Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Greater goods and lesser evils

Yesterday James Dobson announced that he couldn't vote for McCain, Clinton or Obama under any circumstance and given those choices wouldn't vote for President at all this year. Michael Cromartie responded to that approach at Christianity Today, making what should be an obvious and elementary point about politics:
Politics is about making choices between relative goods and lesser evils and not about having perfect choices. It’s a wasted vote on Dr. Dobson’s part. It’s irresponsible on his part to give that kind of leadership. He should sit down with McCain and see if he can be persuasive. What he should be saying is, "I’ll wait to see what the candidates have to offer." It’s premature to emphatically say, "I’ll never vote for anybody."
Winston Churchill famously said “democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.” Which, of course, means that among all of the actual governments that have existed, democracy is the best — or least bad, which is the same thing. Those are the kinds of judgments that have to be made in the world that actually exists (and not just in politics). Our system presents us with the necessity, almost always, of choosing from among unsatisfactory choices. But when it comes down to it, one option or the other is almost always better — or, if you will, less bad. Not choosing is effectively helping the candidate you like least.

Cromartie calls Dobson Irresponsible for His Un-dorsement | Liveblog | Christianity Today

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