Why I Am a Single Issue Voter

Over twenty years ago, I was in a discussion with someone about an upcoming election. Then, as now, there was the feeling among many the election was a turning point, a defining moment when the future of our nation would be decided. That same sentiment has been expressed at every election since.

It’s an appropriate sentiment. Because every election IS a turning point. It’s the way the Founders of our great Republic designed it. It’s in our electoral process that the American people have the opportunity to install those candidates into office whom they believe best embody their position on the important issues of the day. Our future is determined in the voting booth. Every time we go to the polls.

In that conversation twenty years ago, I expressed my belief that a candidate’s position on abortion was the most critical factor in determining whether or not to vote for him/her. The person I was speaking with disparaged my single-issue perspective. He said that abortion was just one of many important issues and that to vote for a candidate on that alone position alone was short-sighted.

Since I’d always seen abortion as much larger than “one of many important political issues” I was taken aback by this response and failed to respond. Both wisdom and tact demanded that I reply in a measured and reasonable manner. And to that point, I’d not formulated an eloquent response.

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Lawrence White, a Luther minister, address this issue. He articulated perfectly why ending abortion ought to rise as the single-issue that defines what we look for in those candidates who stand for election.

Contrary to what a recent president said, it’s NOT “the economy , stupid.” It’s not national defense, as important as that issue is. It’s not pensions and public safety or the home mortgage and banking crisis. Neither global climate change nor Iran provide the challenge most determinative of our future. The single issue that rises above all these is the murder of millions of innocent pre-born children.

Just as Abel’s blood cried out of the ground to God, so buckets of it scream for justice from the abortion clinics across America.

A nation that slaughters its most innocent and vulnerable, its powerless and defenseless, all in the name of convenience, doesn’t deserve economic prosperity or safe borders. What it deserves is the wrath of a Holy God Who has pledged Himself to the poor and weak.

I AM a single-issue voter because THIS issue – the life of the unborn, is THE watershed reality of our time. Once I know a candidate’s position on abortion, I know their position on virtually every other issue. If they are staunchly pro-life, I know they will be politically conservative and classically faithful to the Founder’s on the rest of the issues. If a candidate is pro-abortion, they deny the image of God in humanity and can’t be trusted to be right on ANY issue, regardless of how they campaign. How can you trust a man or woman who is for the murder of infants?

Make no mistake, that is exactly what pro-abortion advocates are for. They aren’t for ‘choice.’ They are for the murder of the innocent.

So, I am a single issue voter. I will vote for real pro-life. By ‘real’ I mean those whose pro-life position isn’t adopted just because it is part of the party platform. I mean people whose pro-life position is rooted in a consistent worldview that understands government’s role to protect the innocent and to prosecute the guilty in accordance with what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 13.

Yes, I understand the appeal of the pragmatic view that voting for an unelectable pro-life candidate may take away a vote from another major party candidate who as a pro-abortion candidate would be “the lesser of two evils.” As recent elections have demonstrated, a so-called fiscal conservative-social liberal ends up being a fiscal weasel. But of course; how can someone who is wrong on THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE of the day be right or consistent on ANYTHING ELSE?

I will not “throw my vote away” on any candidate who lacks the moral wisdom and strength to take a stand for what is patently good and right and campaign as pro-life and will use their office to bring an end to the holocaust of abortion.