McLean County Times

A short time ago, I made a public statement on social media, “For those of you who say, ‘I can’t believe you are voting for Trump,’ I’m not just voting for him. I’m voting against socialism. I’m voting for the Second Amendment. I’m voting for the next Supreme Court justice. I’m voting for the Electoral College and the constitutional republic we live in. I’m voting for the police and law and order. I’m voting for the military and the veterans who fought and died for this country. I’m voting for the right to speak my opinion and not be censored. I’m voting for secure borders. I’m voting for legal immigration. I’m voting for the right to praise my God without fear. I’m voting for every unborn soul the Democrats want to murder. I’m voting for liberty, freedom, and the American dream. I’m voting for good against evil. I’m not just voting for one person. I’m voting for the future of my country!”

A few days later, I received an unsolicited email from an acquaintance who, familiar with my political leanings and views on gun ownership, wrote the following – sparked undoubtedly by the Apalachee High School shooting in Georgia on September 4, during which a 14-year-old shooter killed four. (I’ve shortened my acquaintance’s comment to include only the key points and corrected the grammar.)

“One of the most concerning points I have about the cult of Trumpers for which I was sadly reminded today about the hypocrisy of worrying more about two-cell embryos (or any number of cells) than encouraging and lobbying for the NRA so we cannot have stiffer gun controls, thus allowing many children to be killed. Those living kids had a lot more than a few cells in their once-living bodies.

Those like me who are concerned about this do not want to get rid of all guns or not allow people to own guns, but DO We REALLY NEED to allow everyone to have access to AK-47s and all guns for anyone - the gun laws remain lax for that one reason - the NRA lobby is strongly supported by the MAGA clan.

Why do the Trumpers want to continue to allow this but yet hypocritically want to take away a woman’s right to control her own body? That is the essence of a fascist government taking away basic human rights, yet not taking away the right for anyone to have a gun that is only designed for murder. To me, this is just one of so many shameful contradictions we are faced with if Trump is reelected. And I voted Republican 90% of the time over the past 57 years until 2008. Now, I am so ashamed of the party’s lack of integrity and awful immoralities and anti-science [attitude] that it will be a long time before I can feel comfortable returning to the party.”

I responded that I considered his question serious and worthy of a meaningful response. I noted that I would pen a public response because he expressed profoundly held beliefs, and many others have the same question. I also pointed out that it’s easy to ask tough questions and hard to produce good answers, so it would take me time to respond. Here is my response a few weeks later.

A Question Out of Context

Putting the question of gun control aside for a moment (I commented extensively on this issue in my op-ed, Gun Violence, published December 18, 2023), one can now consider how a person can support Trump knowing what we do about him. Deciding whether or not to support Trump for president is not a question that can be taken entirely out of context. If one doesn’t want to support Trump, the alternatives are voting for Kamala Harris, an unviable third-party candidate, or not voting for president at all. Each of these decisions is not without its moral dilemma.

A vote for President Trump presents a moral dilemma for some, but Democrat Kamala Harris’ candidacy is also fraught with difficulties. Harris has a track record that makes her a very unattractive candidate from a moral perspective, at least to some. Consider the fact that she is a radical supporter of abortion rights, from the moment of conception to the point of delivery (partial-birth abortion) – and beyond. If an abortion fails and there is a live delivery, she believes that it should be permissible to leave an infant to die postpartum. This is nothing short of infanticide.

With Roe v. Wade being overturned in 2022, Trump has returned the issue of abortion to the states. Harris strongly supports a process that has been responsible for the deaths of over 60 million pre-born children since the time of Roe v. Wade – around 800,000 to 900,000 annually, according to the Guttmacher Institute. She wants to codify abortion into national law. Trump would do no such thing.

According to the CDC, the number of murders with guns amounts to 19,000 to 20,000 individuals each year. Of these, handguns account for the vast majority of firearm homicides. Rifles, including semi-automatic and so-called “assault rifles,” account for about 3% to 4% of all firearm homicides, which is typically around 300 to 500 deaths per year. The number of deaths by abortion is nearly 44 times higher than the number of deaths due to all gun violence and more than 2,000 times higher than the number of deaths due to so-called assault weapons. With this being the case, does voting for Trump or Harris make more sense if one wants to save lives?

It’s interesting to note that Trump was nearly assassinated on July 13 (and shots rang out from an AK47 in his vicinity a second time on September 15). Yet, he’s still a strong proponent of Second Amendment rights! Doesn’t that seem rather amazing in light of these incidents? It is, unless you understand the arguments for keeping and bearing arms. It has little to do with hunting and murder. It has much more to do with the people protecting themselves from a tyrannical government. The Bill of Rights, of which the Second Amendment is part, was passed immediately after the Revolutionary War.  

What if one chooses to vote for a third-party candidate? This essentially is throwing away one’s vote. It makes no sense to cast a protest vote for someone with no chance of winning. And what about not voting for president at all? If a Republican refuses to vote for their candidate, that’s like voting for the opposing party. Consider, for instance, that during the 2020 presidential election in Illinois, 3,471,915 voted for Biden, and 2,466,891 voted for Trump. During the 2022 midterm election for Governor, 2,203,952 voted for JB Pritzker, and 1,724,829 voted for Darren Bailey. If all the Republicans who voted in the 2020 election had voted Republican in the 2022 midterm election, today, Darren Bailey would be the Illinois governor! The fact of the matter is Bailey lost the election because 30% of those Republicans who voted in the presidential election failed to vote in the midterm election.

The Lesser of Two Evils Principle

During a press conference on the papal plane on September 13, Pope Francis shared his views on the U.S. presidential election, calling both major candidates “against life” and advising Catholic voters to choose the “lesser evil” when casting ballots in the November election.

The pontiff described not welcoming migrants—seemingly a reference to Donald Trump—as a “grave” sin and compared Kamala Harris’s stance on abortion to an “assassination.” He stated, “Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants or the one who kills babies.” Killing innocent unborn children in the womb is a far greater evil than legitimately forcing out of this country those guilty of entering it illegally.

The pope didn’t say that the candidates are evil, but that evil lurks in their stated positions. He made it clear that when faced with two political candidates whose agendas are not properly aligned with moral principles, it is permissible to vote against the candidate who would do the most harm.

There is much more to be said about this issue, but I have now run out of space. I will continue expressing my opinion on this critical matter in the coming.