Maybe Paladin is the wrong word as my homeric tendencies towards him might be fleeting. But, lets set that aside. Chuck Hagel. Now, of course we all know about Chuck Hagel. We know that he's that guy from Nebraska who thought about being the Republican Maverick to make a 2008 Presidential Bid and who opposed the war before it was cool. But, now, oh my. I love Chuck Hagel. Not just because the New Yorker wrote a very generous, very bright and shiny, heres a hundred reasons to love chuck hagel article this week but because he found a way to perfectly sum up the argument I've been trying to make to conservatives for, I don't know, 26 years!?.
Christian conservatives quite often say something akin to the following statement: I vote the way I vote because of abortion. I always found it hard to believe. Of course, let me state up front that I understand why its so important to them. As I write this, I am continually taking pause to play with my very own toddler as he wanders around finding new things to explore (and by explore I mean destroy, tear apart, and relieve objects of their duty, ie. disassembling any assembled furniture). That part isnt the part thats "hard to believe". Its the former part. The "I vote the way I vote because" part. Before reading this article about the malcontent Hagel, I couldnt wrap my brain around how to articulate it. In a recent argument, I tried to make the case for voting Obama because he supported money for prevention efforts and education surrounding unplanned pregnancies. I tried to say that he opposed partial birth abortions, and even then I still still got a response of "well thats not good enough". I tried the legal contention, the should abortion really be something that we are arguing over line of reasoning. Should it even be on the ballot? Isnt this a legality/constitutional argument? Then a friend harkened me back to the days when the constitution was written. Wasn't the constitution based on a moral philosphy? Damn it!
But, now just when I was feeling exhausted and about to become an issues voter and cast my ballot for any and all republicans, I found it. To date, probably the simplest argument against "issue voting", I've ever heard. And it was magical. I'm certainly not trying to change anyone's mind out there (like you'd listen to me anyway), but here it is. Please rest assured that by the next time we have the "Im voting for (insert any republicans name here) because they dont believe in abortion" talk, I'll have this little quote memorized: " ...with these one-issue voters—pro-choice or pro-life. Important issue, I know that. But, my goodness. The world is blowing up everywhere, and I just don’t think that is a responsible way to see the world, on that one issue."
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