Minor Thoughts from me to you

Joe, you've declared your intention to make your dissatisfaction with your native Republican Party known by aiding the Democrats' election this year.

But why should dissatisfaction with a party result in your abetting another just as bad, or worse? Why help either of them? Isn't the practical result of such action ultimately destined to be the same as that of those we so often hear say "I don't like what my party is doing, but the other people are worse"?

(And just because the thought hits me: If the Libertarian Party were to somehow come to power in America, would it evolve (or devolve)-as Republican and Democrat parties have-over time into the same sort of animal? Is a march toward centralized statism inexorable, as has been suggested by many? Hard to say, since many capitalist cultures have been nipped in the bud. What might have occurred in Hong Kong had not the British government tossed their great city to Red China?)

(And just because another thought hits me: Is it a dilution of the title of the Christ, which we hold, to associate with political parties? Which makes a greater statement: "I am fighting the Republicans and the Democrats because I am a Christian", or "I am fighting the Republicans and the Democrats because I am a classic liberal"? We seem to refer to our supposed chief alignment far more rarely than our secondary alignments.)

Let me try to see if I can make any sense of what I'm thinking here, point-by-point. And for the record, these are beliefs in an embryonic stage, at best; these are not fully-formed convictions or anything. So:

(1) Much of the Torah is given over to the LORD separating His people from other peoples as holy. The political parties of America are unholy, man-made creations; they are not the practical expression of the Christ of God on this planet Earth, as is The Church. Does aligning with them not dilute God's very own "brand name", then-first in name-recognition ("What is Adam?" "Adam's a Republican", instead of "What is Adam?" "Adam is committed entirely to his God and the Church") then later in beliefs, as cohabitation of the Promised Land with the Caananites led to dilution of Jewish beliefs (as Republican-Christian syncretism is an easily-observed phenomenon)? To summarize: By working actively in political parties, are we less obviously Christian to the maximum number of people? And don't we risk infecting ourselves with these parties' unclean worldviews?

(2) As Christians, our primary purpose is to serve others and show them the LORD's love, regardless of whether they become Christian themselves. Do we not immediately make ourselves the enemies of half the nation by registering as Republicans and Democrats, by campaigning for them? Being a Republican makes it much more difficult to witness to a Democrat, doesn't it?

(3) Despite being super-capitalists, we seem to give in to the same "zero-sum" mentality of statists. We believe that we must protect God's real work-the service of others spiritually and materially-by defending it within the political system. That is, we wish to feed the Five Thousand, so we try to keep the government from stealing our five thousand loaves of bread. But if we are, as the Christ has promised us, possessed of the ability to accomplish even greater works than He performed in His time, then what matter if the government taxes our bread and leaves us with five hundred loaves, or fifty? If we devote our full attention, our full energies, to putting out those loaves, we have God's promise that He will see to the rest.

We as human beings do have a finite amount of strength within us, but to what is that strength better put: putting out fliers for Senator Whoever, or volunteering at a soup kitchen? Walking door-to-door to speak with people about their politics, or speaking privately with people one-on-one about their problems (as one of the few people truly qualified to give the antidote to those problems: not a psychiatrist, but a Christian)?

This I know: the world is designed by the Enemy to keep us from the Master's work. Political parties are institutions of this world (they're kingdoms, which rise and fall, trying to systemitize a solution the Poor, who we shall always have with us). I see dots and I think they may connect.

Did the poor of Jerusalem put their sick under Peter's shadow (Acts) in hopes that he would tell them how to vote?

Am I now the John Galt to your Henry Rearden, Joe?