If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.
PLATO
There is a certain type of person that disengages completely from the world of politics and current events. Wanting to be left alone and be blissfully ignorant, they bury their heads in the sand. This works for a season until some jackboot pulls your head out of the sand and marches you away in handcuffs and leg irons for whatever fate awaits you in the tyranny you did nothing to stop. Some will say that doing something is futile. It is possibly futile. Doing nothing is absolutely futile. There are three things that I choose to do--pray, write, and vote.
1. Pray
Prayer is the most potent weapon in a person's arsenal. Consistent and persistent prayer changes things. Without prayer, you are wasting your time with everything else. With prayer, your efforts have great effect. Now, some will say that prayer is worthless. It can only be worthless if God doesn't exist. If God doesn't exist, then nothing else matters at all. Without God, you have nothing.
I believe God is in control of everything. Yes, bad things happen but only with God's permission. Personally, I think God tests our faith in hard times to teach us to rely upon Him in our struggles and trials. Hard times make good people because good people pray themselves out of hard times.
2. Write
I have zero interest in running for political office. We live under the illusion that power rests with the political leaders when it actually rests with the people. If this were not so, politicians wouldn't waste so much time, money, and energy trying to convince people to vote for them or at least not bring out the pitchforks and torches.
In my lifetime, the person who has had the most influence over the people has not been a president like Ronald Reagan but Rush Limbaugh. Everyone else is following in that man's footsteps. Rush never held elective office but simply spoke to the people through a radio microphone. His words and thoughts had a profound impact on the mind of the public. Others after him like Andrew Breitbart said that politics was downstream from culture. Those who change hearts and minds are the ones with the real power.
I am not a radio pundit but a writer with a blog. I don't have the reach of someone like Rush Limbaugh, but I can and do add my small voice to the chorus of other conservative voices. Others with lesser talents create and share memes. If these didn't matter, the powers that be wouldn't go after them so hard. Free speech matters, but it has to be used regularly to make a difference.
3. Vote
The last option is the most controversial because it makes the least difference. This is voting. Your single vote has virtually no weight in comparison to all of the other votes out there. So, why bother? The answer to that is simple. If all the good people stayed home from the polls, evil would love that immensely. The reality is that your single vote is never alone. It is added to the weight of all those other good people letting their voices be heard. Even in a rigged election, those votes matter because the tyrants are told what they are facing.
I was disinclined to vote until 2012. This is because I was a libertarian at the time. I voted for Ron Paul in the GOP primary and Bob Barr in the general election. Neither man had a chance of winning. Mitt Romney had a chance of winning, but I couldn't bring myself to vote for the lesser of the two evils. This left the greater of the two evils to win. I could have done without those four extra years of Obama.
I doubt my voting for Romney would have changed the outcome. But it taught me that the lesser of two evils is the way to vote. You can vote your principles in the primary as I did with Ron Paul, but you always pull the lever for Republicans in the general election. Yes, Republicans let you down. So, what? Why is letting the Democrat win a better strategy?
I hold my nose when I vote. No candidate is good enough for my tastes. But I have my chance in the primary to put real conservatives in office. At the end of the day, I vote straight ticket Republican not because I support RINOs so much as oppose Marxist Democrats.
Voting third party is just throwing away your vote. When a third party candidate has any measure of success, it is enough to throw it to the Democrats. This is letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. I recommend that true conservatives try and take over the Republican Party rather than opposing it in the general election.
Working for change in the Roman Catholic Church
The Church is just like the government. The only difference is that you don't get to vote for your bishops, cardinals, and Pope. What the laity have is something even better than a vote. We get to vote with our dollars. I choose to give only to my parish and those apostolates that reflect and promote Catholic orthodoxy. On top of this, I also pray and write towards the end of restoration and renewal of the Roman Catholic Church. Because the Church has run off the rails, this has had a corrosive effect on our culture and our governments. Working for political change while ignoring ecclessiastical change makes no sense. Before there was Rush Limbaugh, there was Archbishop Fulton Sheen who had as much or more influence than Rush Limbaugh. We need to support our good bishops with our prayers.
The Benedict Option Idiots
The people most inclined to stick their heads in the sand are the ones influenced by Rod Dreher and his Benedict Option idea of hiding in a hole until it all blows over. This is the same idiot who was scandalized into schism by leaving the Roman Catholic Church and joining the Eastern Orthodox. His wife also divorced him for whatever reasons she had. Schism and divorce always go together. Rod Dreher is an effeminate with no ounce of fortitude whatsoever. Why would anyone take advice or find an example in him?
The world remains civilized and safe because good people don't quit but stay and fight. Don't think The Benedict Option. Think Lord of the Rings. The goal is not to make a heaven on earth like the Marxists and libertarians wish but to prevent hell on earth. God is on our side in this fight, but we need to be on His side.
Conclusion
I can't do much, but I can do all I can. That is the bottom line. I leave the winning up to God, but the fighting is on me. Even if I lose, at least I did something which is more than I can say for those who chose to do nothing. I despise the do-nothings.
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
UPDATE: In this recent election, those who were too pure to cast a vote for Donald Trump woke up grateful that the rest of us didn't have any qualms about voting for the lesser of two evils. All I can say is that you're welcome. You are also despicable cowards. You were AWOL in this battle.
As for Trump, I am not a fan. His positions on things like sodomy and abortion are disgraceful. As I said, I voted for him while holding my nose. I will continue to pray, write, and vote in opposition of these grave sins. I hope the next election gives us better candidates.
Cardinal Burke tells Raymond Arroyo Catholics have ‘duty’ to vote for candidate who will prevent more evil
Debates among social conservatives as to whether they should vote for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as “the lesser of two evils” have intensified this election season in comparison to previous ones. Those who argue for withholding their support primarily point to Trump’s left-ward drift on social issues, including abortion and in-vitro fertilization. Those who are more right-wing argue Trump will not secure the border and that he has not surrounded himself with his most longtime, loyal supporters.
But Burke told Arroyo that to not vote is against the Fourth Commandment – honor your mother and father – which includes procuring the common good of your country or “fatherland.”
If there is “some good reason to think we can advance the cause of life, and the family, and religious freedom, that’s the kind of candidate we need to support,” he said.
