Your Vote is Your Voice, Not Your Party's

This blog was a response to someone who asked me about my response to Walker's and Cruz's speeches at the RNC convention is 2016. The person who asked me the question asked also about a Ross Perot situation. She implied that people voting for Ross Perot stole the election from George HW Bush. This is a difficult question. I believe however, that voting your conscience is more powerful in the long run than voting your party. Here are 3 illustrations that point to why.

1. Socialist – The socialist political party has been part of our system for decades but no one took them seriously. They were faithful to their third party vote, while they worked their philosophy at the local level (a philosophy I do not believe in). The Democratic Party (DP) saw this and started moving toward this group of voters. Now the DP is pretty much a socialist party. So my first question is, what would have happened if socialist were not so committed to their cause? Would they have changed the DP?

2. African Americans – Many African Americans are concerned over socialist policies from the DP that they feel have ripped apart the African American family. When they stand up against it what happens? They often get ostracized. Why? Because the DP has told the African American community that they have no other place to go. People on the right see this as a gross injustice. Yet the message the GOP is giving to Christians, Conservatives and other groups is the same – “You have nowhere else to go.” This is nothing short of manipulation.

3. Car Dealers – The DP and GOP are private political parties selling a product. The conventions are 4 day infomercials. That is all they are. Would we accept this kind of marketing from a car dealership? If Red car company pointed out to us that while it is true that their cars have killed 10 people, the blue car company has killed a 100 people, would we buy their red car, or would we look for a car from a completely different company, neither the red or the blue? Would it matter how popular the red and the blue car companies were?

While I really respect Walker and others who make statements like this, Walker is a reluctant salesman for a private political party. His best sales line was “We are bad but not as bad as or competition”. This decision however, is way more important than car. It is decision over who will be the leader over the free world. “We are not as bad as the other guys” is just not a good enough argument for me.

Our vote is not always about winning and loosing, its about making our voice heard. When a private political party tells you they are your only choice, and you believe them; they have successfully silenced your voice. As far as Ross Perot, the "product" was seen as weak. People were not happy with George HW so they looked for an alternative. Perot could not have run against Reagan because he was seen as a stronger "product". The responsibility for loosing falls on George HW and GOP, not Ross Perot or the people who voted for him.

I am trying to take my vote prayerfully and seriously. Some people are looking at the red car and saying “this is the best car I’ve ever seen”, others feel “this is the only car I can buy”. I understand both of these positions (the second more than the first). There is nothing in the constitution that stops me from looking for another alternative. Hillary does not get an extra vote if I vote third party. We only have two parties because WE have decided we only have two parties. The country, the GOP and the DP in my view are all broken. We didn’t get here over night, and things will not be solved in this election. The best we can do is pray for direction and vote our conscience. This is my little voice in a sea of voices. Its time for unity around principles, not parties.