This may be a stupid statement, or rather maybe I’m just a bit stupid for thinking it, but I feel/believe this nation is coming upon a turning point in the way we conduct our affairs. This election hinges on a building public perception that something needs to change and the candidate that can convince enough of us and prove him/herself by invoking trust in his/her ability to tap into the public sentiment and actually present a different vision, a different way forward, and cause change will win. Are we in the midst of a primary cultural/political shift?
I read recently a commentator’s thoughts that the country is in a similar position now as when Reagan came to power. Reagan called for a fundamentally different way of going about business, people responded, and he accomplished winning over a large number of Democrats. Some are saying the Obama is the Democratic Reagan and that he is able to attract a lot of disaffected Republicans. We shall see.
I’ve also been reading of late stuff about how the the state of affairs in this country is very similar to the way things were right before the Civil War. Different issues, obviously, different geographic outlines, yet the situations then and now are very similar. Likewise, I read an Episcopalian blogger talking about how the sentiments and affairs of the Episcopal Church right now are also very similar to the state of affairs in the Church right before the Civil War.
We shouldn’t discount the severity of our national condition. I’m not warmonger or doom sayer, but do we see what we need to see, perceive what we need to perceive, understand what we need to understand when we all would rather just go shopping? Do we have eyes to see, hears to hear, or a willingness to pay attention long enough to do the good, the right?