Since the insurrection of January 6th by election deniers and domestic terrorists, the urgency of voting is never more acute and important than for this coming election.
I believe the majority of Americans seek out a reliably factual voting guide as we make very important choices when we walk into the voting booth. Where can we find such a thing as an accurate, reliable, factual voting guide? It is clear that we cannot trust any of the following sources.
UNTRUSTWORTHY SOURCES
Televised campaign ads. Since the Supreme Court ruled that any Tom, Dick, and Harry dark money can form political PACS, the amount of seamy, smarmy, and illegitimate false information is contained in these ads. While the majority of these ads come from the far right, both political parties utilize these despicable vehicles of misinformation and lies. I admire Parliament governments who make it illegal for political parties to air any ads during elections.
Campaign ads in the mail. Matters not what political party. They go immediately in the recycle bin at my home. What a waste of trees!
Cable News and Radio pundits. All cable news networks are skewed one direction or another. It is clear that Fox and others like it are so skewed to the right that they lack even factual information. Others like CNN and MSNBC are skewed to the left, I have found that facts still count on those cable stations even though they are left leaning.
Polls. The way pollsters write a poll question can immediately skew poll information. People hate polls. How many people, unless forced, actually answer any poll? If they do actually answer polls its under duress and they often will say anything to quit taking the poll, like answering C,C,C,C on multiple choice tests when you don’t know the answer. When the Moral Majority use to send me polls in the mail, I use to answer in direct opposition to the political and religious positions of the Moral Majority out of spite, whether I actually agreed with them or not.
Voter guides issued by special interest groups and by religious organizations. Everyone they list as “trustworthy” only line up with their specific political goals.
So who can you trust? The answer is you, however, this means YOU HAVE TO DO THE WORK! Quit taking the lazy route by believing any of the distrustful sources listed above.
Do your own research.
Go to the website of candidates to see what they are saying and what policies they are pushing.
Actually buy a legitimate newspaper and read what is being reported there. You don’t have to agree with the editorial page. The majority of articles on the candidates will be accurate.
Get in touch with your innermost values.
BERNADIN’S SEAMLESS GARMENT OF LIFE
When I go into the voting booth I have I relied on Cardinal Bernadin’s seamless garment of life. Sister Joan Chittester OSB succinctly sums this up.
Sadly, many people equate the word Pro-Life with only anti abortion. My parents were wonderful people. However, I would never emulate their habit of being a single issue voter. This is especially so when it comes to the issue of abortion. As anyone in pastoral care will tell you, the issue of abortion is not as black and white as many people think. As one who has worked in the Church for 42 years, I have found that women who have chosen to get abortions only did so when things were so desperate that no other choice was left to them. What Sister Joan Chittister states is that which is consistent with the teaching of Pope Francis 1, who states that ALL Life issues are equally important and not one, including abortion, is more important than another.
The bottom line is that not one individual who is running for political office is going to be the perfect candidate.
Not one political party is the perfect political party.
What we must do is to do the research, reflect on the values that are ultimately most important to us and then go in and vote our conscience.
MY VALUE SYSTEM WHEN I VOTE
I use two criteria when I go into the voting booth and vote.
The first is that the United States was founded as a secular nation and NOT a theocracy. While there is freedom of religion, the Founding Fathers made it clear that no one religion would be the religion of the nation. This was to prevent the wholesale religious violence and persecution that raged throughout Europe and other parts of the world and spurred the immigration of desperate people to the United States. Though I am a Catholic, there is no way that I want the religious values of my religion to be forced upon others of different Christian denominations nor those of other world religions.
The second, and for me the most important, is the criteria that Jesus gives us in Matthew’s Gospel in chapter 25.
“³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³ and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. ³⁴ Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
³⁶ I was naked and you gave me clothing,
I was sick and you took care of me,
I was in prison and you visited me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸ And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹ And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ ⁴⁰ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,a you did it to me.’
⁴¹ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;
⁴² for I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me,
naked and you did not give me clothing,
sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Coogan, Michael D.; Brettler, Marc Z.; Perkins, Pheme; Newsom, Carol A.. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version (Page 1785). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
The political candidate that comes closer to what Jesus deemed most important criteria of living the Gospel is the one that I use, regardless of what any guide urges me to use.
Last but not least, vote!
