By James Wilson
(Author Note: After I wrote but before I could publish Senator Ted Cruz
suspended his presidential campaign; I believe this still needs to be published.)
The dilemma for Christian voters – any values voter – usually resembles, “Do I demand a candidate who loves everything I love or take a pragmatic approach to a real world not what I wish it to be.” That dilemma is simplified in 2016. Certainly we need to know what candidates will actually do about the economy, over-regulation, social issues, and foreign policy. But in this time more than ever in my lifetime the doing we need to know about is grounded in character. Our support needs to be for the one who demonstrates a character we can respect – not because we can afford behavior/policy blindness, but because character is the open window on behavior and policies with which we will have to live when the election is history and the president is current events.
The character of the candidate reveals his/her worldview; it is the foundation for every decision he will ever make. Christians and other values voters need to vet candidates through the lens of character – revealed in Scripture – if they would make the most pragmatic political and spiritual decision they have ever made.
Hilary Clinton denies preborn children any rights – ever – while claiming to defend the helpless. Who is more helpless than a preborn child in the hands of a doctor who may profit from his body parts? She reveals a worldview in which nobody counts; this explains sending national security information through unprotected e-mail and asking, “What does it matter?” about American martyrs in Benghazi. In Bernie Sanders’ world – on the other hand – some count and others don’t. He honestly plans to re-distribute wealth, as any socialist would. He is a great president if we want Robin Hood in the White House.
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are just as knowable.
Trump claims to uphold the Constitution as written, yet finds the Kehoe Decision – it authorizes unconstitutional confiscation of private property for other private parties like himself – useful. He rages about party rules denying him what he wants but promises to defend the rules in the Constitution. He champions entitlement reform but favors corporate welfare re Kehoe. He threatens women who abort but calls Roe v. Wade (abortion) and Obergefell (Justice Kennedy declared gay marriage too important to be blocked by Constitution) settled law. His idea of foreign policy is to bill Mexico for a border fence and remain neutral between Israel and the Palestinians; in other words he will re-introduce gunboat diplomacy on our continent and ignore the over-riding blood lust of the Palestinians as the lynchpin of the Middle East. His worldview is what Donald wants Donald gets – and changes at whim. In Biblical parlance that makes him a would-be King Herod.
Ted Cruz wears a very different worldview as revealed in his behavior. Like his rival, Cruz verbally champions the Constitution. But Cruz puts his money where his mouth is, vowing repeal of unconstitutional measures like Obamacare, restricted access to the internet, and abuses of the IRS. He is endorsed by the Pro-life Movement because he leads the fight to defund baby-body-trafficking Planned Parenthood and to enact a Human Life Amendment. He backs rhetoric with action to restore authority to people over their own lives with his plan for a flat 10% tax to replace the current and much abused tiered tax system. Under his plan everyone pays the same tax rate – with the first $36,000.00 tax free so as not to unduly burden the poor – with higher incomes contributing more dollars at the same percentage. This will create jobs by releasing investment income; more jobs means more taxpayers and more tax revenue while enhancing personal income. This is what ended recessions under Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Reagan, and GW Bush.
While he is at it Cruz vows to authorize the job creating Keystone Pipeline and rein in the EPA’s crippling regulations grounded in the myth of man-caused climate change. He opposes Common Core and other methods of centralized control of education because he believes in the freedom to educate our children as parents and local authorities choose; choice for Cruz includes the selection of schools, methods, and curricula. In other words Cruz believes and behaves as though everybody counts within the confines of law and constitution.
Cruz is anything but infallible. But when his staffer spread lies about rival Ben Carson Cruzapologized; that humble honesty is as necessary as the courage to stand against the administration alone, and with Israel simply because it is right. His faith in the God of the Bible shapes the character that reveals his worldview. This man sounds like Israel’s David.
In this election character is everything.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships, The Holy Spirit and the End Times, and Kingdom in Pursuit – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at praynorthstate@charter.net
