A young blogger known for advocacy of progressive causes in the name of tolerance and empathy recently expressed how angry she gets when she encounters those with different viewpoints on the social issues she cares about. This is a common problem these days. Some people who feel they are fighting intolerance and supporting diversity cannot tolerate those with diverging views. The reaction is highly emotional, even irrational, but very human. It’s easy for people on both sides of many issues to see disagreement as evidence of hate and stupidity without the least empathy for their opponents, unable to imagine that it might be possible for an intelligent person to have coherent reasons for disagreeing.
During this election season, may we refrain from hating those who vote for either of the two deplorables seeking to be the next autocrat of the United States. Yes, I recognize that there are reasons for believing that a vote for Candidate A (not to name names) would be a vote for unbridled greed, for corruption, for expanding the military-industrial complex, for intolerance, and for economic and social disaster. Perhaps Candidate A should be locked up for past crimes and scandals, and certainly kept out of office for crimes likely to be committed and for the utter disrespect of the Constitution. Yes, that candidate would be shame to America and weaken our freedoms. But there are two Candidate A’s and plenty of people who recognize enough of the villainy of one that they may wish to vote for Someone Else, and unfortunately may feel they have no choice but to support the other Candidate A in this election that seems to represent the will of the Party and its media organs more than the will of the people. Give them a break. Perhaps they are making a mistake, but when given such terrible choices, who can really whose the right instead of trying to choose the less rotten?
We often hear of the power of social media and its ability to allow people to organize and create movements. Those who believe that they must vote for one of the major candidates or lose their vote should be voting for someone they believe in, not just one of the deplorables. Before doing so, they could invite their friends to do the same through social media. With such a high percentage of people having a presence on social media, it should be relatively easy to get a movement started to write in a candidate that a majority can agree upon. The problem is finding that candidate and agreeing. The reason Trump and Sanders were so successful was because many people are tired of the status quo political choices. Find a candidate–start a movement. You don't have to vote for the lesser of two evils.
The problem for me is trying to figure out which one is the lesser evil
I am related to M. Russell Ballard. He recently sent an email to all family members with a link to the recent Deseret News op ed and a plea to not vote for Donald Trump.
I know for a fact Glenn Beck received the same email because his recent comments condemning Trump use the exact same verbiage.
I think it's time for right thinking Mormons to reach out to their brothers and sisters and make a stand. Trump has the exact character traits described and condemned in scriptures over and over and over. The only real choice is clear, but I'll leave it up to the faithful to discern.
anon
"The only real choice is clear, but I'll leave it up to the faithful to discern."
I love a good heavy dose of self-righteous condemnation of others embedded in trigger language designed to activate the conditioned response of obedience to authority. Just love it! Way to go. Keep it up and you might have a shot at General Authority status soon enough.
anon, I am curious about what you think about Elder Ballard's past three conference talks in which he claims that it is only through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that we can receive the grace we need to be saved/exalted, and in which he suggested that other Christian churches cannot possibly have a close relationship with Jesus, and also, what do you think about his comments in a talk he gave in South America in which he says that if you are Catholic, you cannot know God and Christ?
I am very curious.
"If they have a Catholic background, they don't know who God is, they don't know who the Savior is, nor do they know who the Holy Ghost is." – Feb, 20, 2014. Elder Ballard speaking to Saints in Buenos Aires.
"It is the Church wherein we learn the works of God and accept the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that saves us." October 2015 General Conference.
To Anon 1:09 a.m. who is related to Ballard:
What about Hillary Clinton's character traits? Or lack of character?
That McMullen person is a Clinton plant. He has worked for the Clinton Foundation, a criminal enterprise.
Is no one reading the Wikileaks emails? The emails confirm what many have been saying for years, confirms what Trump has been saying.
The government, media and corporations are wanting world power, will destroy our freedoms and destroy us all economically.
If the church leadership really is for religious freedoms and other freedoms the church leaders would condemn Clinton and all her treason and sedition against the U.S.A. and support Trump.
Obama has turned the government into a Fascist dictatorship. Clinton will destroy the Constitution. She has publicly said so.
Trump says vulgar things. So what. Look at what the Clinton's have done for 40 years. Imam Obama is protecting Clinton and wanting to start a war with Russia to cover up their crimes. The media is helping to overthrow our Constitution and cover up what is really going on in the world.
Obama illegally gave control of the Internet control to dictators. Yesterday Obama called for press censure!!!!! That is totalitarian fascism! The FEC is already banning certain content on the Internet. Facebook, Google and Twitter are censoring. These communist outfits started censorship in Western Europe over one year ago, now it is in America.
Wake up you idiots. Actions speak louder than words. Trump is not a Communist globalist like Clinton, Trump does not want to destroy our freedoms like Clinton.
Read Clinton Cash, read the Wikileaks emails. The government is so corrupt and rotten that they are scared if Trump wins they will be put in prison. They need to be shot!!!
This election is about saving America from utter ruin. Trump is trying to save America. Clinton and her well paid minions will destroy us. The emails prove it, Obama has proven it as he has started the destruction.
The church leaders have proven what non Mormons are saying which is the Mormon leaders are corrupt, lying to it's members, are for Communism to take over the free world.
How very very disturbing. They are not lead by Christ but by Satan. Supporting Clinton is supporting Satan. Literally.
Romney, Beck, Flake, Love, Lee, Reid and the others are PISS POOR EXCUSES FOR MORMONS! !!!!
How sad that church leaders listen to these traitors, and sad that regular members are ignored.
JR
You make such reasoned, cogent, and intelligent arguments it's almost impossible to disagree. As a Mormon, who is it okay to listen to? Who are the "piss rich" examples, as it were? Marriott? Huntsman? Steve Young? Just looking for further direction since you are so well read and seem pretty down-to-earth. I need some direction in my life right now.
The Deseret News sure did not call for Bill Clinton to step down when he was caught lying and degrading the Oval Office. Not to mention all the other slimey stuff he did. His wife is worse.
No wonder the church leaders have quit warning about the dangers of Communism. They support the totalitarian Fascist Communist Globalists.
Hypocrites!
For some time now I've been wondering just what kind of person could support Donald Trump.
Thank you, JR, for helping me understand.
A thousand times this: https://collisionofchurchandstate.com/2016/08/18/ten-reasons-why-you-should-support-evan-mcmullin/
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MuralMama, thanks for sharing the link about the Mormon candidate for president, Evan McMullin. The author raves about McMullin as the ideal choice for real conservatives because he's, uh, so strongly connected to the CIA, the United Nations, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Wait, I thought that was pretty much the reason we are supposed to vote for Hillary!
OK, McMullin is probably a very decent man (a Mormon, cool!) with personal ethics far beyond certain other candidates whose next debate would most fittingly be held behind bars. But in the struggle for preserving liberty and the Constitution, we need something more than the absence of major felonies.
Whether McMullin realizes it or not, he's deeply tied to the organs of the Establishment or the "Deep State" as some call it, the Big Government gangs that fulfill the mission of what Eisenhower called the "military industrial complex." That certainly does not mean he supports any hidden agenda they may have or that he is acting on anything other than good faith and sincerity coupled with the mindset and blinders that come from being in those elite circles so long. But for me, the CFR's committed efforts to make an "end-run around national sovereignty," as their former leader said (Richard N. Gardner in Foreign Affairs, 1974, and nothing has changed since then in their modus operandi), is one of numerous reasons why we should view that lofty gang of elitists with great distrust. The CIA, CFR, UN — these are not the tools used by those seeking personal liberty and defense of the Constitution, so I cannot vote for yet another Deep State candidate.
Contrary to the intent of Clinton, Trump, and possibly McMullin to keep us involved in foreign wars and (witting or not) to keep us subservient to Wall Street's banksters, there is a party you can vote for that wants to return to the principles of the Constitution and, among other urgently needed things, wants to keep us out of no-win foreign wars declared by authoritarian presidents at the beck and call of the Establishment instead of being declared by Congress as required by the Constitution. That is the Constitution Party, and they are actually on the ballot. Consider that if you are looking for something that qualifies as genuinely "conservative." To my knowledge, their candidate has not received millions of dollars from foreign powers for illegal political favors nor committed other major crimes that should result in prison time.
Yes, I know, anyone who speaks ill of the UN, the CFR, the CIA, or the blessed Federal Reserve Bank is obviously a nutcase, a kook, and a conspiracy theorist, as most people have been thoroughly conditioned to believe. The kind of nutcase who might think that the prophetic Book of Mormon has something meaningful to say about the dark combinations of our era and their global aspirations. Yeah, sadly, I take the Book of Mormon rather seriously and think it does have something significant to say for our era. I suggest we learn from the prior civilizations that were here and from the inspired men who saw our day.
JR, Trump what is it about Trump's version of totalitarianism that makes him the ideal candidate? He seems to have no understanding of the need for restraint based on the Constitution. Do we really need an even bigger autocrat in the White House?