The Election

INTRODUCTION

We did it! We finished moral philosophy! Today we'll take a look at what has been the hottest issue of the last year and a half: the election.

Rather than spend time discussing the candidates, I'd rather equip you more broadly and long-term by analyzing and comparing the party's platforms. We're not just voting for president this year and so it's more helpful to examine something that will help us make decisions on all candidates and the candidates to come in future elections.

As we do this, please keep in mind Biblical principles. It's easy to separate our political views and religious views and many of us do that. But our view of God and Scripture should directly impact our political stances.

PLATFORM COMPARISSON

Every four years, the Democrat and Republican parties gather to select their presidential nominee. During this time, they form their corresponding platforms which lay out their beliefs and stances on issues. From what I've heard, this year the Republicans released one of the most conservative platforms to date and the Democrats released one of their most liberal platforms to date. You can find the Republican platform here and the Democrat platform here.

It might interest you to compare the preambles of both platforms and notice the differing styles and outlooks. I won't type them out here since you can follow the links yourself.

For now, consider a side by side comparison of the two party's platforms that you can find it here. They do have you put in your e-mail, but then give you access. There's other comparison's that are easier to access, but this one seemed to be very fair and well-rounded. Below I'll give you brief summaries of where each party stands on some of the issues. These are very short and consequently don't encompass each party's entire stance (which is why you should read the platforms yourself), but they highlight key points.

Human Life
- Republicans: strong belief in the sanctity of life
- Democrats: promotion of unimpeded access to abortion

Planned Parenthood
- Republicans: defund it
- Democrats: continue funding

Judges
- R: appoint justices that support family values
- D: appoint justices that support equality

Religious Liberty
- R: promote freedom of conviction
- D: promote tolerance

Education/School Choice
- R: promote utilization of education options
- D: improve public schools

Obamacare
- R: repeal it and reduce government control
- D: keep it and build upon it

Marriage
- R: marriage between one man and one woman
- D: marriage rights to all

Iran
- R: crack down on Iran
- D: Iran deal will work

Foreign Assistance
- R: reverse the pushed agenda of Obama administration
- D: continue spreading a family planning-centered ideology globally

When we discussed how these platforms compare to Scripture, people pointed out what seemed to be a discrepancy between the democratic positions on life and marriage and the Bible's message on those topics.

WHERE CANDIDATES WILL STAND

Now, one of the reasons that the basic platform ideologies are important to know is because in general, candidates will abide by their platforms. When anyone runs as a democrat or as a republican, in general, their worldview and stances on issues will be mostly in line with what the platform says. And granted, this platform is oriented for the federal level, not the state or local level. Nevertheless it summarizes the ideas that local and state officials hold to.

Thus, when you vote for president, senator, representative, state senator or representative, attoryney general, secretary of state, treasurer, or whatever, this platform roughly explains where they'll fall on issues.

Specifically for U.S. congressmen, they vote the party line (their party and platform) about 90% of the time. Some more and some less, but they tend to stick to it.

Though this doesn't apply now that the election is over, but it was discussed that for Trump and Hillary, we all knew that they both had character flaws. So, a reasonable idea would be to cancel those flaws out and look at where they stand on the issues (which is what people should have been doing all along). When you do that, you see that, in general, they abide by their corresponding party's platforms. Consequently, whichever platform a voter most agreed with should have determined which president they should pick.

JESUS IS KING

As always, we must remind ourselves of the reality that Jesus is King. We can find our peace and comfort in Him and in knowing that we're citizens of His Kingdom - a Kingdom that takes priority and will last longer and be better than any kingdom this world could produce. God puts in place the leaders He wants and we need to put our trust and find our rest in Him.