Please note that these editorial articles do not necessarily reflect the position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the personal opinions of the author and he is alone responsible for them.

by W. John Walsh

11/10/00

The purpose of this article is discuss my views on the recently contested American Presidential election. To be concise and clear, I believe the Unites States of America, the undisputed leader of the free world, is in serious danger of losing its democracy. To me, it seems clear that a group of evil, conspiring men has taken over the Republican party and is likely to soon seize control of the country. While the tone of this article may seem overly dramatic to some, let's call the current events what they really are: a coup.

Before I start discussing specifics, I would like to make a couple of disclaimers. My problem with what is happening in the American Presidential election is not really about who will become President. When it comes to policy, I am far closer to George W. Bush than I am to Al Gore. For example, Gore supports abortion rights, while Bush opposes them. I oppose abortion in all cases, with no exceptions. I believe that since Christ gave his life for us, any woman not prepared to give her life for her child is not fit for the Kingdom of God. Gore opposes school choice (i.e., vouchers), while Bush supports it. I will be home schooling my children and want to spend my tax dollars in my own home and not down the street at the public schools which I will never use. Also, let me make it clear that my issue is not that Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral college. Whether you espouse the election system mandated by our constitution or not, it is clear that the electoral college is the present legal way we do things.

I am concerned with the process, not the platforms or positions. I am a great believer in democracy and the right of the citizens of a country to choose their own leaders. What the leader will do is far less important than whether the leader has been legitimately chosen by the people. Even though I may agree with Bush on some positions, I cannot accept him as the leader of this nation unless he actually received the most votes. After examining the evidence and studying the issues, I have no doubt that Gore won the electoral college as well as the popular vote.

To put it simply: it all comes down to Florida. Did more people vote for Gore in Florida or did more people vote for Bush? I don't mean did more people intend to vote for Gore. I mean out of the people who actually showed up on election day and voted, who got the most votes? This is how we judge the winner of elections in America. At least, this is how we are supposed to declare winners.

I think it is indisputable that Al Gore had more actual votes cast for him in Florida. The only issue is whether "voting irregularities" have voided (at least for the moment) those votes and therefore deprived American citizens of their right to elect leaders of their own choice. It's important to note that at no time has anyone from the Republican side actually claimed that any substantial portion of the disputed ballots were cast for Bush. Their position is relatively simple: they know the votes were cast for Gore (at least the vast majority of them), they just want to find some way to legally exclude them from the totals. That someone would take this position is absolutely amazing to me.

That American citizens did not have their votes properly recorded and were therefore deprived of their constitutional right is not the only thing that bothers me. In addition to trying to disqualify the votes of American citizens who voted for other candidates, Bush actively tried to intimidate people from voting. His supporters called people and gave them false information about what was required to vote to discourage them from going to the polls. That these calls were made is indisputable. Can we prove that Bush was responsible for them? Perhaps we may never tie him personally to these actions from a legal point of view, but he can be directly tied from a moral perspective.

I believe sins of omission bring one into the collective guilt of those performing evil acts. For example, after World War II, there were many German citizens who claimed they had no knowledge of the death camps or what happened there. Others claimed they knew what happened, but they could not stop it or do anything about it, so they just continued on with their lives. In my view, God morally obligates us to speak out against evil. By not speaking out, those citizens took upon themselves the collective guilt. Likewise, people trying to get Bush elected performed some evil acts. Now that Bush has been made aware of what happened, he has the obligation to speak out against it and offer recompense as far as it is within his power to do so. In my view, his failure to even publicly condemn the acts makes him as guilty as those who performed them.

CNN reports, "James Baker, the balloting observer for Bush, said earlier today that Bush will 'vigorously oppose' the Democratic challenger's recounting efforts." Why is that? Doesn't George Bush want to make sure that every vote is properly counted? After all, we have already seen some problems. The original count in New Mexico gave the state to Gore, but a recount may give it to Bush. Florida, the state which will decide the election, started with almost 1800 votes separating the candidates. After the recount, we are presently down to 327 (though this number may still change). Bush realizes that if all votes which were actually cast for Gore are counted, he will lose.

ABCNews.com reported on 11/24/00 that Republican party operatives organized protests against counting the ballots in Dade and Broward County, but represented them as spontaneous protests from local citizens. These protests were influential in stopping the Dade County manual recounts. The protestors were most influential as they crashed through the doors and loudly demanded the recounts be ended. This behavior is not a normal and acceptable part of the democractic process. They are protesting the counting of votes! That is a necessary element of democracy. How shall we have the people rule if we do not count the votes indicating the people's will? If we allow some people to prevent others from voting or having their vote be counted our form of government becomes an oligarchy, or more accurately, mobocracy. Mr. Bush has not decried this attack on the basic elements of democracy. He and his campaign had no comment for ABC.

As I watch Bush and his co-conspirators, I am truly sickened by what I see. Bush has tried to declare votes illegal which almost certainly have gone to his opponent. He has accepted the actions of his supporters who made phone calls to discourage potential Gore supporters from voting. He is not concerned with what the voters have said, but only what he thinks they should have said. We can tell this because he has inhibited the counting process and democracy by having his lawyers issue subpeonas to the canvassing board and by threatening the counters that they would be named in his lawsuits. He has no public criticism for the Republican party operatives who successfully intimidated Dade County from finishing the manual recount. All of these actions are appalling and flagrant abuses against democracy.

It's no secret that Latter-day Saints, including myself, almost exclusively vote Republican. If you are a member of the Church, I would encourage you to rethink very carefully about how you vote in the future. God will hold you accountable for the choices you make. It is common for Latter-day Saints to believe that if we share the same view on abortion or some other issue with someone, then that is what is most important. This is false. When it comes to government, the most important issue is freedom. The LDS Articles of Faith state:

"We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."

Freedom is the preeminent doctrine of the gospel, more important than any other doctrine including righteousness. Remember, in the Council in Heaven, it was Lucifer's goal to force us to be righteous. It was Heavenly Father's plan that we be allowed to choose between good and evil for ourselves. By his own actions, Heavenly Father told us freedom, even if we would choose wrong, was more important than compelled righteousness.

Over the years, I have seen a growing pattern of corruption, coercion, and hypocrisy enter the Republican party (e.g., McCarthyism, Watergate, Iran-Contra, etc.). Like Lucifer, these people desire to force us to follow their plan. Positions on social platforms such as abortion or same sex marriage are insignificant to the concept of freedom. Think back to the Counsel in Heaven -- what was Lucifer's plan? Follow me, I shall mandate that all shall be righteous and thus be saved. I shall force everyone to obey the commandments of God. While Heavenly Father wants us to obey his commandments, he wants it to be our choice without compulsion. And do the Republicans want us to have free choice? No, they believe that since they are the right choice (at least in their own minds), they should have the ability to enforce those right choices on everyone else.

As I have listened to the rhetoric coming out from the Republican side, I have heard one theme over and over again. George Bush needs to become President because he is the right man and Al Gore is the wrong man. In my view, the right man to become President is the one who received the most votes, regardless of whether I share his philosophy or not. Don't be fooled into thinking that because you share some common views with someone it is acceptable to overthrow democracy and install a despot in its place. The conservative Christians who control the Republican party would enforce your views on abortion, pornography, and a host of other ills on society, but they would also burn every Book of Mormon and deprive every Latter-day Saint of their rights if they could as well. While this is indeed strong language, one simply has to type in the word Mormons in any search engine and see all the hate and filth that comes up. You would install their despot because he would appoint Supreme Court Justices opposed to abortion, but what will you do when he also decides to destroy our temples? I am reminded of a poem by the Reverend Martin Niemöller, a pastor in the German Confessing Church who spent seven years in a concentration camp.

In Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up

While I have voted Republican almost exclusively during my lifetime, from this time forward, I will not support a group so transparently disposed to follow Satan.

http://www.mormons.org/reflections/bush_coup.htm

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2001

Answers

Dear John, satan is in both camps----I know you mormons have a different-bible-----but THE TRUE WORD OF GOD=STATES that=the whole WORLD-SYSTEM IS SATANIC!! but not to worry-IT,S DAY,S ARE NUMBERED!!

REMEBER =JESUS SAID''HIS CHILDREN ARE IN THE WORLD--BUT NOT OF THE WORLD!!!!--WE,RE JUST PASSIN THRU.............

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2001

Cool John, what party will you now align yourself with?

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2001

To the simpleton who posted this article. Look at the date it was written. What is John Walsh's postion now?

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2001

If you go to the original link, you'll find that he's been responding since the date. Offhand, I'd say he's been fairly consistent in the ideas posited in the original post.

It's similar to a common progressive opinion about Clinton; party loyalty at the expense of our true goals.

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2001