I am looking forward to casting my ballot tomorrow. I plan to vote early, mainly because I've observed the social distancing inside the early polling location and I am comfortable with that. As far as my choice for President goes, my mind has been made up for a long time. The decisions I've had to make have to do more with local and state offices and ballot propositions and on those, I'm ready now. I
I like to consider casting my ballot in a positive way. Politics in this country has become so divisive and the rhetoric so negative that I make it a point to make sure that I am casting my ballot in favor of something, not against something. To be sure, there are things I will be voting against, but I will start with the positive points.
I am voting for law and order. That starts as the top with a President who does not consider himself above the law. I'm voting for a candidate for President who won't ask his subordinates to choose between personal loyalty to himself or loyalty to the people who elected him. I'm voting for a candidate who will carefully select the people who serve in his administration and cabinet and won't wind up with a long list of convictions, prison time and resignations on top of resignations when they were forced to choose between their job and their integrity.
I'm voting for a candidate who believes that there is a lot more to law and order than just calling out the National Guard and arming police departments with assault weapons. This is America, not Russia, and I am voting for a candidate who is able to discern the root problems behind crime, social unrest and violent protest and is willing and able to use the law enforcement powers of the Presidency to resolve them. I'm voting for a candidate who has been part of a Presidential administration that succeeded in seeing a drop in the rates of crime and violence as a result of their initiatives while in office. The social unrest and violence that has erupted in the wake of a recent cluster of killings of African Americans by police is happening on the current President's watch. It's not something he can blame on his opponent. The problems that are causing the violence are clear. I'm voting for the candidate who has clearly discerned how to resolve them.
You can't be for law and order, and then turn around and pardon someone like former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich or commute sentences for your political allies.
I am voting for the 20 million Americans who finally secured health coverage under the ACA and for the 180 million who have pre-existing conditions. I am one of them, and in this particular regard, I am not willing to vote against my own interests. Health care is a basic human right and in a country with a government that derives its power from the people, should be the same shared obligation for protecting its citizens as the common defense. There are multiple successful models for doing this everywhere. There is no reason why our government cannot come up with a health care plan that makes it possible for every American to access our health care system when they need it. And I am voting for a candidate who has been involved in the success of the previous administration in this regard, and has a plan for going beyond that success in the future. His opposition has been bragging about "the best health care plan you will ever see" for four years now. We've seen nothing. So I'm voting to move forward on this.
I am voting for truth, character and integrity in the Presidency to matter again. Back during the Clinton administration, a number of prominent Evangelical leaders were critical of the President because of his lack of faithfulness to his wife. One of them, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Adrian Rogers, preached a sermon in his church that linked the trustworthiness and character of the person who held the office of the presidency to the behavior he exhibited in his moral life. Republicans were quick to jump on that argument when Bill Clinton was in the White House. "How can you trust someone with the leadership of the nation who lied to and cheated on his wife?" It was a good question then, and I think it is still a good one. Somehow, it's been turned around to "We've not electing a Pastor-in-chief but a commander-in-chief." And so a man who cheated on and lied to three wives, and bragged about them to enhance his reputation in the world is now embraced as a political ally.
The end result of his leadership is quite visible for those who have taken off their blinders and allowed themselves to see. Over a hundred administration officials have resigned their jobs and left, people appointed by the sitting President who refused to do things that were unethical including admired and trusted military leaders like General John Kelly, who resigned as White House Chief of Staff, and General James "Mad Dog" Mattis, who quit as defense secretary. Virtually all of the evidence in the investigations against the sitting President, from Mueller to the impeachment came from the President's own administrative appointees and staff members, not from his opposition. Eight of his advisors and associates are in prison. What does that tell you? I'm voting to drain the swamp.
I am voting for Black Lives to Matter. That's not to say all lives don't matter but let's get to the heart of the issue. Systemic racism still exists and it is not enough to say that things for African Americans have come a long way. Until opportunity is genuinely equal, and African Americans are treated equally under the law, we can't quit. And it doesn't stop there. We need leadership in office who recognizes that a problem exists and is capable of uniting the people who have the power and leadership ability to work on the root causes of it, and respond with a solution instead of violence.
As a Caucasian male, there is no way that the life experiences I've had can lead me to understand the experiences of most African Americans who grew up in this country. So we have to be willing to listen and understand and think of everyone as Americans who have citizenship in this country together, accept differences and then actually do something to make it better.
I'm voting for a candidate who cares about the Presidential responsibility to protect and defend. We have seen no leadership at all from the sitting President when it comes to the coronavirus. Over 200,000 people have died, many of them because hospitals are swamped and medical care is stretched to the breaking point.
I am voting for experience, a proven record of success and leadership ability.
The facts are the facts. Tenure and experience are assets, not liabilities, especially when it comes to the Presidency. I am voting for a candidate who has earned the respect of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. During his term of service, more than 50 of his Republican colleagues in the Senate are on the record praising his leadership ability, his willingness to work across the aisle and his desire to be of service and benefit to the American people.
Senator John McCain didn't always agree with the current Democratic nominee in the senate, often engaging in debates from the opposite side of issues. But the fact that they shared a friendship and a personal admiration for each other shows that they understood the unproductive, divisive nature of partisanship and were capable of rising above it when it was necessary to benefit the American people. I have the utmost respect for Senator McCain, though I didn't often agree with him, one of the best reasons I can think of to vote for the current Democratic nominee is the endorsement given to him by McCain's widow, Cindy. The next presidency cannot succeed if it is buried in the divisiveness and hatred that gets tweeted out daily from the current occupant of the White House. It's time for a genuinely Bi-partisan spirit to take over.
I'm voting for the reporter with cerebral palsy who was mocked by the sitting President during his first campaign. It should have ended there. Partisan divisiveness is the only reason it didn't.
I'm voting for the best chance we have to overcome partisan divisiveness. There are always multiple issues at stake in any election which make it difficult to prioritize their importance. Partisan loyalty, something George Washington had the foresight to warn against, requires buying the whole package just to get the things that are in it that you want. Third party choices and single-issue voting are both ways to exercise your constitutional right in this regard, but neither of those options will eliminate the larger issues that exist.
I do not support the concept of abortion on demand. However, I also do not see that there is a viable government-imposed mandate against it that will succeed. I see almost no real effort on the part of those who want to eliminate it by government mandate to do anything about it otherwise. Evangelical Christians, who are the most vocal opponents of it, have spent all kinds of efforts to elect candidates who will end it and have nothing to show for it since those efforts began. They spend billions of dollars on building large church facilities that are used, in most cases, for a couple of hours a week and millions more in interest on the loans they've taken out to build them, but they spend very little on meaningful ministry that would impact the root causes of abortion and lead to a decline in the numbers.
But some of the health care initiatives of the Obama administration did indeed deal with root causes of abortion. The numbers went down significantly while these initiatives for women's health were in place. Government should not be the only means by which the abortion totals are reduced but it appears that at the present time, there isn't a viable Christian ministry option. And as long as the President's only genuine interest in the issue itself is how to use it to get votes, which seems pretty clear, it nullifies the single-issue voting argument.
There are some things I am voting against. I am voting against the most corrupt political administration in American history, documented by evidence given, not by Democrats who are his political opponents, but by the people he hired and appointed to work in his administration who came forward and reported the corruption they saw happening and who testified to what they saw. Virtually ever bit of information documented in the Mueller investigation and in the Ukraine bribery investigation came from Trump supporters and appointees.
I am voting against conspiracy theorists, deep-state antagonists and their media propagandists. Trump didn't start this mess, but he has supported it by being a contributor to it and by having several who are involved as part of his White House staff, most notably Steve Bannon. The Republicans complain about "Antifa" but these people are just as dangerous because the false content they produce motivates anarchists, white supremacists and other extremists to violence.
They've fallen flat on their face by trying to create a scandal that doesn't exist around Hunter Biden. There's nothing criminal there and against the backdrop of the kind of corruption that is common in Ukraine, Hunter Biden's business involvement looks like a Sunday School picnic compared to some of the Trump scandals. Other than being his son, there's no business connection to Joe Biden which is the lie the conspiracy theorists are pushing. They've had to offer bribes to get anyone to come forward and the one guy who did sure didn't give them their money's worth. The narrative has changed to more blaming of the "mainstream media" for not putting the story out there.
Free speech doesn't mean the freedom to lie without responsibility. Apparently, it is up to the American people to hold this administration and President accountable for its lies and for generating fear and suspicion with phony conspiracy theories without credibility or support.
I am voting against the racism and white supremacy that is such a visible part of the current Presidential administration.
I'm voting against a President who has attempted to use COVID-19 as a political issue and has failed to provide any measure of leadership that would have helped the country get through the crisis. I am voting against his failure to use the power of the Presidency to organize a nationwide effort of awareness and prevention and to coordinate the production and distribution of essential materials and supplies needed to protect front line workers and treat those who were sick.
I am voting against a President who, while participating in the rhetoric attempting to pin the labels of socialist and Marxist on Democrats, has extended credibility and recognition to two of the world's most notorious Communists, Kim Jung Un and Vladimir Putin.
I voted. And I'm proud to have exercised this constitutional privilege, especially in this election.
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