God is not a Democrat. God is not a Republican.
Humans are obsessed with dualism. We want to break things down to good versus evil, right and wrong, black and white, us versus them.
I tell my students repeatedly, it's rarely that simple.
For example: Protesters at the University of California are wrong for using violence in their demonstrations. They are violating the very premises of free speech Cal is known for protecting. They definitely should protest. I would have protested if I were there. But violence is unacceptable.
However, that doesn't mean we automatically take sides with the person they are protesting against. The man, who shall not be named here, who was scheduled to speak at their campus is not one you want to be associated with. He is a racist. He is a bigot. He spreads viscous lies. He is a cyber-bully. It takes a lot to be banned from twitter. Twitter allows all kinds of bullying and trolling. This guy was banned from twitter for crying out loud.
Rarely does life come down to saints and sinners. Dualistic thinking is destructive and counter-intuitive.
For example, just because you claim loyalty to a political party or ideology does not mean you should give blind loyalty to that organization or movement.
I cut my ties to the official Republican Party in 1993 because I saw the dangers of feeling like I had to defend my party regardless of their actions. I didn't want to be under the powerful sway of groupthink. So I declared my independence. Since then I have voted for Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Greens and Independents. I have ideas that are considered conservative. I also have ideas that some describe as liberal. I am not going to swear allegiance to a label.
Dualistic thinking led many Christians to blindly vote for our current president despite the fact that his proudly stated values often run counter to the Christian faith. As I've said, I could barely stomach the idea of Hillary Clinton as president, but despite her flaws she was far superior to the disaster of Donald Trump from a moral perspective. Every moral failing possessed by Hillary was exaggerated ten-fold by Trump. There was indeed a true lesser of two evils in this election. Trump was not it.
Many Christians voted for Trump due to their long cultivated hatred of Clinton. But I suspect many more voted for Trump simply because he was their party's nominee. This makes me come to the reluctant conclusion that many Republicans would have voted for anyone, anyone simply because they were their party's nominee. Who the nominee is does not matter.
How more distasteful could you be than Trump? He's not a conservative. He never professed to be a Christian until last year when it became politically expedient. Pastors preached sermons against Trump back in the 1990's when he proudly bragged about his marital infidelity and said you shouldn't have to work at marriage. When he said he would only run for president if Oprah was his vice president many conservatives recoiled. Many Christians decried his lack of humanity on his reality show. Ten years ago my conservative friends couldn't stand Trump. What changed their minds? Party loyalty.
Party loyalty or any institutional loyalty is a very dangerous thing. And the Democrats do the same thing although to their credit they've never had a candidate quite as abhorrent to their party values as Trump is to the Republican platform. Free trade? Let's throw that out the window and place taxes and tariffs on Mexican imports. Time and time again Trump violates basic conservative principles and Republicans continue to line up behind him. I don't usually agree with George Will, David Frum, Glenn Beck and Bill Kristol but at least they are standing up for their conservative ideals and are calling Trump out on his scam.
Dualistic thinking is poison.
The other side is not necessarily evil. Rational thinking must be our guide. It's important to weigh the bias inherent in the media and make conclusions based off our observations. I read the Drudge Report and the Huffington Post. I watch Fox News and MSNBC. I read the New York Times and the Washington Times. The truth is usually somewhere in the middle. Party loyalty should never be a part of the criteria. Because parties and institutions often have one major goal above all: to claim power and to maintain power.
