The election is upon us. Tomorrow we get to choose the most powerful leader in the world. When you say it like that, it sounds extremely important. It is. I have the opportunity to serve in countries where people do not get to select their governmental leaders. Having no choice leads to many negatives. The mentality can be, “What difference does it make what I do, because I don’t have any influence.” John Maxwell and others have said, “Leadership is influence.” We get to select the leader of the United States of America. Now that’s influence.
The challenge is the two major candidates don’t offer us a good choice. What does it mean to lead when we have to make the least bad choice? The question is vital, because in our daily leadership we are often left with the choice between bad and worse, just as thankfully we are often left with the choice between better and best. All of life seems to be on a graduated scale when it comes to the choices, decisions and commitments we must make. How we navigate them makes all the difference for us as leaders. After all, if every choice, decision and commitment was a clear as a bell leadership would be unnecessary. Precisely because such matters are often clouded in uncertainty if not outright ambiguity leadership is necessary.
As a pastor, I find myself in the position of not being permitted to endorse any candidates for public office in my official capacity as the pastor of New Life Christian Ministries. I am certainly permitted to hold my own personal opinion as are all of us as Americans. I am permitted to encourage everyone to register to vote, and to vote. As Christians and as Americans we have a responsibility to do so, because as the Apostle Paul reminded us we are called to obey the governing authorities. Certainly part of that responsibility in a nation where the citizens have the freedom, privilege and responsibility to select their leaders through a popular election, is to make the time and effort to do so.
The decision as to which of the candidates to select for president, and for a couple of other positions on our ballot here in western Pennsylvania has never been more of a decision between bad and worse than it is this time. Neither Mr. Trump, nor Senator Clinton have said or done anything to make them a clear choice for me. I don’t want to follow either of them as “my” president, and yet one of them will be. No one seriously believes that any of the minor party candidates will be voted in as president. To plan a vote for one of them in “protest,” is to say, “I am not going to vote to elect the president.” It is to cast no vote for president. Certainly each of us has the freedom to do that. As leaders it makes no sense, because we are throwing away our influence.
So what are we to do? I have been praying and listening. I watched the debates, if we can call them debates, not only between the two presidential candidates, but also the one between their running mates. What I saw and heard was more than disturbing. Neither candidate moved me to a sense that he or she would be worthy of my vote, but one of them needs to receive my vote. I must use my vote to select the least bad choice. In doing so, I have considered several matters that are of great importance to our nation’s future: 1) Who will reflect our values as followers of Jesus better? 2) Who will be the better candidate when it comes to recommending Supreme Court judges? 3) Who will be taken the most seriously by the world around us as a world leader? 4) Who will have the best opportunity to get Congress to make and reform laws that will move us forward and make us great as a nation?
Some may contend that as citizens of God’s Kingdom, Christians ought not to concern ourselves with matters of who is president, senator, representative, etc…. The truth is whichever candidate wins the election tomorrow, God will still be in charge of the universe, and I will still look to Him for the primary foundation and direction of my life. Nevertheless, as a Christian and a leader, I have the responsibility to take the matter of voting seriously, and the matter of who gets my votes for the various positions on the ballot with the utmost seriousness.
Having weighed a great deal of input, and having considered which candidate is the least bad choice, I will be casting my vote for Mr. Trump. I abhor much I have seen and heard of his personal character and attitudes, but the same is true of Senator Clinton. The clinchers for me are Mr. Trump’s position on the sanctity of human life, his likely recommendations for Supreme Court justices during his tenure as president, his bringing a much-needed perspective as an outsider to Washington, and not wanting four more years of the past eight years, or more accurately the past thirty years of Senator Clinton’s vision for America. My hope is that as president Mr. Trump will do what President Reagan did and surround himself with folks who know far more than he does about the matters where he is deficient and they are many.
As a private citizen I am greatly concerned that the two “best” candidates we could put before the American people for the highest office in our land are Mr. Trump and Senator Clinton. As I have thought about that a great deal through this season of political campaigns, which seems to have run for the past four years, I have realized every decision goes back to a previous decision. We selected these two from a broad field of candidates in the primaries. Many “better” candidates were eliminated because they didn’t have the money to compete. Others eliminated themselves because of bad decisions they made. Still others were eliminated because we didn’t vote for them.
Our political system is flawed, but one of its beauties is I get to write that without fear of recrimination. We can criticize our government and its leaders. That is a privilege many in our world have never experienced. That privilege is tied to the privilege and responsibility of voting. As leaders we don’t get to “sit this one out.” We are called to go first, to set the example, and even when we must make the least bad choice, we make it, because that’s what leaders have always done and must continue to do.
Here’s to leading better, by making whatever least bad choices are before us–today, and especially tomorrow!