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Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Bob Marshall Writes "Trump: The lesser of two evils, still an obligatory choice."

Yesterday I posted a link to Edward Feser's article about the election and the dilemma it poses for social conservatives. Today, I offer Bob Marshall's thoughtful perspective. Bob was a Virginia state delegate for many years, often described as the "conscience of the Virginia General Assembly". He was ousted by a transexual who campaigned with ads putting on his dressup makeup to masquerade as a woman. Certainly doesn't say much for the intelligence of the voters in Bob's district.

I've known Bob Marshall for at least 40 years and worked with him on a number of pro-life activities. He's the real deal! I don't trust many politicians, but Bob is a man who is uncorruptable, a man after God's own heart. So when he expresses an opinion, I take it seriously. Consider Bob's message and add it to your prayers for discernment. May God save us from the gathering storm of evil!

Trump: The lesser of two evils, still an obligatory choice.

By Robert G. Marshall ( bio - articles - email ) | Aug 27, 2024

Donald Trump has made it clear that he is no longer the solidly pro-life candidate which he seemed to be in previous elections. Indeed, many Americans who are disappointed with Trump’s manifest deficiencies may consider simply not bothering to vote in the 2024 Presidential election. But in considering this option, it is important to realize two things: First, often in politics we can only protect the good by voting for the lesser of two evils. Second, the Democratic candidate for President and her running mate favor policies which are far, far more evil than anything the Republican candidates would support.

Harris and Walz are called progressives, social democrats, socialists, fellow travelers, radicals, liberals, leftists, etc., but in effect they are really very much like Marxists who tolerate no dissent. Victor Davis Hanson said Democrats “have nominated two neo-Marxists who are openly proud of what they have done.” Steve Forbes noted that the Harris-Walz team is promoting “the most radical leftist Stalinist policies in American history.” To avoid a deadly (but often understandable) apathy, we should review the very grave threats we will face to the right to life, our personal liberty and livelihood, parental authority and family security if Harris-Walz beat Trump-Vance. It is also important to understand that not voting allows Harris-Walz to win with fewer votes. We should not give them this advantage.

There is even an important legislative wrinkle in all this, for this race is very close. Robert Kennedy, Jr., who recently endorsed Donald Trump, is removing his name from the ballots in ten close or “swing states” because he does not want to spoil the election for Trump. Moreover, I mentioned a legislative wrinkle: if neither Trump nor Harris receive the necessary 270 electoral votes to win, the House of Representatives would vote by state to pick the President (26 to win), and for Vice President each Senator would cast a single vote (51 to win). This happened in 1800 and 1824. What this means is that, to prevent Harris from becoming President and Walz Vice President, it is not only important to vote for their opponents in the Presidential election. It is also imperative to vote for the 2024 Republican candidates for Congress for the simple reason that they could possibly choose the President and Vice President on January 6, 2025.

While the positive reasons to favor Trump over Harris may seem disappointing, the negative reasons for ensuring that Harris loses are very strong. Here are the kinds of issues that are at stake:

Right to Life and Reproductive Ethics

  • Planned Parenthood Votes “is working to ensure Kamala Harris and Tim Walz make it to the White House.” Planned Parenthood sent a mobile clinic to the Chicago Democratic Convention, offering attendees free abortions and vasectomies.
  • Senator Warren (D-MA) bragged that Harris was the, “first vice president in history to visit an abortion clinic.” What colossal hubris!
  • Senator Kamala Harris introduced S.510 (2017) to forbid states from requiring that only doctors may do abortions, and to make it illegal to delay abortions or increase costs (think of informed consent, parental consent, 24-hour waiting periods, health/safety regulations, and banning tax-paid abortions).
  • On CBS Face the Nation, Harris was asked (9/10/2023), “At what week of pregnancy should abortion access be cut off?” Harris answered, “We need to restore…Roe v. Wade.” In February 2019, The Daily Caller(2/27/2019) asked Senator Harris if there was any point in pregnancy at which she thought abortion was immoral. She said, “I think it’s up to a woman to make that decision, and I will always stand by that.”
  • Gov. Tim Walz told the Democratic Convention, “[T]he government stays the hell out of your bedroom.” But Walz justified China’s compulsory one child policy which mandated forced late-term abortion, infanticide, sterilization and IUD’s. Walz claimed it was necessary because, “the Chinese population was so large.” The Chinese government reports that 400 million live births were “averted” since 1979. Steven Mosher (Population Research Institute) states that “hundreds of millions of Chinese women didn’t just pay a tax.… Their babies were ripped out of their wombs by cesarean section by Red doctors who went on to sever the fallopian tubes of those who violated the one-child policy.” So much for Walz’s “choice.”
  • Gov. Walz signed HF 1 in 2023, stating that, “Every individual has a fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about the individual’s own reproductive health, including the fundamental right to use or refuse reproductive health care.” Walz’s law includes teen minors. Reproductive care includes transgender drugs/surgery. The Minnesota Senate voted 34 to 33, and Minnesota’s House voted 69 to 65 to pass HF 1.
  • Sen. Kamala Harris “supports the decriminalization of sex work nationwide.” In an interview with The Root, Harris was asked whether she thought sex work “ought to be decriminalized.” “I do,” Harris responded. (Note that decriminalizing prostitution makes it legal.)
  • The 2024 Democratic Platform states, “With a Democratic Congress, we will pass national legislation to make Roe the law of the land again.… We will repeal the Hyde Amendment [which bans tax-paid abortions].”
  • The Human Rights Campaign states, “The Biden-Harris Administration has been the most pro-LGBTQ+ administration in history…appointed a record number of LGBTQ+…to key posts…the first gay cabinet secretary, first Senate-confirmed transgender appointee…we must stop Donald Trump.…”

Freedom of Speech

  • Gov. Tim Walz stated, “There is no guarantee to free speech on misinformation and hate speech especially around our democracy.” But in Matal v. Tam (2017) the Supreme Court ruled (9-0) that “we protect the freedom to express ‘the thought that we hate.’” For Harris-Walz, hate speech or misinformation is any speech Democrats disagree with. During the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Kamala Harris urged Twitter to close Trump’s account: “Donald Trump, who has 65 million Twitter followers…is using that platform…to openly intimidate witnesses…he and his account should be taken down….”
  • Attorney General Kamala Harris “co-sponsored” a 2015 law compelling California pro-life pregnancy centers to give abortion clinic information to their clients [AB 775, the Reproductive FACT Act]. Fortunately, the Supreme Court ruled Harris’ law violates the First Amendment [NIFLA .vs. Becerra, AG of California, 138 S.Ct. 2361].

Freedom of Religion and Conscience

  • As Attorney General, Harris filed a Brief asserting that Hobby Lobby owners had no Religious Liberty or Conscience Rights and should be compelled to supply abortion drugs to employees. The Supreme Court disagreed (Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, 573 U.S. 682 (2014)).
  • In 2018, Democrat Senators Kamela Harris (CA) and Maise Hirono (HI) opposed President Trump’s judicial nominees Brian Buescher, Paul Matey and Peter Phipps claiming they could not be impartial because they belonged to the Knights of Columbus which opposes abortion and same-sex marriage. The Harris-Hirono “religious test” violates Article VI, Clause 3 of the Constitution; “[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust.” The Senate confirmed Trump’s nominees despite Democratic senators’ anti-Catholic bigotry.
  • Kamala Harris introduced the “Do No Harm Act” (S. 2918) in 2018 to stop churches from relying on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which the Supreme Court has ruled exempts religious organizations from being required to cooperate with abortion, homosexual and other objectionable polices. Fortunately, S. 2918 failed.
  • The Biden-Harris Equality Act (HR 5 from 2021) compels Christians and Christian institutions to accept behavior condemned by Scripture, or pay huge fines. It prohibits federally chartered banks from loaning money to churches and also allows up to $500,000 in fines for not “celebrating” same-sex marriages. Churches and schools would lose tax-exempt status and school certification unless they promoted LGBTQ+ policies. (HR 5 has failed so far.)

Second Amenment

  • Whatever our feelings about gun ownership and gun-carrying, we ought to find Harris’ position suspicious for someone who tends to divide the world into the good and capable people who agree with her and the evil and incompetent people who do not. In 2019, presidential candidate Harris said, “I support a mandatory gun buyback program.” That is confiscation. Law abiding citizens would lose their means of self-defense. In 2008 Harris filed a court brief asserting that the Second Amendment allows a total hand gun ban, and that it applies only to the militia. The Supreme Court ruled firearm ownership is an individual right (District of Columbia v. Heller, 2008; McDonald v. Chicago, 2010); and that it is a self-defense right to carry outside the home (New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 2022).
  • Gallup asked Americans (2023) if handgun possession should be banned, except for police or authorized persons, and 73% of respondents said no. Even granting that private citizens cannot hope to match the firepower of modern governments, the Harris-Walz contempt for huge numbers of Americans who do not share their values makes one wonder what drives them to weaken the right to self-defense of the very Americans they so obviously deplore.

Conclusion

For those who may be reluctant to vote for President Trump because he has so many obvious deficiencies, despite his previous pro-life efforts which included appointing Justices who reversed Roe v. Wade, I believe it is important to consider what Catholic exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger stated when considering political candidates:

[T]he faithful have an obligation to vote for the lesser of two evils. However, that’s not the same as voting for evil…. John Paul II had actually talked about it.… What you’re voting to is to preserve the good that would be lost if the other opponent got in, who’s more evil, or if the legislation got passed, which was actually even worse. [Breitbart 8/21/2024]

Bob Marshall served 26 years in the Virginia House of Delegates and was the chief House sponsor of the 2006 voter-approved Virginia Marriage Amendment and a ban on late term abortion. He recently wrote Reclaiming the Republic: How Christians and Other Conservatives Can Win Back America (TAN Books). Previously, he co-authored Blessed are the Barren, a social history of Planned Parenthood (Ignatius Press). Finally, don’t miss Bob’s Civics Lesson for Catholics in the Catholic Culture Podcast Episode 17. See the full bio.

11 comments:

  1. Put yourself back in time, prior to the French Revolution. Imagine it was mot a Monarchy but a Republic and the conflict at hand was a vote between the Jacobin Party on the left and the Royalist Party on the right.

    The Royalists are angry at their Party leaders because they are considering changing property rights and opening up the nobility’s prerogatives to rule by the bourgeoise. The Royalists can’t imagine voting in favor of a Party, not solid on issues of traditional matters of French society. The Royalists are fragmented. The Royalists have decided not to vote. To vote would be to facilitate “evil”.

    The Jacobins, oth, are united behind their program focused on ending the Monarchy, killing the King and his extended family, killing all who oppose them, turning all Catholic Churches into Temples of Knowledge, confiscating the property of and killing all members of Religious Orders.

    The Royalists stay home, satisfied in themselves.

    The Jacobins all vote.

    And the rest is history.

    I truly believe we are at the moment: Royalists (conservatives) against the Jacobins (marxists). Power and the purpose of power hangs in the balance. The Jacobins have never played nicey-nice, don’t take no for an answer and insist all play by their rules - the economy of satan.

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  2. This is really a tough one to deal with. Overall I do like Trump very much. Basically I think he is a good man and cares deeply about people. Its not political show. Did he waffle on abortion, yes, but, he still appointed 3 prolife judges (the thing here is judges do not make policy the just interpret the law). The other thing I do not like is how he pushed the jab however there too he never made it mandatory. However the democrats saw the opening and ran with that one. I think he had to change the GOP lets face it, it was withering as it was void of any excitement or life. I tell everyone you can not change anything unless you get elected. Who is to say after Trump is sworn in he might just say. "I rethought this abortion pill and I don't think I can support that view anymore". Reagan won with the big tent theory I think Trump is aiming for the same thing and it appears to be working. The Kennedy endorsement knocked the wind out of Kamila's sails quite a bit. Also Kennedy himself is slowing changing his opinion of abortion to more of a prolife stand. This came about after he talked to prolifers to get their views and it began to change the way he viewed things. Its not really the lesser of two evils, its the one who can prevent the big evil getting elected. So I stand with Trump in this and will crawl over broken glass to vote for him in November.

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  3. All excellent arguments and insights. I see the Democrat party as the bottle of poison clearly labeled with the skull and bones and the Republican party as the *somewhat* yummy drink but with same said poison in it. What we need is a counter-revolution and that would be more feasible, imo, with the evil enemy clearly in our sights. Having today's Republicans in charge simply leads to a false hope and more hand-wringing....having the clearly evil party (both parties are evil) in charge *could* lead to action from actual men. IDK.

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    1. Debbie,

      I don’t see the GOP platform as “poison”. I see it as a remedy that doesn’t contain an active ingredient I’d like, such as a cold medicine with decongestant but without cough suppressant. Just because it doesn’t suppress my cough doesn’t mean I won’t take it to relieve congestion if that’s all I have available. Nor does it mean the drug is trying kill me because it only dies one thing rather than two.

      The Democrat platform is poison. There is nothing good in their remedy. It is all death.

      To say one (could be better) is the same as the other (fatal) is error.

      Delete
  4. Picture yourself back to the Soviet Union where tptb ran several candidates, supposedly from different "parties", in each election, to give the people the impression they had a choice. Whichever candidate, frick or frack, won, it was a win for the communist party.

    One could pour ones whole life into analysing the lesser of such evil cardboard tools of the oligarchy, and one could vent frustration attacking those who refuse to swear *right now* to vote for frick (the more conservative mouth) over frack.

    We can pray and indeed should pray for the better candidate to win. But we can also pray that the abortion deranged candidate gets gobsmacked with the truth and throws off the shackles of her enslavement to the abortion paradigm. What a win win that would be. It might be more likely to happen if she didn't have such a p**** grabbing opponent taunting her at every turn, reminding her that abortion is indeed a man's inalienable right to rape and run.

    Solidifying the cognitive dissonance is Frick's rape of the GOP platform with respect to abortion. Almost what you might expect of a frack infiltration of the GOP. Covering up this dissonance Is the ear patch (remember Mussolini had a similar nose patch) and the Hulk Hogan reminder that Frick has a history with world wrestling entertainment.

    We can also pray that both candidates renounce their fealty to LGBT IVF genital mutilation eugenics. And their gut wrenching servitude to locking down their populations like cattle. (And yes frick rolled helicopter cash out to frack governors to lock down)

    We can *most of all* vote (same etymology as "votive") with our voices to the priests to preach the Humanae Vitae every week for the fifty years that they did not. Remember it's prophetics. Never has our Catholic teaching been so desperately needed, for both frick and frack.

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    1. rohrbach,

      That is seriously delusional to say that the choices presented to us this election in America at the crossroads are no different than that of Soviet Russia - as if we are already comrades in the Gulag.

      I will link you to the GOP platform. I highly recommend you read it since your future friends on the outcome of this election. At the very least read for yourself the platform and not some 2 sentence snarky summary of it on X.

      https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2024-republican-party-platform

      It is extremely well written, concise and orderly. Its objectives and how they intend to reach them are clear. Please read it. I agree with every word and sentiment if it. I wish it had Life.

      It is a serious mistake to say its absence doesn’t matter - *it does*.

      It is a fatal mistake, however, to take your position and thereby accept the opposition that not only mentions abortion but enshrines death as their most sacred purpose as a Party.

      Please read the Platform before calling it “frick” to the Marxist “frack” - two Soviet peas in a pod. I’ll assume ignorance, that you haven’t actually read it, rather than deception, that you have read it and still consider it equivalent to Marxist alternative.

      Remember: one of your two “Soviet” alternatives (“frick”) ended abortion as a national mandate, ended the demonic scourge of Roe. The other Soviet alternative “frack” the Marxist Democrat is not pleased at all, angry in fact and tried to kill “frick” … (not good team players?) and is proposing to pack the Supreme Court and mandate abortion across all States by force of Marxist law (they are not tolerant or nice, at all).

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    2. This platform pales to vanishing with respect to the prior platform (and all GOP platforms back to the abolitionist Civil War!) and is full of Trump nonspecific braggadocio.
      In particular look at the following:
      "4. Republicans Will Protect and Defend a Vote of the People, from within the States, on the Issue of Life

      We proudly stand for families and Life. We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights. After 51 years, because of us, that power has been given to the States and to a vote of the People. We will oppose Late Term Abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments)."

      This is word salad, speaking of *what is an inalienable right to life* in such a careless way.
      The prior platforms, back to the 70s, all emphasized the inalienable right and Trump beheaded that concept. Dobbs was duplicitous and the public was played by Trump *just as it was played on warp speed*. Opposing late term abortion only is like saying we oppose the enslavement of blacks while pregnant - thank God we had Lincoln with his clarity on the declaration and inalienable. GOP fought hard to get an abolitionist platform *just like* the platform that abolished slavery and to kneecap that important feature - inalienable - is criminal.
      I'm not even going to touch the gratuitous pumping of the frankentube, the tacit acceptance of Obergefell, (as all of the genital mutilations (not to mention bathroom/sports skits) are downstream from that), and the self-righteous vow to ensure early voting (when all Trump did from his covid-freak-show year till now was to *pump* early voting).

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    3. Anonymous:
      Not a word salad. Clear as crystal.

      Trump ended Roe.

      All prior platforms failed to deliver Roe.

      Trump is an ally in the cause of Life.

      Kamala is dedicated to the death cult.

      Delete
  5. Second Amen_d_ment. And thank you for the rest.

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  6. Ending Roe was the pipe dream of the political side of the pro-life movement. Nobody really thought it would ever happen, and yet, Trump accomplished it. It was bound to cause a political earthquake. With public opinion on abortion as it is, it is very likely unwise to enact any federal ban, as it will embolden the pro-aborts to vote the pro-lifers out, and pass a federal law nuking all state level restrictions on abortion. Dobbs didn’t establish a right to life, but only overturned previous decisions that had forbidden states to regulate abortions prior to viability. Vote against the far greater evil, who is obviously named after a Hindu demon.

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  7. Dobbs was the briar patch the libs wanted to be thrown into as it guaranteed no federal abolition ever. It also functioned to provide cover for president warp speed fake claim to be most prolife president ever. Believing in Dobbs is like believing in face masks

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