Election rules made simple
8 Simple rules for the elections:
1. Please don't bring God into your political argument. Your God may not be the next person's God, Allah, Jehovah, Jesus.. or they may be, Pagan, Agnostic, Quaker etc. I seem to remember something about separation of church and state?
2. No talking about abortion. The law is, that it is legal. It is NOT a political issue, it is a MEDICAL issue. If you don't want to have one.. Don't ! (Please feel free to try to change the law, that is your right!)
3. No talking about Gay marriage. Don't tell us what God wants (See #1). Again, this is a personal issue, not a political issue.
To comment on this letter, click on "Comments" below
4. The Oil addiction . Drilling in the Alaskan national refuge will NOT solve the crisis. That oil will not show up on the market for many years. Let's start NOW to develop hydrogen, electric, compressed air, a rail system, solar etc. as a viable alternate to Oil. (after all, if you are addicted to heroin the answer isn't, let's find MORE heroin!)
5. Forget about the vice presidential people. Vote for the candidate you believe would be a better President. The vice presidential people are smoke screens! And being used VERY effectively right now!
6. Develop your views from several sources (Sorry YDR). Read the Paper, listen to talk radio, watch several different news stations, read magazines, talk to friends, search the Internet.
7. Do not believe what people tell you about a candidate. Check it out for yourself. (They may not be as informed as you are).
8. Know that both parties are spinning the facts to their advantage, and to make the other candidate look as bad as possible! Your job is to figure out who is telling the truth as you believe it.
Philip Harrison
Spring Garden Township
This sounds like one of the most totalitarian recommendations I've heard regarding campaigns. "Don't consider this issue, don’t' consider that issue, run a campaign according to my rules". We are not only supposed to accept issues we disagree with, we are not even allowed to argue about them (and they call religious people closed minded and controlling). Is this democracy? Perhaps some of these issues are very important to people? If we cannot argue the very issue of life then what else is worth arguing about? I find it amusing that liberals are always trying to silence people who don't agree with their views. This shows how close minded this type of philosophy is. We cannot open these issues up for debate; we have to close them because people like Philip want them closed.
Jason,
The point was they they are NOT issues. Your mistake is that you take a personal belief and try to convert it into an issue, then try impose that on everyone else.
For example you stated: "If we cannot argue the very issue of life then what else is worth arguing about?".
You try to argue established and settled case law as some sort of issue. Your beliefs may say it needs to be discussed, but that doesn't make it an issue.
Foreign policies, Budget expenditures, term limits, reworking social security are issues.
Personal beliefs are not. Sorry, but you are incorrect in this.
Slavery was "established and settled case law" many years ago. If you were alive then, would your position be that the subject of slavery in "NOT an issue" and therefor not open for discussion. Just asking...
Don,
I didn't say it wasn't open for discussion. It is just not a political issue. It is a moral issue or a personal issue.
The President will take an oath to uphold the laws and the constitution of the United States. If one of those laws says abotion is legal, then shouldn't he do everything he can to support that law, no matter what his personal opinion is?
My point is that when you bring in God, or personal morals, they cloud what the real political issues are.
Slavery is a perfect example.
Lets say you believe that we should follow the Bible. Then I would quote you Leviticus 25:44-46 which says that I can have slaves. (If we are going to follow the Bible, we need to follow all parts of it!)
Now we have a problem. The law says no slaves, yet the Bible allows it. Shall I argue separation of church and state and demand I be allowed to own slaves? If the government says I can't have them, are they restricting my ability to practice my religion.
Moral issues and personal issues are not in my opinion political issues.
Political issues are money, foreign relations, etc..
To answer your question, if I were alive when slavery was lawful, I believe I would have sought to change the law.
Thanks for asking the very thoughtful question!
Phil
How would have sought to change the law without making it a political issue? You have no individual power to write laws. Would you not need to elect someone that shared your view, or be elected to office yourself? At that point, it would be a political issue. I believe it is a fine line you are attempting to draw between discussion and political issues.
Don,
You do not need to be a elected to office or have someone elected to get a law changed.
Start collecting signatures. When you get enough (sorry I don't know how many it takes) you can have the question put on the ballot and everyone gets to vote on it.
Or if you believe that the law is incorrect, you can sue to have it changed. People challenge laws all the time. (Roe vs Wade was a law suit establishing abortion as legal).
If it is on the ballot it can still be a personal issue or a moral issue without being a political issue.
I have only ever heard one candidate answer the question properly (in my opinion).
Mario Cuomo of NY said:
"If elected I will uphold the abortion laws, but I do not agree with them!"
He was honest in that he doesn't agree with them, but until the people change the laws, he will support them! He didn't say "I will get that changed" he left it up to the people to change it.
Personal vs political issue
I agree, I may be drawing too fine a line. I also enjoy your thoughts. Helps me define mine a little better!
Phil
I see your points. Unfortunately, in PA there is no way for you to collect signatures and put a question on the ballot. The legislature must act to add a referendum question to the ballot. Many other states have the referendum option open to the "people", PA does not. Now, if they actually hold a constitutional convention, that may change. But for now we are stuck using the political process of our PA legislators.
Phil,
I can see the basis of your argument, laws are established and politicians should uphold them; we should vote not on the basis of changing laws but on the basis of who can do the best job with what we have established as laws. I can see that, however I think it goes deeper than that.
In the end it comes down to people, not policies. People who believe in God and see their religious liberties being threatened, people who believe in life and see babies being torn to shreds in the name of so-called liberty, people who are concerned about how their children are going to be educated, people who are concerned about the dignity of marriage. These are issues that affect the little people in their everyday lives. Laws like Roe vs. Wade were not created through a democratic process but through the courts. The laws were forced upon us by a minority and by courts that decided that the exception should become the rule. You say that my personal beliefs do not make an issue but a law doesn't necessarily settle an issue. With laws constantly changing you can't really call any law established. Only one who likes the law calls it established.
Based on this I would think it would only be reasonable to vote not only on "political issues" but also on what you have labeled to be "personal issues". If you require that we do not vote on "personal issues" then you require us to be more a machine than a human. A person who requires us to vote on only certain criteria can only be considered to have a “personal” agenda.
Most importantly, get off your Dutch butts and register to vote (on or before October 3) as if your children's future depends on it. No excuses-- vote or shut up. Here's the link: http://www.york-county.org/voters/downloadable_forms.htm
Most importantly, get off your Dutch butts and register to vote (on or before October 3) as if your children's future depends on it. No excuses-- vote or shut up. Here's the link: http://www.york-county.org/voters/downloadable_forms.htm
I think we all plan on doing that.