No Budging: What It Takes To Win My Endorsement

As we approach another election, one that will ultimately be critical to our nation’s survival, you soon won’t be able to watch a television program or pick up a newspaper without reading a personal endorsement for one of the candidates for elective office.
 
In light of these endorsements, which often come from other politicians, celebrities, and business leaders, I thought that I would personally point out the candidates who will receive my vote.

No, I will not give you any specific names. However, I have no problem sharing that information with anyone who crosses my path or dares to ask. But here, I will merely tell you the principles I go by and the qualities a candidate must generally possess to earn my vote.

Unfortunately, I cannot always go by these standards when choosing a candidate. Sometimes, particularly in the general election, you just have to hold your nose and make the best possible choice.

The primary elections are a great opportunity for voting your conscience. Since you have a wider selection of candidates, the primaries are a time to go with your gut. They are also a time when you can send a message to your party or to your party’s apparent front runner.

As a citizen, I am disgusted with the party shenanigans that take place in every state in the union. The party leaders get together and decide who will or won’t get the party’s much-coveted blessing.

In the days before tobacco fell out of favor, these people often met in smoke-filled rooms to discuss which candidates would win their money or support.

A few pompous political leaders, usually with bellies to match the size of their egos, got together and denied the voting public the chance to select their favorite candidate. 

Unfortunately, it grieves me to say that today’s Establishment Republicans routinely engage in these same types of petty political gamesmanship. Worst of all, this behavior has made it much more difficult for our nation to reverse the downward slide in which we are headed.

Although I am not a one-issue voter, I must admit that abortion is the one issue that might sway my vote above all others.  And whenever I am in doubt, I usually vote for the Republican, because that is the one party that has traditionally supported the pro-life movement in America.

When Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, something which most of our citizens and politicians need to actually read, he wrote about a Creator granting us “certain inalienable rights.” 

These rights were “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Even if your utter lack of humanity allows you to call that unborn baby a “fetus” or an “unviable tissue”—if you at any time admit that it will eventually become what you consider a life—then an abortion will inevitably deny that unborn baby or “fetus” the most basic of its civil rights. 

And that is the right to live.

Because of the lack of space, I will not take the time to elaborate on each of these items to follow. But I will also endorse the candidate who is right on the issues of Obamacare, same-sex marriage, illegal aliens, the Second Amendment, and taxation. 

I will proudly support the candidate who takes a bold and principled stand on the issues of our day, whatever they might happen to be.

Please deliver me from candidates and politicians who refuse to say anything.

As a conservative, I am sick and tired of trained politicians who refuse to go out on a limb. I have had my fill of politicians who never take a stand.

As they spout their canned and antiquated political rhetoric, these plastic politicians give their “prevent defense” speeches.  They try not to make any mistakes; they try not to give up any ground.  Most of all, they try not to commit themselves to any promises for which they will later be expected to honor.

People often say that you should never talk about religion or politics, but anything else is merely small talk.  Religion and politics, those things which inspire passion in people are the only topics truly worthy of discussion.

Make people applaud.  Make them curse you.  But whatever you do, do not bore them!  And above all, tell them what you plan to do when you get elected. 

Then surprise them by keeping your word, should you ultimately gain the office.

If you meet one of these qualifications, or better still, several of them, then you stand a good chance of getting my endorsement and my vote.

Image: Courtesy of: http://www.stubbornmule.net/2008/11/to-vote-or-not/