A political post

I grew up around politics. I mean, I am from Iowa. Political campaigning in Iowa begins about 10 minutes after the election is over when the president for the next 4 years is announced.

We caucus for the primaries in Iowa. It's strange, really. And oddly cool. No secret voting there - stand in a room and gather around the candidate you want to win. Majority rules.

Most of my adult life I have lived outside of Iowa. So when Iowa pops up in the news about presidential candidates visiting and polls and caucuses, I take a bit of pride in that. Those that live in Iowa usually feel the opposite. They are the ones bombarded with phone calls and inundated with political commercials.

Politics has always been somewhat entertaining for me too. Not only all the hype in Iowa, but it served as entertainment while we lived in Costa Rica too. We obviously didn't get the political commercials, so we searched the internet and read websites to keep up with the election.

This year is a bit different.

With the rise of social media and the ability to communicate with the entire nation, politics naturally dominates conversation as the election draws near. Not the sit-down-and-discuss-political-issues face-to-face type conversations, but the passive-aggressiveness that our social media allows (or even encourages). The few words or sentences people write as their statuses, or tweet, (or even blog about!) shows their opinion loud and clear. Often intended to resonate and connect with people, sometimes with the intention of ruffling feathers or even flat out offending people.

It seems as though to support one candidate means to slander the other candidate. Why is it so hard for the politicians to simply state their positions on issues, instead of pointing out problems with the other candidate's stance? Why is it so hard for us as voters to simply state why we are voting for one candidate without speaking maliciously against the other?

I read an article that started off saying that come Tuesday, there will be many, many people on their knees praying for their particular candidate. And after the results come in and a candidate is declared the winner, regardless of the winner there will be people praising God for the outcome and others weeping.

My hope is that regardless of the outcome...we all will continue to pray for our country.

And support our president.