Normally, I try not to get too much into politics around here. But with this year’s presidential election and all that has been done wrong in the country for the past eight years, this is a pivotal time. Many of my Christian brothers and sisters, perhaps some of those who visit this blog, are angling for the Republicans because, after all, aren’t they the party that loves God best?

Don’t be fooled. I’m not saying Barack Obama is the be-all and end-all. He’s no savior and no messiah, figuratively or literally. But anyone who chooses to vote solely on religious values and picks the GOP because they spout off about God more often is quite possibly going to help plunge our country into more chaos. Remember, church and state are separate. Render unto Caesar’s what is his and unto God what is God’s. Keep them separate and try to remember that most of us in this nation are middle class or working class, and there has not been any time in my 40 years of life that I’ve ever seen a Republican president truly serve the interests of either class, and it seems like they hate the truly poor folks.

I am going to make my case, as much as possible from a spiritual perspective, but mostly practical ones, as to why you should not vote for the McCain-Palin ticket unless you are a wealthy sonovabitch who couldn’t care less what happens as long as you get all your tax breaks.

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There’s a funny little saying going around a lot these days since John McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate:

Jesus was a community organizer; Pontius Pilate was a governor.

Palin herself, who is currently a first-term governor in Alaska (and formerly mayor of a town of 9,000 people…or was it 5,000 at the time? Not entirely sure), a state which—with less than 700,000 people in it, probably has more moose than people—helped birth this little ditty by making a snide comment in her speech at the Republican National Convention last week that went something like: Barack Obama was a community organizer and I was a mayor. Those two jobs are very similar, except that as a mayor, you actually get things done.

Very biting. Very snappy. Very clever. Very bold.

Also, very freaking wrong and deceitful.

First off, if you want to know about some community organizers who’ve gotten things done, check out this post at the blog Ephphatha. Barack Obama was a community organizer in one of the biggest cities in the nation. A city that has numerous neighborhoods with far more people in them than Palin had to deal with in her entire town as mayor.

Moreover, Obama has been a state senator and U.S. senator for more years than Palin has been a governor, and again, he has done so for a state that has lots of multinational ties and lots of trade and lots of issues and a big economy. He has had far more experience dealing with national policy and national issues and more experience in foreign relations. Sure, foreign relations isn’t his strong-suit, but would you say that McCain has got the makings of great foreign relations expertise with his massive hair-trigger temper and simmering bigotry and sexism? And Palin has zero foreign policy experience.

Look, fact is that that the Barack Obama-Joe Biden ticket buys you more experience in legislative, executive and social issues than the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket does.

People want to talk about how plucky and cute and smart and go-getter Palin is. So the hell what?

If you are a person with money to invest in lots of stock, or you are a person with your 401K or other retirement funds invested partly or wholly in stocks, think about this:

Do you want the corporations your money is invested in to be run by people who are good looking and plucky and have wonderful families and seem so darn down to earth? (We’ll assume for the moment that all those things are true with Palin, though really, they aren’t all true.) Or do you want a good business person with a strong track record?

Fact is that given McCain’s age and past health problems, there is a pretty significant chance that Palin would end up having to step in as president.

Do you want a self-proclaimed PTA/hockey mom with some family turmoil in charge? A person who ran a small town and now runs a sparsely populated state and has a track record of trying to ban books, get the ex-spouse of her sister fired and other controversies?

Or do you want someone whom other nations will take seriously and who has played in the big leagues?

Your choice.

I’ll take experience please. That would be Obama and Biden.