Why You Should Vote

On the radio I keep hearing about Christians who think they may sit out the election because they are unhappy with both political parties. This is not a good idea.

I remember an old Dilbert cartoon where Dogbert convinces Dilbert not to vote because his opinion’s and Dogbert’s opinions would cancel each other out. At the end of the day Dilbert realizes he has been had and says “dogs can’t vote.” Dogbert replies “apparently they can.” When you do not vote for the party with the views closest to your own on the issues, you are effectively voting for the victory of the party who disagrees with you more. The same thing is true when you vote for a third party candidate that is poling so low he will not win the election. Primaries are the time to vote for your favorite candidate on ideology alone. In the general election you need to help the viable candidate closest to your own views.

Lots of people hope that by not voting for a weak candidate, they will punish the party for its sins and get a better candidate next time. The problem is, that is not the way politics works. Here in California, many of my pro-life friends have refused to vote for some Republicans because they were not pro-life enough. The result has been not only that our state is represented by openly pro-abortion candidates who caucus with and maintain the line of the pro-abortion party and vote for its pro-abortion leadership, but the Republican party here insists it cannot win with conservative candidates and runs even more liberal Republicans – thereby further angering my friends who then vote for third party candidates or stay home. In the mean time the democrat legislature churns out anti-Christian and immoral legislation by the truck load.

Politics is an incremental business and requires endless hard work and commitment. If you want moral candidates you need to get active in the party and work and vote for the best candidates you can find at all levels. When candidates who are not immoral are elected, they change the climate to make the next step toward a more moral candidate more practical. We also need to find good candidates to run. So often candidates who claim to represent Christian views are either phonies, people lacking in character, not too bright, or people lacking in interpersonal and political skills. But in the absence of a good candidate, a bad candidate who will support the better party most of the time is better than one that will vote to put the pro-abortion anti-Christian party in power.

Refusing to vote Republican this year is like eating tainted chicken and sending yourself to the emergency room because your boss did not believe you have a cold. It is like cutting off your arm because you hand itches. It is like quitting your job and going on unemployment because your salary should be higher. It has emotional appeal, but is and irrational way to deal with the real problem.

If the Democrats take back the US Senate it will become impossible to confirm pro-life justices when any additional Supreme Court Justices retire – and several could in the next two years. Two more pro-abortion judges could mean decades of extra abortions that could be stopped if the next nominee or two where willing to vote with the angels on the abortion issue. Thousands, perhaps millions, of extra deaths will occur.

If the Democrats capture the house and the Senate they will over ride the President’s policies in the war on Islamo-facism and go back to a defensive law enforcement approach. That will mean more terrorist attacks on America and embolden terrorist armies abroad. The Islamo-fascists might get their caliphate after all. Billions of dollars in taxes will be spent on defensive measures that cannot possibly protect every target, but will cost a fortune to fortify a few. Needless to say taxes will go up and the economy will stall and crash. The democrats will blame Bush, but it will be their fault.

If the Democrats win back the House or the Senate there will be no more attempts and amendments to end partial birth abortion or protect marriage. But there will be democratic sponsored amendments to lock abortion into the Constitution and grant marriage right s and more to homosexuals and polyamourists. There will be no more tax cuts for the middle class but there will be plenty of new burdens on liberty. There will be no more faith based initiatives, but there will be legislation ending exemptions and protections for Christian groups.

If the democrats win the House or the Senate they will force an early withdrawal from Iraq. Hundreds of thousands will die the ensuing civil war. The winner will either be Iran, Osama, or Sadam’s heirs. American will have a potent nation sate enemy in place of an unstable neighbor. No fewer American soldiers will die because the next war will be worse than this one. But many fewer terrorists will die since instead of finding Iraq the terrorist-killing zone it is today, they will find it a base for rest and training.

The Republicans have not been all we hoped. 70% of Americans want restrictions on abortion and they have passed only a few and changed the hostile courts only a little. 70% of Americans want marriage to be between one man and one woman, but the republicans could not overcome Democrat opposition to the amendments to protect marriage. 70% of Americans do not buy into the radical separation of morality and faith from public life, but the Republicans have not been able to get many good judicial nominees, who see this issue the same way, past the Democrat obstructionists in the Senate.

But if the Republicans have failed to be effective against the democrats why put the very same democrats in charge?

Please vote.