The lamentable state of our election once again leaves us with two candidates of poor character–candidates who regularly demagogue their opponents with dishonest characterizations (to put it mildly). We have one candidate who has denied all her prior distinguishing positions when running for president a mere four years ago (without explaining why she abandoned those positions), and we are supposed to believe this conversion–just like we were supposed to believe Mr. Biden’s promise that he would govern as a uniter. We have another candidate who has taken the worst of his economic ideas (government industrial policy and tariffs) and says he’ll double down on them. We have one candidate who has made the core goal of her administration to have unlimited abortion across the nation, and has stated there should be no conscious protections, and that she is willing to destroy the filibuster to accomplish this goal. We have another candidate who proudly notes his delivery of the votes to end Roe v Wade, but now says eliminating abortions after 6 weeks is “a terrible mistake.”

We are at a time of serious issues with very unserious people running for president. Neither candidate mentions the $35T in debt that they have racked up. Neither candidate focuses on the fact that in this supposed good economy, we are projected to have a $1.9T budget deficit just this past year! Almost $2T of red ink, and it’s not part of the discussion. Because of the Biden administration’s weakness, we now have conflagrations around the world, and neither party offers specific, credible solutions to how they’d deal with it. Mr. Trump does say he’d end the Ukraine war in a day, but how? Cricket, cricket. Regardless of the issue of Ukraine itself, the conflict revealed a deep shortfall in industrial manufacturing capability in the U.S. for critical munitions stocks. Neither party has a plan to significantly rebuild the warfighting capability of the U.S.*, and should we have to go to war, we may not have the warfighting materials we need. How will we deal with the new axis of evil that is getting closer by the day? No, we can talk about Donald Trump’s “fascism”, and we can talk about how “dumb” Liz Cheney is.

Nevertheless, here we are: Trump vs Harris. One must choose. I’ve argued before and still do today that one’s vote will never be determinative in the outcome of any national election, so you should not delude yourself that your vote matters in that sense. But it does matter significantly as an expression of your preferences. All we talk about is the polls, and how policy should adjust to what the polls say, and yet we correctly know that the only poll that matters is on election day. As we’ve been discussing in the Daniel series, the kingdoms of men are always seeking power and advantage in this world. Winning candidates must gain a majority of the votes cast, so every vote on the margin is critically important, especially in tight races. Should Mr. Trump lose, for example, there will be major recriminations for his decisions to alienate potential Trump supporters with his pick of J.D. Vance, or his unwillingness to take Nikki Haley’s offer to campaign on his behalf. In Mr. Trump’s previous loss in 2020, if he would have secured the Libertarian vote in a few of the key battleground states he would now be ending his 2nd term. So what can we signal with our vote?

Like many, I would like to be voting for a candidate. But as I look at each candidate on the Ohio ballot, I find none that I am for. I am led inexorably to the conclusion that I am voting against the worst candidate. And that worst candidate is Kamala Harris. I’m not going to vote for the lesser of two evils, but the lessening of evil. The defining line of her campaign may well be the answer to the question of what she would have done differently from Mr. Biden if she were president: “There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of – and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact, the work that we have done,”. Not a thing that comes to mind. To show her seriousness, she proudly says that she was the last one in the room with Mr. Biden in the decision to cut and run in Afghanistan, and she agreed with the decision. That means she agreed to overrule all the generals that were telling them not to do this. She agreed to place U.S. service men and women in indefensible positions (rather that maintain Bagram Air Base). Her decision, therefore, is directly related to 13 men and women who died, and the national ignominy that Joe Biden called a success. Kamala Harris proudly says how she cast the deciding votes that unleashed the inflationary whirlwind which has devastated household budgets. She was with him on the cheerleading of putting men in women’s sports and bathrooms. The current Title IX expansion to include gender identity is only the planned start of this legalized child abuse. And while she is not now proud of it, she was the border czar, and “there is not a thing that comes to mind” that she’d do differently from Mr. Biden’s disastrous open-borders policy. The only thing she has to say is, “excuse me, I’m talking.” And when she does talk, she has zero substance. Much as I don’t like progressives such as Mr. Sanders or Ms. Warren, they clearly have thought about things and have an agenda to implement ideas they care about. Ms. Harris, however, clearly has not thought much about anything. Well, except one thing. One thing she apparently thinks about constantly, at least as evidenced by her campaign. And evidenced by how confidently she talks about this one issue, as compared to her deer in the headlights on almost any other issue.

That issue is her monomaniacal commitment to abortion–to bring unhindered abortion to every village and hamlet in the United States. Destroying the last vestige of institutional rules that necessitate compromise (the Senate’s filibuster rule) is not too small a price to pay for this ultimate freedom, a fundamental right for women. There has never been a politician this close to presidential power that is remotely as promotive of abortion as Kamala. Her conscious is now completely seared with respect to the cries of an unborn child. This issue alone should make it impossible for any Christian to cast their vote for her. The fact that some Christians are considering voting for her (because of their rightful disgust at Mr. Trump’s behavior) is only possible because we are now culturally numbed by the continued presence of abortion, and the relatively invisible nature of this hideous crime. We don’t see the procedure, the intentional dismembering of a fellow member of the human race, a fellow image bearer of God. And we’d rather not see; just have them take a pill before the female even begins to show. We can close our eyes and pretend it doesn’t happen. But our unwillingness to recognize and confront evil doesn’t change the monstrosity that it is. Just do a Bible verse study on sacrificing children to Molech. That is what an abortion is–a sacrifice to our current cultural god, which is the god of human autonomy that says “there is no king in Israel, and everyone did (can do) what was right in his (or her) own eyes.” This practice was absolutely detestable in God’s sight. And yet this “person of faith” proudly trumpets the killing of unborn children. The Bible is replete with God’s concern for the vulnerable, and there is no more vulnerable position than a child in their mother’s womb. Kamala Harris is no Bill Clinton wanting abortion to be safe, legal and rare. For her, it is just health care. And it is just the ticket she hopes to ride to ultimate worldly power. But what should a man gain if he forfeits his own soul?

For me the choice is clear–no Christian can participate in advancing this cause of evil.**

* At some point I’ll have more to say on foreign policy challenges, but there are two aspects of U.S. strength militarily. For us to have peace, we must have both the capability and the will to wage war against any adversary if necessary. The Biden administration by its actions around the world says that we don’t have the will to defend ourselves against our adversaries, hence the world is on fire. The Trump administration is more ambiguous, but their policy arguments are just pure demagoguery (e.g., anybody who wants a robust foreign policy precisely to ensure peace in the world is a warmonger).

** Kamala recognizes this herself, which is why her reply to person that shouted “Jesus is Lord” was to tell them that they were at the wrong rally.