Skip to main content

Voting For President In 2020

I'll probably abstain. There's no way Trump gets my vote. I shouldn't have to say this. I shouldn't have to prove why this is a rational and moral decision. Because people are so invested in defeating "The Left," they have ignored all the evil that he represents. More than this, the manifest ignorance, authoritarian tendencies, and damage to the civic space increases each day. Trump must go. He was unfit from before day 1, and that remains true.

I will not sacrifice everything to defeat the cultural Left. Because you can't, just by voting.

I understand why people have gotten to this point, where they ignore things they shouldn't ignore. The cultural tides are strong; the Democrats are beholden to inhuman and vile philosophies that countenance the murder of human beings, the destruction of the family, a disastrously false view of the human person, and the list could take hours. Even to get some relief from the attacks on religious freedom, I could see why people have done what they've done.

But the philosophy underlying the Republicans is equally faulty, and no one sees it. It's the same philosophy: liberal individualism. Capitalism. Market economics. All different versions of the same thing. The Left took the personal conduct side; (sexual conduct, mostly) the Right took the economic "freedom" side.

What if they're both wrong? If you kill people in slower motion, and not in an abortion clinic, people will fall for it. Especially if the ghost of the USSR is still around. Better yet, college professors and other eggheads, eager to try it again. Easy foils for a Rightism that isn't any more human, or correct. If you give people a boogeyman big enough, you can lead them anywhere. Propaganda.

"Socialism" and abortion. That's all you need to rile up the partisans. I'm not playing anymore. There are whole books dedicated to this truncated Rightism.

We want to belong, and we want to be good citizens, too. We dutifully vote Republican, because that's what good Christians do, right?

The Democrats have a siren song, too: They want you to ignore what a "person" is. They want to "keep religion out of politics," unless it helps them. The abortion industry's financial hold on the Democrats is secure. They focus on "sexual minorities," because they long ago gave up caring about poverty. All the other issues matter only insofar as they can beat the Republicans with them.

And yet, here I am. I'm supposed to participate; I'm supposed to try to do what's best, in accord with the common good, neither ignoring intrinsic evils, nor tolerating other evils. Do you know what that would be? I don't. It's in the end a prudential judgment, and that doesn't mean, "Ignore every issue except abortion, and gay marriage."

You'll have to pardon the cynicism here. I'll go back to being ignored, because I don't hate Obama enough.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hilarious Com-Box Quote of The Day: "I was caught immediately because it is the Acts of the Apostles, not the Acts of the Holy Spirit Acting Erratically."--Donald Todd, reacting to the inartful opposition of the Holy Spirit and the Magisterium. Mark Galli, an editor at Christianity Today, had suggested that today's "confusion" in evangelicalism replicates a confusion on the day of Pentecost. Mr. Todd commented after this reply , and the original article is here. My thoughts: By what means was this Church-less "consensus" formed? If the Council did not possess the authority to adjudicate such questions, who does? If the Council Fathers did not intend to be the arbiters, why do they say that they do? At the risk of being rude, I would define evangelicalism as, "Whatever I want or need to believe at any particular time." Ecclesial authority to settle a particular question is a step forward, but only as long as, "God alone is Lord of the con

A Friend I Once Had, And The Dogmatic Principle

 I once had a friend, a dear friend, who helped me with personal care needs in college. Reformed Presbyterian to the core. When I was a Reformed Presbyterian, I visited their church many times. We were close. I still consider his siblings my friends. (And siblings in the Lord.) Nevertheless, when I began to consider the claims of the Catholic Church to be the Church Christ founded, he took me out to breakfast. He implied--but never quite stated--that we would not be brothers, if I sought full communion with the Catholic Church. That came true; a couple years later, I called him on his birthday, as I'd done every year for close to ten of them. He didn't recognize my number, and it was the most strained, awkward phone call I have ever had. We haven't spoken since. We were close enough that I attended the rehearsal dinner for his wedding. His wife's uncle is a Catholic priest. I remember reading a blog post of theirs, that early in their relationship, she told him of the p
My wheelchair was nearly destroyed by a car last night. That's a bit melodramatic, I suppose, because it is intact and undamaged. But we'd left my power chair ("Red Sam" in the official designation) in-between the maze of cars parked out front of Chris Yee's house for Bible Study. [Isn't that a Protestant Bible study?--ed.] They are good friends, and it is not under any official auspices. [Not BSF?--ed.] They're BSF guys, but it's not a BSF study. Anyway, I wasn't worried; I made a joke about calling the vendor the next day: "What seems to be the problem, sir?" 'Well, it was destroyed by a car.' As it happened, a guy bumped into it at slow speed. His car got the worst of it. And this only reinforces what I've said for a solid 13 years [Quickie commercial coming] If you want a power wheelchair that lasts, get a Quickie. They're fast, obviously, and they're tanks. Heck, my old one still would work, but the batteries ar