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Who Christians (and All True Conservatives) Should Support for President
Posted by Eric F. Langborgh on 22 Oct 2007 at 04:04 pm
This morning I received an email from a friend at church asking for my opinion re: the race for the White House. The genesis of this question came from an email he received from a mutual friend who has decided to support Mike Huckabee.
For me, the only other potentially viable option for a conservative Christian to vote for, other than the man I support — Ron Paul — is Mike Huckabee. (Other than sitting out the election or voting third party, that is.) The Dems are obviously non-starters. Voting for Rudy Giuliani is nearly akin to selling one’s soul to the Devil. Fred Thompson is an empty suit. John McCain’s campaign is deep in debt and going nowhere fast. Mitt Romney is a fraud. And they all would do nothing to reverse the growth of government. So it comes down to these two.
Here, then, was my response:
Dear ___________,
I am humbled that you value my opinion on this. :o) So, here it is in a nutshell:
I did not receive this email from ______, despite our friendship, b/c I am sure he is aware of my strong support for Ron Paul, as well as my opposition to the Iraq War specifically and Empire generally.
That said, of all the other candidates in the race, I respect (and, in many ways, like) Mike Huckabee the most. And I respect ______ a lot for his support of Huckabee, my political differences aside — esp. since he is not simply going for the anointed “front runners” and therefore, in my mind, gambling on the winner. _______ is doing what I am trying to do: pick the best candidate and do what you can to make him the front runner, media and party establishment be damned!
Huckabee certainly does seem to have a humble, soft heart. He has out-shined the rest in the debates. Of all the pro-war candidates, he seems the least bloodthirsty and most level-headed. He is sincerely pro-life (as opposed to Romney). His FairTax (national sales tax) is in many ways superior to our current tax system (of which most just want to tinker at the edges with targeted tax cuts here and there, thus perpetuating the State’s illegitimate role as social/economic engineer).
That said, in the end analysis I cannot support Huckabee, and at this point I don’t think I could vote for him either, should he win the nomination. First, his support of the war and an actively interventionist foreign policy is both imprudent and clearly unconstitutional. Indeed, like almost all the candidates, he gives no more than lip service to the Constitution on any given issue while he would clearly ignore it in practice. Second, both his campaign rhetoric (stated policy positions) and record as governor indicate that he is just another “big government conservative” of the George W. Bush mold. I cannot support a candidate who continues us down the road to Leviathan, even if he would do so slower than another. (John Fund’s article - “Who Is Mike Huckabee?” — is especially telling on this point.) It doesn’t matter if you go over a cliff at 100, 60, or 20 mph — the only safe course is to stop and turn around. His personal appeal cannot override his policy “evil,” and I decided a long time ago that it is wrong to vote for the lesser of two evils.
Instead, I support Ron Paul. He is a force for good, not lesser “evil.” He is the only candidate who is faithful to the Constitution on all issues. Further, he will not only hit the breaks on America’s century-long path of centralization and ever-growing government in terms of both percentage of the economy and scope of power, he will work, prudently, to reverse that path. (Here’s the Ron Paul 2008 website).
I have never given a political contribution before this year. I have now given two gifts to Paul’s campaign and plan to give more, as I am able (probably in small amounts periodically that will add up).
Rather than me trying to make the case here, I invite you to call me and talk about it further, if you would like. In the meantime, you may find of interest and value the following blog articles I have written, in descending order of importance:
- Video: Ron Paul: A New Hope
- Is the Iraq War Constitutional?
- How the Christian Faith of Ron Paul Informs His Politics
- ‘Will Ron Paul Be the Candidate of the Christian Right?’
- mp3: Judy Woodruff Interviews Ron Paul
- Ron Paul at the All American Debate
- Thoughts on the First GOP Presidential Debate
- GOP Establishment’s War on Ron Paul Backfires
- Ron Paul Is No Pacifist
- Terrorism and Bin Laden Expert Has a Lesson for Giuliani
Thank you again for honoring me with your email seeking my advice. Again, I welcome further conversation on this, so please feel free to call me anytime.
Sincerely,
–Eric
Thank you for this piece on Ron Paul. I find it quite perplexing how people who call themselves Christians, could support anyone else but Ron Paul. I argued the point with the director at one of these Christian outfits today, as follows:
I find the support of Christians for Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee perplexing. I understand both are pro-life, although serious questions remain about Romney’s true commitment. However, it baffles me that Christians could support candidates who are both pro-life and pro-war. I know the argument will be made that “we were attacked.” Invading Iraq can hardly be called self-defense. The attackers were Saudis. However, neither Iraq, Saudi Arabia nor Iran for that matter ever attacked us, or threatened us.
The invasion of Iraq has brought much hardship upon us: the death of our brave men and women, the awful injuries so many of them sustained on the battlefield, the enormous cost of the war, the division among us about the legitimacy of the war, the decline of our currency, the impact on our standard of living as reflected in the high cost of gasoline and many other incidental issues.
However, consider the hardships that our ill-advised actions have brought upon the Iraqis: the deaths of more than 700,000 civilians, the injuries to untold thousands, especially little children, more than 2 million refugees, the destruction of infrastructure, the collapse of the economy, the hatred this stirred up among the nations in the Middle East, the general decline in America’s reputation among those in the free world.
How will we ever restore our image? How will we redeem ourselves, that is, those of us who have a conscience? It seems that the Christian conscience is ring-fenced by a devotion to political leaders, rather than a respect for life regardless, whether in the womb or on the streets of Iraq.
There is a way for us as a nation to regain our innocence, and for Christians to earn the respect of those who cannot reconcile a position that embraces pro life while supporting a war that has no just cause, other than to enrich the military-industrial complex and provide payback to the politicians who made it all possible; and are quite happy to sustain it for years to come. Hillary Clinton is in no hurry to end this war. She is not raising a hundred million dollars on promises that she would bring an in end to this corrupt system where voters are kicked around by politicians and special interests, be it by means of war or any other outrageous government program.
Yes, there is an honorable way out of this mess, and that is to support the only candidate who had opposed the war, when it was still only an item on the White House agenda, long before 9/11. In fact, Clinton had regime change in Iraq on his agenda.
If the nation rallies behind Ron Paul, it will send a bold message to the world, that as Americans we are willing to acknowledge that our actions in the Middle East have been the work of a neo-con faction of the Republican Party that hoodwinked us all. In hindsight, we want to correct the wrong. We have thrown our support behind the one politician among all the sorry lot whose integrity takes one’s breath away.
We will be able to hold our heads high again and the world will honor us for our stance. The killing will stop and the peace process will bring normality back to our country and the Middle East. There will still be sporadic attacks from terrorists, but fighting a $12 billion a month war to contain a couple of thousand bandits is like using a sledgehammer to crush a mosquito. It’s not worth the costs and hardships outlined above.
As an Evangelical pastor I also had a friend ask me about Ron Paul. He also a pastor was supporting Huckabee and said that Ron Paul was against the marriage amendment, death penalty, prayer in school, and supports legalizing marijuana. This was my answer to him on my blog with a post called Does Ron Paul have a Christian stance on Christianity issues? This is the link to it.
Ron Paul is the only Republican candidate who will protect our Constitutional Religious Rights and Freedoms!
Welcome, Albert and Phillip! Great comments from both.
I definitely recommend Phillip’s article to Christians seriously weighing Ron Paul’s candidacy.
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