I just had to link to this article because Alan Keyes says it so well. Palin's powers as VP are such that she will not suddenly transform McCain into the evangelical's version of a knight in shining armour.
But won't Vice President Palin be able to prevent President McCain from making decisions that conflict with Christian conscience? I can think of no example of a morally principled, but unequally yoked, running mate who achieved this result once in office. The American republics are based upon Constitutional principles inconsistent with a divided executive. Therefore, lieutenant governors and vice presidents have no reliable say over the chief executive's decisions and actions. This would be especially true of someone like Gov. Palin, who will enter office with no strong national constituency of her own beyond the possible influence of those supposed moral leaders whose unprincipled support for McCain has already placed them at his mercy.
I start struggling more with Palin as the weeks go on. If I have to hear her talk about shattering another glass ceiling, I might just pull my hair out. I am NOT a feminist. I am a woman designed beautifully by my God, very different from man.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, she doesn't fix McCain entirely, though she does apparently bring a great deal of excitement to the ticket.
Still, I have to wonder... Given the assumption that abstaining from voting would essentially be voting for Obama... what's an American Christian to do?
Oh, and the nice thing about blogging is that we don't have to mind our own business. :) Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Yes, it is hard.
ReplyDeleteAs I understand it, a lot of evangelicals think Palin makes McCain a better deal because she is so pro-life and a some other positive things. However, if she has little real power I don't see how that improves McCain at all - if he doesn't stand for those good things, she can't make him. If she was running for President that would be different. I wonder if a lot of people think McCain is going to die in office or something?!!
The assumption that not voting Republican is essentially a vote for Democrats is what keeps many Christians voting Republican, it seems. This means that Christians become willing to compromise and overlook a lot when Republicans are in office. My opinion is that this feeling of being tied to voting Rep hinders a principled Christian witness.
Did I mention that politics facinates me :)
Oh, and I pray that God will help you as you struggle to make a deicision in these difficult times :).
ReplyDeleteSherrin,
ReplyDeleteThere is another alternative that according to something I read somewhere--at The Vision Forum?--is expected to be on ballots in most states. Chuck Baldwin. Here is his website: http://www.baldwin08.com/
At first I thought there was no way I'd vote for somebody else. One less vote against Obama, with all his child murder and more of a slide toward Statism? However, recently I learned about Baldiwn and have been leaning toward hi in the hope that, eventually, all the votes for such a person will make the election of someone from his party more viable. Part of me can only think of all the immediate deaths of these children Obama would have killed; yet part of me is thinking toward the change somebody like Baldwin could bring someday including putting one's money where one mouth is in terms of abortion (something that wasn't the case with Bush). Anyhow, I wanted to let you know about this other alternative to Dem/Rep.
Lindsay
Thanks Lindsay! I hope that many people look into other parties as well as the two main ones. Stronger small parties would provide more of a challenge to the main ones. It seems that even the Republican party is divided within itself on key values like the sanctity of life (as the conservative party is here).
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