Struggling with Discouragement and Voting

This election season finds me struggling with discouragement. That’s not an unusual occurrence for me.

Scott’s blog post addresses the main issue I’ve been grappling with this year. There aren’t many competitive races on my ballot and the one statewide race that is competitive—the governor’s race—is between two candidates I can’t support.

I came as close as I’ve ever come this year to considering voting for a candidate who isn’t pro-life. Frustrated by what seems to me to be a self-destructive trajectory in our state, I’d love to vote for someone “different.”

But I can’t do it. Here are five quick thoughts I had:

1. I admit perfect can become the enemy of the good.

Some may look at my decision not to vote for a major party candidate in the governor’s race as throwing my vote away. Ideological purity, the argument goes, ultimately fails to accomplish anything.

There’s some truth to that. I can’t be so focused on wanting to vote for the perfect candidate that I’m unwilling to compromise.

2. I admit mature believers can differ on significant policy issues.

There are issues that mature believers can differ on. Tax rates, environmental issues, balancing the budget, etc. Believers can take biblical principles and apply them differently. There should be grace as we differ. 

3. I feel a culpability for voting for those who pledge to not protect the unborn.

But I can’t justify voting for someone who pledges to not protect the unborn. It’s unconscionable to me. That’s not to say that a believer who decides differently is in sin. Some may decide to choose the lesser of two evils. 

For me, my conscience can’t escape the reality that I’ve voted for a person who has pledged to actively work against his or her most basic responsibility as a person in authority—protecting the innocent.

4. I believe that Jesus is king.

Despite my discouragement, I have confidence in Jesus’ kingship. As Psalm 97:1 declares, “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!”

5. I need to vote (and so do you!).

God sovereignly placed us in a representative government. I bear a responsibility for those who are elected and need to exercise my civic duty to vote.

Some years, that task is more difficult than others. 

By His Grace,

Daniel

Be a One Issue Voter

I want to write about the greatest public policy issue facing our nation.  It is not the economy, foreign relations, the environment, or health care.  It is the matter of the sanctity of life at all stages of life.  The biblical evidence in support of the sanctity of life from conception to natural death is overwhelming (see, e.g., Psalm 139 and Jeremiah 1).  There is no other issue if the sanctity of life is not upheld.  The first “unalienable right” mentioned in our Declaration of Independence is the right to life.  Be a one issue voter.

I refuse to vote for anyone who is not solidly pro-life.  It does not matter that one pro-abortion candidate is better than another on some other issue.  I am glad that in Abraham Lincoln’s day there were one-issue voters who sought above all else to remove the blight of slavery in our land.  The value of life can never, never be compromised on the altar of political expediency, even if the vote is “wasted” on an “unelectable” candidate.  The pro-abortion candidate who tries to gain pro-life votes by appealing that he/she is better than the alternative will boast, if elected, that only the pro-abortion position can “win.”  If pro-life voters do not vote their convictions, do you think that we will ever see our laws allowing abortion on demand changed?  If pro-life voters compromise, what do you think will happen to our senior citizens as health care costs spiral upward?  No, someone must stand in the gap, and that someone, dear pro-life voter, is you.  Be a one issue voter.

The issues of fetal stem cell research (which is nothing but a sophisticated form of cannibalism) and euthanasia are real and upon us to say nothing of the horrors of partial birth abortion.  The reality is that a candidate that is not pro-life will not hold back the tide of the decreasing value of life at all stages.  Many, many more issues about life are coming before our elected officials.  Even if abortion cannot be rolled back, these issues will be before our elected officials and soon.  I disagree with socialist Eugene Debs on nearly everything, but he was right when he said, "I’d rather vote for what I want and not get it, than for what I don’t want and get it." Be a one issue voter.

You might say that you don’t need to be a one issue voter for so-called minor offices.  But you do!  I learned this lesson the hard way.  I helped a neighbor a few years ago in her campaign for city council.  She was a great alderwoman, but I had failed to ask her about her position on abortion.  Today, based on her effectiveness in city government, she is a pro-abortion Congresswoman from Illinois, financed largely by the pro-abortion lobbies.  I regret having helped her. Be a one issue voter.

The ad linked below was in the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday October 14, 2014 celebrating that "both candidates for Illinois governor are pro-choice." The ad was paid for by 8 people, including Diana Rauner (see the fine print at the bottom). http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/.a/6a00d834515c5469e201b8d07d750d970c-pi   

Be a one issue voter.