Vote your Conscience
by Jonesy of Jackson Hole (written just before the election)
After a lot of soul-searching I have decided to vote my conscience and principles this election. That means I will not be voting for a person but for an ideal. Failing to vote is not an option because then others will determine what America will be in the future.
My core principles are freedom and God-given rights as enshrined in the Constitution. I will not be voting for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump or Gary Johnson or Jill Stein or Evan McMullin. I will be voting for America.
Since “America” is not on the ballot, I will need to mark the spot next to one of the candidates, the one who will best preserve our Constitutional Republic. The three minor candidates have absolutely no chance of winning. They are on the ballot in just a few states and their support is in the single digits. My vote for one of them would be symbolic but would result in other voters determining issues that will directly affect me.
Either Clinton or Trump will win and will take the reins of my beloved country. What she or he does in office will make a huge difference to the future of myself, my children, my grandchildren and future generations.
Several things enter into which Presidential candidate will be the best preserver of our freedoms. However, in this treatise I will focus on THE most important and germane issue.
The eventual President will nominate one or more Supreme Court Justices. A Justice serves for a lifetime. One seat is currently vacant and two Justices are in their 80s. New Justices could reshape our country and affect our basic freedoms for at least a generation. Many critical decisions have been decided on a 5-4 vote, some of which are contrary to the will of the people, giving a new Justice inordinate power.
So here is how I will vote for President, based on Clinton’s and Trump’s statements on the below issues which the Supreme Court may be called upon to decide.
Gender-neutral rest rooms: I do not want my sisters, wife, daughters, or granddaughters to be confronted with a man in a public rest room or locker room. My vote; Trump.
Voter ID: These newly appointed Justices may rule whether requiring an identification card to vote in an election is to be the law of the land. If an ID is not required then that compromises our faith in an election. We will be governed by the ability of one party or the other to rig the election with voter registrations from the cemetery or from people who are not citizens. No ID card equals no control over who can vote and how many times that person can vote. My vote; Trump.
Abortion: The third debate clearly defined that Hillary is in favor of abortion even up to the day of delivery. Partial birth abortion is fine with her. I consider that infanticide. So does Donald Trump. Abortion is also racist, killing a disproportionate number of black babies. My vote; Trump.
Gun rights: The new Justice may cast the deciding vote on whether our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms to defend ourselves from mass shooters or home invaders or thugs can be controlled and regulated by the government, or even prohibited outright. My vote; Trump.
Religious Freedom: The new Justices may decide that a church leader cannot speak or opine on anything deemed political. They may mandate that a church must perform marriages for couples of the same sex, whether it is against core beliefs or not. The Court may decree that your cake business must cater to same-sex couples. The Justices may insist that a Jewish or Muslim grocer provide pork to customers. They may rule that restricting Islamic expression and dress is a hate crime but public Christian expression such as prayer is unconstitutional. My vote; Trump.
Freedom of speech: The new Justices may decide that teaching one-sided opinion in our schools, such as man-caused global warming or Darwinian evolution, need not be balanced by teaching the contrary viewpoint such as global temperature evidence or Biblical creation. Justices may decide that an oil company, or any of us for that matter, cannot express disagreement with man-caused global warming. My vote; Trump.
Immigration: The Justices may decide that illegal invaders must be given citizenship and the right to vote. They may rule that refugees from war-torn nations must be allowed to enter the USA without proper vetting to insure they are not terrorist sympathizers who wish to cause havoc and destruction in our neighborhoods. My vote; Trump.
Other Issues: The Justices may decide…well, you get the picture.
For these reasons, I believe my beloved land of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, will be in better hands with Trump. I will be voting for America. When I mark the spot next to the name of Donald J. Trump I will see the headline, “Make America Great Again”.
“Remember, life is always better when viewed from between the ears of a horse.”
Jonesy of Jackson Hole, aka Maury Jones
