian character.
To (finally) answer your second question, I am honestly not sure right now. I am highly motivated to defeat Obama, and am willing to vote for pretty much anyone else just to get rid of him. Argue the point if you wish, but I suspect Obama is an atheist. Irreligious at the very least. I still have twinges that God will not bless a country whose leadership does not keep Him in His proper place--above all else. If nothing else, I fear his anti-Israel position has brought God’s promise to Abraham to bless them that bless Israel and curse them that curse Israel upon us. In that sense, electing a devout Christian like Palin, Michele Bachmann, or Rick Perry feels like we would be making needed apologies to god. Any one of them would be a step in the right direction.
Is there one I am most excited about? I still like Palin. There is something about Bachmann that screams unelectable. I do not know if Perry will even run, much less have the juice to win. I think the urge to get rid of Obama outweighs any enthusiasm for a particular candidate, but since Palin quickly came to mind first even though there is still a question she will even run, I imagine I would be excited to vote for her. We shall see. Maybe.
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