Voting based on one issue - Abortion

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I used to manage politcal campaigns at the state assembly level back in CA. from that perspective, single issue voters take themselves out of the political equation.

candidates basically don’t have to deal with them exceptin a cursory way. if they support that one, single issue, your candidate is doesn’t have to do anything else. if they’re against you, there’s nothing your candidate can do to get their support. so they can be safely ignored.

why someone would want to marginalize themselves is beyond me. we’d always be happy to have your vote, but, honestly, you’re not ever going to be heard.
 
Jack_Fisher said:
I used to manage politcal campaigns at the state assembly level back in CA. from that perspective, single issue voters take themselves out of the political equation.

candidates basically don’t have to deal with them exceptin a cursory way. if they support that one, single issue, your candidate is doesn’t have to do anything else. if they’re against you, there’s nothing your candidate can do to get their support. so they can be safely ignored.

why someone would want to marginalize themselves is beyond me. we’d always be happy to have your vote, but, honestly, you’re not ever going to be heard.
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So I should support killing chldren in order not to be marginalized? I think not.

It appears you put your politics ahead of your faith-it should be the other way around.
 
estesbob said:
So I should support killing chldren in order not to be marginalized? I think not. …
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I’m making an observation based on experience in the field. you can vote any way you want to, or not vote, or throw away your vote, or not participate in any way at all, its still a free country.

but the** fact** is that single issue voters are marginalized. if you don’t want your voice heard, be a single issue voter.

don’t get me wrong, that’s perfectly ok by me. just don’t imagine that there’s any handwringing going on because you take yourself out of the equation. I didn’t care, I just factored you in to the numbers and moved on to voters who counted.

people vote for all kinds of reasons. some want to have a say in the laws we live under, some want to feel good about themselves.
estesbob said:
… It appears you put your politics ahead of your faith-it should be the other way around.
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I haven’t stated what my politics are.
 
RhyannaRose said:
Oh, I am definetly pro-life and I apologize if I didn’t make that clear. I do believe it is an abomination and I wish the POTUS would have been more concerned with unborn babies then a certain middle east country that had nothing to do with 9/11.

But now we are in a war and this war is going to continue to chip away at the safety of America. Our safety depends on being able to win it or disengage it in a manner that does not equal defeat. And not to mention I doubt the terrorists have stopped plotting attacks on this country. I don’t know about you guys, but I think life under Sharia law would really suck, so the war on terror and the war in Iraq are two very important issues to me.

As a Catholic, I am obligated to vote pro-life. I realize that. But it’s frusterating when the only pro-life candidates so far don’t seem to be agreeing with me on protecting our country.

And I apologize in advance for replying to this without reading ahead. 🙂
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That’s okay—thanks for your clarification.

And despite the previous comment from the political guy, it was single-issue pro-life voters which created the Reagan coalition. Without the disastrous move by the Democrats to become the party of abortion-on-demand, there would have been no Republican majority since the 80s.

The contempt the political class feel for principled voters comes back to bite them frequently; it hit the Democrats in 1980 and 1994 and just walloped the Republicans in 2006.

Our politicians prefer the freedom to do whatever they wish regardless of the electorate. The only way to drive unprincipled politicians to principled policy is to remind them that they represent us, and it is our votes which give them the privilege to do so. When they fail to enact our will, we need to vote for candidates who do.

It is single-issue voters who are the most reliable voters. Parties ignore them at their peril, a lesson the GOP ought to have learned in 2006 but seems not to have learned.

I’ll keep pulling my lever on the abortion issue as long as my fellow Americans keep slaughtering their children without penalty.
 
steve_pattee said:
Is I believe one-issue voting was a deciding factor in the last general election. I’d like to hear what you think about what we Catholics should use to make our choices in the upcoming elections.
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Hitler was elected, he did not just walk in and take over. another one-issue election. the US presidential election of 1860 was a one-issue election. the first Russian elections after the fall of the soviet Union were one-issue elections. it happens when a country is confronted with an issue or situation that overrides all other concerns–anti-semitism, slavery, communism, abortion–and if allowed to continue threatens the very existence of the society.
 
Teflon93 said:
That’s okay—thanks for your clarification.

And despite the previous comment from the political guy, it was single-issue pro-life voters which created the Reagan coalition. Without the disastrous move by the Democrats to become the party of abortion-on-demand, there would have been no Republican majority since the 80s.

The contempt the political class feel for principled voters comes back to bite them frequently; it hit the Democrats in 1980 and 1994 and just walloped the Republicans in 2006.

Our politicians prefer the freedom to do whatever they wish regardless of the electorate. The only way to drive unprincipled politicians to principled policy is to remind them that they represent us, and it is our votes which give them the privilege to do so. When they fail to enact our will, we need to vote for candidates who do.

It is single-issue voters who are the most reliable voters. Parties ignore them at their peril, a lesson the GOP ought to have learned in 2006 but seems not to have learned.

I’ll keep pulling my lever on the abortion issue as long as my fellow Americans keep slaughtering their children without penalty.
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:bowdown: :clapping:

If all Catholics lived out their faith this way in the ballot box as one united group, then there would be such a thing as the “Catholic” vote and believe me, politicians would listen. Political campaign managers such as the previous poster would be extinct.
 
Voting based on your faith and beliefs is a very serious responsibility. There have been many positions given in this thread. Here are two more, both from recognized Church sources
  1. Archbishop of St. Louis, Raymond Burke as reported by Tim Townsend, June 28, 2004 - www.post-dispatch.com:
    “… Burke clarified his position that Roman Catholics in his archdiocese who vote for candidates supportive of abortion rights should confess their sin in order to receive Communion… ‘it doesn’t make a lot of difference’ whether a Catholic votes for a politician who supports abortion rights because of that politician’s stance on abortion, or for other reasons. ‘If the voter is aware of that politician’s pro-abortion position, they would still be supporting someone who is cooperating in the promotion of abortion,’ he (Burke) said.”
  2. Timothy O’Connell, assistant provost Loyola University
    “What does the Church teach about voting?” - Liguori
    Imprimi Potest; Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur - 2006
    Conclusion - “I stand in the ballot booth feeling very alone. But I am not alone. I have the strength and the wisdom of a wonderful tradition. The tradition whispers three powerful pieces of advice: be faithful to your commitment, face courageously the unavoidable conflicts, and embrace the responsibilities of forming and following your conscience. In that strength, in that wisdom, I pray—and then I mark my ballot.”
 
sprout said:
:bowdown: :clapping:

If all Catholics lived out their faith this way in the ballot box as one united group, then there would be such a thing as the “Catholic” vote and believe me, politicians would listen. Political campaign managers such as the previous poster would be extinct.
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Good point!
 
steve_pattee said:
Voting based on your faith and beliefs is a very serious responsibility. There have been many positions given in this thread. Here are two more, both from recognized Church sources
  1. Archbishop of St. Louis, Raymond Burke as reported by Tim Townsend, June 28, 2004 - www.post-dispatch.com:
    “… Burke clarified his position that Roman Catholics in his archdiocese who vote for candidates supportive of abortion rights should confess their sin in order to receive Communion… ‘it doesn’t make a lot of difference’ whether a Catholic votes for a politician who supports abortion rights because of that politician’s stance on abortion, or for other reasons. ‘If the voter is aware of that politician’s pro-abortion position, they would still be supporting someone who is cooperating in the promotion of abortion,’ he (Burke) said.”
  2. Timothy O’Connell, assistant provost Loyola University
    “What does the Church teach about voting?” - Liguori
    Imprimi Potest; Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur - 2006
    Conclusion - “I stand in the ballot booth feeling very alone. But I am not alone. I have the strength and the wisdom of a wonderful tradition. The tradition whispers three powerful pieces of advice: be faithful to your commitment, face courageously the unavoidable conflicts, and embrace the responsibilities of forming and following your conscience. In that strength, in that wisdom, I pray—and then I mark my ballot.”
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Excellent post. This is a keeper.
 
RhyannaRose said:
It’s hard to reconcile voting for someone like the POTUS just because they are pro-life when I disagree with so many other of their politics. For me this election is going to be alot about the war on terror and figuring out what on earth to do about the Iraq mess. Hopefully the candidate I agree with on his stance in those matters is also pro-life. If he’s not, then I have quite a hard decision to make.

Question - Would you guys vote for someone whose ideas on the war on terror or Iraq were completely opposite from yours just because they were pro-life.
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I find it hard to reconcile voting for someone who says they’re pro-life but their ideology is decidedly anti-life.
 
Pro-life voting record is #1 consideration.

Everything else is take into account after that.
 
LCMS_No_More said:
I find it hard to reconcile voting for someone who says they’re pro-life but their ideology is decidedly anti-life.
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What I find amazing is people who claim they that pro-life candidates are actually anti-life use that as an excuse to vote for candidates who admit they are anti-life. Of course when you get to the bottom of it you generally find is that their real problem with the pro-life candidate is he does not share the political agenda of the person claiming his anti-life and therefore they need to come up with all sorts of wild rationalizations as why its okay to vote for the pro-abortion candidate.

President Bush is a case point. Signed the partial-birth abortion ban. Appointed two Supreme Court justices who upheld the band Vetoed a stem cell research bill anda cloning bill. Reinstituted the Mexico City policy. Has appointed dozens of pro-life judgesto circuit courts all around the country. And yet we were told by supposedly pro-life Catholics that it’s all just a charade and that Bush really isn’t pro-life. Amazingly enough many of them voted for Kerry A man who not only admitted being pro-abortion but wanted the taxpayers to pay for it. But of course they claim to be pro-life.
 
well I think there was a time in America when one single issue over rode all…slavery…should a state have the right to own people and should that state extend that ‘right’ to other new states as they come into this union!!! I have found down thru the years any candidate who is for the killing of a developing baby…abortion…is also for the killing of other things…the right to keep and bear arms…objections to no-win wars…the right to teach values and decency in tax supported schools…the right to object to intimate testing about ones family …psycho testing…the right to objecting over folks who dont pay into the system to have free schooling and hospitalization while I and others dont…etc etc…Nino
 
RobHom said:
No. They all flip flop… so in reality, there isn’t a single candidate worth a vote…
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even Reagan flip-flopped, but at least he was moving in the right (pun intended) direction, not that he ever really DID anything to end the killing of the unborn.
 
sprout said:
even Reagan flip-flopped, but at least he was moving in the right (pun intended) direction, not that he ever really DID anything to end the killing of the unborn.
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Note that while President he wrote an article for the Human Life Review **Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation **commemorating the 10th Anniversary of Roe vs Wade.
**The10th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in *Roe ***v. *Wade *is a good time for us to pause and reflect. Our nationwide policy of abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy was neither voted for by our people nor enacted by our legislators— not a single state had such unrestricted abortion before the Supreme Court decreed it to be national policy in 1973. But the consequences of this judicial decision are now obvious: since 1973, more than 15 million unborn children have had their lives snuffed out by legalized abortions. That is over ten times the number of Americans lost in all our nation’s wars.
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Better than any of our Catholic Politicians have done.
 
steve_pattee said:
Is it immoral to vote for a politician who supports abortion? That depends on if I vote for him BECAUSE he supports abortion or IN SPITE of his pro-abortion position.
Voting pro-choice(i.e., pro abortion) because I believe in abortion would be immoral and I commit a mortal sin, cutting myself off from God. This would be formal cooperation in allowing to end a life so that another could supposedly live (better).
When the pro-life politician strongly supports what I consider immoral, such as unjustified war, I may choose the pro-choice candidate who otherwise supports what I consider moral. I made this choice because I perceive this politician’s decisions are more right than wrong. I cannot weigh who’s life is more important to God, the unborn child to be killed or the adult child sent off to war which kills him. Both are terrible choices, and in the case of unjustified war, sinful choices.
I believe one-issue voting was a deciding factor in the last general election. I’d like to hear what you think about what we Catholics should use to make our choices in the upcoming elections.
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Well, here is a thought…

can you imagine someone saying:

“well yes I did vote for Hitler. I mean, I know the holocaust is wrong, but his economic policies were amazing!”

doesn’t make sense.
 
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