The ice cream headache of politics and an easy remedy

Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash

I can remember listening to a Republican congressman on the radio in 2022 when the Democrats controlled the House, Senate and Presidency.

The conservative talk host asked the congressman if he feared the Democrats would attempt to enact some of their most radical policy initiatives.

“Of course they will,” he said. I wish I could remember his name but it escapes me at this time. “They can’t help themselves. That’s who they are.”

I understand completely that this was a line served up to the conservative base. I also understand this statement is true. I also understand this statement is true about people, in general.

The Democrat-controlled bodies couldn’t help themselves, as predicted. There were a number of measures pushed that too many voters soured on, but one example was the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which passed exclusively on party lines.

I don’t have to tell you this wasn’t well received by American voters. The 730-page bill had a handful of unpopular provisions, but the most unpopular was likely the addition of 87,000 IRS agents.

Democrats promptly lost the House in the next election.

It’s just one example. Republicans did the same thing under Trump. Before then, Democrats lost it after just one election cycle during Obama’s eight years and never regained it. Republicans managed to hold it for two election cycles during the presidency of George W. Bush. You have to go back about 60 years since one party held it longer than that.

So, why?

If one party has been able to articulate a message that captured the Presidency, the House and the Senate, why has that party lost voter confidence so quickly?

Maybe it is as simple as overpromising and underdelivering. I think, however, it goes back to what that congressman said a few years ago.

They can’t help themselves.

With power in hand, parties tend to overreach. That means they’re not underdelivering as much as they are overdelivering. And the people don’t want that.

Of course we’re a divided nation and it may be hard for any party to win more than 52 percent of the country today. But when one party is in control, its leaders tend to overstep, and that says a lot about human nature.

The statement “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” is credited to a man named Lord Acton. It is part of a longer letter he wrote about the degradation of moral principles in proportion to accumulated power.

I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

And you don’t have to be an elected official to practice overreach.

An unhinged amalgam of media almost delivered another four years to Trump. They were so turned off by Trump’s presidency, they abandoned longstanding rules of journalism in an effort to unseat him. It resulted in almost the opposite. His polling numbers tended to increase the more biased the attacks became.

The same thing happened with district attorneys and special prosecutors determined to derail Trump’s campaign this time around. They charged Trump with crimes no other person would have been charged with. His numbers increased with every prosecution.

They couldn’t help themselves. They saw the numbers just like the rest of us. They saw that their actions delivered sympathy and support for Trump and yet they continued along the same path.

Their zeal to keep Trump out of the White House may be the vehicle that gets him back in the Oval Office. At this point, only Trump can keep Trump out of the White House, and — to my point — that may end up happening.

Ever gotten ice cream on a hot day? You ate a big spoonful and experienced an ice cream headache or brain freeze. And it hurt. All you had to do was lay off the ice cream for a few minutes and take your treat in moderation. Instead, you took a bigger spoonful right away, even though it wasn’t in your best interest.

We can’t help ourselves.

This notion that we often make poor choices wasn’t invented by our founding fathers. They absorbed it from Scripture. We have a tendency to veer off the good road.

14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. (Paul, Romans 7:14-20).

14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. (James 1:14-15)

The framers of the Constitution put a system of checks and balances in place for this reason. They saw what unfettered authority looked like. Since then, the three branches of government have battled each other to see how much power they could steal from the other. Some 250 years later, we’re barely hanging on.

We almost lost it less than a hundred years in. We barely survived the World War I/Depression era. It’s chilling how close we came to World War II going the other way. One, maybe two fingers were precariously close to the red button throughout the 1960s. Our country (and our world) continues not because of great men but because of the unmerited favor of God. How evident.

And the sole reason for the world’s continuance is to draw more souls to Gods kingdom (Matthew 24:14).

This truth of flawed humanity should limit the faith and hope we put in humanity.

We’re not very good at saving humanity. Our tendency to drive things into a ditch should serve as a bright arrow that points us to Jesus. We’re going to drive off the good road.

Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. 4 His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish. 5 How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the Lord his God, 6 Who made heaven and earth, The sea and all that is in them; Who keeps faith forever; 7 Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free. 8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; The Lord raises up those who are bowed down; The Lord loves the righteous; 9 The Lord protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, But He thwarts the way of the wicked. 10 The Lord will reign forever, Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord! (Psalm 146:3-10)

It is precisely through the failings of man that we see the glory of Christ. I do not wish for men to fail, but if we see the hope of Christ in our failing, we are all the better for it.

More from Lord Acton on how the abysmal nature of the Roman government paved the way for Christianity to flourish:

… the doctrinal or intellectual part of the work, was chiefly performed in the Roman empire, in the midst of the civilisation of antiquity and of that unparalleled intellectual excitement which followed the presence of Christ on earth. There the faith was prepared for the world whilst the world was not yet ready to receive it. The empire in which was concentrated all the learning and speculation of ancient times was by its intellectual splendour, and in spite, we might even say by reason, of its moral depravity, the fit scene of the intellectual establishment of Christianity. For its moral degradation ensured the most violent antipathy and hostility to the new faith; while the mental cultivation of the age ensured a very thorough and ingenious opposition, and supplied those striking contrasts which were needed for the full discussion and vigorous development of the Christian system. Nowhere else, and at no other period, could such advantages have been found. (The History of Freedom and Other Essays).

Ingenious indeed, as if divinely crafted.

I have preferences. I exercise my right to have a say every time the polls are open. And since I’m flawed, I have idols in my life. I’m glad this isn’t one of them because history shows it is a losing proposition, as all idols are.

I’d like to humbly suggest an experiment for the next couple of months in an effort to save us from an ice cream headache.

• Shoot for about 30-40 minutes of news consumption per day.

• Practice not letting those 30-40 minutes come from primetime cable news or 5:30 p.m. network news. It will serve as a detox for your brain.

• Replace the time you would normally spend consuming political news by reading Scripture with no predetermined purpose other than to hear from God. If you’re a note taker, make notes about concrete ways God is changing you to conform to the image of Christ. Or, more revealing, make notes about where you fall short.

The time between now and November can be the most stressful, annoying months of your year.

Or, it can be the most fulfilling.