When the person who approved your application to become a writer for this excellent publication (thank you Tracy), publishes “Why people of faith shouldn’t support President Trump”, and you don’t agree with most of the piece, and part of the group’s mission statement reads: “We promote dialogue through online journalism”, what’s your next step?
You start researching and typing a response that provides reasons people of faith may need to do exactly what the previously published article says they shouldn’t do. But before you share that with the readers, you find some common ground with the previous article.
Tracy’s last line read, “I just wish they didn’t revere someone so prideful and callous.” Amen to that! We should never respect the actions of another just because of who they are. And as President of the United States, we should expect, and need, a person worthy of our admiration. We can’t expect them to be perfect but striving toward that lofty goal should be on their ‘short’ list of critical tasks.
It’s About Party
But another way we ‘support’ an incumbent president is through campaign efforts, contributions to their re-election campaign, and ultimately casting our vote for them. And that’s where I’ve come up with several reasons for people of faith to support Donald Trump, and in contradiction to an early line in Tracy’s article, “This isn’t about party, it’s about character,” supporting him is very much about party.
Republicans and Democrats, and for the record, I’m a registered Republican who voted for Donald Trump, are on different sides over many issues. We likely all remember the concern generated, less than two years ago, by the president’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The Cut posted an article, within days of his selection, titled “What You Can Do to Fight Brett Kavanaugh’s Appointment to the Supreme Court.”
Their article started by saying, “many progressive groups have expressed concerns over what Kavanaugh’s appointment to the bench could mean for the civil, reproductive, and immigration rights of millions of Americans,” but it wasn’t long before they stated their personal opinion that “Kavanaugh’s nomination poses a serious threat to many people’s rights,” and then offered some things people could do to halt his appointment.
I found information on StudentNewsDaily.com that compared the beliefs of conservatives and liberals in 21 areas, including abortion, affirmative action, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, global warming/climate change, gun control, healthcare, same-sex marriage, social security, and welfare.
Key Issues At Hand
These are important issues, regardless of which side’s opinion is ‘right’ or best for our country. And, just as Justice Kavanaugh’s appointment brought concern to some portions of our nation’s population, a democratic president could more easily move our country toward decisions that would tend to promote the liberal beliefs about these issues.
One of the ways to eliminate a sitting president, and not have government lean toward the opposite side of the aisle, is impeachment. That didn’t work, and the other option, having someone seriously challenge the president for the Republican nomination, doesn’t look like it’s going to happen either. So, what are the options for a conservative in the 2020 election?
We can hold back from campaigning for or donating to Trump’s re-election bid, but each phone call not made or dollar unspent could aid the opposition’s efforts. The same is true with our critical voting decision. We can change our party affiliation and vote for the one showing the least prideful or callous behavior or not vote at all. Each of those choices, however, clearly makes the likelihood of a change in parties, at the presidential level, more possible.
The other choice, and it may be a difficult one for many reasons, is to cast my vote for President Trump and hope and pray he doesn’t do anything to harm our country anymore than he already has.
