Hillary, Trump, and voting one’s conscience. If there’s a lull in a cocktail party conversation, bring up these three items.
If the polls are correct, never have both candidates in a presidential election been so disliked. The prevailing refrains are “I’m not voting for Trump. I’m voting against Hillary”, and vice versa. How can I choose at all when the alternatives are both so deeply flawed? How, especially, as a Christian, can I vote for either one?
Some Christians are wondering whether to vote at all. Or they’re thinking of voting for a write-in candidate. I can certainly appreciate those sentiments. But in the present situation, neither is morally viable. Yes, Trump is a loose cannon. He’s disturbingly narcissistic with no clear moral center. He’s said outrageous, insulting things to those who’ve dared to wound his monumental ego. His claims of being a Christian look like purely opportunistic moves to win the conservative Christian vote. Yet I’m convinced that he’s the lesser of the two evils.
A committed Christian simply cannot vote for Hillary. There are many issues in this presidential race. But Catholic teaching and the U.S. bishops have consistently stated that abortion is the decisive one, for several reasons. I’ll assume I’m mostly preaching to the choir here, so I’ll give those reasons briefly. First, abortion itself is the murder of a child by its mother. It is the ultimate child abuse. How abortion victimizes the mother herself is a separate issue. Second, as the most innocent and vulnerable of human beings, the unborn have special claims on our protection. Third, abortion kills 3,000 unborn babies a day in the U.S. alone. This is 9/11, daily. Definitely, some of Trump’s policies could harm many. But nothing he’s proposing will cause carnage on that level.
But although the tide of U.S. opinion has turned against abortion on demand, Hillary remains a stridently vocal abortion supporter. Hillary has apparently never met an abortion she didn’t like. She has openly said that up until birth, the unborn child has no legal rights whatsoever. She enthusiastically supports the HHS mandate. This mandate forces Christian institutions to provide insurance for contraceptives that are known abortifacients, as well as for abortions. She consistently has opposed any restrictions whatsoever on abortion, including abortions for sex selection or in the last trimester.
There is one empty seat on the Supreme Court, and several soon to be because of their occupants’ advanced ages. The next president’s appointees will heavily influence U.S. policy for decades to come. With all of Trump’s back-and-forths on policy, he has at least been consistent about appointing justices who uphold the Constitution and support restricting or eliminating abortion on demand.
Other factors make Trump the only moral option include the following. He has consistently spoken out on behalf of freedom of speech, which the “hate crime” stance of the Democratic Party is bent on eliminating. He hasn’t been as vocal about freedom of religion as I’d like. But Hillary has been vocal indeed about that freedom’s elimination. Most recently, she has said, “Cultural codes and religious beliefs have to change”. The federal government will be the one to force that. Elimination of such freedoms pave the way for totalitarianism. Such elimination is totalitarianism.
Perhaps the most compelling argument in favor of Trump is damage control. His impulsivity, arrogance, and self-interest are clouds with a silver lining. He lacks Hillary’s deadly consistency. He seems to have no firmly held ideals beyond self-interest. With the exceptions noted above, he’s all over the board.
Not so Hillary. She is very motivated. Her ideals, such as they are, are strong. As Yeats phrased it, “The best lack all conviction/While the worst are full of passionate intensity.”Under the influence of those she has so admired – Saul Alinsky (anarchist, petty thief and psychopathic enough to be called “callous” by Capone’s gang) and Margaret Sanger (foundress of Planned Parenthood and racist friend of the KKK and the Nazis), she is zealous and untiring in her goals. She will continue the work of her arrogant, dictatorial, and seemingly sociopathic mentor, the current president, and then some.
Politics makes strange bedfellows. Trump is no Christian zealot or paragon. But Hillary is assuredly an anti-Christian zealot. If elected, she will continue to attack Christianity as well as the foundational freedoms of democracy. Trump ain’t pretty. But choosing him is the only way to vote one’s conscience in this most difficult of presidential elections.
