Living in a Battleground State (of Grace)

We embark on what is, yet again, the most important election of our lives. This is my fifth presidential election as a legal voter and I cannot help but notice how increasingly apocalyptic the language gets. 

I understand I am not the first to recognize this, and before you think, “But this time it really is the most important election,” I promise I won’t dismiss your feelings, but I can’t share them. This is my privilege, I know. If I were of a different demographic, I am sure I would feel strongly…something. I represent the worn out, cynical, apathetic electorate. 

But here is the difference: when these adjectives are used to describe me and other like me, it is not exclusive to politics. The fact that so many in my position are worn out, cynical and apathetic by politics is because of how similar politics has become to many other aspects of their life. 

Politics mirrors reality (but, “reality” in the way the word is used before “TV”), which is tiresome and hopeless. The result will almost necessarily follow. According to Aristotle, politics was ordered toward virtue. Virtue, even for the pre-Christian pagan, was ordered to beatitude, even though this understanding of beatitude was limited apart from grace. 

When politics is grounded in virtue, and not power as it is today, it can look beyond itself to something higher. When those participating in politics, the representatives and the voters, are ordered to look beyond themselves, they can have hope. Hope is what energizes, feeds optimism and inspires zeal. 

This brings me back to us individual voters. Part of what drives the apathy is a feeling of powerlessness, especially in the “big” elections like president. Where our choice always matters, and where the consequences matter much more, is the state of our own soul. Our decision of faithfulness or faithlessness is ours entirely and always matters. 

Whether most people realize it or want to admit it, little will change temporally on Wednesday or in January, and even less will change eternally. The changes that will go further are not outside of you, but somewhere deep within. Be informed of eternal things and make an informed choice.