Identity Politics

“Can you explain to me why Americans voted for Donald Trump?”  came the Facebook message from my friend.  We live and work in Japan, and his question was a mixture of distress, confusion, and genuine desire to know.  In the “information ecosystem” created by the American liberal media and Japanese government here, the only information the Japanese receive about Donald Trump is negative to say the least, and alarming at worst.  So indeed, why?

In reply, I gave him some talking points cited by liberal CNN host Jake Tapper: illegal immigration, the economy, concern over foreign wars, and of course, the economy – or did I say that already?  Inflation…milk…gas…restaurants…did I mention the economy?  In support of that last point, I pointed out that for the first time in my life (and I grew up in Japan as the son of missionaries) Japan has a cheaper cost of living than the US.  People want money back in their pockets.

However, while I agree these are reasons for the landslide Democratic defeat (though I do not applaud them all), upon reflection a larger reason seems to rise, one we call identity politics.

What is identity politics?  The term is relatively new, and hard to define except by anecdote.  However, to take a stab at a definition, it is the proposition that external features of a person such as their race, gender, or sexual behavior, form their core identity.  As a result of these features, certain behavior, character, and values exist in that person and can be expected of them.  So this played out in the selection of Kamala Harris as a candidate.

What do we know about Kamala Harris?  Speaking as an educated and probably averagely-informed American voter, relatively nothing.  We know she rose to political power in California.  That history presents us with several negative or at least suspect facts: she was the mistress of San Francisco mayor Willie Brown and while in that relationship received political favors that catapulted her career.  This incidentally associates her with San Francisco, a city embodying most of the far-left, liberal values much of the country does not hold.  As AG of California she had a predictably liberal record of being soft on crime and pardoning the guilty.  She became a Senator, and appeared abrasive and abusive in several video clips.  Then, all of a sudden she was chosen to be Vice President for no other apparent reason than her race and skin color.

So voters are left scratching their heads: what we know about Kamala is that she is a liberal woman from California who apparently slept her way to the top, pardoned a bunch of criminals then threw her weight around in the US Senate before being chosen to be VP.  There is nothing positive in that assessment about her character, vision, or accomplishments.  We know nothing about what she did except to vote against a border wall 50 times (then say she approved it while running for president), be against fracking, and for trans rights.  So we know nothing about her and are left to wonder, why is she even the candidate for the Democratic party?

The answer seems to lie in identity politics.  It seems that the main reason Kamala was chosen to represent the votes of 71 million Americans, is that she is supposedly black and a woman.  Her being black (although Jamaican and not African-American) we are told means certain things: she is sympathetic to the underclass, compassionate, perhaps anti-capitalist?  I don’t know.  As for her being a woman, the main idea there seems to be that it’s high time a woman was president instead of a man.

But again, we are left with the idea that externals are more important than internals, that features external to what a person really is, are what define that person and what we should value and therefore elect that person.  Or to reverse the aphorism of Martin Luther King Jr., we are told the color of skin is more valuable than the content of character.  And to add to that, more important than accomplishments and values. 

The problem is, Americans are looking for character over color, especially in a year when months are longer than money, and Putin slaughters Ukraine. Many of us don’t really care if she is black or not – it is certainly not a liability in our minds but nor is it necessarily an automatic positive.  The issue of gender is admittedly a little more significant, for those of us who believe there are measurable differences between the sexes.  However, this does not mean we would automatically reject a candidate because she is a woman.  No, what we are really looking to see is who are you on the inside?  Are you a courageous, fair but tough, kind person who can take criticism?  Are you honest?  Do you believe what you are saying, or are you just saying whatever? 

We want to know about your accomplishments: what, concretely, have you done politically besides pardon a bunch of criminals in the most liberal state in the Union and get elected Senator from there?  What adversity have you faced in accomplishing a goal?  This is important to us in our leadership and in selecting a person for what is arguably the most responsible job in the world.

We want to know about your values: what do you really believe?  Having positions and then changing every single one in an election year is not showing courage, principle, or honesty.  Answering questions evasively with “word salads”, or with pivoting to “Donald Trump” does not inform us or build trust.  Who are you?  What do you believe?  What are your strengths and weaknesses?

So in the end, the ideology of identity politics, that your identity comes from your skin color, gender, etc., proved illusory and unable to withstand the winds of real people voting in an election year.  And in the end, I wound up feeling sorry for Harris.  In a way, she is a victim.  She has been fed (and believed) the lie that she is a certain way due to her race and gender, rather than the beliefs she holds that show themselves in character and behavior.  She has been led to believe that people will love and accept her for externals, not internals.  And so she thinks she can dissemble and mislead because she always has those externals on her side. 

I do not like Trump and share the concerns of many Democrats about him.  But here is a key difference: we might not like him, but we understand his words and know who he is and what he has done.

Regarding Shelia Wray Gregoire

 

Regarding Sheila Wray Gregoire

I recently googled “harmful things about Sheila Wray Gregoire” and couldn’t find anything, so decided to write my own piece.  While her book The Great Sex Rescue does have helpful things in it, there are also dangers and a note of warning needs to be struck.

But first, the positives.  Sheila Wray Gregoire is the most popular Evangelical marriage blogger on the internet, and her blog has helped many women in the area of sex.  Indeed, from reading The Great Sex Rescue, my wife and I were assisted in various ways.  The book takes a look at sex mainly from the evangelical women’s perspective, for the stated reason that most of the other evangelical books on sex are written from a male point of view. 

Due to its perspective, The Great Sex Rescue provided quite a few “aha moments” and insight into the female sexual experience.  It was helpful to hear about women’s need for arousal, and to hear various women speaking about how due to dissatisfaction in relationship sex was just not enjoyable for them.  It was also very appropriate to be reminded that sex should be enjoyable for the woman as well as for the man, and if it’s not, something is wrong. 

Finally, it was healthy to explore the idea that sex should not only reflect a physical connection, but an emotional and spiritual one as well.  Evaluating my relationship with my wife in these three areas was a good barometer check. 

Having listed these helpful aspects of the book, I also need to sound a few warning bells in light of her exploding popularity, lest the evangelical world swallow the bones with the meat.  For one, it seems a little more humility would become Mrs. Gregoire.  In this book, she takes on all of the heavy hitters in the evangelical marriage book world – and effectively disses them all.  Classics such as Love and Respect, The Act of Marriage, His Needs, Her needs, and The Power of a Praying Wife are roundly disregarded and attacked for being written from a male point of view – and therefore invalidated.  No-one is off limits: even widely respected authors and organizations such as Tim Keller and Focus on the Family receive her ire. If a book said things such as “Sex is a male need”, “Men struggle with porn”, or “Women should have sex with their husbands to keep them from looking at pornography or having an affair,” it was deemed insensitive, sexist and harmful.  The cumulative effect of all this loud criticism was like a prolonged scream. 

I do not think the classic books on marriage are perfect and beyond critical bounds.  For example, like Mrs. Gregoire I had a hard time with the flippant and cavalier tone of the book Sheet Music.  But let us remember that Sheila Wray Gregoire is a blogger, writing from her house somewhere in Canada.  Boggers are not vetted by anyone; they can put out whatever they want on the internet; education, credentials, and approval are not required for them to spout their views.  By contrast, the men and women who wrote the books she critiques had to progress through the ranks of churches and denominations and publishers  - a tough vetting process that Gregoire has not had to face from behind her keyboard.  Anyone can have an opinion – it is much harder to get that opinion published and recognized in the traditional way.  Gregoire would do well to show a more respect towards those the evangelical world has recognized and been helped by.

Another weakness of Gregoire’s book is the basis of its research.  All her research was done with women, with the occasional man (maybe 2 or 3) talked to and quoted.  Based on talking with women, she comes up with such ideas as, “Lust is his problem, not hers”, “Men do not need sex every three days,” “Men should not be tempted with what they see,” and “Not having sex should not lead to an affair or porn.”  While her concern that women are a part of the sex equation needs to be heard, all she had to do was talk with a couple of men (other than the 2 or 3 weird examples she found) to hear that well, yes, lust is a huge problem, no, I can’t really help it, and lack of sex in marriage does lead to a myriad of problems including porn use, and affairs.  In her attempt to present sex from the women’s side, she misrepresents and stigmatizes the male experience.

Thirdly, her biblical theology and exegesis is shoddy at best, and at points wrong.  She does not believe in biblical male headship in the family, but does not give Scriptural basis for her views; rather an egalitarian marriage is advocated because it prevents divorce and fosters better sex. (p. 33)  In a footnote on the chapter where she makes this claim, she claims Ephesians 5:22 does not contain the word “submit” in the original Greek, when actually, it does (hupotasso).  In her explanation of 1 Cor. 7:2-5, she posits that sex should not be used to combat a porn addiction; rather, that addiction should be fought by the man apart from sex with his wife.  This, despite the fact that Paul uses such language as “do not deprive each other…so that you may not be tempted.”  One gets the impression from reading this book that she is letting emotion dictate her interpretation of the Bible, rather than allowing Scripture to shape our experience. 

Sheila Wray Gregoire is a blogger from Canada who has become famous by publishing the woman’s perspective on sex on the internet.  However, she does not take the male perspective into account, she is not a careful theologian, and she should show more respect for the authors she attacks.  Let’s listen to what she has to say, because there are some helpful correctives.  But let us not forget that there is a dangerous dose of bones in there with the meat. 

 

Seasons

January

 In the winter of my heart

the season of my discontent

you came, called my name

set my soul

aflame

 

February

In the dull pulses of dormant earth

struggles the flower

buried to break forth

 

March

Sings more hopefully the song

of winds and lilies

forget-me-nots and spreading grass

the first notes

of all things new

 

March (2)

Hello, yellow daffodils.

I have waited for you so long;

it is good to see you again.

 

April

Gentle comes the month,

friend of lovers

and children, brushing

her sweet clouds

across a care-less sky.

 

May

Purple azalea scent wafts

into a friendly sky

 

 June

From the rain-soaked earth

glisten hydrangeas

white, violet, and painful blue.

 

July

Shining also spreads the verdant rice

drinking a rain-dipped

misty sky.

 

August

In the shaded mountains

beneath cedar trees,

we walk wooded paths.

 

September

Heart!  Emerging from the shade and

ocean spray, colors sharpen

days in relief, and a blue sky

enfolding mountains.

October

And from the trunk that holds the leaf

pulses the color of the year’s descent

symphony of yellow, orange, and vermillion

her strongest song

before the death.

November

Red berries on a dark bough

beneath the clouded sky.

 

December

The Christ child came

on such a night as this

snowflakes landing

half-melted on the thread

of a velvet scarf

falling on the thatched and tarred roofs

covering in white

washing our stain away.

Parked or Pilgrim?

For evangelicals, it's been a tough year.  5 justices re-engineered marriage.  In the flames of racial strife, officers and citizens have been killed.  In Colorado they puff weed, and we can't understand Common Core.  The future doesn't look exactly promising either: by all polls and interviews, the rising Millennial generation have even less traditional values and morals than their parents.  In this rapidly post-modernizing, post-Christian culture, what are we to do?  How are we to maintain a relevant and received voice to a world that is only looking for the latest Tweet or Facebook update, and not the 10 a.m. weekly service?  One answer is to stop only singing about it, and get into true pilgrim mode.

Parked or in pilgrim?  This is the question I ask when surveying the Evangelical church landscape in our land.  For three decades I have had opportunity to travel to all of our 50 states, multiple times, and observe churches all over the spectrum.  While the gospel is preached, and many friendly, warm Christians exist, the predominant images are disturbing.  Many of us make six figures and live in plush environs.  We park in and rush out after the service, exchanging maybe a hello and goodbye before speeding back home to catch the Patriots game over a bucket of KFC and Coke.  Our waistlines are big as a slurpee machine, and the sale of our second vehicle could feed an African village for a year.  And let’s not get into the 450 cable channels, i-pads, pods, and phones, and every kind of web connection known to man.  (Except for the ones that got drowned during the last pool party.)  This world is not my home?  Well, for visitors we sure have a lot of souvenirs.

 

Perhaps this is one of the reasons they don’t listen to us much, when we pop up our heads from the KFC bucket to rattle off a rant against gay marriage, or abortion.  Maybe this is why they don’t take us too seriously when we say the country is going to hell in a handbasket, and the cities are the end of the earth, in between car seat DVDs.  They don’t take us very seriously, because it seems like rather than really caring about change, what we really want to preserve is the mortgage and the plasma television.

And yet, it doesn’t have to be this way.  If, instead of pampering our houses, we moved back into our tents, if instead of treating this world as the final destination we saw it as a war marked with flowers and occasional pools, Christianity in America might get its mojo back.  Doing community instead of just talking about it.  Giving sacrificially rather than skimpily.  Living next to the gays and lesbians and single moms, instead of just yelling at them.  Selling a car so a kid can go to school.  Putting the faith into actions, not just words.  Will they listen again?

I believe they will, if we get out of park and back into pilgrim.

This Fight is Personal

What if my son stares with a face like my own

And says he wants to be like me when he’s grown

#%&! But I ain’t finished growing – P. Diddy

 “Until you have a son of your own…you will never know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son.  And you will never know the heartbreak of the fathers who are haunted by the personal demons that keep them from being the men they want their sons to be.”  Ken Nerburn

One of the ironies of fatherhood is that, as you look at yourself, you are not father material.  The things you want to see in your children you do not yet see in yourself, and the one you are the most disgusted with, is you.  As G.K. Chesterton put it, the problem with the world is “me.” 

And the even more frustrating thing is, you don’t seem to be able to do anything about it.  You were hurt by your father’s anger, but you feel the same anger welling up when your child interrupts you, or interferes with your relaxation, or has their fifth sibling fight in five minutes.  You have painful memories of being yelled at, but you find your veins popping out in livid relief as you thunder in your three-year-old’s face, “Stop running around while I try to talk!”  You wished your parent had fully accepted you, but you find yourself judging or lashing out when your child shows a part of themselves that you don’t like.  

The problem with the world is me – the same can be said for parent-child relationships, to paraphrase Jack Miller.  But even more of a problem is, what do I do about that? 

Let’s look at three things.

1.       Discard the “ifs”.  Are you disappointed with your child?  Discouraged?  Dismayed?  Angry?  Finding yourself unable to love them unconditionally with the love of Christ?  Then it’s possible you have attached a string to that love, and the child yanked the string.  In other words, your love came with an “If.”  Here are some examples:

-          If you don’t embarrass me in public, we will live at peace and I will accept you for who you are.

-          If you adhere to the rules of my religion, I will love you.

-          If you accept my particular understanding of the Bible, I will accept you.

-          If you get good grades in school, you will be accepted.

-          If you respect me and obey the rules of the house, you will be loved.

Now, all these things are fine in and of themselves.  But if we make our love for our child conditional upon their fulfillment, we are not loving with the stringless love of Christ. 

Recently my daughter reacted in a certain way to a biblical teaching that I presented.  Her reaction caused me a lot of turmoil, over a month of it in fact, before I finally realized that in my heart I had set up a condition.  If she accepted this particular belief of mine, I would accept and love her.  When I realized that and let it go, I felt once again peace and acceptance towards her in my heart.

Is your relationship with your child strained?  Have they violated any “ifs”?  If so, no pun intended, can you let these go?

2.       Exorcise the demons.  The Puritans told us our enemies were three: the world, flesh, and devil; this point focuses on the third.  What are our “demons”?  They are those behaviors that we literally can’t control, because they rise from strongholds in our hearts of the devil’s power. 

      

      Several years ago in church I listened to a man share his story.  He was a well-known Christian leader, church planter, and educator.  He had five children and a lovely wife.  But until his 50s, he, confessed, he had struggled with uncontrollable anger.  This did not happen all the time; only in certain situations did he feel this overwhelming rage rising within.  At such times, whoever was around felt the storm of his wrath.

      

      Then one day, he was watching a television program with his wife, and sirens began to wail on the TV.  As they did so, he began to cry.  Then he understood.  For years as a child, his family had been homeless.  They had moved around from shelter to shelter, in neighborhoods where at night sirens split the air.  When he heard the sirens on TV, they touched this deep hurt in his life, and the tears flowed.

      

      Once my friend was able to identify the source of his anger, which was hurt and bitterness over homelessness, he was able to forgive and accept his past, and move on.  The taproot was cut, and although his anger did not entirely cease, the mysterious and hard-to-control part did.  

      

      Do you have behaviors that seem out of control?  Maybe it’s anger, like my friend.  Maybe it’s a life-sucking habit, such as drinking, porn, or overeating.  Whatever, the case, if there is a behavior that you just feel like you are having an out of body experience while doing it, chances are that the devil has gained a foothold in your life through a past experience that was traumatic for you, and to which you reacted with anger, fear, or both. 

      

      Identification of the root and forgiveness of the perpetrator will help you move on to become the father you want to be.

3.       Don’t settle for less!  Some of us look at the mess we are and want to throw up our hands.  Not only are we up against the giant task of molding a child’s behavior, but standing smack in the way is our own twisted self.  And in the path of reforming that is generational sin, the devil, and our nature that is powerfully attracted to evil.  But think of this truth: the power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you.  Is any force too strong for God?  No!

      

      So don’t give up the fight.  Don’t give up the struggle against generational sin.  Don’t give up the fight against the flesh, the world, the devil.  Don’t look in the mirror of your heart, and the mirror of your biological family, and throw up your hands in despair.  You can change.  It is possible.  And even if you only make a small amount of progress in this life, this will be a treasured heritage to pass on to your children, that they in turn can build on and pass on to theirs. 

      Let’s fight for our families, children, neighborhoods, and world.  The power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you.

40

Turning 40 caught me by surprise.  New thoughts and feelings came over my soul.  For what they're  worth, here are a few.

 1.     There was a hill, and you are over it.  You laugh and it sounds morbid, and sure, 40 is a ways from the morgue.  But you can sense the change.  You feel the decline.  Your body will not get much stronger, no matter how you work out.  Your skin has begun to sag.  You get tired more easily.  You can’t eat two helpings without regretting it.  You have to watch your snacking and drink more water.

But there are also the less-physical, harder to quantify changes.  Somehow, at 40 I sensed that my days of being a learner, as a defining role in life, had reached an end.  This is not to say that we should not always seek to learn – we should.  But, like Forrest Gump who abruptly turned around and said, “I think I’m going home now” after running for three years, at 40 you just feel, “This is it.  I've learned a lot.  It’s now time for me to give back.” 

By 40, you have become a repository.  The 16 years + of schooling, the dating and relationships, the problems and difficulties on the job, good and bad choices made, marriage, children – all have accumulated into a mass of feeling, understanding, and information whose overwhelming need is no longer to take in, but to give out, give back, and pass on to someone, the regrets and failures and joys that have come at such cost.  You have an almost physical need to get these things out, that you have learned, in 40 years.  And this is a part of dying: to no longer take life from others, but to give it back, so that they will be able to live.

2.       You’re less relevant.  At 40, you begin to sink into the background.  No-one really congratulates you on your birthday, or remarks how young you are.  If they do, it’s half-hearted, a polite lie to make you feel better.  No-one comes to your party.  Your Facebook friends start to look old.  And to the younger generation, you are old.  Sure, you can cinch your belt and tighten the years like nothing has happened and hey, what’s the difference between 41 and 35, right?  But there is.  There is.  And instead of being the one who is believed in, whose future is a bright shining star that people encourage and work to see arise, you find yourself in the part of the seating area that cheers the risings. This background role is not a bad thing.  But it’s a shift.  It’s a part of gracefully letting go of our hold on the world.

  

 3.     Life gains momentum.  At 20, I thought I was 40.  I had a few years of college under my belt, and the world was my oyster.  At 30, reality set in.  I hadn't accomplished as much as I had wanted to in my 20s, and felt disillusioned and disappointed.  But physically at least I was stronger than ever, and still had many dreams that awaited fulfillment.

      

      A decade later, I have a wife and five children, am a year into my life career, and survived a tough 10 years of low income, mental illness, and lack of steady employment.  Having endured two difficult decades, this next one does not seem so long.  And after that it’s 50, and then…

4.       So, and this is the last point, I think that at 40, you start to live with a sense of urgency.  You have seen life and how it goes by, and how once it’s gone, no-one knows or cares about those moments so laden with significance and meaning for you.  You realize that things like using your talents, giving back to others, finding meaningful work and doing it well, and good relationships with friends and family, matter so much more than accumulation of money and societal respect.  This leads you to live more intentionally, hoping to maximize what time you have left.  You do things like post on blogs again.

40 – a sobering age.  But if we can only give back what we have taken in, I know it will be worth the ride.

To My Fellow Republicans

Okay, I admit it - I stretched the title a bit to get your attention.  I'm more independent than Republican these days - Republican all my life until John McCain, the last two election cycles I have voted for a third party in protest that the GOP would nominate such tepid men.  But I still understand these guys (the Republicans, that is) inside and out, and these days I am feeling some brotherly concern for them.  There is trouble in paradise, and I would like to list several suggestions for the Grand Old Party to follow if they are going to turn things around and stop getting trounced by 'dem Dems.

1. Realize you are making a lot of people angry with your immigration policy.  Why did you lose the Hispanic vote?  Because you want to close the borders.  This is persnickety, territorial, small-hearted, and all kinds of things like that.  You are reminding people of the Grinch who stole Christmas.

Think about it, my friends.  How did you get to this nation?  Your grandfather got on a boat and came over here to escape the potato famine in Ireland or the Nazis in Germany or the Communists in Russia.  You have no more right to this place than anyone else in the world - it was a gift, opened up to you by God.  If you received such grace, who are you to deny this to anyone else?

You may say, I am not against immigration; I am only against illegal immigration.  Well, the fact of the matter is, that legal immigration has become so difficult that it's out of the reach of most people.  And these people suffer poverty, war, disease, and joblessness in their home lands.  Their lives are a dead-end street.  So, we need to do two things:
1. Loosen the immigration laws, making it easier for people to get in, and
2. Support a graduated program of amnesty for the current illegals and their children.

Look, I want to keep my job as much as the next guy.  But I have lived in Philadelphia for the last 20 years and can tell you, these people are not stealing our jobs.  They take the jobs no-one else wants, and do fantastic work at them.  They are our janitors, gutter cleaners, fruit pickers, and factory workers.  They are honest, hard-working, polite, law-abiding, and friendly.  I love these people, and by George, they are way better for our society than a lot of the legal citizens I see.

We worry that there will not be enough land to go around; there will not be enough workers.  But the U.S. has become great because we have always been a giving nation.  If we stop this now, we will regress into miserliness and ingratitude.  We will think that what has been given to us is something that we deserve.  This attitude lacks compassion, understanding, and appeal with Hispanic votes, which we need to attract before the window of opportunity closes and we lose their trust for generations.

2. Convince people that they were born to work.  Mitt Romney debated job creation with President Obama, touting his ability to fix this economy and create jobs.  Kudos to Mr. Romney, and I believed him.  (The reason I did not vote for him had nothing to do with his economics, which I believe are light years better for our country than Obama's.)  But his point made no difference, because he was talking to  about half of a potential workforce that, well, would prefer actually NOT to work.  The reason they voted for Obama and not Romney had nothing to do with whether or not they believed Mitt could give them a job - more likely, they were afraid he just might.

You see, we are living in a day and age of entitlements.  The devil's bargain made during the Great Depression by Franklin Delano Roosevelt has become the insatiable monster called the entitlement society.  FDR cut ties with personal responsibility and bailed the people out of their misery.  In exchange, he expected their votes.  Well, the people liked being bailed out so much that they never returned to the personal responsibility track.  Why work when Uncle Sam will pay the bills?  And so now, we have 42 million Americans on food stamps, a 25% increase from only 4 years prior.  Millions more take disability, unemployment, Social Security Income, and welfare checks.  According to an inner city nurse I know, who works at a clinic serving the poor of North Philadelphia, about half of these need them, and half don't.

So, the message the GOP needs to be bringing to the populace is not, "I can get you a job," but rather, "A job is what you need not just economically, but as a human being.  You will be happier if you work, because that's how you are wired."  People need to be persuaded of the Republican philosophy of life.

3. Third, and last, the Repubs need a little compassion.  I have been thinking about compassion these days.  What is it?  Paul Miller in Love Walked Among Us suggests that compassion begins with considering and not judging.

"Judging is knee-jerk, quick, and bereft of thought, while compassion is slow and thought-filled.  By slowing down so that I could feel compassion, I was closer to both Courtney and Jill.  If I'd speeded up and judged, I would have been distant from them.  Judging separates and, thus, destroys community; compassion unites and creates commmunity."

Republicans are often accused of lacking compassion and being judgmental.  We don't think this about ourselves, myself included.  It is obvious to us that our way of life is right, we have done the right things to get there, and the deadbeats who want to take governmental handouts or live illegally in our society or legalize pot are irresponsible, lazy, naive, and dishonest.  People should take responsibility for their lives, and buck up.

If, however, compassion is slow and thought-filled, and begins with looking, I think we have to ask ourselves, how much have we actually looked at the situations of those who think differently than we?  How many Republicans live, for example, in urban areas?  How many even know illegal immigrants?  How many have friends who are gay, or a single mother on food stamps?  How much have we tried to understand the situations of those whom we oppose before judging and separating ourselves from them?  Like Jesus, let us look, consider, and try to understand before forming our conclusions.  If we do, I think that we will see we have it far less together than we normally think, and that the possessions and titles we think are "ours" are actually results of heritage, birth circumstance, and societal inequalities over which we had no control.  These realizations will make us more humble, loving, and generally likeable to the voting public.

Well, take it or leave it, but this is my blueprint forward for the party that I think has a lot to offer to America.  Revise the immigration policy, convince people they were made to work, and exercise more compassion.  These three things will make the message of the Republican party more palatable in our rapidly changing public square.