Did you ever get the impression that American politics is going in circles and that the only thing the two-party system agrees on is to hate each othe

[kozlosap]

I’m almost physically tired from the last 140 days. I do not think I’m alone. Whether you voted for the major candidates or 3rd party candidates, it makes not one bit of difference right now, not any difference. I live on the West Coast, and by the time I wake up and turn on the news, the tweet storms from the night before are all over the media and the daytime nightmare once again is Groundhog Day. I’m praying that someday we will once again be the shining city on the hill…

 

[MaryT777]

I’m almost physically tired from the last 140 days. I do not think I’m alone. Whether you voted for the major candidates or 3rd party candidates, it makes not one bit of difference right now, not any difference. I live on the West Coast, and by the time I wake up and turn on the news, the tweet storms from the night before are all over the media and the daytime nightmare once again is Groundhog Day. I’m praying that someday we will once again be the shining city on the hill…

Great analogy; Goundhog Day

 

[Beryllos]

Nah, we need more optimism in this country. Presidents have come and gone and naysayers for either party alarmed at times but I’d say the country has survived this far and I’m sure it will survive a Trump Presidency.

After all, we survived an Obama presidency.

Where sin abounds grace abounds all the more.

Mary.

All true. There is hope.

 

[Robert_Sock]

All true. There is hope.

I openly state that America is thriving. My question is in regards to the hatred between the political parties. I find it ironic that with our country being so divided politically, with much hatred in both of the major parties, that we continue to thrive!

 

[mikekle]

The US constitution gives the people the right and duty to put a stop to this kind of thing though, we cannot call ourselves patriotic americans if we just sit around and wait for a tyrannical Govt to decide and make changes, ultimately it is up to the people to reign the govt in, and its actually our duty to do so.

What type of person would just sit back and tolerate all this, just because they are too worried about the risks to their own quality of life, (or risk being labelled a domestic terrorist)? If Im not mistaken, during the times of the American revolution, they had certain names for people like this. LOL

 

[Brassring]

The US constitution gives the people the right and duty to put a stop to this kind of thing though, we cannot call ourselves patriotic americans if we just sit around and wait for a tyrannical Govt to decide and make changes, ultimately it is up to the people to reign the govt in, and its actually our duty to do so.

What type of person would just sit back and tolerate all this, just because they are too worried about the risks to their own quality of life, (or risk being labelled a domestic terrorist)? If Im not mistaken, during the times of the American revolution, they had certain names for people like this. LOL

You seem as though you have a course of action in mind. Why don’t you articulate that for us?

 

[Brassring]

Isn’t it a sin or at least morally wrong to neglect your civic DUTY to vote?

No. It’s not. Believe it or not, there’s not even a civic duty to vote. If it was a duty, voting would be compulsory.

 

[SuperLuigi]

And yet we thrive as a nation!

How much longer remains to be seen.

 

[SuperLuigi]

=Brassring;14697457]I know that not casting a vote is a vote. It was the only moral vote I could make. Donald Trump is bad. Hillary Clinton is worse. I refuse to vote for “bad” to avoid “worse”. That is NOT a responsible choice. I had read all the Catholic voting guides. The simple answer is that there was not a single choice that fit my definition of a moral choice as a Catholic voter. Catholicism is NOT the religious expression of a political position.

The “if you don’t vote for my candidate, you’re voting for the other candidate” line of reasoning is false. It is unmitigated, unparalleled, and unqualified foolishness. It is a childish knee-jerk answer driven by self-centeredness and pride. I will not entertain it.

If you vote 3rd Party, you’ll be resented by one party and ignored by both of them.

Third Parties in America are a joke. I don’t understand how the libertarians can continue to make all the blunders they do and get used by the Democrats to blunt GOP numbers.

I also think somewhere down the line people vote 3rd Party just to avoid being called names by the bigoteer brigade, demonstrating they don’t understand how post-modernism works (there is no hiding from it and they’ll come for you eventually unless you stand all in with them).

So I really balk at the nobility of the idea of voting 3rd Party in America.

 

[SuperLuigi]

Isn’t it a sin or at least morally wrong to neglect your civic DUTY to vote?

One is not necessarily obligated to vote, but given the revealed Truth of the Church, I’d say you’re in trouble if your not doing it just to be lazy.

But I can promise that no one in power will listen to someone who isn’t likely to vote. And despite all of the problems with polling lately, they have a good idea who that is.

So for instance if sizable numbers of Catholics don’t vote, they have no reason to consider Catholic positions.

Of course, the larger problem is many Catholics don’t vote their values and make lame excuses expecting us to buy into their reasoning or we’ll be called names or something, but I still think voting is important.

 

[Robert_Sock]

How much longer remains to be seen.

Much is changing in the world, to be sure. I personally believe that the transfer of wealth will get more evenly distributed throughout the world but as the saints know full well, we do not need a large amount of wealth to live a meaningful, happy, and productive life. I also believe that people will become much more spiritual which will produce much more pleasure than materialism could ever provide.

If only we were completely dead to self, and free from inner conflict, we could savour spiritual things, and win experience of heavenly contemplation.
-The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 11

Just because something good ends doesn’t mean something better won’t begin!

 

[Peebo]

I openly state that America is thriving. My question is in regards to the hatred between the political parties. I find it ironic that with our country being so divided politically, with much hatred in both of the major parties, that we continue to thrive!

Jesus said that a house divided against itself cannot stand…the irony also might be that while we think we are thriving we’re in the process of a great fall…politics is the new religion…we can’t even agree with pronouncements the church makes on current issues because they might be contrary to our political beliefs…until we get back to putting God first and not politics we’ll never be in one accord

 

[on_the_hill]

And yet we thrive as a nation!

Politics is a game and a business and there is no end point. Ever. No one will ever win and no one will ever lose. One party might get what it wants between elections and then lose it all the next time around.

There will never, ever be a point of “Our guy won! We’ll finally make America great once and for all!” Because four years later, the other party will say, “Our guy won! We’ll finally make America great once and for all!”

In other words, yes. It’s a circle. The only winners are those who make a career of it and then retire comfortably when they’re ready to.

 

[esieffe]

American politics went off the cliff with Thelma and Louise.

 

[TeenCatholicGuy]

I would say that Canada has a better and fairer system (Biased) TBH.

3 Major parties + 2 Minor parties right now, lots of good discussion.

 

[Expatreprocedit]

Yes.

 

[brian_custer]

no; i don’t get that feeling whatsoever

most blue state catholics voted for hillary who is 1,000% pro-abortion

i voted for trump for one reason: he “said” he is pro life

we shall see what trump’s performance is in regards to pro-life

 

[SuperLuigi]

Much is changing in the world, to be sure. I personally believe that the transfer of wealth will get more evenly distributed throughout the world but as the saints know full well, we do not need a large amount of wealth to live a meaningful, happy, and productive life. I also believe that people will become much more spiritual which will produce much more pleasure than materialism could ever provide.

The distribution of wealth moving from one place to another isn’t the problem—it’s who gets it.

Most of these distributionists just want to virtue-signal on the internet. That is not a charitable nor a Catholic trait but one of vanity and selfishness.

And the people who get the money already are drug dealers, warlords, human traffickers and dictators.

So unless the rest of the world wants to make them trillionares while they live in the stone age, then no, there will be no redistribution which doesn’t work in any case.

Just because something good ends doesn’t mean something better won’t begin!

Actually it does, especially in this case.

 

[SuperLuigi]

Jesus said that a house divided against itself cannot stand…the irony also might be that while we think we are thriving we’re in the process of a great fall…politics is the new religion…we can’t even agree with pronouncements the church makes on current issues because they might be contrary to our political beliefs…until we get back to putting God first and not politics we’ll never be in one accord

That’s overly simplistic. Some of us disagree with the solutions and political talking points of Christian leaders which I will again emphasize are subject to critique and NO ONE is above correction or discussion, because a lot of solutions being put forth do not work.

Of course, if Catholics and other Christians wish to give up their prosperity with the government taking it from them, that can and has previously been arranged. They will be glad to do so, and there may not even be a chance to virtue-signal that one issue agreed with in order to curry favour with secular progressives and avoid being called a bigot, which I guess is all the rage today.

 

[Robert_Sock]

The distribution of wealth moving from one place to another isn’t the problem—it’s who gets it.

Most of these distributionists just want to virtue-signal on the internet. That is not a charitable nor a Catholic trait but one of vanity and selfishness.

And the people who get the money already are drug dealers, warlords, human traffickers and dictators.

So unless the rest of the world wants to make them trillionares while they live in the stone age, then no, there will be no redistribution which doesn’t work in any case.

Actually it does, especially in this case.

I believe in a higher-ordered intelligence that will be able to re-distribute wealth effectively, whether this intelligence comes from the nations themselves or from God Himself, does not matter. What matters is that it will happen and nobody can prevent it!