The Political Game

Now to begin this blog, I would like to pose a question. Which is more evil, the Devil or his Angels? If you were to ask me that question, I would tell you that it does not matter. They are both evil, and if a person were to allow either in to their hearts completely, it would lead to their ultimate destruction.

Now what does this have to do with the Political Game and what is the Political Game I am referring to? What is a common phrase we are used to hearing at the time of the National election? I know the one I hear all too often is something like this, “This vote is kind of like choosing the lesser of two evils, I don’t like either candidate but I have to vote for one of them.” So the game continues, as it has for many years in the past. We are given a choice of one bad candidate or an alternative of another bad candidate to vote for; neither candidate at all being worthy of the office when you take their morals and lives into consideration.
For a good laugh or to be humbly offended, see the following link:

http://www.republicmagazine.com/magazines/Republic-Magazine8.pdf

Why do we play this game? Most people tell you they vote for either the candidate from the Democratic Party or the candidate from the Republican Party because they feel they are the only ones who have a chance to win the vote. That is not a vote when you have to choose between the lesser of two evils. One of the unfortunate realizations of having only a two party system is that it is possible for an entity to gain control of both parties through a number of compromises etc. Once this has been done, they can gain control of the American political system. We as Americans allow this to happen when we decide that we will choose only from these two parties even when the candidates from those two parties are not worth the paper the vote is cast on (That is if you are lucky enough to be voting by paper which thus leaves a paper trail rather than digitally which means you put your entire trust of your vote in the machine you are voting on. Anyone interested should do some research on the validity of the new digital voting machines. Information can be found at: http://www.awakeandarise.org/article/Diabold.htm.) All that has to be done in this type of environment by those who would try to manipulate the system is get a candidate on both the Republican and Democratic ticket who will continue to push the same agenda as the previous administration. If they are successful in doing this, then they are guaranteed that either candidate #1 or candidate #2 will get elected and they can continue down the same path as before with few changes other than the lies that come out of the candidates mouths at a particular time.

I must admit that I have been guilty of doing this very thing at times. I have voted for what I thought was the better of two evils not really knowing what else to do. Unfortunately I was led into playing the same game I am talking about because of so many people telling me that if I voted for anyone else other than the mainstream candidates, my vote would not count.

I had to ask myself awhile back, why would my vote not count? Those who were telling me this line believed that my vote would not count because not enough votes would be given to someone outside of the two main parties and because of this, that candidate would not get elected. Now if I had to paraphrase that argument, it would basically be this, I will not vote for that candidate because others will not vote for that candidate. If you really break that down, does that really go along with what we have been taught by both our church leaders and by the founding fathers of this nation? I have tried to find the quote attributed to Joseph Smith when he stated that it is our obligation as citizens of this nation to vote for the candidate that we feel will best serve the interests of the people regardless of whether we think they will be elected or not. I wish I could find that quote, but even if I do not, I still believe wholeheartedly that that is a true statement.

Imagine yourself at the Day of Judgment and imagine being asked why you voted for a certain candidate even though his record clearly stated he had little or no integrity in him. Are we going to say, “I voted for this candidate because I thought he was a little bit better than his opponent who was completely evil?” Hopefully that will not be our response and yet it seems that year after year we as Americans continue to do the same thing over and over. Why does it matter that other people will not vote for a certain candidate even if his credentials are good? It makes no difference. It is our obligation to vote for the best person we feel can run our country regardless of which party he is affiliated with and regardless of the way the mainstream media portrays that person. If we are to stand clean at the Day of Judgment, It is our obligation to vote for the best candidate (after doing research and praying for guidance) even if we are the only ones voting for that person. Only after doing this can we really expect our Heavenly Father to make up for any weakness we may have in the voting process.