Dobson Won’t Vote
Posted by Michael | Posted in Culture | Posted on 10-02-2008
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MMI reports that Dr. Dobson, a man I respect for his decades of work, will not vote in the upcoming Presidential election if John McCain wins the Republican nomination. While I don’t talk about politics that much here on this blog, that’s an embarrassing statement. I’m disappointed that a national leader like this would encourage apathy just because the candidate of his choosing might not get the nomination. His statement is nothing more than a playground bully taking his ball and going home because he didn’t get first pick.
What do you think about this statement?
I don’t have a problem with it at all. Martin Luther and Charles Spurgeon have both been credited with saying, “When faced with the lesser of two evils, choose neither.” Regardless of who said it, I think it’s true.
It’s not so much encouraging apathy. It’s encouraging thoughtful consideration of the candidates, and then acting in accordance with how one feels the Holy Spirit leading. I would not vote for a Republican candidate or a Democratic candidate who was pro-choice. I’d rather stay home on election day than give the appearance of supporting that in any way. Similarly, while I haven’t made a decision on whether or not I will vote, there are some things about McCain that I don’t like. So it may turn out that I don’t end up voting because I cannot in good conscience vote for him (if he’s the nominee).
I agree. You have to put yourself to the side and vote for what is best for the country.
i think it’s pathetic. i am thoroughly disappointed that he won’t take a stand for at least one of the people God has given the opportunity to be our president.
the joy of being American is being able to choose. You have your own choice. Dobson has done some amazing things, and some not so amazing things (like us all!)
I have to agree with you on this point. It is no secret that I have been supporting Mike Huckabee and will until he leaves the race. That said any of the GOP candidates are better for this country that the other parties choices. Reagan who that 80% my friend is more important than 20% my enemy. John McCain has created a lot of these problems for himself but I will support whoever becomes the GOP nominee.
there is a big difference between making your choice, and refusing to vote, especially when you are a national leader like mr. dobson. when he speaks publically, it’s not just sharing his opinions, it’s swaying thousands of people. he knows that.
typical snotty evangelical arrogance (Which i can have at times too!). what about the men and women who have put their lives at risk, or died for a free country. a country where you can vote for who you want.
Hmmm… The difference between ignorance and apathy. don’t know and don’t care. That’s the impression I got from Dr Dobson’s statement. Ignorance – he has no idea (or maybe he does) how this statement can and will affect people who otherwise would make an educated choice. Apathy – evidently he doesn’t care about his influence on others.
I couldn’t vote until I was 24 and I’ll tell you, that was one of the hardest things I did. Who do you feel comfortable with? Who is the best choice? Those are choices we all have to make, whether they are right or wrong. And, for those of us who are Christians, having someone we have faith and confidence in to make a statement like that is just wrong.
Of course, if we are true Christians, we will vote our choice and then go with whomever the Lord chooses. But we still have to vote.
And, instead of the “lesser of two evils,” how about the “greater good.”
I don’t really have a problem with his position in principle. Voting is a right, not a duty. If voters are left with two terrible choices, why participate in what is essentially a charade? I don’t buy the notion that it is un-American to sit out an election is you think either candidate would be bad for the country.
I’m guessing Dobson isn’t really advocating bailing out on the system anyway. His position is probably this:
Neither McCain nor Obama/Clinton are conservative and liberal president would be a disaster. In four years, the Republicans are substantially more likely to nominate a conservative candidate than the Democrats and if the current parties’ president is a disaster, the other party will probably win. Since there is no chance of a conservative president in 08, by letting the Democrats win now, there might be a conservative president in 2012. However, if a non-conservative (McCain isn’t conservative, but he isn’t really a liberal either) Republican wins and does a poor job, a liberal democrat will probably take the White House in 2012.
I’ve heard that same argument from other conservative pundits, so I’m assuming that’s what Dobson is getting at.
I don’t think it really matters though, because there is exactly zero chance that a Republican wins the White House in 2008. When you have a Republican White House and full or partial Republican control of Congress for 8 years and the size of the federal government bloats at a record pace, it’s pretty hard to convince rational people that the Republican Party is the party of limited government and conservative principles.
if he has duly considered all potential candidates and feels he cannot in good conscience give his vote to one of them, he should not vote.
it is a wonderful privilege to be able to vote, but by voting for a candidate we are giving our approval to the decisions they make.
a vote truly is a sacred thing that should not be given to the “lesser of two evils”.
that said, i’d like him to verbalize why he cannot vote for any of the candidates, otherwise it seems he is just mad that “his” candidate didn’t make it.
Michael, I am surprised at your opinion on this subject. You, more than anyone I know, stirs the pot!!! You do and say things that sway people all the time. You do so because of your convictions, isn’t that right? Well, I believe Dobson would not have made this statement without a lot of conviction and prayer.
david,
i’d have to disagree that voting for a candidate means you agree with every decision they make. a vote is not a blank check. i voted for bush in the last election, and he does things that I don’t agree with. but i believe he was a better president than gore would have been.
i believe every person, especially every Christian, after much prayer, should vote for the person they believe would lead our country the best.
i think NOT VOTING is a bad option. far worse than voting for a candidate that you don’t agree with 100% of the time.
I am disappointed in the public statement…it will cause many good Christian Americans to stay home…if the true Christian conservatives would have hopped on Huckabee’s bandwagon sooner, he would not be in the mathmatical position he is in…What happened to support of the right position because it is right, rather than how we THINK a candidate will do against other candidates…We will not agree with everyone who runs, or wins…we can never allow the pressure to let up regarding the things that matter to us — abortion, capital punishment, free speech and religion, balanced budget — well you get the picture…let’s pray and work until we can no more!
It’s appearant that Dobson is a conservative. McCain is not. If he doesnt vote, that’s up to him.
McCain does not have Conservative values. He’s a closet liberal at best with no intentions of holding up the conservative side of the aisle. Prepare for the worst, my friends, we will have a democrat in office in January.
whether dobson votes or not doesnt mean anything to me. looks like he’s gonna need to focus on his own family, cause i’m pretty sure the government will be controlling the airwaves and media in the near future (for some reason it seems like socialism is the “change” i keep hearing.)
i will encourage everyone to write in Jesus in november.
I think there are and have been and will be worse candidates with John McCain. I think everyone is entitled to their opinion and should not try to sway people to NOT vote.
Think about this. My brother’s father was from Hungary. He escaped the oppression there and came to America so he could have the freedom to vote. How would anyone like to have to live under that type of government. Since we do have the right, privilege and duty to vote, we should. If you agreed 100% with everything every elected official said, you don’t have a “thinking” mind. God gave us the ability to think and discern and we should do it. Of course, we want others to believe like we do, but, especially if you’re a prominent Christian figure like Dr Dobson, you shouldn’t try to manipulate others to your way of thinking. Voting is a personal thing and it should stay that way.
1. Voting is not a duty. No one is obligated to vote, and honestly, standing in line to vote is one of the LEAST effective ways to affect public policy. Spending 10 minutes writing a letter to your Congressman has a much greater effect than standing in line for 10 minutes to vote.
2. Voting is a matter of faith. Not religious faith, but faith that thousands of other people that you don’t even know will vote the same way you do. Face it, one vote in a federal level election DOES NOT make a difference. I can assure you that the presidential election will not come down to one vote. I can assure you that no congressional election will come down to one vote. Realistically, your single vote makes no difference.
3. One vote DOES make a difference in local elections because there are much fewer votes cast. If people were rational, they would spend lots of time learning about issues and candidates in local elections because their vote carries some actual weight. In reality, the opposite is true: Voting participation is much higher in national elections, while participation in smaller local elections is negligible.
4. I vote. I NEVER encourage people who I think would vote differently than me to vote. Why should I encourage someone to cancel out my vote? On the other hand, I never discourage anyone from voting, although I do point out the facts stated above. I recognize that voting is an important part of our republican form of government, but I really think if someone needs to be ENCOURAGED to get out and vote, they probably don’t know enough to make an informed decision anyway. I don’t really want those people to participate.
4A. Some guy from Stanford University thinks that the candidate at the top of the ballot picks up three percentage points just by being on the top of the ballot. (I wrote about this on my blog a few weeks ago.) Do you really want to ENCOURAGE people who weren’t already planning to vote to vote?
5. Every vote that ISN’T cast by someone else makes my vote marginally more powerful. I have much more confidence in my consideration of the issues and the candidates than I have in the masses. If I was the only person who voted, I would probably be pretty happy with the results
6. Even if you don’t vote, you DO have the right to complain. Complaining is a right secured by the First Amendment, which isn’t conditioned on voting, or anything else for that matter.
7.. Someday I’m going to print some bumper stickers that say “Don’t Blame Me — I Didn’t Vote!” I’ll pass them out at those silly MTV “Vote or Die” events.
[...] waste your time. (Unless you with me.) Filed under: Uncategorized — jearwood @ 4:05 pm Michael from Oak Leaf Church had a post about James Dobson claiming he will sit out the election if John [...]
“Even if you don’t vote, you DO have the right to complain. Complaining is a right secured by the First Amendment, which isn’t conditioned on voting, or anything else for that matter.”
Well I guess you could not mow your lawn for a year, then complain about the weeds and how tall the grass is…yes, you have the right to complain, but what are you doing about it?
I empathize with Dr. Dobson’s statement. Further, if he, as a leader, has that strong a conviction regarding this election – then he not only has a right, but a moral obligation to express it.
For too long we have settled for the lesser of two evils. If Mike Huckabee is not the Republican nominee, I may write his name in when voting.
Why are we being so PC? We shouldn’t try to manipulate others to our way of thinking? If anything, that’s an insult to Dobson “followers” more than the man himself. Dr. Dobson isn’t manipulating anyone to do anything. He’s simply saying what he won’t do. It’s not his problem if hoards of people who are uneducated on the matter decide to do (or not to do) what he does just because he said so. I hear people talk about how pastors are just the same as the rest of us, should be “real” etc., so why should Dobson be held to a different standard? If any of you opponents to Dr. Dobson’s comments become as well known or highly regarded in the Christian community, are you going to start censoring your thoughts and opinions any more than you do or don’t do now?
And, what if Dr. Dobson made a statement that he wouldn’t be voting for Hilary? Would anyone have a problem with that? I’m guessing not. McCain’s as liberal is Hilary is! If he can’t in good conscience cast a vote for a candidate with a liberal agenda (“Republican” or not) then that’s his perogative.
As for me personally, I think it’s extremely important to vote. I’m not sure I’ll vote for McCain though. It’s a tough situation.
I quit voting for Dr. Dobson a long time ago because of this kind of arrogance and superiority of thought. I wonder how he feels about Paul’s letter to Rome and the idea that no man is in a position of leadership without God’s approval. If all the Christians stay home then Dr. Dobson gets what he deserves.
When Iraq held elections in 2005 and almost no Sunnis voted (I think they had about 2% turnout) the media (mostly liberal) complained that the absence of Sunni participation invalidated the entire election. Now in America we face a strong possibility that the religious right will stay home on election day because there is no conservative that represents their views. Obviously any group who chooses not to vote in any election does not change the validity of the election results, but it would be nice if the media would report essentially identical occurences in the same manner.
I’m actually torn on how to vote this year and still think a third party candidate may emerge not to win but to impact the outcome (Ross Perot-ish).
lets all write in ross perot and see what happens.
Sorry I cant’t handle the squeaky voice and the line graphs!
Hmm…i think the biggest problem we really have is a bit too late to fix this go round. I mean, if we would actually vote for who we wanted instead of who we thought had a chance to win, things might be a lot different right now. I don’t expect a candidate to line up with my way of thinking 100%, but goodness 51% at this point would be nice, kwim? But the only way to really get that is to vote for who you honestly feel is the best candidate, not for who you think has a better chance of beating the other party’s nominee.
One theme I see in this thread is that many will vote for the Republican candidate whomever that is. The danger in this way of thinking is that the party (and democrats do this too) will take hardcore republicans for granted and essentially engage in that ‘race for the center’ only catering to independents and attempting to garner a few crossover dems. I think some people who say they are going to withhold their votes from the republican party are attempting to keep the party to the right where they feel it belongs.
Exactly, Dave!
I don’t like McCain, but I’ll probably vote for him if he becomes the R candidate. Not because I agree with his platform but because the alternative with a D run congress is something I really don’t want to see happen.
My problem with Dobson’s statement is the fact he knows MILLIONS of people will mimic his decision. If Clinton (or Obama as it looks like it is swinging after tonight) receives a few more million votes and thus the necessary electoral vote because Dobson’s multi-million followers stayed home, I do not want to be associated with that camp.
Liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican… As Christians, we all know that whomever the Lord wants is going to govern us. Having said this, we don’t know who this person is and should say what we think by voting, either, liberal, conservative, Democrat or Republican… or Cynthia McKinney
dave,
i wouldn’t knock party affiliation too much. i don’t aways vote down a line, and that can actually be dangerous. but i think most people vote in line with a party…no matter what party that is. i don’t see too many democrats supporting huckabee. or republicans supporting obama.
Romney is set to endorse McCain today at 4:00pm and encourage his delegates to move to him as well. This thing is now officially over on the GOP side and we all need to get behind McCain and encourage him to select a conservative VP. I really like what Newt has been saying about being the party of “Real Change”. Obama may have stolen the phrase this cycle but when can win in the debate of ideas.
do you think huckabee will be a vp candidate? he actually did pretty well considering he came out of nowhere.
I would hope that he would seriously consider him…..I think it really depends on how much he feels like he needs help in the south. I would not rule out Duncan Hunter as well because he is very Conservative and would fill in the gaps that McCain has with the base of the GOP. I would be happy with both of these guys!
Did you hear the rumor that Newt is saying Obama will is the best to win? I thought I heard that on WSB TV this morning. Quote from Newt, “Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says the presidential candidate who best communicates a message of change will win, and so far that candidate is Barack Obama.” Everyone has an opinion. Hmmm.
I think that Newt is making the point that none of the current GOP candidates are offering a vastly different plan that what we have seen over the last few years. Obama is a dynamic speaker who at this point in the debate has become the candidate who has become the agent of “change”. McCain and the GOP can not run of the status quo or WE will never be able to win in November. Newt goes on to say that conservatives need a Declaration of Independence from the Republican Party. He makes the point that the party did President Bush a huge disservice by not opposing him on areas were he strayed from conservative principles. I know for me I am a Reagan conservative more than a Republican. Historically the Republican Party has advanced the issues of conservatism more than any other party.
If the Republicans had any hope to keep the White House in November (and I don’t really think they did), they threw it away with McCain as the nominee. McCain won’t be able to inspire conservatives, and will be no match against Obama for the moderate independents. Bush has been a disaster on every front, but I guarantee you the Republicans won’t admit that and will try to win on a fearmongering ‘too liberal’ campaign.
McCain has a clear edge on military and foreign policy issues, but unless the economy makes a miraculous turnaround in 8 months, voters won’t care. Except in time of a major war (one that affects the day to day life of civilians), foreign policy considerations are relevant to most voters only if they don’t have pressing concerns about their own economic wellbeing. With double digit inflation in energy costs during most of the Bush2 years, voters are wary of Republican claims that they can better manage the economy. With massive increases in the size of the federal government under Bush2, Republican assertions of ‘fiscal conservatisism’ are almost laughable.
McCain – _____ will pay for the sins of the failed Bush2 Adminstration. Obama will win in a landslide (relatively speaking), Hillary would win easily.
Obama has no substance and if you get past the entertaining speeches he is the most liberal Sen. since McGovern. In his first book he espoused an affinity to Communism and Marxist professors…..That should energize the GOP electorate!
You have to give Dobson credit: he walks the talk. I always believed he would vote Republican no matter who the candidate was. I was wrong.
Hopefully…Obama/Edwards ‘08!!