Although several of you USAmerican Thinking Friends have likely already voted, Election Day is one week from today, and I assume most of you will be voting then, as I plan to do. But is there anything more we can do this week?
“A Return to Abnormalcy? Perish the Thought!” That was the title of the article I originally planned to write this week before the election. “A Return to Normalacy?” was the title of my blog post just before the 2020 election. My point: the election of Joe Biden would be a return to normalcy in the U.S.*1
The current presidential polls continue to indicate this year’s election will be very close, and there could very well be a return to the “abnormalcy” of a second Trump presidency. I certainly would like to “perish the thought,” but I also definitely thought he would not be elected in 2016.
If Trump is elected next week, I predict he will not serve for four years. Whether by impeachment and removal from office, using the 25th amendment to the Constitution, or because of debilitating health issues, I think it is quite unlikely Trump will be in the White House until January 2029.
But sadly, the country (and the world) would perhaps not be much better off with JD Vance as president.
But recognizing that I might be wrong, I am nevertheless sticking by my prediction that VP Harris will be elected and there will fortunately be no significant abnormalities with her as POTUS.
What Can We Do? Most of us live in states where there is little doubt regarding which presidential candidate will get our state’s electoral votes. Nevertheless, we should vote anyway. Even if our votes will most likely not help elect our candidate, the total number of popular votes is still important.
In addition to the presidential election, there are other important races in most states. Don’t overlook the importance of voting for down-ballot candidates. Control of the Senate and the House is also at stake, and that control will make a huge difference regardless of who becomes POTUS.
Unfortunately, some of us live in states where there is little doubt regarding who will be elected for the two houses of Congress as well as which presidential candidate will get the electoral votes.
Some of you might be interested in checking out VoteMaximizer.org, which analyzes what they call “voter power.” The closer the race, the higher the number (from one to 100) of one’s vote. The bad news for us Missourians is that no state race has high enough voter power to be listed.
The only matters listed as being uncertain enough in Missouri to be listed are Proposition A and Amendments 3 & 7. So I will go to vote mainly for the popular vote outcome of the presidential election and the outcome of the three issues mentioned.*2
It is different especially for those of you who live in swing states, such as you Thinking Friends who live in Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina. Since your voter power number is high, work hard this week for the presidential candidate whom you intensely want to win.
“All we can do now is pray”: this is what some may say at this point since many have already voted and most have already made up their minds about who they will vote for—or since the outcome in their states is quite certain.
That may be true, but what will we pray for? Does anyone think that if enough of us prayed in the right way we could convince God to manipulate enough voters to cause our preferred candidate to win the election? And what about those praying for the other candidate to win?
There are some things God can’t (or won’t) do, and manipulating people is one such thing. (I plan to write more about this matter in a blog article next month.) So, I am quite sure that prayer by itself will not change the outcome of the election.*3
However, as a means of lessening our anxiety and promoting peace of mind, prayer is quite important as we face anxieties about the future of our country during this week before Election Day.
_____
*1 Here is a link to that Oct. 20, 2020, blog post if you’d like to read it (again). The words in the title were based on the slogan of the 1920 presidential campaign of Warren G. Harding.
*2 My recommendation to you Missourians is voting Yes on Proposition A & Amendment 3 and No on Amendment 7.
*3 Not long after I wrote this sentence, I saw this post regarding Franklin Graham’s public prayer asking God to cause Trump to win the election.
Just one minute after 6 o'clock this morning I received the following comments from local Thinking Friend Ken Chatlos:
ReplyDelete"As always, thanks for your thoughtful reflections on our presidential election and related matters. An important matter in a worrisome time.
"A few more reflections.
"* What will happen if Harris wins the election? I suspect Trump and friends have a strategy to claim they really won. I hope that judges will do as good a job as they did in 2020. I have some fear that some judges may be inspired by our Supreme Court or by the Florida judge who has postponed Trump's trial for stealing classified documents.
"* I'm not sure what to make of the very recent incidents in Oregon and Washington State, incidents that involved "injuring voting sites. Again, worrisome.
* As to an impeachment of Trump if Trump is elected, and thus remove him from office. I suspect any attempt at impeachment will run into the same difficulties faced when politicians tried to impeach him earlier. Not enough votes in the Senate to make it happen. And certainly not enough votes in the House on any attempt to 'go after' Trump."
Thanks, Ken, for your thoughtful comments.
DeleteI agree with what you wrote regarding what might happen if Harris wins the election. I am afraid we are going to see massive unrest across the country regardless of who wins, turmoil that will likely last until Jan. 6, 2025--and who knows what might happen then!
Concerning my prediction of a possible impeachment of Trump and removal from office if he is inaugurated for another term, it seems to me that there are many Republican politicians now who, of course, support the Trump-Vance ticket but who are worried about what Trump might do, and then if he does something "crazy," which I think is quite likely, there will be enough of those Republicans in the House and Senate who would vote for Trump's impeachment/removal and turn the presidential power over to VP Vance, who would keep promoting most of the same MAGA positions but without the "craziness" of Trump. But, again, who knows what might happen?
Next, Thinking Friend Virginia Belk in New Mexico shared these comments:
ReplyDelete"Fred and I voted via Absentee Ballot the day we received them; we each cast a vote on each of the state and local candidates and all nineteen bond issues, as well as the national presidential election. I dropped them in the mail, the very next time we went to the post office.
"Thankfully, I have other issues to prevent me from obsessing about the outcome on Nov. 5. Thank you for your comments on types of prayer that are appropriate; I needed that reminder!"
Thanks for reading and responding, Virginia. Hearing about what happened with voting drop boxes being burnt in Oregon and Washington state, it was wise for you to take yours to the post offices.
DeleteI am happy that you found my comments about prayer helpful. And if Trump wins the election (perish the thought!), I remain sure that it will in no way be because of the prayers of people like Franklin Graham.
ReplyDeleteI just now saw the following article titled "What do you pray for before an election?" It is most a compilation of what seems to me to be good, helpful prayers for us all at this time.
To see those prayers, copy and paste the following in your browser:
https://faithandleadership.com/what-do-you-pray-election
Charles Kiker posting as anonymous due to difficulty of posting another way. Leroy, I commiserate with you about the electoral college rendering our votes in the presidential election inconsequential. But we (Patricia and I) voted absentee by mail. And we had opportunity for some very significant votes down ballot. Tarrant County tends Red, and Texas is predictably Red, but Allred the candidate for US Senate against Cruz is a serious contender, due to Cruz's unpopularity.
ReplyDeleteDoes Kunce have a ghost of a chance against Hawley?
Thanks for your pertinent comments, Charles--and for asking about the U.S. Senate race in Missouri. For a long time, I thought Kunce had a good chance of defeating Sen. Hawley, but the latest polls show a 10+ point lead for Hawley, so there seems to be little chance now for Hawley to be defeated in spite of the urban newspapers coming out strong for Kunce. At least 2/3 of the rural vote seems to be for Hawley.
DeleteCorrection: Allred is running neck and neck with Cruz in the race for US Senator. Charles Kiker
ReplyDeleteAbout an hour ago, I received the following comments from Thinking Friend Glenn Hinson in Kentucky:
ReplyDelete"I’m in a state where we will not have much impact on the presidential vote, but I’m happy to vote for our superb Representative, Morgan McGarvey, and in support of Public Schools! Meantime, I can’t help but pray for the election of Harris and Walz; my heart gives me no other choice."
Yes, I understand. As the old hymn says,
Delete"Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Unuttered or expressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast."
(by James Montgomery, 1818)
I won't know what my state will do until? Our governor's race is much more predictable than the presidential vote. We should have another Democrat in the governor's office, hopefully a Democrat Lt. Gov., and at least a better balance in our legislature. Currently the Republicans have a veto proof majority.
ReplyDeleteLike you I will be disappointed but not surprised if violence of some sort breaks out after Nov. 5. Extremists at both ends of the spectrum see violence as the logical recourse if they do not get what they want. I fear whoever gets elected may not live to serve a full term because of assassination. We will be looking at Walz or Vance to complete the term. I would say our prayers need to start with a plea for peace. Only in that context can we work toward the common ground needed to address all the rest of the problems our society faces. As of last Thursday evening, NC already had over two million early votes cast.
Tom, regarding the second sentence of your second paragraph, PRRI (if you or others don't know this organization, I encourage you to learn about it; it is a good and trustworthy organization in my opinion) posted the following early this year:
Delete"Republican support for political violence to save the country shifted slightly from 28% in 2021 to 33% in 2023, while support for political violence among independents increased from 13% to 22% and Democrats from 7% to 13%."
My guess is that support has increased considerably since January--and may well increase more after the election. But I am also quite sure that such support for violence continues to be far stronger on the right than on the left, so I encourage you to look at the facts rather than say one side is as bad as the other.
Also, as to "what they want," the Right wants Trump to be elected, and many seem to be willing to use violence if necessary to secure his election regardless of who gets the most votes and will deny the results if Trump is not elected just as they did in 2020/21. Mostly, the Left want fair elections and will protest--and likely some, sadly, by violence--not because of Harris losing, if she does, but because of, for example, state election boards refusing to send electoral votes for Harris even though she received the most votes.
Leroy, thank for this, for putting the election one week away front and center of our faith concerns and our theological dialogue. On a personal note, I have worked hard this year getting overseas voters registered, requesting overseas ballots, and then figuring out how to assemble those ballots which are often quite complicated, and then mailing those ballots from a country where the mail service is thought to be less than fast, to a country where the mail service is also thought to be less than efficient. This year, I have organized 3 events, worked 5 others to accomplish the above, and made house calls for countless others. Here in the last two weeks before the election, I have to put it all in perspective. I have a newborn grandson facing open heart surgery this Thursday. My political activities are over for this year--unless I get a text or call from a potential voter!!! I read someone's advice which seems just what I need to do right now: Forget the election, turn off the news, and have confidence that Kamala will win. If she does, or if she doesn't, you will have saved yourself weeks of nail-biting anxiety. So, for the future, I am trusting that Kamala will win by a landslide, and by landslide, I mean 1 point.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting these comments, (and since you didn't use your name, I won't either even though I know who you are). Congratulations on the new grandson, and I trust the surgery will go well tomorrow.
DeleteThanks, too, for all you have done to get ex-pats to vote. As you probably know well, "A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit by six Republican members of Congress seeking to make Pennsylvania election officials institute new checks confirming the eligibility and identity of soldiers, sailors and others who vote from overseas." I'm sure you were happy to hear that.
There are various legitimate ways to face the anxiety-producing election. Forgetting about the election until it's over is one way, and I don't fault you for choosing that way. But my choice is to keep up with the news, the polls, and various prognostications, etc., and (as I said at the end of this blog post) to rely on proper prayer to lessen my anxiety and to promote peace of mind--and that seems to "work" quite well.
In a footnote, I linked to a prayer by Franklin Graham. This morning I saw this similar prayer by a prominent Southern Baptist pastor and Convention leader:
ReplyDelete"This past Monday, Jack Graham, the ultraconservative senior pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, who’s been repeatedly telling his 50,000-member congregation this year that they’re engaged in a spiritual war against liberals, teamed up with a group of evangelicals in praying over Donald Trump to win the presidential election next week."
Here was Graham’s prayer:
"We thank you O God, and we come to you in the name of Jesus. … We thank you for our country. We love you, Jesus, and we also love our country. We thank you that you have raised up a man, Donald J. Trump, to be a warrior for the word of God and the wisdom that comes from God. Thank you for protecting him, for keeping your hand of blessing on him, and we pray as you raise him up once again to be our president that you would give him strength and wisdom and joy in the journey."
The following comments were received a couple of days ago from Thinking Friend Ray Franklin, who was for many years my missionary colleague in Japan and is now Professor Emeritus at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas.
ReplyDelete"I just finished reading (actually listening to) Harlow Giles Unger’s' excellent biography of the Marquis de Lafayette. One striking quote explains, in my mind at least, why revolution for independence, which succeeded so well in the colonies, failed so miserably in France.
"'What Lafayette conveniently overlooked in his eagerness to embrace the French Assembly [i.e. constitutional monarchy] was that eleven signatories of the American Declaration of Independence...had been Freemasons devoted to republican self-government and social reform. Moreover, almost all signatories were protestant--heirs to more than one hundred fifty years of self-rule in congregations than not only formed the seats of government in most communities but also dispensed compulsory public education in many states and in the north, propagated near-universal literacy among poor and rich alike.'"
"Perhaps the answer to the question, 'What more can we do?' should include a bold challenge to our churches for a return to a devotion to republican self-government, social reform, and equal opportunity for all.
"I say this, not in criticism of Catholicism, nor in promotion of Free Masonry or state-sponsored Christianity, but rather in recognition of the vital role congregation-led churches have played and could play in our nation's struggle for democracy.
"Lafayette passionately believed in American democracy as a beacon of light to Europe and the world. What a tragedy it would be to see it sacrificed on the altar of economic greed and political power by the very institution responsible to such a large degree for its inception."
Thanks, Ray. I was pleased to hear from you again.
DeleteI don't know much about Lafayette or Freemasons, but I do know quite a bit about "congregation-led churches" and fully agree that it would be (or already is) quite tragic if their firm support of democracy is "sacrificed on the altar of economic greed and political power"--or (as I wrote in my previous post) co-opted by a politician who seeks the support of Christians for his own political and economic power.
Let me start gently. Here is post-election trauma advice: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/post-election-stress_l_6728f6cde4b0f3d946e065b3
ReplyDeleteSo Becky and I took a hike this morning. After we got home I cancelled a magazine subscription I had been promising to end, then cancelled my ActBlue account and the various progressive values I was trying to support through it, and then I cancelled my Democratic party affiliation in my Oregon voter registration. After all, I did vote for Jill Stein this time. So now I am an official Independent, just like Bernie Sanders. So I got some weight off my shoulders. I also read an excellent summary of what went wrong for the Democrats, other than that this was the third election in a row that the Democrats wanted to defeat Bernie more than they wanted to defeat Trump. Read the summary here from In These Times: https://inthesetimes.com/article/harris-trump-election-2024-gaza-palestine
"They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from their levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins--you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate." (Amos 5:10-12)