As President Obama’s approval ratings continue to decline, Democratic lawmakers continue to turn a deaf ear to the concerns of the nation, and Republicans enjoy the favor of the Tea Party movement, many are hoping that the mid-term elections this fall will mark a watershed and turning-point for the country.
They are hoping that the era of big government, big spending, and big deficits will be put behind us and the nation will rediscover the course from which subtle but foul winds have blown it over the past many years. And they are hoping that new faces in Washington will take the helm of the ship of state and sail her back into the friendly breezes of freedom, constitutionality, and moral decency.
I think that all who hope this way will be disappointed.
Politics is not the hope this nation needs. Can Americans really be so short-sighted as to think that Republicans, once in office, will not try to use the reins of power to their own advantage? And do they not understand that this means discovering ways of making government responsive to interest-groups and the media? And do hopeful Americans really think that the majority in this nation, who have begun to suck the teats of entitlement, will be ready simply to turn away from that source?
The soul of the country has been damaged by the false hope of politics. We are becoming, as F. A. Hayek warned, a nation of serfs – ready to give up any freedom as long as someone will promise to take care of us. No amount of new faces in Washington can cure what ails the American electorate.
This is a work only the Spirit of God can accomplish. But He will not begin to do so until we first repent of the idolatry of hoping in government for the wrong things, weep for the compromised and corrupted condition of our souls, and seek the Lord earnestly, day by day, for revival. Short of such seeking, the nation will continue on its course, because politics is a broken stick on which to lean in life for the things that matter most.
T. M. Moore
