QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERS
- With the rioting and destruction of buildings, businesses, homes, and efforts to eliminate the police, does your family and you have the necessary safety you deserve?
- Is allegiance to our country and our flag respected today?
- Does the liberal left concern itself with protecting an individual’s freedom of conscience and religion?
- Should billionaire globalists be at the epicenter for directing America’s future?
- Is having government direct what you do and who you do it with, the right path for an America’s future?
If you answered “No” to each of these questions, you and I agree. That is why I titled this article the way I did. This presidential election is about Safety, Allegiance, Freedom, Epicenter, and Rights – SAFER. It is not a personality contest. Trump has made us SAFER and will keep us SAFER.
Let me explain.
Pat and I recently returned from a terrific fly-fishing trip to the amazing Alaska Sportsman’s Lodge on the Kvichak River about 240 miles southwest of Anchorage. We flew out five of the six mornings over the beautiful mountains, glaciers and mountain lakes to fish in small rivers for silver salmon, rainbow trout, Dolly Varden trout and Arctic char. As we flew, seeing the grandeur of Alaska, I was thankful for the great De Havilland airplane, superb pilots and guides.
I also could not help but think of how isolated we were and the matters of safety.
As consciencious as one can be about safety, in nature and life things can happen quickly. We experienced this first-hand when returning to the plane near mid-afternoon.
All of a sudden we found ourselves between a Grizzly mother bear and her two cubs on the right, and a Grizzly pappa bear on our left leaving the water and headed towards us. The female and two cubs got into the brush and the male bear darted past us and into the bushes away from the female. Whew, we were safe. We could breath again.
Later, as I reflected on that day’s experience, I could not help but compare what happened so fast to us with the truth about how fast things can happen as it relates to our President, our country, and the need for sound judgement.
PAST PERFORMANCE MATTERS
We need to know what to expect when the person we elect as President must react quickly to a new or quickly evolving, threatening situation.
The best determination of what to expect from someone is to look at past performance.
Some people say they don’t care for either of the two presidential candidates. OK. Fine. However, this is the system we have in America. I want to cast my vote for the person I believe will be the best for our country.
We know Donald Trump was an innovative businessman, not a politician, until elected president. We know Joe Biden has been a politician, in the House and Senate, for 47 years. In short, Biden really does not know anything but to expect a check from the US government every month.
In 47 months, not years, Donald Trump has gotten more done—even in the face of great adversity—than Joe Biden has done in 47 years. Joe Biden is “all talk” and Donald Trump is “all about getting it done.” If something happens requiring fast and prudent action, I want Donald Trump to be the one to make the decision for our country.
LEFTIST RADICALS’ PLANS FOR YOU
I am deeply concerned because there is a radical, well-planned and well-funded effort underway (in fact has been in existence for a number of years in the background) using Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, with a clear goal to fundamentally change America by:
- Eliminating the nuclear family
- Promoting unrestricted sex, pornography
- Prioritizing every kind of abnormal human connection, including LGBTQ activities and more
- Removing God from the public square and from our personal lives
- Attacking the Catholic Church
- Putting people’s lives under greater control by the government and globalists.
It bears noting that before Alinsky died he dedicated his works to Lucifer; the devil.
It is essential that all freedom-loving Americans become informed and speak out against these efforts.
UNDERSTANDING DECISION-MAKING FOR CATHOLICS
I recently heard a statement about there being two separate branches within the Catholic Church – those who are pro-life and those who are for social justice.
This doesn’t make sense. Protection of innocent human life is, by far, the greatest social justice issue of our time.
There are NOT two branches in the Catholic Church, which was founded by our one Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The teachings of the Catholic Church have been the same for more than 2,000 years.
Some today are called “cafeteria Catholics,” picking and choosing just the teachings of the Church they choose to follow. That is not right. You follow the teachings, or you are not truly a Catholic.
Merely claiming to be Catholic, does not make one a Catholic.
The USCCB states that the life issue is the preeminent issue. While Donald Trump is not Catholic, his statements on life and his actions in defense of innocent human life are more Catholic than Joe Biden’s pro-abortion voting record.
It is so important to understand Catholic beliefs on non-negotiable issues and negotiable issues.
THE FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLE ISSUES FOR CATHOLICS
Pope St. John Paul II in his Encyclical The Gospel of Life, said Christians have a “grave obligation of conscience NOT to cooperate formally in practices which, even if permitted by civil legislation, are contrary to God’s law.”
The most serious of these issues are what Catholic teaching refers to as “the five non-negotiable issues.” These are:
- Abortion (including as a subset pertaining to Human Reproductive Technologies – contraception, In Vitro Fertilization, and sterilization)
- Euthanasia
- Embryonic Stem Cell Research (Note the important distinction: Stem Cell research is encouraged, but NOT EMBRYONIC stem cell research)
- Human Cloning
- Homosexual “marriage.” Marriage is between one woman and one man. (Note: While homosexual unions exist—even “committed unions,” and while we as Catholics are to respect all persons and individuals, and pray for all, to call any such union a “marriage” is not God’s clearly defined and nature-affirming design.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
In determining which of several candidates is the worst threat to religion and liberty, non-negotiable issues outweigh negotiable issues.
Non-negotiables concern truths that are unchanging and certain, and are always morally applicable.
Negotiable policy issues involve navigating through differing opinions about the best means to achieve an end in complex circumstances. This is called the exercise of prudential judgement and reasonable people can differ on how to achieve the best result. This never includes the non-negotiables.
Talk is cheap.
There is so much political talk, but up to this point not enough answers from Biden on crucial questions regarding issues that are certain to arise if he is elected. I question the transparency and truthfulness of any politician whose proclaimed stance on an issue changes according to which group he is speaking to.
I question any politician who declares to one group what that group wants to hear, hoping what is said will not get back to groups that would definitely be against what he says at that moment; for example speaking to different groups of people of different ethnicities or religious faiths.
MY OPINION
Elections have consequences.
Elections do have consequences, the biggest of which in this election is that the winner of our Presidential election (or his chosen Vice President if the elected president is deemed in capable of fulfilling his official duties) will chart the direction of America for the next four years.
President Trump has accomplished some wonderful objectives (even as he had to fight impeachment), including overturning very bad policies and regulations put in place by the Obama administration.
Remember back when Obama announced his plan “to fundamentally change America” as he described a series of Leftist-embraced plans for change? These are the exact same plans which Biden has agreed to implement, as stated in the Democratic platform.
Obama did his best to accomplish his goal “to fundamentally change America,” and we can remember it was to the detriment of American democracy.
Now, in ads, Biden is saying that if elected “he will change America.” We can remember how that went under Obama’s presidency. I don’t know about you, but I’d hate to re-live it.
In the comparison of Republican and Democratic positions on key issues, I support the Republican positions. I fear what will happen if Biden is elected, based on his expressed support for new programs and more spending which can only be paid for by huge tax increases, expansion of the number of Supreme Court Justices, eliminating the electoral college and so many other radical leftist positions supported by Biden.
We cannot allow this to happen in America, the best country in the world. That is why my wife and I will vote to re-elect President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
May God guide the people of America in their voting decisions.
God Bless America!
RELATED RESOURCES:
- VOTER GUIDES – Pro-Life / Pro-Family — including for state and other elections
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Tim Von Dohlen is not only a serious Catholic and a sharp business entrepreneur with both legal and pharmacy degrees, having formerly practiced in both fields, and a former elected representative in the state of Texas, but he is most honored to be the founder and president of the St. John Paul II Life Center and Vitae Clinic in Austin, Texas. (www.jpiilifecenter.org). He may be reached at tim@tvdg.com.
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