Dr Paul Allen

The 2012 U.S. election is over, and more than 100 million Americans participated in the great exercise of democracy — fulfilling the franchise of the vote. Even with some votes not yet counted and some issues as yet clarified, a general picture of the election is clearly in view, and the impact of this election will be both massive and enduring.  Several lessons emerge in the immediate aftermath of the election and Christians should consider them carefully.  First, we must recognize that President Barack Obama won a decisive and clear victory, surging to over 300 votes in the Electoral College before midnight. Against the expectations of many, the President held his 2008 coalition together. Voting intensity among younger Americans, African-Americans, Hispanics, and other crucial constituencies held firm. Once the election results started coming in, an Obama victory came quickly into view. Barack Obama avoided the ignominy of an electoral repudiation and may als...

If there’s one thing President Obama wanted his audience to take away from his  speech  in support of the  American Jobs Act  last Thursday night, it’s the urgency of the crisis facing the United States . Repeatedly he exhorted Congress to “pass this bill,” which the president assured would “create jobs right away.” One of the important perspectives the president reminded the nation of is our dependence on the work of those who have come before us. “Where would we be right now?” asked the president, as he urged us to imagine the world without a litany of public spending projects in our nation’s history, from bridges to schools to Social Security. We might just as well ask, too, where we would be right now without the promises of politicians present and past, who have run up the U.S. national debt in excess of $14.7 trillion, or where we would be without generations of innovative enterprise in the private sector. The greatest truth President Obama spoke last Thurs...