The Grand Finale - Election 2016

It was August 2015 when I met my first Presidential candidate of the election, Bobby Jindal.  In the more than a year and two months since then, I've attended rallies for and met just about every candidate, listened to every debate, considered the opinions of family, friends, and complete strangers, read countless news articles, read a book by Clinton, and interviewed two minor party candidates.  Exploring every viewpoint has not expedited decision-making.

Faced with the prospect of voting today, yesterday I was still deliberating between Trump, Hoefling (America's Party), and Castle (Constitution Party).  Clinton, Stein, are Johnson are too liberal to be compatible with my beliefs.  I could go into details, but I won't waste your time, especially since I have discussed Clinton in previous posts.

But I would like to mention, if you are an Iowa conservative, please remember to vote against retention of activist state Supreme Court justices Cady, Hecht, and Appel.

Now to my personal decision on the presidential candidates...

Donald Trump

A main reason for considering Trump was his current pro-life stance, and the chance he'd appoint conservative Supreme Court justices.  Fellow blogger Cheryl has explained her reasoning along these lines in this post.  

Would I vote for Trump if I knew it would save one life?  I thought of the words of Marquis Beccaria (as quoted by John Adams): "If I can but be the instrument of preserving one life, his blessing and tears of transport, shall be a sufficient consolation to me, for the contempt of all mankind."

Then I read an opinion article on whether Christians should vote for Trump.  Scrolling through the comments, I found a quote--attributed to the late Francis George--from a previous election, "You would be a fool to vote for a con man just because he claimed he was against abortion."  (Do not assume any implications.  Trump may turn out ok, or not ok.)

“There are certain things that I don't think can ever be negotiated. Let me put it this way: I am pro life, and pro-life people will find out that I will be very loyal to them, just as I am loyal to other people.” 

 --Donald Trump, 2011 interview with The Times

Beccaria's words are timeless.  And there are other good reasons to vote for Trump, like his Contract with the American People.  I decided it was time for some introspection, and turned to my post on the 2012 election where I list my reasons for voting against both Obama and Romney, and the mistakes made by George Bush.  I found many of those reasons relevant to this election as well.

Trump Pros and Cons

Pros

Cons

• Education: Against Common Core.
• Energy: Supports Keystone Pipeline. Wants U.S. energy independence
• Foreign Policy: Against Iran deal.
• Foreign Policy: Let the Russians bomb the ISIS! If we confront Russia over Syria we'll start World War III.
• Health Care: Wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act
• Health Care: Wants to let insurance providers compete across state lines.
• Health Care: Against mandatory vaccinations for children. Suspects vaccinations may cause health problems.
• Immigration: We're going to have a big, beautiful wall, with a big beautiful door. It's going to be huge, and Mexico's going to pay for it. Illegal aliens will be deported, but given an expedited legal way back in.
• Personal Life: Has never drank, smoked, or done drugs.
• Religious Freedom: Has expressed support for First Amendment Defence Act to protect business owners who don't want involvement in homosexual weddings.
• Second Amendment: Supports Second Amendment. Has a permit to carry.
• Social Issues: Supports traditional marriage, and wants to appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn gay marriage decision.
• Social Issues: Pro-life. Wants to end federal funding of Planned Parenthood
• Syria: We have no idea who we're fighting for in Syria. Are the rebel groups we're fighting for ISIS? We don't know. Stay out of that quagmire.
• Syria: Against admitting Syrian refugees.
• Taxes: Wants to simplify IRS code and cut income tax.
• Taxes: Wants to cut corporate tax rates to 15%.
• Taxes: Wants to eliminate the death tax

• Corporate Welfare: Supported TARP (the bank bailout).
• Energy: Supports subsidies for renewable energy including the wind industry and ethanol.
• Foreign Policy: Wants more ground troops in Iraq to fight ISIS.
• Personal Life: Is on his third wife, and cheated on the first wife with the second. Claims to have committed adultery with various married women.
• Personal Life: Has spoken very crudely about women.
• Privacy: Supports the Patriot Act.
• Social Issues: Has said his views on LGBT rights are "evolving," and has supported amending the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include a ban of discrimination based on sexual orientation (the Equality Act). Waved a rainbow flag at a rally, and has said he'll be better for the LGBT community than Clinton.
• Social Issues: Says Kim Davis should have obeyed. “You have to go with it. The decision's been made, and that is the law of the land.”
• Social Security/Medicare: Wants to perpetuate these programs
• Torture: Wants to bring back waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation methods for suspected terrorists.

Although I believe I've been becoming more practical and less idealistic than I was last election,  I still can't bring myself to vote for a man I don't more or less trust.

Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich. -Proverbs 28:6

Hoefling and Castle

So, that left me with Hoefling of America's Party and Castle of the Constitution Party.  The beauty of this choice is both parties have nearly identical platforms!

You can read America's Party Platform here and the Constitution Party's platform here.  From talking with Hoefling and reading both platforms I have very minor disagreements with each.  But they are very close to what I believe.

 America's Party was formed by Hoefling when he and Keyes broke from the Republican Party in 2008.  They tried to join the Constitution Party, but Keyes lost the nomination there to Castle; so they formed their own party.  When I interviewed Hoefling, he expected to be on the ballot in 5-7 states. Hoefling is an Iowan, and I enjoyed interviewing him.

The Constitution Party was formed in 1992 from the U.S. Taxpayer's Party and is on the ballot in 24 states.  They have a nicer website (though I've found some broken links I'm going to have to ask them to fix), and appear better organized and equipped for national campaigns.  Castle served in the Marines, works as a lawyer, and he and his wife have a mission for homeless children in Romania.

So, unless I have a sudden change of heart in the voting booth, I'm going to vote for Castle.  

My mother belonged to the Constitution party when I was a small child, and I always thought it was a terribly boring option, as their candidates never won.  I'll continue to register as a Republican.  But I wrote-in last election rather than vote for Romney, and if McCain were running this year, I would write-in rather than vote for him.  So, I am starting to wonder if I will ever vote for a Republican presidential candidate in a general election. The Constitution Party is the most viable of many unviable alternative conservative options.

I shared this thought last election, and I'll share it again.

Friends and neighbors, regardless of my third-party vote, I hope you vote for Trump.  He'd be a much more exciting iceberg to hit than Clinton.  Please stop by The Journeys of Faith to read my sister's thoughts on the election if you need warmer, more practical encouragement than I can give.  

If you need a light-hearted evaluation, check out this older Studio C sketch.

I know how difficult it was for me to choose whom to vote for this election, so regardless of how you vote (or even if you choose not to vote for theological reasons), I appreciate and respect your opinions.  

May God bless us all with the wisdom and strength to vote with clear consciences this election.

"Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them."  --Psalm 119:165