I met Brenda, a 50-something former Democrat at last week’s Juneteenth festival in San Francisco. Corruption is clearly turning people who were once politically active into non-voters. Because of Brenda’s belief that Jesus Christ will return and solve all of our problems, there is nothing activists or politicans can do to convince her to vote again. I met several Republicans on my road trip who said they don’t care about the state of the environment, education, healthcare, etc… because they too believe Jesus Christ will soon return. The difference is, they tend to vote.
Do you vote?
No. I no longer believe in the system. My government is God’s government. If you look at history, you’ll see that things are getting worse. They’re not getting better. I don’t care how many people vote. Nothing is changing. I used to vote. I used to campaign. I used to put flyers on doors. I used to register people to vote. After I saw all the corruption and lies, I said no more.
Do you think you can make a difference at the local level? San Francisco has the highest minimum wage in the country because the voters passed the proposition. Does that matter?
But that’s not my concern. I’m gonna keep going back to what I said before. When Jesus Christ comes back and changes everything, people will not be sick, they will not be homeless, they will not have to worry about medical benefits. Everything will be perfect.
Politician make promises, but they really can’t keep them because of the simple fact that they are beholden to lobbyists and people who have contributed to their campaign.
I believe in a new system and that system is Jehovah’s system because he is the only person that can change the hunger, the crime and the disappointments.
And when is that going to happen?
Only God knows.
When you were voting, were you a Democrat or a Republican?
I was a Democrat.
Why?
Because I felt that that party looked out for the common person: someone who is struggling and working hard. But everything is so totally corrupt. It doesn’t matter who’s in office. It’s just not for me anymore.
Will you ever vote again?
There is no way I’m ever voting again. My trust is in a higher power.
Do you still keep up with issues?
No. I hardly ever watch television news because it saddens and depresses me, but I know what’s going on because I hear people talk about different issues.
What would you tell Democrats who say, ‘We need you. Our country is a mess and we need you back.’
I would tell them that they need to start studying their bible. We need them to focus on spiritual issues. Once that’s taken care of, things will be better. This time is gonna go by so quickly. I’m in my 50s and I’m working on myself and my spiritual needs and I feel so much better.
The link for this interview is:
http://storiesinamerica.blogspot.com/2006/06/qa-with-former-democrat-who-no-longer.html
OK, I’m going to go off now.
THIS is the reason I loathe and abominate simple minded religion. For too many people it’s a handy excuse to abrogate all responsibility.
The problems of the world are difficult? Then I’ll just give up trying to make things better, dump the whole mess in the lap of a mythical god, and then feel self-righteous about it. Children are starving?
Leave it to Jesus.
I know we are all concerned about the state of the world, but it has always been thus. The new American Fascism is frightening, but choose any 100 year period in history and we can find problems far more dire than those that trouble us now. In all times and all places there have been people who fought for the common good, who protected the weak, and railed against injustice; they WORKED at going good.
And there have always been people who sat on their butts and wallowed in weak willed, self serving delusions, smug in their spiritual superiority, happily justified in shirking their portion of our share responsibility.
I am sick of giving these folks a pass out of an obligation to respect religious beliefs.
I don’t respect anyone who believes it is virtuous to wash his hands of the world and leave it to a poor, dead Jew to clean up the messes that we human beings have made.
to include the local Jehovah Witness recruiters. I’m not recruitable but I doubt that that will stop them from paying me a weekly visit. I haven’t minded until the visit they bestowed on me a few days ago. I was insulted only one other time, and that was when they told me that when Christ returns my son will magically be healed. I felt my brow scrunch so hard it almost froze that way! What if I believed that and used that as an excuse to stop working so hard for my son’s healthcare? How many people have done such a thing? A few days ago though the church minister showed up and started talking about how close the end is because of the hurricanes and Katrina and the poverty that Katrina brought, and he opened his bible and thumbed to an Old Testament scripture about poverty and the “end times”…….I think I may have completely run out of patience to even talk to them about their special kind of refusal to accept their own personal responsibilities and their desires for someone else to magically change their ditties like the “Sky Nanny”!