The One Issue Voter

    Many years ago, I was discussing politics with a friend (something I don’t really do anymore) and suddenly out of the blue he said, “Oh, you’re one of those Catholic one-issue voters.”  I sincerely didn’t know what he was referring to when he made that accusation.  After a few more exchanges I figured out that he was talking about abortion, even though we hadn’t mentioned that subject at all.

    As a traditional Catholic Christian, I am absolutely 100% Pro-Life, but we factually were not discussing that issue.  Obviously, he had just made the common connection of “closed-minded Catholic equals obsessed with abortion.”  Per my usual M.O., I could come up with no coherent response until a few hours later. 

    What I should have said that day was that I am absolutely a one-issue voter, and that issue is Christianity.  No other issue can even come close.  Not the economy.  Not immigration.  Not national security.  Not taxes, or tariffs, or education, or infrastructure, or social security, or the fact that the price of eggs has tripled in three years.  None of that matters in any way when it comes to my choice in voting.  And I follow this policy from the top down – from president to the local school board (If you know, you know.  We had a socialist disguised as a Catholic running for the school board in my county).

    To be perfectly clear, there were no Catholic candidates running in any of the elections on my ballot this year.  To be perfectly clear, there were none running in 2020 either.  In fact, that guy from the 1960s wasn’t a Catholic either.  Not because of his infidelities to his wife, as disgusting as they were, but because of his infidelity to the Catholic faith he was raised in.  There has never been a Catholic president and based on the system set up by the non-Catholic (and mostly anti-Catholic) founders of this country, there most likely never will be.

    So, how can I make my Catholic faith my one-issue when there are no Catholic candidates?  It’s actually pretty easy. I cast my votes for the ones who aren’t going to close my church and arrest my priests.  If that sounds over-the-top, it simply isn’t.  We’re living in the post-Christian West where the teachings of Christ and his apostles are now considered hate-speech.  I’m personally not in favor of a president who would tell those who chant “Jesus is Lord,” that they are at the wrong rally.  They weren’t told to keep it down, or to stop interrupting the speaker.  They were told YOU ARE AT THE WRONG RALLY.  In other words – Christians are not welcome here.

    There was another rally by the other side just before the election that caused controversy as well.  At this rally, some horrible comedian thought it would be a good idea to insult the 3.2 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico, as well as the countless number of Americans with Puerto Rican heritage.  After that little man’s bigoted joke, I asked myself if an insult like that could make me change my vote.  Could it override my one-issue? 

    I am a native Floridian with South Carolina roots.  I STRONGLY identify with my southern heritage.  This blog used to be called Southern Catholicism.  My point is, I know a thing or two about having my heritage insulted.  The wave of political correctness and wokeness that has washed over our society in the past few decades hasn’t quite yet made it to anti-Southern bigotry.  Would there have been an uproar of any kind if this comedian had mocked voters in Mississippi, Georgia, or Alabama?  Of course not.  Everyone would have just laughed, shook their heads, and moved on with their lives. 

    Do I even need to comment on Florida Man jokes?  If a native Floridian allows himself to be offended by Florida Man jokes, he’d better lock himself in a bunker with no contact with the outside world.  In the time it takes me to write this blogpost, I’ll probably accumulate half a dozen Florida Man jokes on my Facebook news feed.  So, would a “dumb inbred Southerner” or “Florida Man” joke at a political rally have angered me?  Probably.  Would I have changed my vote based on one bad joke?  Of course not.  My one-issue is much bigger and a lot more important than regional pride.

    In 2021 I was standing in line at the Post Office (socially distanced and wearing four or five masks, of course) and I noticed that the woman behind me had on a T shirt that said, “Finally a VP Who Looks Like Me.”  Okay, objectively speaking the VP looks absolutely nothing like this woman.  She was very overweight, had short bleach-blonde hair, and her skin was about 40 shades darker than the VP.  In other words, no one was going to mistake them for siblings.  I’m not a complete idiot – I know what the words on her shirt meant, and I know why she was wearing it.  She was telling everyone what her one-issue was.  I have a good friend whose pigmentation is quite different than my own.  I asked him once why he always voted a certain way.  He told me, “I don’t know.  My dad always told me that’s how ‘our people’ should vote.”  Classic one-issue – passed down for generations.

    The simple truth is that every citizen who votes is basically a one-issue voter.  That issue could be abortion, LGBT rights, the price of gas, the price of groceries, similar pigmentation, or it could be as simple as red versus blue.  Sadly, for some it really is about us and them – my team versus yours.  I freely admit that I voted for one party exclusively last week.  Not because of their team’s color or mascot, and not because that’s how “my people” vote.

    Does the party I voted for perfectly align with my Christian beliefs?  Absolutely not.  But the party I voted against absolutely proclaims anti-Christian beliefs in their official party platform.  I am a traditional Catholic Christian.  There was no question.  No choice.  No option.  I could either vote for the party that will almost certainly allow me to continue to worship God as He has been worshipped for 2000 years - as flawed as that party and their candidates are.  Or I could vote for the party that tells Christians that they’re at the wrong rally.  Again, no question, no choice, no option.

    There are some within my particular circle of Christian believers who choose not to vote.  Ever.  I find this absolutely stunning.  The events of last week weren’t simply about “the lesser of two evils.”  They were about the right to worship God in the traditional Christian way.  Christian persecution versus freedom to worship was literally on the ballot.  Last year I wrote a small post about those who choose to be Trumpians over Christians, so I get it.   But come on.  Last week was an emergency and our Christian freedom was on the line.  I am registered as No Party Affiliation.  In some places it’s just called Independent, but where I live it’s NPA.  Last Tuesday, I used my NPA vote to do my part to forestall the Christian persecution for as long as possible.  If you don’t do all that you can to stop the spread of evil, you are complicit with it.  I wasn’t even sure if my vote would be counted since there is so much corruption within the system.  But I wanted to make sure that God knew that I was doing my part – not necessarily with who I voted for, but who I voted against.

    My conscious is clear because I know I did what I could to protect my church – for myself, my kids, and hopefully for future generations.    My one-issue remains unchanged.