Why I'm Voting for John McCain

In this season of seemingly unending politics, I must weigh in on my selection for the presidency. I'm not so interested in trying to convince others to favor my candidate as much as I am in hoping that individuals would select their candidate critically, by analyzing the philosophies that underlie each ticket.

Having said that, my decision process is very straightforward because of my world view. Which candidate's world view is most compatible with a Christian world view? Perhaps in the end, we all decide on our candidate in this manner. We all vote for the candidate that thinks closest to the way we think, don't we? Isn't that why we like (or dislike) them?

I'm convinced that the election will be closer than the polling data indicates because that has been the case in the last two consecutive elections. Our country is more polarized than anytime in my lifetime in terms of critical thinking and philosophy. Abraham Lincoln said that the philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next, and we are seeing that transition well underway. The people of our culture—more and more—make decisions in a state of mind that whatever is empirical is true and everything else is personal speculation. This philosophical outlook is having tremendous impact upon the politics of our nation.

When John McCain selected Sarah Palin for his running mate, this was the moment that will in the end (one way or the other) define this election. She is a lightning rod of traditional conservatism and the controversy such values attract. She calls it as she sees it (to the chagrin of her own ill-advised campaign team) and this causes people on the other side of the aisle to despise her.

She is new on the scene and is changing the face of the Republican Party. And, just about everyone hates her for it. Her own party resents her immediate power and the left sees her as a threat. For me it is her uncompromising loyalty to her world view that catches my attention and it is her approach to the game of politics that wins my vote. The argument that she has no experience is invalid for the following reasons: (1) Some of our very best leaders started young and with little experience and (2) the Democrats have put forth a candidate for President that has been a Senator for just two years. In other words, if you disqualify Palin for this reason you have to do the same for Obama.

Speaking of the Senator from Illinois, he has already admitted that the most important decisions in this world are "above [his] pay scale." That, of course isn't true, he knows exactly what he thinks about abortion, but plays party politics in the midst of a campaign which keeps promising change.

In the end, I'm voting for the McCain/Palin ticket because it is a vote for the 40 million (did you catch that? 40 MILLION) children that have been murdered in this country since Roe v. Wade. No war, no disease, no atrocity in the history of our world approaches that much bloodshed. This is not a single issue vote, it is an ultimate issue vote. As Greg Koukl says: If abortion is not the ending of a human person's life, then no justification for abortion is needed. If abortion is the ending of a human person's life, then no justification for abortion is adequate.