Today I saw an interview with Howard Dean, former Presidential hopeful-turned-ecstatic-embarassment-to-the-Democratic-party and current chairman of the Democratic National Committee. (Granted, while the interview was on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, it did spark a thought in my head.) During the interview, Dean bobbed and weaved Daily Show host Jon Stewart's questions regarding what exactly the Democrats would have done differently than the Republicans. He sounded like the broken record that was John Kerry 8 months ago--"We would have balanced the budget, not gone into Iraq, and found health coverage for every single American."

As Stewart comically pressed further for something unique and of substance from Dean, the chairman declared that the Democratic agenda can be summed up with this, "Love thy neighbor as yourself, and you don't get to pick your neighbors." The studio audience, predictably, gave him a rousing applause with the statement. He also got cheers by noting that the "morals-driven" Republicans have largely ignored the fact that the Bible has 3,000 references to the poor and zero references to gay marriage as they ignor the poor and rigoroursly push gay marriage bans through legislatures.

I must admit, I appreciated Howard Dean's paraphrased quote from Matthew 22. However, overall I came away from the interview a bit jaded. Just 2 minutes before quoting Christ, Dean humorously was apologetic for being Christian. Throughout the discussion he made constant jabs at Republicans. It was painfully obvious that each catchphrase, quote, or joke he made was to solicit a response from the crowd--whether it be laughter, clapping, or cheers. As a Christ-follower, I winced as he came across apologetic for being a Christian. I rolled my eyes as I heard him criticize the Republicans without giving definitive answers. And thus, I took in his Biblical references with a major grain of salt.

Anyways, all that to say, (and in the distant light of reading God's Politics by Jim Wallis several months ago) I'm a bit weary of the current state of politics today. It appears whatever party is weaker (currently, the Democrats) simply relies on criticizing the ruling party, without providing any intelligent answers to current issues/problems. Meanwhile, whatever party is in charge (the Republicans) attempts to manhandle, bully, and enforce it's own agenda and policy.

While the Republicans threaten to have its way in Congress unless the Democrats bow to their demands (whatever happened to "Compassionate Conservative"?), the Democrats continue to simply blame the Republicans for the state of the world today.

Personally, the mess of all this, with many key figures on both sides claiming Christ, has caused me to become disenfranchised with public policy in America. What's the answer to this? Many of my friends and colleagues would argue that the best way to deal with it is to fight it...on a grassroots level if need be. For me, knowing that this whole arena naturally is displeasing to me anyways, I'd be much more inclined to take a step back from it and have nothing to do with it whatsoever.

Of course, washing one's hands of a critical issue has never really proven wise, has it Pilate.