HOW MANY OF YOU would vote......

[Bluegoat]

I think it is safe to say that I am a single-issue voter. I cannot vote for a pro-choice candidate. The pro-life candidate gets my vote. Social justice comes before all other issues.

Does it worry you though that politicians and parties, knowing that people feel that way, try and manipulate voting with that issue? Or try to make it look like their other agendas are somehow tied to that issue?

I’m not trying to be combative, I’m really interested. It would be a big issue for me if I were American.

 

[exnihilo]

I think it is safe to say that I am a single-issue voter. I cannot vote for a pro-choice candidate. The pro-life candidate gets my vote. Social justice comes before all other issues.

I agree that pro-life is the supremely important issue. The problem I have is that a certain political party that proclaims itself to be pro-life had 7 of 9 Supreme Court slots, both houses of Congress and the Presidency, and yet did not actually do anything to end abortion. All those years of pro-life voting and when there was no longer the excuse of the opposition standing in there way nothing changed. Not to mention the pro-life party is pro-death once you are outside the womb and live in a foreign nation. This is why I dont bother voting. I find the whole system sickening.

 

[SteveVH]

Neither party completley represents my views and obligations as a Catholic. I am still blown away that any Catholic could have voted for our last president, however, just on the basis of the abortion issue alone. There is a strange dynamic in the country among Catholics. The Democratic party in times past appeared to care more about the poor and needy than did the Republican party and so we have “family traditions” of voting Democratic. It is not the same party today, however, as it supports and promotes the culture of death, thus violating the fundamental rights of the most helpless and innocent among us. On the other hand we have the Republicans who seem to be more in favor of capital punishment which our Church rejects as well (except in extreme, unique cirmumstances).

We do have to look for the greater good when voting, even though that particular candidate may violate one or more of our principles. In fact, we have a moral obligation to vote, and I completely disagree with those who state that our vote counts as nothing and using some of the close elections of the recent past as an excuse for staying home because of the possiblility of a court making a final decision where we have a dispute.

 

[The_Old_Medic]

To vote against someone, just because they are of a different faith, would be to be a sheep.

There is no valid reason why anyone should automatically reject voting against anyone because of a religious belief. There is no justification for doing that in Scripture, there is no justifications for doing that in the teachings of the Catholic Church.

To be that short sighted is frankly to exercise stupidity. Sadly, all too many voters do NOT utilize the brains, they vote for a party, a religion, or whatever, base don superstition or just plain ignorance.

 

[CompSciGuy]

I agree that pro-life is the supremely important issue. The problem I have is that a certain political party that proclaims itself to be pro-life had 7 of 9 Supreme Court slots, both houses of Congress and the Presidency, and yet did not actually do anything to end abortion. All those years of pro-life voting and when there was no longer the excuse of the opposition standing in there way nothing changed. Not to mention the pro-life party is pro-death once you are outside the womb and live in a foreign nation. This is why I dont bother voting. I find the whole system sickening.

A very valid point. How sad it is.

 

[Hastrman]

To vote against someone, just because they are of a different faith, would be to be a sheep.

There is no valid reason why anyone should automatically reject voting against anyone because of a religious belief. There is no justification for doing that in Scripture, there is no justifications for doing that in the teachings of the Catholic Church.

I think it would depend on the religion in question. You can vote against a guy if he’s an Aztec or a Thug (weird little Indian cult, believed murdering strangers would help re-balance creation), or something similar.

 

[Hastrman]

Not to mention the pro-life party is pro-death once you are outside the womb and live in a foreign nation. This is why I dont bother voting. I find the whole system sickening.

Yeah, that’s why they lost 4000 of their own men going in on the ground—it’s not like they had to, it’s not 1940. The only reason they didn’t wipe Iraq, Afghanistan, and anyone else who looked at them sideways clean off the map (all of which is well within our capabilities without even breaking out the tactical nukes) is that they were trying to save lives.

Maybe you should try a real opponent, that strawman’s not enough of a challenge even for you.

 

[exnihilo]

Yeah, that’s why they lost 4000 of their own men going in on the ground—it’s not like they had to, it’s not 1940. The only reason they didn’t wipe Iraq, Afghanistan, and anyone else who looked at them sideways clean off the map (all of which is well within our capabilities without even breaking out the tactical nukes) is that they were trying to save lives.

Maybe you should try a real opponent, that strawman’s not enough of a challenge even for you.

I’m not quite sure I’m following you but ‘their own men’ implies some sort of slavery. The men are not owned. And their loss is inconsequential to the system. The loss of men is not personal and only a matter of lost cost in training. Families lose lives. Governments lose workers.

Anyone can say they are trying to save lives. I would say not engaging in wars is a much better effort at saving lives.

 

[Outspoken]

Just in case anyone thinks that I’d base my vote solely on someone’s beliefs without any other reason, that’s not quite true. The main reason for my change of opinion of our old governor was mostly based on his extremely poor performance as governor, more than anything else. After seeing the way he responded to criticism and other factors while he was in office, I began to realize that he was not a very good person to put in any public office. He was way too arrogant and inflexible, contrary to his claims of being able to ‘bring people together’. He was used to being the ‘man in charge’ in a business setting and tried to use those same tactics in the governor’s office, but it just doesn’t work that way.

I have certainly voted for many people in my lifetime that were both of my faith, and not of my faith. In fact, there was a certain Catholic senator that was in office for a very long time (that I voted for when I was younger, mostly due to a long family ‘tradition’), but I stopped voting for him after I realized, not only that he didn’t practice what he ‘preached’, but went against Christian morals in his political policies as well as his personal life. Instead of holding onto Catholic/Christian teaching, he did much more than I thought was acceptable, that was completely contrary to many of those basic principles, including being staunchly pro-choice. That issue alone certainly holds a lot of weight with me.

I like to know where people stand on certain issues before voting, so I do tend to do my homework more than I used to, based on past experience. It was a hard lesson to learn. I will no longer take anyone’s word about where they stand. I want to see who they really are, and how they’ve voted in the past on certain issues, before making my final decision. I have a problem with certain attitudes and issues on both sides of the main political parties, but I do tend towards being conservative. But, many of those who are on the ‘conservative’ side have slipped further into the liberal camp over the years, so it’s getting much harder to find a candidate that fits my perspective and criteria very well. It’s very frustrating.

Even after doing all we need to do in vetting candidates, there’s still no guarantee that whoever we vote for will do what we expect them to do once they get into office. All we can do is follow through with our civic obligation, and hope that we can make the right choices when it really counts.

 

[Publisher]

I do not base how I vote on canidate’s religious beliefs or affilliation.

 

[Hastrman]

I’m not quite sure I’m following you but ‘their own men’ implies some sort of slavery. The men are not owned. And their loss is inconsequential to the system. The loss of men is not personal and only a matter of lost cost in training. Families lose lives. Governments lose workers.

Anyone can say they are trying to save lives. I would say not engaging in wars is a much better effort at saving lives.

Is English not your first language? “Their own men” is simply the emphatic of “their men”. The “implication” you’re seeing is an illusion—if I say “my own mother” am I saying my mother is a slave I own?

And I didn’t say they were simply trying to save lives. The person I quoted, however, said the Republicans are “pro-death if you happen to live in another country”—that is, that Republicans are genocidal maniacs who favor wars of extermination against all other countries. That is not the case. The Iraq War may have been right or wrong, but it was conducted with the most care for civilian lives of any war in history.

 

[Steven_John]

I am curious to know as to whether most of us here would stick to their Christian morals when voting .Say we were to get a candidate ,who was a conservative, and stood for what we as Christians stand for ,only problem is that their faith maybe a little different from ours . Say they could be Muslim,MORMON(hint hint) JW , or any of the above . How many of you would vote against them because of their faith?I am asking this because we very well could get someone, voted to run against Obama ,who is not Christian (to our standards ).I know that many Catholics put their Christian morals aside to vote for Obama (I realize that may not be that crowd I am addressing ) So ,comments welcome . Thank you , Frankie

Firstly i consider it my duty to vote for policy (best i can) that is most like my morals.
After that if i was caught between two or more candidates i would choose a candidate who’s beliefs were closest to my own and work down.
I consider all seeking G-d in monotheistic religions are my best option as we are both seeking The One True G-d, that means i can open a prayer connection.
The atheist candidate has exercises their free will and breaks relationship with G-d by choice.
Its not of me prejudice against them, if they meet my first criteria of policy for my value they are my first choice.

Pray well and stay well

 

[exnihilo]

Is English not your first language? “Their own men” is simply the emphatic of “their men”. The “implication” you’re seeing is an illusion—if I say “my own mother” am I saying my mother is a slave I own?

And I didn’t say they were simply trying to save lives. The person I quoted, however, said the Republicans are “pro-death if you happen to live in another country”—that is, that Republicans are genocidal maniacs who favor wars of extermination against all other countries. That is not the case. The Iraq War may have been right or wrong, but it was conducted with the most care for civilian lives of any war in history.

That is not very nice. Yes, English is my first language. Personally I reject euphemisms designed to convince me that I should send my sons, and worse still my daughters, to foreign lands to die for the sake of lies.

I dont understand the Republican party line. They say you cant trust big government, except when it is killing foreigners. You can chose to believe they are being extra careful when they drop remote control bombs on wedding parties. I dont believe that. I dont believe anything the government tells me. I believe that government is incompetent and cruel at everything it does. If I thought it was caring and competent then I’d say let them have a welfare state since that would be a far better way to show compassion for our fellow man than killing him.

But again, I dont vote because to me both major parties in the US are full of hypocrisy and lies. I believe in small government so neither party suits me.