By William Haupt III | The Center Square
“A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the
character of the user.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
The late president of Notre Dame and chair of the U.S.
Civil Rights Commission, Father Theodore Martin Hesburgh said: “Voting is a
civic sacrament.” He was speaking at a civil rights rally with Dr. Martin
Luther King. He emphasized it was important to vote, but even more important
that it is done wisely. He said it’s a greater sin to disrespect this civic
duty if it is not done in good faith. It's better not to vote if it’s done to
do what is popular for the wrong reason rather than done for what is best for the
right reason. “You will forever regret it, if you vote with your heart instead
of your head.”
There are a myriad of theories why people don’t vote.
We’ve heard them too many times to count. But the reasons why and how people
vote are getting easier to predict with parties targeting blocks of identity
groups. To many it is a ritual. To others it is a duty. To some, it is strictly
party politics. To the informed it is exercising a belief in a regime and its
policies. But those who come out of hiding to vote for identity candidates
since they are one of their own are the most dangerous of all. They don’t care
about policy and put the country in the hands of radicals who are unqualified
to govern.
We continually hear about elections that are decided by a
small percentage of voters who turn out; and the consequences. But we seldom
hear about the residual effects of elections that are decided by “occasional
voters” who crawl out of the woodwork to vote for someone who promises to save
them from themselves. These rarely make headlines; yet they are always the most
ruinous of all.
“I will evaluate every institution in America and remake
it to work for everyone.”
– Barack Obama
The most dangerous act of defiance against our republic
is identity politics. Progressives segment the electorate by singling out
groups of allied dissidents to vote against traditional institutions. They
dismiss moral protocol and civility for civil disobedience. This forms a
cultish following of transient voters in their camp to vote against republican
ideology and support radical anti-American policies.
During the Great Depression in 1932, when Franklin
Roosevelt took office, unemployment was 16%. By 1939, after voters put him back
in office twice, unemployment had risen to 17.2%. In 1939, his treasurer, Henry
Morgenthau, said, “The New Deal was a total failure. We expanded government and
spent more than ever before and we are in worse shape, which proves the New
Deal failed.”
FDR was first elected when people were gullible and
desperate. He convinced voters it would take radical government intrusion to
end it. Voters can be forgiven for electing him once, or twice, but after
eights years with a negative recovery they elected him again? Republican
candidates were no match for FDR’s political machine. As a result FDR
dismantled America one institution at a time.
Richard Nixon’s successful presidency and his
administration were indelibly marred by Watergate. Although Gerald Ford,
President Richard Nixon’s vice president, and successor did an admiral job
rebuilding national confidence in the presidential office and the GOP,
Democrats mounted a vicious, decrying attack against the GOP the next election
and dispirited voters revolted and chose Walter Mitty clone Jimmy Carter
instead.
“We must adjust our principles to survive in these
changing times.”
– Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter set the stage for the leftist Democratic
Party of Barack Obama and the socialist left. His laundry list of failures is
deeply rooted in his warped pious religious arrogance that fostered unmitigated
distrust for America at home and around the globe. Jimmy Carter has been given
a free pass from liberal media and historians, who excuse his political
disasters, elucidating he was a “good man,” instead of a dangerous incompetent.
Voters should have voted for Ford or not at all.
After the historic presidency of Ronald Reagan, who ended
Communism in the Eastern Bloc, it was hard for George W. Bush to do a repeat
performance. As the first real peace time president since the end of World War
II, he had an 89% approval rating when he won the Gulf War in 1990. Adjusting
to a post war economy we entered a mild recession just before the 1992 election
and that was his Waterloo.
The 1992 presidential election was an accident waiting to
happen when Independent Ross Perot allowed Bill Clinton to steal the show. Bush's
strong foreign policy was masked by a recession and war debt. Perot was not a
serious candidate but Democrats saw him as a spoiler and a chance for a Clinton
victory.
"A lot of presidential memoirs are dull. I surly
know mine aren’t.”
– Bill Clinton
Bush was popular, but he had raised taxes during a
recession and Clinton used this to discredit him the entire campaign. He knew
this would help Perot and he’d win by default. Clinton won with only 43% of the
vote. Bush got 37% and Perot got 19%. Pollsters agree almost all of Perot’s
votes came from GOP voters and cost Bush a victory. Clinton won with the third
lowest percentage in history.
Democrats never forgot the 2000 fiasco in Florida when
George Bush eked out a win over Al Gore. Bush spent the next eight years being
Mr. nice guy while Democrats were obstructionists moving further left. A bitter
John Kerry, who had lost to Bush in 2004, put together a plan to win the brass
ring in 2008. And America took the bait – hook, line and sinker – and will never
be the same again.
Democrats knew if they moved further left they’d steal
the show if they found the right candidate to capture the identity vote. Kerry
picked Illinois U.S. Sen. Barack Obama to deliver the keynote speech at the
2004 Democratic National Convention, which introduced America to the new
socialist left.
According to data from the Pew Research Center, the
nation’s two biggest minority groups, blacks and Hispanics ,accounted for an
unprecedented share of the Democratic presidential vote in 2008. They made up
over 21% of the electorate. The turnout rate among first-time young and old
black and Hispanic voters was also the highest in U.S. history, while the white
vote was the lowest ever recorded. An astonishing 54% of the first-time voters
said they only voted because Barack Obama was running.
“Voters overwhelmingly elected me twice. And that speaks
for itself.”
– Barack Obama
W. C. Fields said, “If you can't dazzle them with
brilliance, baffle them with BS.” The socialist left’s formula for winning is
to not have a tangible agenda. They’ve learned it’s easier to win by creating
chaos, civil unrest and dividing races to unite their base. They count on their
party hacks to do the rest; even if they aren’t part of the far left. Then the
left media will lock-step them to the finish line.
Party politics ran our nation for decades, until Donald
Trump became the first president elected by the people since George Washington.
When identity and party voters vote for the wrong reasons, all of America lives
with their mistakes. And these voters don’t realize they must live with them
too. The right to vote is also the right not to vote. It’s better not voting
than voting for the wrong reason.
We’d all profit from that.
“Every vote should carry a serial number, so that
responsibility for harmful or careless use of the vote can be traced. Concealed
voting should be outlawed.”
– P. J. O'Rourke
Contributing Columnist William Haupt III is a retired
professional journalist, author, and citizen legislator in California for over
40 years. He got his start working to approve California Proposition 13.