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I try to explain to my own family why [U.S. politics of] these past five years [has] pierced my soul, stoked my rage, caused my hope to ebb more than flow; in general, why [it’s] exacerbated my melancholy. I end up writing a half-vast sermon.

The [Schiavo] case is full of great ironies.

Washington Monthly: Paul Glastris: ‘Kerry’s willingness to protest the war is an essential part of what, to my mind, makes him one of the great heroes.’

TAP Online: Matthew Yglesias: Three years of watching Bush makes the point: Intelligence matters more than “character.”’

Just finished watching this final night’s Democratic Convention coverage on C-SPAN, unsullied by any trace of nutty network commentary. So what happened tonight? Big John took my expectations, multiplied ‘em by 100 then knocked ‘em out of the park, closed the sale, and left me speechless (video, alt video, QT/WMP/audio, transcript).

I finally see this Kerry campaign has integrity: what they do tends to dovetail with what they say. This is a new thing, the necessary foundation stone; anything less means a house — or a presidency — built on sand. For by their fruits we recognize anyone, not by their words alone.

Further, my take is these words aren’t just for effect; they’re meant words, humble words, a check-and-balance against our becoming faith-based monsters. I think they reveal the heart of a Democratic worldview:

“I don’t want to claim that God is on our side;
I want to pray humbly that we are on God’s side.”

—JFK quoting Lincoln, July 29, 2004

My prayer is answered: Tonight I became a full-speed-ahead Kerry supporter. Doubts, reluctance, lukewarm outlook — gone. I’m now convinced this is God’s blessing for America we keep asking for: this is the man, these are the people, this is the time, this is the movement, this is the mission, this is the answer.

I think ABB now pales as a reason to vote for Kerry. What’s been awakened here is an audacious hope for our country and our world, and it’s motivating a bumper crop of diverse, talented, and passionate people willing to step up to the plate to serve our country, heal our land, bless this world. They’ve been on parade all week in Boston, and they are but the tip of the iceberg. I did not see this glory comin’.

Hope transcends. I don’t forget for a minute that exercising this hope and implementing these plans depends on fallible human beings, and that as a result these plans gang aft agley. But hope always works through fallible human beings. When it thrives, it thrives despite our foibles. What it accomplishes, it accomplishes beyond our everyday abilities. I think its origins are divine. The ends to which hope leads are left largely up to us.

Mark my words:
This is divine intervention, a lifeline to bring us back from the brink.

How we respond is up to us.

Hours later …

I find myself as hopeful this new day as I was last night when I wrote the first draft of this entry. Sustainable hope, ahhh, this is different.

More impressions:

Wesley Clark. Brilliant, well-spoken, man’s man, soldier’s soldier. What military person can diss Gen. Clark? What military person can discount what Gen. Clark has to say? What military person wouldn’t listen? (video, transcript)

Power quote:

This soldier has news for you: Anyone who tells you that one political party has a monopoly on the defense of our nation is committing a fraud on the American people. Franklin Roosevelt said it best: “Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth.”

Vanessa and Alex Kerry. Photogenic, bright, articulate, loving. Who could not want to know these Kerry daughters better? And you know what? The story of their dad’s saving a hamster tells me more about his character than 10,000 words almost anywhere else; it’s a tiny little hologram of deep meaning (transcript).

Max Cleland. The man was beaming. Seeing the bonds of brotherhood on display during Max’s speech, the web of humanity that binds us one to another, moved me deeply. War is a machine that cranks out death and destruction, but it is also a crucible in which humanity’s dross sometimes burns away leaving pure character. And that, I think I see, is the case with Max (video, transcript).

Power quote:

Tonight, I’d like to let you know, that even before I met John Kerry, he was my brother. Even before I knew John Kerry, he was my friend. Even before I spoke with John Kerry, he gave me hope.

The Bible tells me that no greater love has a man than to lay down his life for his friends. John Kerry’s fellow crewmates — the men I am honored to share the stage with — are living testimony to his leadership, his courage under fire, and his willingness to risk his life for his fellow Americans. There is no greater act of patriotism than that.

My hope today: The choice before us has been made so clear, the differences so vivid, the affirming blessings of wisdom, intelligence, and character so inexplicably distributed, the “fruits by which we know them” so ripe before our senses, that even for lifelong Republican voters, even for hell-or-high-water Bush supporters up to now, the downside to voting for Kerry has become so small, the upside so great, that there is now no discomfort, dishonor, or shame in changing one’s position and doing an honest and hopeful and powerful thing: in the privacy of the voting booth, choose the candidate — and the worldview — you really want.

Update: Josh points to William Saletan’s strong Rove’s Blunder. Don’t miss it for insight into what’s happening here.

2004-07-31 update:
For an actual detailed analysis of Kerry and his speech, nobody does it like Steve G. Thanks, Steve.

[Yes, I’ve rewritten this entry ten times in varying degrees of grandiloquence; it’s eventually going to say what I mean. :-) ]

Beautifully done short video/audio montage about the ideals at the center of the Dean movement —

http://www.thankyouhoward.com/

This reminds my why I found such hope in the Dean movement — and why, even now, I still do.

My hunch is this is the kind of integrity and core values that all of us who care about such things are looking for. It’s a quality that knows no political party boundaries. Mr. Bush offered depth like this as a teaser, but it was a façade — and a betrayal.

I passionately want a real “uniter not a divider” — and I have a reasonably keen bullshit detector for those who claim to be but aren’t. Since I expect many of us agree on what we actually want, and many of us have now, in the wake of the present betrayal, had a fresh bullshit detector tuneup, I think we can finally move forward, more together than before, toward our common goal.

I intend to work over as many election cycles as it takes to move ideal and implementation closer together.

A friend recently noted the U.S. MOAB bomb test — “the biggest conventional bomb in the military’s arsenal … privately known in military circles as ‘the mother of all bombs’” — and concludes its use in Iraq demonstrates U.S. moral superiority over “the terrorists.”

Setting aside for a moment Iraq’s unproven involvement with “the terrorists,” which, unless we’ve abandoned the principle of “innocent until proven guilty,” translates to Iraq’s noninvolvement with “the terrorists,” how can unleashing large-scale destruction there in any way demonstrate our moral superiority?

Never underestimate the power of supernatural evil to deceive.

In attempting a response, I came close to what grieves me so deeply about the kind of witness statements like my friend’s communicate. I wrote:

I don’t mind that you support war in Iraq, although I feel sad that you do.

I don’t mind that you confess you’re a Christian, especially one who’s done [sacrificing outreach] things I admire.

But you can’t do both. You have to choose.

If you try to do both, your integrity is breached, because, God knows, the two are mutually exclusive. If you try to do both, you become a stumbling block to Christians and non-Christians alike.

Then I think I hit the bullseye of what grieves me.

Where we are now is embroiled in an obsession, deceived by calculated use of God language, and we’ve turned a blind eye. Awake! If we don’t work diligently to obey Jesus, if we rationalize our way out of his command to love God and love neighbor, if we accede to the myth of redemptive violence instead of redemptive grace, we are not worthy of his name.

Defending the faith while promoting aggressive war is playing “soul jeopardy” in the gravest way, for who can say how many turn away from the Lord in grief or revulsion as a result? Repentance, as John the Baptist was fond of shouting, is still the surest way out of that jeopardy.

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see” (Mark 10:51).

Note to self:
Never underestimate God’s supernatural power to redeem.

2003-03-16 update: I was asked to clarify what I meant in saying supporting war and confessing Christianity are “mutually exclusive” above. Here’s my attempted clarification:

The mutual exclusivity (adjusting my original wording a bit) is between supporting war and obeying Jesus. There is no overlap between the two. Arguing against this implies either (1) ignorance of the gospels or (2) lying to oneself.

Now it’s equally true that for many of us it is difficult unto death to obey Jesus fully. If we’re unable to obey — in this case, if we choose to disobey him by supporting war — we have to at least have the integrity to say “I know your words, Lord, and I know I am disobeying you; forgive me, for I cannot see how to reconcile your command to love my enemies with the world situation before me.”

If, however, we lack the integrity to recognize our disobedience and instead attempt to march to war “in Jesus’ name” — in direct defiance of his words to us, and in effect attributing our disobedience to him — then he will say to us:

“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38, today’s lectionary reading, interestingly enough).

Lord knows I don’t have all the answers. This exchange is just what’s been — and is being — deeply impressed upon my soul as true. I cannot be silent.

(See also Peter Storey, For Christians, every war is a civil war.)