We the people are faced with three, well, now four people to choose from for the 2016 Presidential election. Can you name all four tickets? I could not until today. At least not by the candidates’ full names and party associations. Much less could I articulate their political stances and platforms.

That is part of the problem with our entire political process as a nation. We, I confess myself included, focus on the heroes, the celebrities or the financially successful. I remember that popularity won even before I was in elementary school and the candidates were John F. Kennedy, and…who was that other guy? All we seem to really want or follow is the trendy, the popular and the favorites (kind of like your phone or iPod…just play the “favs”). But in the end it was the other candidate, Richard Nixon, that really made an impact in our nation in the years following!

I ask you, why are we not looking at the candidates as people? They are simple public servants, who will work for us as a nation. And a person who wants to serve the nation’s interests will not seek to be the hand that pounds “the nails in the coffin” of the other candidate (as though he/she were a henchman). He or she will present himself by his life of service to the people and his respect for the guiding principles of that nation. When you choose a president who is a playboy, a demagogue or a racketeer, you will get what you asked for: a corrupt, careless, biased tyrant who turn a deaf ear to the truth and the guidelines our country has chosen to be governed by, namely the Constitution. It is as though you choose his lifestyle and his view of others over his speeches or his catchy phraseology or even his “distinguished experience in politics.” You cannot ignore WHO he or she is as a person.

United States Constitution on Display

ISSUE NUMBER ONE:

–Supreme Court Justices–

In the next one to four years, the president in the oval office will have the responsibility to name at least one and most likely four supreme court justices to the bench of the highest court in the land. If the trend continues whereby the 9 judges make “value decisions” or choices that mean the interpretation of the Constitution of the USA, then it stands to reason that you and I vote for person who is going to choose to name justices that have a fear of God, a respect for human dignity, a love for the truth and above all, a sense of their own temporariness as a judge. We need judges on the Supreme Court that have a solid grip on the matters of truth, knowing that truth is not a “transient, shifting, cultural preference” but rather a solid, timeless, defensible reality that determines our future as a people. The crucial question here is: does the candidate have a respect and appreciation for the Constitution and its character as a timeless document that we must interpret and apply but NOT rewrite or deface. 

How can the person I vote for influence the future of the United States? The obvious answer: by virtue of the executive powers that are invested in the president and the office he represents. Yes, indeed the president will bear the duty and the right to make executive choices, which in turn will present a picture of his or her lifestyle and person. We dare not ignore this fact since the choice he or she makes will live on perhaps for a generation in the Supreme Court Justices he names.

Therefore a major point of contention in this election begins with and revolves around the candidate’s attitude toward our national Constitution. This will be decisive in matters pertaining to topics such as the right to life, gun ownership, gender equality, education, military and just about every other issue that touches our existence as a human being.

Ready or not, we will be asked to vote for the person whom we believe will best defend the Constitution. Look at this link to see what each of the candidates is saying about it.

The NEXT ISSUE…CLIMATE CHANGE.

See you soon,

David L. Rogers, M.A.Min.