Responsibilties of Conservative Politicians

[LeafByNiggle]

This is an analogy. I first want to review the responsibility of conscientious voters and then apply that to the responsibility of politicians.

So as voters we are taught that some evils are more serious than others - the so-called non-negotiables, like abortion. We are further taught that when weighing values that we may hold based on our prudential judgement (like the best way to address immigration reform) against values derived from doctrines about intrinsic evils (like abortion) we should give the overriding weight to the non-negotiable issues. In other words our prudential judgement should take a back seat when voting if there is an intrinsic evil at stake.

Now to apply this principle to politicians. In the last US election many Republicans lost, presumably because a majority of the voters disagreed with some of their positions. Of course every district is different, but suppose there was a district in which a Republican candidate could have won the election if he had switched his position on immigration reform. If that candidate is pro-life then it could be said that he missed an opportunity to advance the pro-life cause by holding to his position on immigration reform. This is analogous to the voter who holds to his progressive immigration reform position and refrains from voting for a pro-life candidate. Applying the same principle that voters are taught to follow, could we not say that a pro-life politician in the above scenario is obliged to abandon his conservative views on prudential judgment issues if by doing so he can fight against abortion?

 

[VeritasLuxMea]

I wouldn’t think so, no.

I think offering some kind of “bargain” in the legislature to advance the pro-life cause which would be against your beliefs on prudential matters would be one thing.

I wouldn’t think that candidates should lie/deceive the public about their ideals, nor do I think they should claim to believe X if they do not, because when they do get elected, their heart will not be in it when it comes to supporting X (and consequently, that would be a deception of sorts).

 

[Johann_du_Toit]

Didn’t William F. Buckley say that you should vote for the conservative candidate most likely to win?

 

[Matilda_Bennett]

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