Friday, December 27, 2019

The Case for Warren/Yang 2020



            I’ve been thinkin’ some about the 2020 Democratic Primary. I’ve read Mayor Pete’s book, Sander’s book, Warren’s book, and Yang’s book. I’ve looked at some of the candidate’s ideas and I’ve listened to folk talk up their favorite candidates.
            I’m personally drawn to Mayor Pete, he’s about my age and, as I keep telling people, he makes my Wyoming feel safe. What I mean by that is that he’s been in the military so he understands discipline and I could see him cultivating Aristotelian virtues and handling himself well in a pre-industrial world. This is a gut thing that I am aware is not particularly rational or good, but it is a thing. I also am drawn to Booker, he makes me hopeful, I like how he talks about faith, I like his Baby Bonds idea, and I see some of my own character traits in him. Booker/Buttigieg would probably be the team for me, but I’m one voter. For that matter, Inslee's laser focus on Climate Change is something I wish we still had in the race.
            With that said, I think there is a good case to be made for a Warren/Yang ticket. Their candidacies have clearly stated goals, they would make an interesting electoral alliance, and a Warren/Yang administration would re-center America’s politics in some really good ways.

Clear Solutions for Actual Problems.
            Warren is running a campaign against corruption and for expanded healthcare. Yang intends for America to be ready for the inevitable consequences of automation. These are fairly concrete goals and, I think, goals most Americans can get behind. 
            Everyone should be accountable, even if they have billions of dollars. No one should be able to buy a Senator or an election. Lobbyists should not wear two hats and should not swim in and out of corporate and governmental streams, without some recognition that pollution may occur. In fact, just look at the current administration (and the two billionaires currently attempting to buy a spot on the Democratic ticket) if you need to know what unchecked oligarchy looks like.
            If you’ve ever been without good insurance or any insurance, if you’ve had insurance companies discriminate against you based on a pre-existing condition, if you’ve spent a little time with elderly people and seen how miserable the last few years of life can get on account of our current healthcare system, then you know we need a change. As long as profits are a primary concern in healthcare, the system will rarely care for our health.
            Then there is the coming robot invasion. If 20% of jobs are going to disappear in the next couple of years, and another 40% will be transformed beyond recognition by 2030 (which, as strange as it sounds, is only a decade away)… we need to figure out what to do about that. Yes, there will be new jobs that show up on account of these old jobs going away—robot maintenance, human coordinators… who knows, but I also know everyone’s life will be changed. I think of my dad’s hometown, International Falls, where my cousin Harley is mayor. There was a paper mill, which provided good paying jobs for thousands of people. Now it is automated and it provides good paying jobs for a hundred people or so. Everyone else had to hustle, hang on, or leave. 
            We need to recognize that this challenge is real, and be ready to meet it with concrete proposals, but ones that are freeing to those whose lives are most directly shaped by these changes… yes, freeing. Imagine telling all the truck drivers in the US to become nurses, giving them training to do so even (this was the Clinton solution to NAFTA job displacement). That’s good, but some of their sensibilities are going to be ruffled. Alternatively, if you give them (and everyone else, so it isn’t an act of benevolence, but our inheritance as Americans) $1,000 a month, some financial stability, they can tool around and explore, and find a vocation they find acceptable. You know, they might even all become nurses, but they’ll have chosen it, they will have made that decision. It might be a little messier and take a little longer than a White House economist incentivizing training for particular tasks that are needed—but human inefficiency is a small price to pay for human dignity.
            So, in sum, Warren and Yang are both focused on a few concrete problems facing our country. They are problems the average American sees as a problem. We can imagine what the next four to eight years would look like, where we are headed as a nation, by voting Warren/Yang.

An Interesting Alliance
            I’ve found something interesting; people who like Yang tend to be turned off by Warren and her entitled schoolmarm act, and people who like Warren tend to find Yang to be a pompous know-it-all Silicon Valley no neck. Now, that might not sound like a ringing endorsement—but then again think of Obama/Biden or even the current Trump/Pence coalitions. Obama, the too young, jumping the line, senator and Biden, the old, gaff prone, has been—together, became Barockstar and Uncle Joe with the Trans-Am invited to the cook-out. Similarly, Trump and Pence should be oil and water to one another, a slimy philandering “Greed is Good” reality TV star from New York City and an anti-gay Governor who always looks like the Senator in the X-men comics who is trying to outlaw Mutants. Together Trump is getting Pence to loosen up and Pence can tell Evangelicals that Trump is a “Baby Christian” and try to convince Trump that pets are good (this combination doesn’t appeal to me… but if I squint real hard I can see how such a combination could be appealing—sort of a perverse Green Acres/Odd Couple kind of thing). Perhaps Warren becomes the best version of Kate McKinnon’s Warren/Hillary character on SNL and Yang becomes an entrepreneur-making-android who advocates for special needs children.
            And that’s the candidates—imagine the voters! If the Yang Gang gets together with the Warren Klatch they can energize the Democratic Party and welcome in some new folk. Simply put, Yang’s supporters are mainly young and male, whereas Warren’s “Nevertheless she persisted” is now a rallying cry for female voters of all ages. If Democrats mobilize women and hold their own among men by winning more young men than last time around, they’ll win!
            Warren worked with the Obama Whitehouse Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a nod to the Obama Coalition. Warren has some populist, anti-corporate, positions that should energize the working class. In fact, some Silicon Valley folk are uncomfortable with her Teddy Roosevelt leanings. 
            That’s where Yang comes in, he can corral the Start-up class, he has the relationships, and I think, he can restate some of Warren’s positions in a way “normal people” can hear them more clearly. Finally, some members of the Yang Gang are super savvy on social media, something the Democrats had an edge over the Republicans with until 2016. A young VP who understands the interwebs could be a real plus!

A Sideways Coalition for America
            The tension and synergy between Warren and Yang, and their supporters, could be good for America.  A Warren/Yang administration would re-define America in some interesting ways.
            Firstly, there is the thrust of their policies! Fight corruption, fix health care, and get ahead of innovation before it cripples the majority of our citizens. This team would concretely care about people! Imagine Americans caring for one another again!
            Secondly, there is the tension between entrepreneurship and trust busting that Warren/Yang could make into a partnership. Both of those vocations are needed in America now. The creation of new businesses and application for new patents are down in this country. At the same time, giant companies and the rich are gaining more and more influence over our society—the golden rule is becoming “he with the gold makes the rules.” Policies that nurture new small businesses and restrain monopolies can go hand in hand and will be good for America. 
            Similarly, the ways these two think about problems are opposite, but good for each other, they balance one another out. Warren envisions government’s role as restraining bad behavior and rooting out corruption, making all actors in our society more responsible to one another. Yang recognizes the responsibility of government is to defend the freedom of the populace. When facing the problem of mass automation it is important that the solution encourages human flourishing, instead of treating humans like the very robots that are the cause of the difficulty. Imagine an America that embraces responsibility AND liberty!
            Thirdly, there is the joy of electing America’s first female president and first Asia American Vice President—this would be no small thing, especially coming on the heels of an openly misogynistic and racist president. It would be the first time a white male wasn’t on the ticket; I imagine there would be some backlash, but representation matters, and there are plenty of women and Asian Americans who deserve to feel represented in the highest offices in our land. America is mine too! Ain’t that cool!
            Diversity, responsibility and liberty, innovation, and kindness. What’s not to love?

            A Warren/Yang administration clearly articulates concrete solutions to real life problems, builds a unique election coalition, and would govern and lead America in a good direction.

Monday, December 23, 2019

Christmas 2019: The Manger, God's Story Told From Below


Christmas 2019: The Manger, God's Story Told From Below

          I recently read Phillip Roth’s novel “The Plot Against America.” It is a “what if” alternative history in which Nazi Germany blackmails Charles Lindbergh into running for president, defeating FDR, and keeping America out of World War Two.
          What I loved about it, was that the story was told from below—from the experience of a Jewish boy growing up in Newark experiencing the turmoil of his nation,
the strange loyalties of his older brother and his aunt, experiencing intense prejudice on a family vacation to DC, watching his parents mental health deteriorate under the strains of national discrimination…
It could have been a bloodless alternative history that tells a timeline, but never touches on meaning or experience of everyday people,
 but because it tells the alternative history from below, it reaches greatness.
          So too, the Christmas story
—it tells the tale of God from Below!
Yes, there are those big powerful political and spiritual forces at work—Emperors and Angels, but the focus is not there, it is with parents with nowhere to go and shepherds seen by everybody as nobodies.
Our grand story ends with the smallest of signs,
bands of cloth,
a manger,
a baby.
          Let us pray

          Emperor Augustus—that is Gaius Octavius, “the Revered One” the adopted son of Caesar the Divine, winner of the Roman civil war and acclaimed as a bringer of peace.
          He is able, with a few words and the rubber stamp of the Tribal Assembly, to shape the lives of everyone who lived in what Rome pompously claimed was, “All the World.” Collecting their information for the purpose of taxation and preparation for war.
          And there, being moved around like chess pieces by a careless player,
are Mary and Joseph, the holy family who head home to be counted
—head to Bethlehem—(in Hebrew the House of Bread)
—to be counted, and, as it happens, to give birth.
They arrive and there is no place for them.
          Sit with that for a second, these magisterial machination, intentionally or unintentionally, leave Jesus’ parents with no place to rest their head,
no place to place a new little life born into the world,
no place, save a manger packed with strips of cloth.
          Yes, the grand choices of Emperors have grave consequences for those with no place to lay their head.

          For that matter, you have the Angel of the Lord, and then a heavenly host
—an army of out of this world beings invading the earth
—a scene worthy of a good science fiction movie… crop circles and all.
Yes, their message is good news—is Gospel;
points to God breaking into the world
—the disclosure of a Savior, a Lord, a Messiah
—one who brings us peace and favor
and yet, imagine the overwhelming experience… these poor shepherds, blessed, but overawed.
          Shepherds, men who spent more time with animals than people,
literally found outside the city walls,
smelling of their flock,
cloths colored and caked with the mud and grass of their trade
—an isolated trade to say the least…
They were likely the first people you would see entering the city, but also likely the first people you would not want to be seen with…
just as Mary and Joseph were nowhere, these men were nobodies.
          Nobodies… the first to hear the Good news for all people, for nobodies and somebodies and everybody in between.
The Glory of God shall reside in the city of David wrapped in swaddling cloth and tucked in,
in a trough.

          With that, Angels and Emperors fade from view, the Nobody Shepherds join the family with no-where-to-lay-their-heads.
          They are left alone… together…
neither angel choir nor imperial edict drowning out their pondering, and praise and joy…
the only sound the night, and perhaps the cries of the Christ child.
          The Christ Child, the Holy Infant. The one of whom angels sing, the one whom all would-be-rulers attempt to imitate…
there in the bottom of a manger, snuggled below strips of cloth, put out of an inn, because there was nowhere for him, nobody outcast shepherds brought in…
          From below…
a story from below,
a savior, a Messiah, a Lord—from below.
A God, from below.
          We need to always remember that. That is God’s great gift for us.
We receive the bread of God in Bethlehem, the house of bread, from a trough.
Sustenance for the whole world, from a manger.
          And where else would we find it?
Certainly not in heaven above, for it is too frightening,
nor in the laps of the powerful, for they do not care…
the manger—yes—the manger.

          The manger is how we can tell God’s story, where we can find God among us.
          God nestled in tight here among us. Our everyday life, being reconciled to God. The manger by the inn… & the classroom, the shelter, the nursing home, the machine shop, the stock floor, the operating room, the waiting room, the war zone and the negotiating table.
          The manger, God with us. God’s story told from below
          God here with us.
          God with the soldier so young he has never known his nation at peace.
          God with the fearful family waiting for a cancer diagnosis.
          God’s favor in the face of overwork and grinding obligation—may you rest with him friends!
          God’s Good news to the isolated and mourning—those with family far away, far gone and even far too close for comfort…
-The manger
—all those who hunger, feed here!
-The manger, drawing nobodies into God’s story.
-The manger, there is a place for you, even if there is no place.
          The Manger tells the Christmas story—the tale of God told from Below!
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Sunday, December 22, 2019

Advent 4: God With Us


Advent 4: God With Us


          Advent is a strange season, we start at the end (Matthew 24), and then eventually end at the start (chapter 1), clinging barely over the edge into Christmas… (I can see it from here, can’t you?)
          Here, peering from the precipice of Advent onto Christmas—we, get to, again, consider the History, Mystery, and Majesty—the Past, Personal, and Promise—fill out one more time the Advent Sermon Bingo Card, noting the History, Heart, and Hope of God With Us.
Prayer
          I’m going to help you fill your final bingo card out here—God, With, Us.

History
          “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel” which means “God with us.”
          Originally these were words of comfort from Isaiah to the inhabitants of Jerusalem under siege by their Northern cousins the Israelites and their Eastern neighbors, the Syrians… telling them that this child was a sign of hope for them, that by the time he’s weaned the siege will be lifted and their enemies will be defeated—for God dwelled with them, there in Jerusalem.
          We would miss, if we ignored this history and made a B-line to Jesus, the solemn reality that the inhabitants of Jerusalem were in dire straits,
in need of rescue,
in need of a sign for them…
          This need points us to the Baby Jesus we find in Matthew’s Gospel—look! He will save his people, he will be God with us…
in his life all the saving acts of God recorded in Hebrew Scripture find sacred echoes
—he teaches us a righteous way of humility,
in him, when he is among us, the Kingdom of Heaven comes near.
          These are solemn, necessary, dire needs…
Just as a besieged city needs hope and assurance that all enemies shall be cleared away, so too we have an ongoing need of salvation from sin
—an ongoing need of God being with us.
 With that piece of history, our need of him, our need of the God revealed in Jesus Christ, is heightened.

Heart
          God with us… With!
          Not God for us… but God with us. Not for, but with
          We would, of course, like God to be on our side—it might feel good when your opponent is clearly in the wrong, clearly irredeemable and hopelessly damned—because that says something about you too—you are redeemable and right, you are angelic and above it all… but we know that is rarely, if ever, true
—We humans are ambiguous creatures, happy to create gods out of whatever our latest opinion and inclination happen to be.
          I was reading through Exodus recently and came to the Golden Calf incident—Moses goes up the mountain, everyone quakes and shakes and are scared, because God is revealing God’s self on the mountain… and then, next thing you know, they’re making a golden idol for God to reside on or in… even as God thunders behind them on the mountain…
          We have such a propensity to produce idols… to assume Jesus is my Jesus, and no one else’s.
          Yet, we must heed Abraham Lincoln’s words during the Lincoln Douglas debates, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.
          Because God is with us, not for us…

          But what does that mean, with us?
          It means that God seeks to be in solidarity with us, not siding with us for the sake of our ego. As that famed description of God’s love, John 3:16 puts it, “God so loved the world.” Not the world that agrees with me. Not the world in so far as it is brought to heel.
          God loves the world and resides with the world in Jesus.
Jesus with our fears, with our joys, with our sorrows! Jesus more than that—Jesus our courage in the midst of fear, our delight in moments of joy, Jesus passionately moved, mourning with us in our sorrows.

Hope
          And that is the Hope of God with us, the hope of the season to come—God is with us… not with me, not with you, with us.
          Just as we have a tendency to create idols, we also have a tendency to retreat into ourselves, to seek individual gain, to eschew what we have in common for what we can lay claim to as “mine!” To succumb to the sin of selfishness, self-centeredness, and self-importance. As Luther would describe it, curved in upon ourselves, gazing at our belly buttons.
          When God shows up, God calls us into community. To quote biblical scholar Carolyn Lewis, “Jesus reminds us of who we are meant to be and supposed to be—people in community with God and with one another. People oriented toward the other because of God. People who truly believe God is present when even just two of us are gathered.”
          Our faith calls us out into the hurting world to love and serve our neighbor, to be little Christs to the world, and ALSO calls us to share our own pains, to be open and trust that God’s hands and feet will come to us unaware. In God created community we both kindle Christ’s hope in others and ourselves are warmed by that same hope held forth for us!
          We can hope, and know, God is there among us. God is not simply for ME, but with US, and that is what we prepare for these four Sundays of Advent. We prepare for Christmas.
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