A friend of mine sent me this video. For some of you reading this, you’ll be highly offended and say “There they go again, that’s ridiculous.” And others will be shouting “Amen!” from the rooftops. I’m sure there will be a whole range of emotions and responses.

After you get past your initial reaction, look at the video again. Forget the policy behind the arguments, that’s not what the video is about.

It’s about rhetoric. It’s the part of politics that makes me want to throw up in my mouth. Those on the left could just as easily do a similar video showing how ridiculous the arguments of the right are when they are mashed together.

Having a long history in the world of politics, I often hear people using the lines from the video, and others. In fact, I hear people on both sides of the political spectrum use the same lines to make opposing arguments. I remember people on the left making criticisms about President Bush. And then what’s great is that people who have an opposite view and ripped the criticisms to shreds turn around and use the same criticisms on President Obama. The person in office may change, but the criticism is the same.

The great thing about rhetoric is that it is easy and cheap. It kills debate. And that’s its purpose. Political rhetoric is not designed to assist people in the search for truth. It is meant to prove a point and show that “I” am right.

I’m just as guilty as anyone else who has used a cheap 15 second sound bite line just so I could be right. And what did that get me? So I was “right,” but what happened to the truth, or to the relationship with the person I was talking with?

Many times when I hear rhetoric it comes out like this – President (fill-in-the-blank) is such a (left or right) winger. Can you believe what he has done in pushing (fill in the blank with some policy that the speaker doesn’t like). You know, he’s owned by (insert name of rich person who is supposedly out to ruin the country). Yeah, (same rich person) is using (insert name of special interest group/s) to load the (Democrat/Republican) party with people who can’t think for themselves. (The conversation, and I’m using that loosely, then turns into talking about how the President named is a dolt and at the same time an evil genius).

The only thing that’s needed at the end is a fundraising appeal for a political party.

And if you think that was an exaggeration, listen to the next few political conversations that occur. Or check out some of the things that people post on facebook.

Now, I’m not saying that these people are bad or evil. They aren’t. I don’t even think most people are conscious that they are doing this. That’s the beauty and danger of political rhetoric. It gets in us and works on our emotions. Rhetoric is useful because we can align it with our worldview and condense everything down into a short sentence.

My questions are this – Why are you saying what you are saying? Do you really believe those who disagree with you are out to ruin the country? Why? How would that benefit them? What is it that you really want to see happen? How does your faith inform how you respond? What is God calling you to do as a result? Is God calling you to a cheap rhetoric without any type of action? I doubt it.

See what happens when questions start to be asked? It opens a window of possibility that did not exist before. Things we may have never considered.

We can spend so much time complaining about politics, those that disagree with us, and the state of our nation. That’s easy to do, and when we do, it feels like we have done something or it’s an easy way to say that we can’t do anything about it. But I don’t buy it. I tend to believe that our faith informs our politics and that we are free from having to be puppet voice for any political party.

I wonder what would happen if instead of using political rhetoric to support an opinion, people just started asking questions. I wonder what would happen if people started talking about what they want to see happen, as opposed to stating what they don’t want to see happen. I wonder what would happen if we examined the statements and beliefs of our opponents to see how they came to their conclusions – would we learn anything? I wonder…