Season: 10 Episode: 150
Listen to episode 146 in Spanish:
Summary:
Today we’re breaking down the policies of each presidential candidate in the 2024 election, and why it’s essential Christians vote. Shanda will read directly from the websites of Harris and Trump to get a more informed idea of what each candidate stands for. We will evaluate Dr. George Barna’s recent statistics that show 31 miillion Christians won’t vote this year, and the consequences that will have on the outcome of this election. If you’ve ever wondered if your vote matters, I can assure you it does!
Recommended Resources:
Cross Examined Article: Is Teaching Your Kids About God Child Abuse?
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This is the last episode on voting this election season and I’ve tried to have episodes that were informative and helpful as we gear up to vote in November. I’ve made the case for why Christians ought to vote by refuting four of the main reasons Christians give for why they don’t or won’t vote. That was in episode 255. If you haven’t listened, go back and listen to that. I’ve also had Kathy Gibbens from Filter It Through A Brain Cell on the show to discuss how to think through voting this season. Well today we’re going to lay out the policies of each candidate and choose the best one that aligns more closely to a biblical worldview.
Newsletter
Before we get into it, I am launching a brand new newsletter in the month of October to those on my subscriber list only. It’s called Worldview In 3 Minutes where you get worldview information, how to identify worldviews in media and entertainment, and why we are all somebody’s disciple. It will be short and only sent once a month. If you want to learn about worldview formation and the reason it is connected to discipleship, go to shandafulbright.com. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and subscribe.
A few days ago, I was teaching my TYB middle school course and one of my young students asked, “Are biases and prejudices the same?” I thought it was a great question and we looked up the definition of each. I told my students that I always look up the definitions of words even if I think I know what they mean. Prejudice means, “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.” A bias is prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.” So technically, they are related but we can be prejudice because of our biases.
This is related to everything, including how we vote.
For example, you can be biased toward a candidate because you belong to a specific party. We all have biases and the best you can do is be aware of them. You’re never going to get rid of your biases but you can know what they are and push through to judge fairly regardless. But if you’re prejudice, you’ve already made up your mind and nothing will likely sway you to change it. In other words, prejudice is favortism which is unfair, while biases can influence how we vote but if we’re honest and aware of them we can overcome them.
All that to say, we need to be honest and evaluate the policies of each candidate before we vote. And that’s what we’re going to do today.
For this information I went directly to the website of each candidate and in some cases I copied and pasted the information right into the show notes. Either way, I will post the links to their sites in the show notes so you can go look for yourself, which I highly recommend. And I’ll be honest, I didn’t used to go and investigate like I do now. I used to just vote based on my party because I listened to interviews and read articles, but I didn’t dig much deeper than that.
As I’ve gotten older and understand that importance of knowing what you believe and why – not just as far as religion is concerned, but truth in general – I have become more of a researcher. Also, I don’t want to give false information or opinion related information because anyone can do that. I want to be an honest podcaster and teacher, who does my due diligence on these matters.
Vice Presidential Debate:
I read Vance’s book, Hillbilly Elegy” so I expected him to be a great debater. He is highly educated and lived a hard life with a mom addicted to opioids and no father around. He was basically raised by his hillbilly grandparents. But to see him in action on the debate stage against Tim Walz was really something. Vance was articulate, quick, and to the point. He didn’t avoid questions like many, many politicians do, he actually said, “To your question …” before he answered because he was pointed. That follows a formal debate style that we should 1) demand, and 2) see as a natural part of our political system. It makes politicians rise to a standard of intellect and not be BSers (for a lack of better expression).
It’s easy to see when someone is blowing smoke but when you see a debate like the one we saw with Vance and Walz, it’s easy to see what we’re not getting from these people when they think a debate is name calling and one liners. I do wish our two presidential candidates were smarter and more articulate. That would be nice. But it’s also up to us to demand that. One way to do that is to know what they stand for. We don’t have to get into the weeds on their policies, but we do need to know the facts.
That’s why I went straight to the websites of the two candidates and will read you what they say they stand for.
Economy
Harris: “Create an opportunity economy by fighting to bring taxes down for middle class families. She will expand the child tax cut of $6,000 to families with newborn children. Her campaign states that no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay more in taxes.
She is going to give first time buyers with up to $25,000 help toward their down payments.
To help achieve this, she will expand the startup expense tax deduction for new businesses from $5,000 to $50,000 and take on the everyday obstacles and red tape that can make it harder to grow a small business.
She will go after “bad actors” by calling for the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on food and groceries, which will build on the anti-price gouging statutes already in place in 37 states.”
She wants to lower the cost of healthcare, cap insulin, cap out of pocket spending. And she will protect Medicare and Medicaid by making billionaires pay their fair share.
Trump vows to lift restrictions on American Energy Production and terminate the Green New Deal. He wants to “unleash American energy” to slash inflation and get the economy moving.
He wants to slash wasteful government spending.
And he wants to reinstate his deregulation policies that he said saved American households $11.000 each.
No tax on tips and make the Trump tax cuts permanent.
He wants to institute an America first trad policy and renegotiate failed agreements with other countries and stop those taking advantage of American consumers and prioritize American producers.
In chapter 4 of Trump’s campaign platform, he talks about affordable housing and he says housing will become more affordable as inflation comes down. He says in additional to helping college students earn their four year degree, his administration will create alternatives to a traditional four year degree (I’m assuming through trade schools and such).
He will make healthcare affordable by increasing transparency and promoting competition so that costs will be competitive for consumers. And he says he will reduce the regulatory burden, and drive down the cost of living and prices of every day goods and services.
Immigration
Harris’ website says this about immigration: “Vice President Harris and Governor Walz believe in tough, smart solutions to secure the border, keep communities safe, and reform our broken immigration system.” She goes on to say: “As Vice President, she supported the bipartisan border security bill, the strongest reform in decades. The legislation would have deployed more detection technology to intercept fentanyl and other drugs and added 1,500 border security agents to protect our border. After Donald Trump killed the border deal for his political gain, she and President Biden took action on their own — and now border crossings are at the lowest level in 4 years, their administration is seizing record amounts of fentanyl, and secured funding for the most significant increase in border agents in ten years.”
The problem with this is she was put in charge of the border as the VP of the country. The Biden/Harris administration have signed executive orders for other things, why not border security? They blame it on Trump but he’s not in office. They blame it on republicans but this admin is being deceptive about immigration. The border numbers are not at their lowest in four years but even if they were, they’ve been in office for almost 4 years, so what does that say?
I keep saying this, but both of these candidates have been in office.
Trump was president and Harris is currently VP. She says what she’s going to do but what’s stopping her from doing it now? Does she have no say or influence as the VP? Does she have no responsibility over the border? And Does she have no responsibility over the economy? That is a question she has to answer but no one is holding her to it. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen.
Trump’s immigration policy is to secure the border and reverse the Biden admins open borders policy. Bring the largest deportation of immigrants ever (of course he’d have to since there have been millions of illegal immigrants allowed into the country). They will enforce strict vetting, stop sanctuary cities, and make sure Americans are given job opportunities first.
Education
Trump is advocating for school choice. I think this is a good idea because it makes schools and districts more competitive, making the standards for teacher quality higher. It puts control into the hands of the parents rather than keeping parents out of the loop. Parents can pull their kids rather than feel like they have to put them in the school within their district. Right now, the only choice is to get district approval to change schools, go to a charter school, or pay extra for a private school. Remember, home school parents and private school parents still pay taxes for their public schools even though their kids don’t attend.
I did not find a plan for education on the Harris website.
Slogans
Harris’ campaign slogan is A New Way Forward. Trump’s is MAGA: Make American Great Again
The irony in Harris’ slogan is she’s been the VP for almost four years. All we’d do is get more of what we’ve already had and even worse because she is to the left of Biden.
Harris supports abortion and wants to codify Roe v Wade into the constitution. She just came out this week and said she wants to kill the fillibuster, which would radically change the structure of the US government. This is radical.
Trump is responsible for putting conservative supreme court justices in place so that Roe v Wade was pushed back to the states. It puts abortion into the hands of the voters. Trump already said he doesn’t want to make abortion illegal, yet that is what the Harris campaign claims.
Tim Walz, the running mate of Kamala Harris, is equally as radical. He said he is more pro-choice than Nancy Pelosi. There have been at least 8 babies that were born alive during an abortion and does not support taking life saving measures for babies who survive an abortion and neither does Harris.
Tim Walz created a hotline for people in his state to tell on their neighbors for having guests during covid. He supports training kids, as does Harris. The ticket is as radical as it gets and more radical than anything we’ve ever had before.
The Trump/Vance ticket is not pro-life because they want abortion at some point. However, they are the least radical on abortion so we must understand that. Also, abortion is now at the state level so do something about it in your own state.
Foreign Policy
Under Trump we had peace in the middle East. To be honest, I knew it wasn’t going to last long because of the never ending conflict over there surrounding Israel, but the fact of the matter is, there was peace under Trump because he worked at it. There was no invasion of Ukraine by Russia. There was no threat of invasion of Taiwan by China. And there was no attack on Israel by Iran backed Hamas. Those are facts. And now, Iran is bombing Israel after Biden told Iran, “Don’t.” I mean, I guess it wasn’t intimidating enough because after Biden said don’t, Iran said hold my beer and they did.
Israel is a US ally and the Biden Harris admin plays both sides – trying to appeal to the Hamas supporters on one hand, but say, “But Israel has a right to defend themselves” on the other. They talk out of both sides of their mouth. Pick a side. Because that is weak leadership. If you’re going to be a heathen, just be a whole one. Don’t be half a one. No one respects that. I have more respect for someone who says this is who I am with no beating around the bush than someone pretending to be one thing in front of one person and something else in front of another Harris didn’t show up when Benjamin Netanyahu was here a few months ago. She was visiting a sorority. We need strong leadership. She’s weak. Plain and simple.
People are concerned about the economy, immigration, and parents are concerned about what’s taking place in the public education system. Things have amped up in the last few years and there is a lot more division and angst. I don’t know if a presidential election can diminish that.
I’ve talked about this before but politics are downstream from culture.
There is a huge moral shift that has taken place in our country and people vote their feelings because that’s what happens in a postmodern culture. Unfortunately, the further away from the truth the culture gets, the more we will continue to use our feelings to be our guide. Those who hate Trump because he’s orange, or because of his rhetoric, won’t care about his policies. That’s what we should be discussing in a candidate – their qualifications and their policies. But we don’t even have a media that does that. If you want the truth, you have to know how to dig for it. You have to be diligent to find it yourself.
Evangelicals For Harris
I want tobriefly discuss the Evangelicals For Harris group. There was an evangelicals for Biden Group back in 2020 and the same group is supporting Harris. If you’ve read the book Shepherd’s For Sale by Meghan Basham you’ve heard how liberal politicians have made their way into the church because they need the votes of the Christian people. Outlets like Christianity Today are now left leaning sources that promote things in conflict with a biblical worldview. If you want to learn more about that, I highly suggest you read Shepherd’s For Sale by Basham. It is so good to know what to look for and even some of the curriculum these churches are buying and teaching their congregations.
A March 5 Newsweek article showed that Trump was losing the white evangelical vote while Biden was gaining more white evangelical voters.
In September, last month, PBS published an article saying that some evangelicals are supporting Harris because they’re, “Tired of watching meanness, bigotry.”
According the article, Reverend Lee Scott said, “I am tired of watching meanness, bigotry and recreational cruelty be the worldly witness of our faith,” Scott said on the call. “I want transformation, and transformation is risky business.”
Notice how there isn’t one policy he states he agrees with Kamala Harris on. Notice he doesn’t mention any of the policies he disagrees with Trump on. It’s all emotion based.
Barna Stats
Dr. George Barna just sent an email regarding the number of Christians who will not vote in this election. It’s startling. He says, “51% of “people of faith” are likely to vote in November—and a full 32 million Christians who regularly attend church probably won’t vote. Apathy among Christian voters could be the deciding factor this election.
| much of this civic apathy flows from inaction by our nation’s churches—many of which avoid teaching on the key social issues that could guide people’s votes or help them understand how the Bible speaks to these issues. Barely half of Christian churches—only 56%—bothered to take the simplest election-related activity: encouraging their people to vote. And in the past two years, only 61% of churches provided any sermons or teaching about the Bible’s stand on key cultural issues. The topics they did address most frequently were religious freedom (67%) and poverty (63%). |
Fewer than half of Christian churches taught about other social issues.
Among regular churchgoers, in the past two years, a minority recall teachings on abortion (49%), the issue of crime, law and order, and law enforcement (45%), or same-sex marriage (42%).
| The most common reason for deciding to not vote is a lack of interest in politics and elections (68%). Further, about half of those surveyed say they dislike all of the major candidates (57%), feel that none of the candidates reflect their most important views (55%), believe that their one vote doesn’t make a difference (52%), that the election has become too controversial for their liking (50%), that the election outcome will be rigged (48%), or that they don’t know enough about the candidates to choose one (48%). What’s being lost in all this is the responsibility of Christians to vote—the call to be salt and light, so that biblical values are represented in the public square, and to influence their government and nation with God’s truth. |
Christians have make a huge impact in this election. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it now – we have a responsibility to vote because of where we live and the privilege we have, and the obligation we’ve been given to protect and defend that right.
Policies Verses Party
There is a danger in only voting party rather than policy. While it’s true that the two parties stand for different things and one is more conservative while the other liberal, it didn’t always used to be this way. I’ve heard from my husband’s parents that their family used to be democrats because the democratic party used to stand for and back the middle class. That has flipped ever since I can remember.
So although you may have voted for one part your entire life and you probably won’t vote any other way because of policies, parties change as the culture changes so it’s wise to know why and be able to explain it.
Have you seen the reels where people are getting interviewed and asked why they’re voting for a particulare candidate and they can’t give any reasons based on policy? It’s all emotion based. If you’re voting for Kamala because she’s a woman, that’s based on emotion. If you’re voting for her because she’ll be the first woman of color, it’s all feel good, emotion based reasoning. If you vote for Trump because he almost go shot, emotion based. If you don’t vote for Kamala because the sound of her voice is like a tortured cats nails on a chemistry class chalkboard (notice all of the annoying things), again – emotionalism. If you don’t vote for Trump because he said that one thing that one time that made you really mad, not a good reason.
A good reason to vote for someone as a Christian is because their policies best align to a biblical worldview and that is what is right for the American people because those policies will have better and more fair outcomes.
Vote the Bible?
Around here where I live, there is a sign in the ground that says, “Vote the Bible.”I think it requires more context, although I do understand what they’re talking about. When it comes to pro-life, not one ticket matches the Bible. But there is one not as fanatical, and that’s the Trump/Vance ticket. When it comes to immigration, the Bible talks about taking in those from other countries as refugees but it’s referring to those who want to come in and dwell among the people and partake of the culture they’ve come to. It’s not about coming in and breaking the law and taking advantage of the people. Some in America are here because they love this country and they took the proper channels to become citizens. There are many here illegally that do not want to do that.
When we say we should vote the Bible, we need to talk about the policies these candidates are running on and what the biblical stance should be on these policies. That will help the Christians make a more informed and confident decision. I believe the church should be talking about these things, and as Barna said, they’re not.
Close:
As I said, this is my last episode on the election and how to vote. The rest is up to you. But in order to be a well informed voter, don’t take anyone’s word for it. Do the work yourself and come to an informed decision. Check out the candidates, the policies, the propositions, and be ready to step into the ballot box with confidence. Your vote does count. Politics matter. Elections have consequences. And we as Christians must do all we can to think well through this election season.
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a 5 star rating and review on your podcast app. That is so greatly appreciated and I do read every one of them. Also, I am making a special announcement about a thing you are going to love. I am so excited about it and am working hard behind the scenes to get ready for the November announcement but the December launch. I will announce it in my November newsletter so make sure you subscribe at shandafulbright.com so you don’t miss next month’s newsletter. If you have any questions for me, email me at hello@shandafulbright.com and I’ll catch you on the next one!
e next one!
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