I told myself I wasn’t going to stress. Wasn’t going to watch the news. Wasn’t going to follow the play-by-play’s online.
So guess what I’ve been doing this evening?
If you guessed stressing and following the play-by-play’s online, you’d be right. Bonus points if you included an Excel spreadsheet with my own predictions for the winner.
I have to say I’m disappointed that the presidential race is leaning at Obama (I have little doubt that the networks have already proclaimed him the winner.) But, at least in Nebraska, there are small victories to celebrate.
Mike Johanns beat out Harvard boy Scott Kleeb in the Senate race–keeping one of Nebraska’s Senate seats in the Republican fold. (And Johanns is a much more conservative Republic than Hagel, who he’s replacing.) Jeff Fortenberry has been re-elected to the House of Representatives. I was also pleased to see Adrian Smith be re-elected. I enjoyed listening to him when he visited UNL’s college Republican’s a couple of years ago when he was running against the aforementioned Hahvahd child.
Even more exciting is the triumph of Tim Clare over Earl Scudder in the University of Nebraska’s Board of Regents race. Scudder made his support of embryonic stem cell research a main player in his advertising campaigns, euphemistically calling it “support for life-saving research.” Clare took a more ethical stance and proclaimed his support for the TRULY life-saving (and life-enhancing) adult stem cell research, but his opposition to the death-dealing embryonic stem call research. If you didn’t already know, adult stem cells are already being used for life-saving and life-enhancing therapies. Despite many years of research (and tons of research dollars spent), embryonic stem cells have failed to produce even one mildly successful therapy. YAY for CLARE! I’m glad you (and life) won.
Another big woohoo for Nebraska is the passing of an initiative to ammend the Nebraska constitution for the prohibition of Affirmative Action by any government entity. Equal Opportunity triumphs at last! Down with discrimination–up with getting the best guy (or gal) for the job!
But the biggest reason to not kill myself come January 19th (and perhaps even to celebrate despite the impending destruction of a nation I love) is what I read this morning in Revelation 19:6 “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” And what I read this evening as I was copying Obadiah 21 “And the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” I am temporarily a citizen of this earth, and a citizen of the United States of America. Despots rise and fall here, and every so often, a decent ruler comes into power. But I have a permanent citizenship in a kingdom whose ruler has never been voted out of office, never been overthrown by a coup’d’etat, never had a veto overruled by a two-thirds majority of senate and house. I have a king who has never cut military spending, who always keeps His men clad in the best of defensive armor and fighting with the most up-to-date offensive weapons. I have a king who has never taken from me what is rightfully mine to give it to another who does not deserve it–instead, He has taken what was rightfully His and given it to me (who cannot even begin to deserve it). The United States may be going to hell in a handbasket–but I’m not going with it, because I don’t belong here. “The Lord God Omnipotent reigns!”
On 11.05.08 – 12:37 pm
Jeremy said:
Good post Rebekah. You know, if there’s one thing that this election has shown me it’s how conservative I really am. And the party I’m registered with really is a broken party that tries to hard to cater to those who believe much differently than I (we) do. If we’re smart, this will be a wake up call to the party to allow people like Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and others like them to run the party and not centrists like McCain and Guliani. The republicans don’t need to be the “big tent” party in my opinion to run this country. They need to show people what conservatism is supposed to look like (small, efficient government, treating tax dollars like it’s someone else’s money life-affirming, morally upright, strong national defense, etc) and I believe we’ll come out better for it on the other side. More hope can be seen in the fact that while many people saw the presidential race as the republicans day of reckoning after the Bush administration (which I still believe to be not that bad) I believe that November 2010 will be the way of reckoning for the do nothing democrat run congress that has even lower approval ratings than the sitting President.
It is great to know though, that even if the worst case scenarios about Obama come to fruition, that we serve a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly government. We obey, we respect, we support the government that God as put in place (Romans 13) but we serve a kingdom not of this world.
On 11.11.08 – 10:27 pm
Anonymous said:
Scott Kleeb website states that he is a graduate of Yale.
On 11.12.08 – 12:13 pm
bekahcubed said:
Thanks for letting me know, Anonymous. I have to admit that I was going on memory (from a couple of years ago when he ran against Adrian Smith for a seat in the house)–and memory isn’t always the best at my age (tongue-in-cheek).
At any rate, he was educated in one of the great East Coast bastions of liberal (and left-wing) education.
On 11.12.08 – 10:24 pm
Anonymous said:
George W. Bush was educated at Yale and Harvard University.