Elections and Cusps

I think that, in November of 2008, we stood upon a cusp. If the presidential election had gone differently I feel that even keeping a blog such as this (non-Christian, pro-science, pro free speech, liberal) would have become illegal within the next ten years or at least legal grounds for job discrimination.

We were saved by the fact that Sarah Palin is such an extremist that the majority of Christians, even those who would support a more theocratic government, couldn't support her in good conscience. I know more than one staunch Republican who voted against her, preferring a Democrat to a regime led by extremists. I speak of Sarah Palin because she spoke her mind on so many issues that her stance was crystal clear. We don't really know that McCain wasn't of the exact same thoughts on the same issues because he kept such opinions close to himself.

We were saved from a decline into fewer freedoms and a move towards theocracy - temporarily. It's not done, it's not gone. People are forgetting the last Bush years already and people are forgetting the Palinesque extremism already. They are seeing the recession which had its genesis even before George W's presidency and blaming it on the current administration. They don't think long term, they think that if the recession could be fixed or recovered from ever any president that hasn't fixed it yet is a bad president - even though the mess was almost twenty years in the making.

I don't think the danger of a theocratic push for power is over. There are more vocal religious extremists in America than at any other time in my life. And they are not treated as fringe elements, they are verging on mainstream. So we aren't safe yet.

So my advice is to remember that we aren't safe yet and may never be so enjoy to the fullest your powers of free speech and religious freedom while you have them. And don't become complacent - get out and vote in your local and state elections when the time rolls around again.