TIME FOR REPUBLICANS TO "COME TO JESUS"?

In The New Republic, Walter Kirn performs a sensitive and useful deconstruction of the characters of the two presidential contenders. ("Clash of the Archetypes" August 24, 2012) "Obama is a man of connotation, ambiguity and complexity, forever reminding us not to be deceived by simple truths," writes Kirn. "Romney's mental syntax runs smooth and straight, a spire pointing straight up to heaven, a graph line separating gains and losses." "Obama is interpretive, Romney is analytic, and their contest strikes us as garbled and annoying because these two kinds of mental music don't mix. . . . This is a cross-dimensional struggle, homo subjunctive (Obama) against homo imperative (Romney) -- a Mars and Venus sort of thing. . . " I would only add, that these qualities are reflected in the attitudes of their constituencies as follows: 

The differences between Romney conservatives and Obama liberals seem to stem from their basic assumptions about and attitude toward human nature, and specifically, the American character.

Romney conservatives have a strangely bifurcated view of the American character. In their view, the American people are hard-working, resourceful, innovative, self-reliant, admirable, worthy folks as long as they are doing well left to their own devices. However, the minute an American gets in trouble and looks to the government for a hand up, he is judged as lazy, shiftless, parasitical and generally unworthy of the government’s attention (unless, of course, they happen to be bankers). Christian charity and piety about the “sacredness of life” suddenly vaporize. The upper-class notion that with privilege comes responsibility seems to extend only toward the privileged.  

Obama liberals, on the other hand, share the conservatives’ positive view of the American character when doing well, but do not suddenly shift their assessment when Americans suffer reverses and look to the government for assistance. The notion that with privilege comes responsibility seems to extent toward those in need rather than the privileged. Michelle Obama stated the Obama liberal position gently and eloquently last night, saying “And [Barack] believes that when you work hard and do well and walk through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you.” (She killed last night!)

Both conservatives and liberals style themselves as Christians, a religion which, as we know, embraces both the Old Testament and the New. Viewing the difference between the two political philosophies through that prism, it would seem that conservatives ally themselves spiritually with the stern, judgmental, vengeful, paternal god of the Old Testament, whereas the liberals reflect the gentler, compassionate, inclusive and loving demeanor taught by Jesus. Would it be amiss to suggest that Republicans "come to Jesus?"  

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