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Voter Apathy Hurts Our Children's Prospects of Liberty
Dr. Patrick Johnston • 1/25/2008
"You do?" I said with a grin. "Uh huh," she nodded and said, "like Mommy." Later as I recalled our memorable exchange, I tried to wonder what she would be like when her father is a fading memory and her grandchildren are starting families of their own. What kind of nation are we going to hand down to her children? Will they be as free as we are? Considering the freedoms lost from the 1960's until now, we would be naïve to think that Americans forty years from now are likely to enjoy the same freedoms that we appreciate; just like we are not enjoying the liberties our grandparents took for granted. There is a tremendous apathy to politics right now that frankly frightens me. Tens of thousands of Americans have died for our liberties, but how many of us even bother to vote to preserve those liberties? In the last Presidential election, 78 million Americans who were eligible to vote stayed home. Much fewer bother to vote in the primaries. When we do vote, do we make our decisions based upon an educated evaluation of the issues and the candidates' positions, or empty rhetoric? The corruption of so many of our leaders certainly has a negative effect on voter turnout. The public has the impression that our vote doesn't really count, that the direction in which the state or country is headed doesn't really change, regardless of who wins the election. So many of our representatives say what needs to be said to get elected, but do not fulfill their promises. For example, many of them claim to be pro-life to secure our vote, yet do not pass laws to protect the unborn. Many of them have not kept their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, with its limitations on state power, but have increased the size and scope of the government through irresponsible state spending and "pork" for projects in their district to help them get re-elected. Hold it, lest we jump too prematurely on the bandwagon of carelessly criticizing our elected officials; we must remember that disapproval of our representatives is disapproval of the electorate, because we put them in office. It is an embarrassing fact that they represent us all too well. Why do our leaders refuse to deal with the difficult issues, like the impending bankruptcy of social security, like the flood of illegal immigration, like the killing of preborn children that are mature enough to survive outside the womb, like deficit spending, like judicial activists that invent rights in the Constitution that the Founders never intended and trespass constitutional checks and balances? Why do our representatives seem to only prescribe legislative remedies for the problems that will affect their next election? Let's humbly admit the painful truth: because that's what we are like. They are near-sighted, because we are. They are poor stewards of the public treasury because the public is a poor steward of its vote. We've got the leaders we deserve. We are at a crossroads in our nation and in Ohio right now, and the leaders we choose will make decisions that will affect us and our children for hundreds of years. The liberty of our posterity is at stake. Will our grandchildren have free speech rights and religious freedom? Will unchecked illegal immigration and porous borders make them live in fear of crime and terrorism? Will they be able to own a gun for self-defense? Will productive jobs be plentiful, or will they be dependent on state handouts to survive? Will the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and infanticide follow on the heels of the legalization of abortion? Our leaders will make decisions today that will affect whether our children and grandchildren can be free and prosperous. We must be diligent to remain free; entropy tends to tyranny. In order to secure the liberty of our children and grandchildren, we must take a more eager interest in the character, the experience, and the proposals of those campaigning to be our public servants. The persecution of religious minorities and the forced abortion of unlicensed children have not always been legal in China. Same-sex marriage has not always been legal in the Netherlands. Immorality like this becomes legal when citizens grow apathetic to the leaders they elect and tolerate. Did you know that in Nazi Germany, 90% of German Lutheran bishops endorsed Hitler? Hitler was, to borrow a contemporary phrase, "the lesser of two evils" compared to the threat of Communism. Nazi tyranny and genocide came into existence not as a result of overthrowing the democratic process, but as a result of it. Not in spite of the voting block of Christians, but as a consequence of it. Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. We must not be so full of pride to think that we are more righteous than they and less deserving of judgment. More Americans died by abortion with a Republican president and with a Republican congressional majority from 2000 to 2006 than all the Jews that were killed in the Nazi Holocaust. Proverbs 29, verse 2 says, "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn." You and I may never personally mourn as a result of the leaders who exploit our apathy to come into power, but our grandchildren may. With God's help, we can turn the tide and return to the law of nature and nature's God in the way that we govern ourselves. With God's help, we can bring just and upright leaders into positions of public service. We must be worthy of just leaders. We must be diligent to remain free. We must get involved, we must investigate, we must inform others, and we must vote. For the sake of your children and grandchildren, for the sake of liberty, for the sake of those who died to make us free, please vote on March 4th. P.S. Please pray for my ministry events listed on the front page. Keep my campaign for Ohio State Representative in your prayers; visit www.JohnstonForOhio.com today to help my campaign "For Life, Liberty, and Jobs!" Thank you. Dr. Patrick Johnston www.RightRemedy.org
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I held Grace on my lap recently, my three-year-old little girl who lightens up the room with a broad, dimpled smile that appears to make up half her face. She looked up at me and said in her squeaky voice, "I wanna be married!" 
