Hrooms and Shrooms

My Heretical Views on the Election

I’m not going to vote for John McCain or Sarah Palin.

Lesser of Two Evils

I don’t think the phrase “lesser of two evils” should characterize a Christian’s voting choices.

I think voting for John McCain because he is the “lesser of two evils” is kind of like the way some foods are marketed. A food item is supposed to be good for you because it is low in fat, cholesterol, sugar, etc. But that’s backwards. Food isn’t nutritious primarily because of what’s not in it, but because of what’s in it. A Krispy Kreme doughnut has zero grams of trans fat. Pretty good, eh? But Krispy Kreme doughnuts (which consist of a special mixture of air, sugar, and pixie dust) are not nutritious. They’re not even really food, as much as I enjoy eating them.

John McCain is not a good choice for President of the United States. He may not be as bad as Barack Obama on various issues, but that’s not enough for him to get my vote. If I had more time, I could discuss why I think McCain would be an awful president. But time is running out, and here I’m primarily hoping to influence Christians who aren’t excited about McCain but see no other option than to vote for him.

I have a number of problems with Sarah Palin, and I’ll touch briefly on one big one—feminism. Sarah Palin is not a pro-family candidate. It’s wonderful that she didn’t murder her unborn son when she found out he had a handicap. But that, by itself, doesn’t make her a model of Biblical womanhood. And running for vice president as a mother of young children definitely doesn’t, either. There is a lot of confusion in our culture about God’s design for men and women. It’s a big, important issue. And Palin’s self-proclaimed feminism is not something that should be overlooked simply because she is “one of us” on other issues. Christians that are excited about making Sarah Palin VP and “one heartbeat away” from being commander-in-chief of the US military should not complain if the draft is reinstated in a few years and Uncle Sam is calling up their 18-year-old daughters as well as their sons.

Are there really only two options? Sounds like it, from most of the media coverage of the election. But there are other candidates running. And I think choosing not to vote for any of the candidates on the ballot is also a legitimate option. We have to break free of the false dichotomy of “Democrats bad; Republicans good.” The Democratic Party is awful. But it doesn’t follow that the Republican Party is good (and it really isn’t). Even if there really were only two candidates on the ballot, that still wouldn’t make one of them good.

Please don’t make an “evil” choice—greater or lesser. If you believe that the best choice is to vote for John McCain, then by all means do so, but don’t call your choice the lesser of two evils. Call it a good choice, and know why you believe it’s a good choice.

Chess

I stink at chess. I understand the rules (at least the main ones), but I mostly play defensively. I haven’t figured out the offense. Now defense is important, but as far as I know it is impossible to win at chess using only defense. I was playing chess a few years ago with a friend who was somewhere around nine years old. I captured a bunch of his men, but just couldn’t figure out how to put him in checkmate.

Anyway, Christians have been playing defense in culture chess for a long time. We let our opponents direct the game, and we respond to each move, trying to stay alive. In the political section of the chess board, defense mostly ends up meaning hanging onto the Republican party, because even though the Republicans are socialists who continue to enlarge the government at home and the empire abroad, they’re not as bad as the other socialist party. So we let the Republicans and Democrats dance around the chess board. Once in a while one side or the other captures something, but in the meantime we slide steadily towards totalitarianism.

We need to switch to offense. I think that has more to do with prayer and the proclamation of the gospel than with voting, but our voting needs to change as well. I think we need to give up on the GOP. That is, don’t vote for a candidate just because he’s a Republican (or just because he’s not a Democrat). If there is a Republican that is a good choice, fine, but if not, look elsewhere.

To be much good at chess, you not only have to play offense, you also have to plan your offense several moves in advance. As far as I can tell, either Obama or McCain will win this election. So if there were only one election for all time, either Obama or McCain would win, and that would be that. But most likely, there will be another election in 2012, one in 2016, etc. Voting in 2008 for a candidate who will obviously not win can make sense if seen as an effort to weaken the Democrat/Republican stranglehold on American politics. While there’s really no chance of getting a good president this time around, there is at least a little hope that voting for good but “unelectable” candidates can, over the next several elections, pave the way for us to elect someone really good as president.

I plan to vote for Chuck Baldwin. The probability of his winning this election is roughly the same as the probability of my winning the election. But if I can influence a few of my friends this time around, and then we all influence a few more people next election, and so on, perhaps there will be a truly good option available by the time my sons are voting in presidential elections.

In a sense, 2008 seems like a particularly good year to give up the pragmatic “lesser of two evils” approach and start voting third party, because I believe Obama is going to win anyway. So instead of wasting your vote on McCain, put it to some good use. =)

And hey, if you think I’m extreme, check out my wife’s post. =D

Trusting in Princes

On the one hand, I am very interested in our national politics. I’ve been fascinated by this campaign season. And I care a lot about making good choices as a voter, and about encouraging others to do the same. I would love to persuade some of my friends to refuse to vote for either McCain or Obama this November.

But on the other hand, I don’t think this election is especially important. My guess is that things will turn out basically the same for the next four years regardless of whether Obama or McCain is sitting in the Oval Office. Either way, by 2012, the people of the United States will most likely have less freedom. The nation will be much deeper in debt. And we will have maintained, if not increased, our role as the “freedom bully” of the world, and started more unjust wars. Abortion will not have been stopped, or even significantly restrained.

I think that casting my one little vote for a third-party candidate has some small value. But my hope is that I can use my vote as a means of presenting ideas that will influence Christians to play more offense and less defense.

Ultimately, when we as Christians talk about hope for our nation and our world, we should really be thinking about the gospel of Jesus Christ, not presidential candidates. We should care a lot more about supporting the church—local and universal—than about supporting political parties or constitutional amendments. It’s important that we seek to think and act Biblically in our role as stewards of our republic. But we must not put our trust in princes and presidents! “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes” (Psalm 118:8-9).

Vote your conscience on November 4. But when the results come back, whatever they are, don’t worry about them. Lift up Jesus Christ! His victory is sure.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.