A Presidential Race?

That must mean this blog will start getting some attention again.

Rick Perry is starting to gain some steam in the Republican Primary.  As a person who has lived in Texas throughout Rick Perry's exceedingly long time as Governor, I can't even begin to understand how the rest of the country could even consider him based on his record, to say nothing about the last Texas Governor (with similar ideals) that became the President of the United States.

Many of my friends in education here in the state of Texas have many more problems with Rick Perry and his record on education than with the specific point I plan on making today (and at some point we might delve into that as well), but due to an article in the Guardian (a paper from the UK) I thought I might focus on Rick Perry's desire to have Creationism taught in school's alongside Evolution.

"I am a firm believer in Intelligent Design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution."

I'm not sure that Rick Perry is going to be pushing this agenda on the campaign trail (the article stresses that a concerned/ and to be fair, pushy/ mother got her son to ask about Creationism specifically), but it is clearly a belief that he holds, and something that he might attempt to enact.

Quite clearly, this idea is against the US Constitution and the separation of Church and State that this country was founded on.

For those of you who don't know, I am in school getting my Master's of Divinity.  I am a Christian, although my views and those of fundamentalist Christians are very different.

What seems ironic to me is that views held by these fundamentalist Christians, allowed by this country, are only possible because of the separation of Church and State that was very important to those who founded this country.  To go against that by enacting a law such as what Rick Perry is suggesting would be going against the very process and freedom that allows them to have their own religious beliefs free of government interference.

And being free of government interference is supposedly what the Republican Party is supposed to be about, which makes the idea that a religious idea has to be taught in public schools seems anti small government to me.

It's okay for the government to tell you what to believe in regards to religion, but it isn't okay for the government to try to make sure we all have adequate health care.

Personally, I believe that God has a place in creation, and even in evolution.

That doesn't mean that I believe that public schools need to be telling children that evolution or creation wouldn't have been possible without God.

Talk about that at home and especially at church, sure, but the school isn't the place for those ideas, especially because everyone's religious beliefs are different, and this country was quite literally founded on that very idea.

I'd certainly prefer a President who understood that, and knew that our beliefs are different and that's an important part of our culture, giving us strength.  To lead this country, you shouldn't ever try and force your religious beliefs on the rest of the country.

Seriously? What Can They Be Thinking?

First of all, Happy 4th of July! We are privileged to live in such an amazing country.

Yesterday afternoon, Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, announced her resignation with over a year left in her first term.

If you are a regular reader of this blog (which, of course, even the most sporadic reader of this blog can claim to be as my posts have been few and far between of late, sorry about that) you might recall my post upon the decision of John McCain to select Ms. Palin as his running mate. I claimed then, and firmly believe now, that that decision cost McCain any shot he had at the Presidency.

It was a foolish decision that I couldn't believe the man chosen to lead the powerful Republican party could make.

Now, there is a lot of talk about Sarah Palin being the future of the Republican party. If there is any truth to that, one would think that she would have some advisers from the GOP that would forestall any foolish decisions on her part that would damage her chances at a White House run, and yet her decision yesterday did just that.

When she is unable to finish her only term as Governor of a state due in part to media scrutiny (and if you think you are under tremendous media scrutiny as the Governor of Alaska, do you really think that you can handle being President of the United States of America?), and due in part to feeling that finishing out her term as a lame duck "would be just another dose of politics as usual, something I campaigned against and will always oppose."

Now, I'm all for changing the climate of "politics as usual", but quitting because of lame duck status doesn't strike me as something that I want to become the norm in politics. Especially considering that we have term limits in place, the idea of a lame duck leader is something that is here to stay, and when you get sworn in to any position in government you do so agreeing to serve your full term for the people who voted for you, not just until you know that you won't be in that same position a year and a half down the road.

According to CNN, a source in the Republican party close to Palin's staff says that the decision was made to "move on" in part because her "book deal and other issues" were "causing a lot of friction" in Alaska. I take that to mean that her outside interests were causing her to be unable to fully do the job that she was elected to do and if that is the case, she is certainly not someone that I would want in charge of this country, who knows what outside influences she would have keeping her from performing a much more difficult job when she is struggling to preform as Governor.

Ultimately, I don't think that quitting with a year and a half to go as Governor will have anything but a negative impact on her decision to run for President. Whoever decided this was the best move for her future political career is someone that I hope never advises me on any decisions I might make for my own future, because I can't see this decision as anything other than political suicide.

I truly don't think that there will be any recovery from this, as whoever runs against her in the Republican primaries is now armed not only with her relative political inexperience, but can truthfully brand her a quitter unable to manage her previous post as well as the national notoriety that came with the ill advised decision to choose her as McCain's running mate in the last presidential election. She now has no hope of surviving the primaries.