Another excerpt from the upcoming Hugh Nibley multimedia ebook on politics and religion. See the previous Bennett clip here.
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Hugh Nibley [off the record]
Pingback: Bob Bennett on Church and State | Hugh Nibley Off the Record « Only Moderately Undecided
The two-party system seems to be representative of two basic laws: the law of the harvest and the law of compassion. They are separate and seem to contradict one another, but they are both necessary and must function together. The adversary would have us choose one side and vilify the other. In the church we understand that justice and mercy both apply in our lives, and that the reconciliation of the two is hard work and made possible only by the atonement.
In politics we make an error by deferring the hard work of solving problems to national leaders, when we really should be doing as much work locally as possible. That’s the model that Moses gave us – the bottom-up approach. But today the direction of conversation is switched, and the politicians have the burden of advertising to the citizens because the citizens have abdicated their responsibility to think for themselves.
That’s why politicians always sell out. Bob Bennett seems to have some awareness of the problem but I doubt he can do anything to solve it. A couple years ago when I was exploring libertarianism, I had the opportunity to interview Rand Paul a few times during his Senate campaign. I was very disappointed to learn firsthand that the Pauls, who have a reputation for speaking their minds openly and honestly, are still playing the political game like everyone else. Their belief is that you have to do what it takes to get into power and then try to change Washington from the inside.
I’m afraid that Obama was right – you can’t change Washington from the inside.