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It's Complicated
· Tuesday, January 24, 2012
A longtime conservative friend sent me an email after reading something positive I had written about Newt Gingrich: "Whoever votes (for) or supports Newt for president is out of their mind."
It wouldn't be the first time I've been called crazy.
He continued: "You can believe in redemption, as I do, but you are not thinking seriously if you support a person for president with the baggage he is carrying. What an example for our children and future generations when we dismiss character as the foundation for leadership."
There's more, but I get his point.
The evangelical Christian population of South Carolina apparently believes that while character is a good thing, the ability to defeat President Obama and dismantle the welfare state is more important.
Here, in part, is how I responded to my friend: What is the standard for selecting a president and who decides? Franklin Roosevelt cheated on Eleanor with Lucy Mercer and perhaps others, yet he helped to win World War II and led us out of the Great Depression. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson used a questionable encounter between U.S. and North Vietnamese vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin to ram a resolution through Congress that sucked us deeper into the Vietnam War, which needlessly killed more than 58,000 Americans. Johnson had one wife, but allegedly had a roving eye.
Richard Nixon by all indications was faithful to Pat, but unfaithful to the Constitution. Gerald Ford and Betty (who was divorced) were pro-choice on abortion, which is anathema to social conservatives. Jimmy Carter was a faithful, church-going, Sunday school-teaching, born-again man. He was a profile of what social conservatives say they want in a president, yet they now judge him a failure. Ronald Reagan was divorced, but a good president.
Bill Clinton kept the tabloids, talk radio and mainstream media busy with his marital transgressions. His apologists said sex was a private matter between him and his family and had no bearing on his ability to do his job. George W. Bush spoke of being "redeemed," as Gingrich does, but from alcohol, not women. The judgment of history is yet to be rendered on his eight years in office.
And now we have Barack Obama, who is the husband of one wife and seems to love her and their two daughters. But conservatives don't like his policies.
A New York Times editorial last week castigated Gingrich, not for his three marriages and acknowledged adultery, but for his "sermonizing." The newspaper thinks that because of his past sins Gingrich has no right "to tell Americans how to run their lives."
To say that Gingrich has not always lived up to the ideals he professes does not diminish those ideals. When Thomas Jefferson wrote and delegates of the Continental Congress edited the Declaration of Independence, some of those assembled owned slaves. Did writing "all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights" ring less true because of slavery? No, it simply set an ideal in place that nearly 90 years later Abraham Lincoln (and 100 years after that, Martin Luther King Jr.) would reference in successful efforts to force government to recognize the rights of African-Americans.
As America grows more secular, less religious and less married, appeals to "morality" will increasingly fall on deaf ears. Charles Murray wrote about this "new American divide" in last Saturday's Wall Street Journal.
Voters on one side of the divide -- the "traditionalists" -- are conflicted. They remind me of the film "It's Complicated" in which Meryl Streep has an affair with her remarried ex-husband (Alec Baldwin), while entertaining the amorous intentions of her architect (Steve Martin).
Social conservatives seem similarly conflicted in the Romney vs. Gingrich vs. Santorum contest. Two of the candidates have had just one wife and they are religious. And then there's Newt.
Conservative voters are being forced to make a pragmatic choice between their "traditional values" and who can best defeat President Obama. If Gingrich's convincing victory in the South Carolina primary is any indication, they appear to be making that choice.
(c) 2012 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
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mmccrindle
We as a nation 'dismissed character as the foundation for leadership' with the election of Obama. The least vetted, most inept and leftist president in our history.
Posted January 24, 2012 at 8:58:59 AM
twilight
I don't think their sex lives OR tax records are any on our business. Whether or not they are natural born Americans,will uphold the Constitution, are capable of understanding what needs to be done and how to do it IS..
Posted January 24, 2012 at 11:19:06 AM
RamonaG
Once gain, the election will boil down to voting for the "cream of the crap", a person we really don't want/like, but whom we must vote for in order to defeat the opposition. Truly an indication of how far we have slipped as a nation....sad.
Posted January 24, 2012 at 11:37:20 AM
Richard Ryan
What a difference between the writing of George Will, and that of Cal Thomas. George Will`s ramblings are totally devoid of reality, while Cal`s are thoughtful and insightful. Thanks Cal for giving us something other than the bland, RHINO bilge that the DC insiders like Will try to pour down our throats.
Richard Ryan
Lamar,Missouri - Birthplace of Harry S Truman
Posted January 24, 2012 at 1:09:24 PM
JimShoesa
While I'm not sure where Thomas stood 4 yrs ago, it is interesting, most of the conservative media spent the last presidential primary season crucifying the man who would then become the nominee.
So much so than when the election came, only die hard Republicans would vote for John McCain, and Barack Obama won rather easily scooping up all the so called independents who had heard how terrible McCain was for months on end.
The president we have now is our right wing media's gift. People like Anne Coulter saying she would vote for Clinton over McCain. Thank you, thank you Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, etc etc etc for Barack Obama.
Deja vu? Perhaps, but it is for this reason alone many conservatives will vote for whoever the "conservative" media tells them not to and against whoever they endorse.
Posted January 24, 2012 at 3:08:10 PM
Ted R. Weiland
Here we go all over again! "Helen Keller once said, 'We vote, what does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.' The election process has not only programmed Americans to put their trust in 'princes,' [Psalm 118:8-9] but to accept the lesser of two evils. Or is it the evil of two 'lessers'? That this is true of most Christians was demonstrated in the 2008 Presidential election:
'At a meeting Tuesday [July 1, 2008] in Denver, about 100 conservative Christian leaders … agreed to unite behind the candidacy of John McCain, a politician they have long distrusted…. Phil Burress … said … “I was once one of those people who said ‘no way’ to Sen. John McCain as President. No longer, the stakes are too high. And if Obama wins I need to be able to get up on November 5th, look at myself in the mirror, and when I pray, say, ‘Lord, I did all that I could.”'
'“The alternative is so bad we must support John McCain,” said Phyllis Schlafly…. One participant said he couldn’t imagine anything worse. “Obama has done the impossible,” he said, “He’s made Hillary Clinton look good to Christian conservatives.”'
"This occurred because – unlike Yahweh’s system, which provides for the appointment of the best of the best – the Constitution compels people to (hopefully) elect the best of the worst. It also necessitates political parties that are not only unbiblical but whose platforms are invariably ungodly. Political parties are the mechanism by which Christian constituents are offered up on the altar of WE THE PEOPLE.
"After every election, regardless who’s elected, Americans eventually have cause for regret (Proverbs 29:2). And yet, every four years, they march right back to the voting booths with eternal hope (or is it merely short-sightedness?) and do it all over again. Elections provide us with a lose-lose proposition. On the other hand, when we have two or more Biblically qualified candidates, we end up with a servant of God, regardless who’s appointed." For more, see "Article 2: Executive Usurpation" at http://www.missiontoisrael.org/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt5.php.
Find out how much you really know about the Constitution as compared to Yahweh's moral law (His commandments, statutes, and judgments). Take our Constitution Survey at http://www.missiontoisrael.org/constitutionsurvey/constitutionsurvey.php and receive a free copy of the "Primer" (an 85 page book, normally $7 plus shipping) of "Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective."
Posted January 24, 2012 at 6:00:30 PM
Sherry
One question that needs to be answered is: Will he uphold his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic?
Another question: Is he born in the United States? We require an I-9 to hire an employee, couldn't we require the same of a presidential candidate?
There is only one candidate we can trust to uphold the Constitution. The problem is he will not participate in the bidding process for the undeclared, unauthorized military interventions in other nations. They are unconstitutional presidentially instigated treasonous actions. The paid media messengers are responsible for the popular myths surrounding these wars and their owners are the ones profiting from these wars. The media can't afford to accurately report the source of the war propaganda.
Until character is more important than the illusions of the paid media messengers, the illusions will gain the white house. There is only one candidate with the character to do the job. All the others are hollow pretty boys setup to let the bankers and the politicians continue destroying our nation and gathering their stolen money. This president would have been impeached if congress knew and was doing its job.
Posted January 24, 2012 at 9:00:11 PM
Dave S
@Sherry,
I would presume your are talking about either Marco Rubio or Alan West. What a President/Vice President Ticket that would be. Place either name in either place. Personally I prefer Alan West but there is so little to choose between the two that either one as President would be fine with me.
Posted January 25, 2012 at 12:59:55 PM