Another presidential election cycle is upon us, and once again we find ourselves selecting between two non-ideal choices to hold the highest office in our land. As I was sitting with a friend drinking coffee and discussing the affairs of the world, we both agreed that we cannot possibly understand why the other side would vote for their candidate. We also agreed that there must be two other people on the opposing side at the same coffee shop discussing the affairs of the world saying, “I cannot possibly believe they are going to vote for their candidate.” Agreement is a rare commodity these days, but I wonder if we could all pause for a moment and come to some semblance of a mutual understanding on a few topics.
First, we want candidates to tell the truth. There are debunked stories that continue to be presented by these candidates as truth. It’s so bad, I think most of us have the “default setting” in our brains set to “they’re lying to me.” I think they believe if they tell the lie long enough, we will believe it. That doesn’t work with me. What is so difficult about telling the truth?
Second, we want to know what candidates will do to make our lives better. Like it or not, these are the candidates we have. We may not like how they got here. The bottom line is they are here now, and while it might feel good to talk about acts done in the past, it won’t change the fact that this is who we have now. How about we talk about what plans each candidate has make our lives better? How will each candidate address immigration? What about the national debt? My understanding is that, when we were in the hole just a few trillion dollars, we could try to grow the economy to get out of debt. Now that we are over thirty-five trillion dollars in debt, we will not be able to grow our way out of it. This seemingly no-win situation requires knowledge, skill, and leadership. What’s the plan? Avoiding tough questions is not helping us.
Third, if we get involved in some type of geopolitical conflict, we need to know why and the objective needs to be clearly articulated before we send our people into harm’s way. If our leaders cannot articulate the “why” and “how we will know we’ve won,” then we must assume we are not being told the whole truth (see the first point above).
Fourth, we need news sources to be unbiased. I get it, MSNBC, CNN, and many of our newspapers lean left (though they wouldn’t admit it). FoxNews, Newsmax, and OANN lean right (though they wouldn’t admit it either). Some of these “news” agencies profit by telling their viewers or readers exactly what they want to hear or read. Is that news or “infotainment”? It sure would be nice to get back to a time where each side was given equal time, where opinions were labeled as “opinions,” and people would admit that there may be a nuanced argument about a thing.
Fifth, we need an election that counts every legal vote accurately. Do I need to say more? It is possible to build a transparent election system. We can do it. It is possible to restore trust in our elections. Why don’t we do it?
Truthfulness, wisdom, moderation, serving everyone without favoritism, integrity … these are biblical values. In 2 Samuel 23 (ESV), we read these words, “When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.”
I don’t know about you, but that kind of president sounds wonderful to me.
Scott Tiede is the senior pastor of Delaware Bible Church at the corner of Belle and Sandusky streets.
