Many people conflate “voting your conscience” with writing-in a third party candidate—a mistake caused by thinking you are personally responsible for the actions of your politicians.
Last week, Sen. Ted Cruz confused evangelical voters who hold his opinion in high regard. In his speech at the GOP National Convention in Ohio, he subtly advised them not to vote for the GOP nominee, Donald Trump. Despite being invited by the Trump campaign to command a primetime speaking slot, Cruz did not use the slot to unify the party and defeat Hillary Clinton. Instead, he preached vague marching orders:
“We deserve leaders who stand for principle. …to those listening, please, don’t stay home in November. Stand, and speak, and vote your conscience,” Cruz told thousands of GOP delegates and guests—and millions of American voters watching from home.
There’s a reason why the 10 Commandments don’t cover voting in governmental elections. God, being just, doesn’t hold humans accountable for the actions of other humans. He only holds us accountable for our own actions.
In a political election, you can maximize the limited power of your vote—in both a moral and pragmatic sense—by backing the best candidate who also has a chance of winning. You can acknowledge Trump’s abundant flaws—as I have done in previous columns—and still vote for him with a clear conscience. Because you’re doing the best you can do, and you’re not responsible for his shortcomings.
Yes, Trump is not as consistent or as reliable as Cruz, but Cruz is not even close to as consistent as Christ. The fact is, Christ didn’t and never will run for public office. In this life, we will always have to vote for flawed human beings.
Over time, if voters grow more corrupt in their personal lives, it is only natural that they will find themselves to in turn have increasingly corrupt options for public officials. As a people, we have caved to abortion. We have caved to wealth redistribution to support a plethora of pet projects. We can only blame ourselves for having to now choose between Clinton and Trump.
On Human Rights—Trump Gets Your Vote
Morally speaking, your best bet is to vote for the candidate who has shown the greatest dedication to preserving human rights. Human rights, for our purposes, are rights like life; property ownership; self-defense; and free speech that natural law—or reason—guarantees all human beings.
“Look, I know how hard this job can be. That’s why I know Hillary will be so good at it!” President Obama gushed in endorsing Clinton for president.
With Clinton, we’ll get Obama 2.0. We’ll get another president who will bypass Congress and allow tens of thousands of Syrian refugees to enter America—despite the fact that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned earlier this year that ISIS terrorists are “skilled” and “taking advantage of the torrent of migrants to insert operatives into that flow.”
Obama is a great farmer, always finding ways to grow new Democratic voters—regardless of whether it’s good for the voters or the country. Hillary is the woman whom he handpicked to bequeath his voting farm.
In contrast, Trump has promised to halt immigration from known terrorism hotbeds. He also has plans to tighten our screening program at a time when Obama’s administration is proposing to allow visitors to the U.S. to voluntarily hand over potentially incriminating evidence, like social media handles. (Because everyone knows criminals love turning themselves in!)
In his speech last Thursday accepting the GOP nomination, Trump made a point of telling the tragic story of a 21-year-old millennial woman named Sarah Root.
Root lost her life on January 31 at the hand of a drunken illegal immigrant with a criminal record—who snapped her spine and fractured her skull when he rammed his Chevy pickup truck into her car while she was waiting at a traffic light. Her body was so mutilated by the horrific crash that her own parents could not recognize her face.
The NRA has endorsed Trump and he has committed to defending the Second Amendment as a way to safeguard American citizens during a time of increased terrorism and mass violence. Clinton, in contrast, is married to Bill Clinton who—during his time as president—practically invented gun free zones in America. She also chose as her running mate Sen. Tim Kaine who has fought hard for restrictions on the use of guns for self-defense as an “answer” to mass violence.
Should we lose the right to bear arms, we will lose the ability to defend our other human rights, like property ownership and free speech.
Clinton has made it clear that she thinks our property is hers. As Secretary of State, she kept our classified national intelligence on a non-secure server in a remote bathroom in Colorado and sent and received classified information via a non-secure personal e-mail address. She failed to secure the safety of our Ambassador to Libya as well as our CIA and State Department personnel in Benghazi and failed to come to their aid during an ambush by terrorists.
Cruz was right when he said: “vote your conscience.” He simply failed to specify that to vote your conscience—to do the moral thing; the pragmatic thing; and the best thing for your future—you should vote for Donald J. Trump.
Not because Trump is perfect. But because your vote for Trump is a vote against Clinton—who will not respect your human rights—whereas Trump has demonstrated a renewed commitment to defending human rights and has a real shot at winning the White House.
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