It’s going to be very interesting tomorrow, isn’t it?
I don’t get too involved in politics in this space because this is largely a spiritual blog, but Conversations with God says that all politics is our spirituality, demonstrated. I agree with that.
The folks in Iowa demonstrated their spiritual ideas for sure last week. The victory of Mike Huckabee in the GOP caucuses was quite a surprise given the lead in the polls that Mitt Romney had just 10 days ago. Romney spent millions to secure an early win in Iowa, and came in second for his efforts. If he comes in second tomorrow in New Hampshire, his candidacy could be in serious trouble — and there is a very strong possibility that we will come in second, behind John McCain. Or even third, behind McCain and Huckabee.

And speaking of coming in third, could anybody have predicted that Hillary Clinton would come in third in Iowa? That had to have been a rude awakening for the person who was presumed to be the Democrats’ front runner until then. As with Romney, anything less than a first-place finish in New Hampshire is going to make it very difficult for the Clinton candidacy.
I think the country’s Democrats are liking Barack Obama more and more. Tomorrow will tell us a great deal. If he does not win, we all know that he will come in second. The question will be, how strong a second? If he is just a few percentage points behind Clinton, that would be very important. If he comes in a more distant second, that, too, will say much about how electable he is. The same, of course, will be true for Ms. Clinton. Only with her, the stakes are higher. That’s because the expectations have been higher. Ms. Clinton actually must win in New Hampshire to not be seriously damaged. A second place finish–even a close one–is not going to help.
Did faith play any role in the Iowa results? I think it is obvious that it did. Surely on the GOP side there is no question that Mike Huckabee’s pedigree as a Baptist minister helped him tremendously. Whether that will count as much in New Hampshire will be the Big Question tomorrow. Likewise, if there really is some hesitation among the electorate about putting a Mormon in the White House (there should not be, and I would hope with all my might that we would never go to that place any more in America), there are analysts who say that this would be more likely to show up in Iowa — a religiously conservative state — than in New Hampshire…a neighbor of the state where Romney was elected governor.
On the Democratic side, some fascinating stuff in play. Exit polls showed that while Clinton garnered the majority of votes from woman caucus goers over age 60, those under 60 voted overwhelmingly for Obama. This means that Obama captured the youth vote…and if he can do that across America, the Democratic nomination is his — presuming he can get young people to actually go to the polls.
That is not a small question. Young people are notoriously more apathetic than senior citizens when it comes to voting — and perhaps for good reason. They have felt, in most recent years, disaffected and disenfranchised, with their views largely marginalized. Until now. They may be seeing Barack Obama as their Voice within The System. And wouldn’t that be interesting…
Is America ready — at last — to elect a black person President of the United States? I think it would be historically, socially, and politically beyond exciting. So, too, if we elected a Mormon. Or a woman. Or an Hispanic. Or an openly gay person.
This is just such an historic primary season, because we have all of those kinds of candidates running for President — and that says something remarkable about the place to which we have matured as an electorate. If politics is our spirituality demonstrated, we must have come to adopt a wonderfully inclusive spirituality in America. And I am not surprised. Tomorrow’s God predicts flat out that we will create within the next 25 to 30 years an entirely new God — that is, a new kind of God, a new understanding of the only God there ever was, is now, or ever will be.
I believe that this process of beginning now. And I see the political shifts and changes and openings that we are seeing, actually, around the world as an obvious sign of this. And, of course, as is always the case, as soon as we begin to create changes, we begin, as well, to create resistance. Nothing is so predictable as resistance to change. The recent events in Pakistan are a tragic testimony to that. Ms. Bhutto was a political power in that country that could have moved it closer to real democracy. There are forces within the country wanting nothing to do with that. And these are mostly (although not exclusively) spiritual forces.
How Pakistan reacts to the murder of Ms. Bhutto will be more than merely interesting. It will have deep impact on the future of the region — and of the world. How New Hampshire votes tomorrow in its Primary Election will be more than merely interesting. It will have deep impact on the future of our nation — and of the world.