Comments on: Voting Record

By: Christians for Obama | All Reason

Christians for Obama | All Reason — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:18:23 +0000

[...] Julie Clawson (Mike's wife) is supporting Obama — even more striking to me, though, are the descriptions of how and why she voted for certain Republicans in past elections: … The first election I voted in however was in 1996 — Clinton vs. Dole. At the time I felt like there was no choice but to vote for Dole no matter who he was or what he stood for. He was a Republican, Clinton wasn’t. I was a Christian so I had to vote Republican. I was in my freshman year at Wheaton College and was surrounded by similar attitudes. Dole won by a landslide in the mock campus election and the handful of people who came out for Clinton were called some seriously evil names. [...]

By: Ed G

Ed G — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:42:45 +0000

While I grew up catholic, I didn't become a Christ follower until much later in life. In 2004, I really struggled with my vote for the first time. I kept going online taking the "Are you a Democrat or Republican" quizzes and they kept coming up "D". And yet I never felt comfortable about Kerry and voted for a Republican president for the first time ever. It was based soley on the idea that Bush would nominate a pro-life justice to the supreme court. (Sounds like it is the total opposite of your experience, Julie).

This year, however, is the first time I ever voted FOR a candidate. First time I ever donated, phone banked and canvassed, too. And when I filled in the circle for Barack Obama, I did so proudly as a Democrat, an American but most of all, a Christian.

By: Scott M

Scott M — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:18:36 +0000

Many of y'all make me feel old. My first presidential election was 1984. However, I remember Watergate. (And I remember going to see All The President's Men with Mom a few years later.) I remember Chevy Chase's impression of Gerald Ford on SNL. I remember staying up with my parents watching returns when Carter won. And I definitely remember the Iran hostage situation which was really what turned the 1980 election from a close race to a landslide for Reagan. My spiritual background is complicated to say the least, but I wouldn't say it was particularly Christian growing up. And by 1984 I was decidedly in an anti-Christian camp.

Hmmm. Just given where I was in 1984, having recently completed basic training, and with strong Libertarian tendencies, I'm pretty sure I voted for Reagan. But those years were pretty crazy ones and I don't recall for certain. In 1988 I did vote for George the Senior. He was actually a pragmatic and largely moderate politician. He wasn't a great president, but I think he did a much better job than he often gets credit for doing.

However, in 1992 I would say I was even more strongly Libertarian in inclination and voted for Ross Perot. I was tired of both parties. In 1993 I stepped further along a reencounter with Christianity that had begun in 1990 and would eventually lead to the next stage in a journey of conversion that had probably begun when I was 6 or 7 years old.

So by 1996 my convictions were just beginning to shift, colored by the stories I was absorbing of this strange God revealed to us in Jesus of Nazareth. I was actually in (and sorta still am in) the sort of conservative evangelical (SBC) church many of you seem to describe growing up in, but that environment didn't color my thinking as much as this kaleidoscope of a new way of seeing reality I was absorbing. (I ended up in that church largely because I picked one to try I thought would confirm my worst thoughts about Christians. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?)

Anyway, I didn't really know how to vote. I finally ended up voting for Clinton because the things he had done or tried to do (include the health care effort) seemed more aimed at helping those who most needed help than any other option.

I definitely voted for Gore in 2000. Living in Texas, I had experienced first hand exactly the sort of person Bush really was. While I couldn't claim to really be surprised, he has managed to exceed my worst expectations. I rather liked McCain in 2000 and would have considered voting for him had he won his primary.

I voted for Kerry in 2004. More because he wasn't Bush than for any positive reason.

I've not been thrilled with the turn McCain has taken over the past 8 years. He has turned away from the very things that inclined me to like him in 2000.

I have been impressed by Obama and decided a long while back to vote for him. I still don't vote in party primaries, but I did donate a small amount of money to his general election campaign. It's the first time ever that I've donated to any political campaign.

By: Jonathan Stegall

Jonathan Stegall — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:05:18 +0000

I got a bit interested in politics when I was 16 or so, not long after becoming a Christian. My dad had a subscription to World Magazine, which considered itself to have a Christian view of national and international news. I read it for a few months, but it then occurred to me that, to this magazine, everything good was Republican and everything bad was Democrat. I decided I didn't like this because I didn't think a Christian view of news was a poster for the Republican Party, and so I stopped reading it and stopped being interested in politics.

I was 17 in the 2000 election so I couldn't vote, but I had a vague preference for Bush inside my non-interest. When 9/11 happened I was a freshman at a Pentecostal university, and I woke up and started becoming interested in peace and other forms of activism, and in the suffering that we caused and ignored. I became acquainted with Sojourners and The Other Side, among other things, and by the time the invasion of Iraq occurred I was among the few critics at my school, and sat in class asking to pray for the Iraqis we were bombing when others asked to pray for our troops.

In 2004, I chose not to vote because I didn't see Kerry as an alternative on anything I was concerned about, and couldn't stand Bush. Today I was happy to vote for Obama. I don't find him to be a perfect candidate, and I sympathize with those who choose not to vote as part of their way of standing against a system that can never line up with the Cross, but I find him to be a powerful candidate, both in his policies and in the significance of his background and his story. I found a lot of wonderful things in Ron Paul, but besides the fact that the Republican Party doesn't stand for any of the things that he does, I find Obama to offer more of a chance of improving the image of America, both here and internationally.

By: Kester

Kester — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:58:25 +0000

It's also worth noting that I am, to this day, the only person to ever be "boo"ed in a chapel service at my alma mater. I was announcing a meeting of the campus Democrats.

By: Kester

Kester — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:55:00 +0000

I was raised by a yellow dog Democrat (unusual in the conservative Churches of Christ) and remember being sent to school wearing a Vote Mondale button and then, 4 years later, a Vote Dukakis. Interestingly, I grew up assuming that Christians voted Democrat, because I thought only Democrats cared about the poor. The first election I was ever old enough to vote in was Dole/Clinton and I voted Clinton. Though I believe Clinton was a great President, that vote was probably the equivalent of your Dole vote, it seemed like the only choice. More informed about politics, I voted Gore in 2000, though I remember thinking that either guy could become President and I'd be happy. It didn't take me long to change my mind on that. I voted Kerry in 2004, though his name might as well have been Not Bush if you want to know all that went into that choice.

This election is the first time that I feel like I'm actually voting for someone. Clinton was just "who you vote for", Gore/Bush seemed (at the time) to be two versions of the same guy, and Kerry was simply anyone but Bush. While I also don't get caught up in the Obamessiah movement (in fact, it really bugs me), I do believe he will be an excellent President and am proud to have voted for him.

By: Williebop

Williebop — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:35:37 +0000

“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity.” – Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address

We've sure fallen a long way since then.

By: Mark Baker-Wright

Mark Baker-Wright — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:32:37 +0000

Thanks for sharing. Aspects of your story echo my own (with a minor temporal shift on the front end, as my first election was in 1992. Our conservative Christian campus wore black all day the next day. Myself included, I'm now embarrassed to say), and I found myself voting for Bush in 2000 with similar ambivalence. The Bush responses (there really wasn't just one) to 9/11 changed all that.

But the fears about "coming out" as an Obama supporter are still strong. My wife and I are almost certainly the only people in our immediate families to vote for Obama, and with the exception of my mom's side of my family, I could probably say the same about both of our extended families with little fear of contradiction. I had a conversation with my Grandparents just a little over a week ago, and felt I had to choose my words very carefully lest they think I'd fallen away from the faith (especially ironic since I'm the one who's studied to become a minister!).

Anyway, thanks again.

By: journeyingrick

journeyingrick — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:23:54 +0000

julie – thanks for this story. it makes perfect sense. i feel as if millions of us have grown, not LEAVING where we came from, but seeing where we came from in different ways, and moving into what we can see now. and what i see now is exactly what you said: "this change is permanent and that we are entering a new era of American politics." and a new era in general.
i think tomorrow i'll need a nap. and then i'm ready.

By: sonja

sonja — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:02:44 +0000

I've been voting since Reagan was first elected. I voted for John Anderson in that election. When he was re-elected I was going to march in a protest march during his 2nd inaugural parade. However, it was so cold here that day, that all outdoor inaugural activities were cancelled.

I can't remember who I voted for in the next couple of elections, just that when Clinton was in office I would rather have come out told my church I was gay (a lie) than that I was a Democrat.

By 2000 I'd gotten over that and knew that W was altogether wrong for this country. I didn't care what anyone had to say about him, he was/is a playboy who has survived on his parents coattails. So I voted for Gore. Then watched and listened as the national popular vote was stolen in Florida. I remember sandwiching a quilt on the floor as I listened to the Supreme Court hand down their decision and the dissenting decisions.

I've been following Barack Obama for years now. I can't remember when I first heard about him, but I knew that he'd be a presidential candidate sooner or later. When I heard he was running for this election cycle, I knew it was good news. The other day I found this quote and it encapsulates why I find his candidacy so compelling:
“People are more inclined to be drawn in if their leader has a compelling vision. Great leaders help people get in touch with their own aspirations and then will help them forge those aspirations into a personal vision.” John Kotter

There are parts of his platform (as with any candidate) that I'm not so fond of. But it's his ability to create bridges, and help us each see our own ability make our own bridges that is inspirational to me. That's what I want in a leader. That's why I'm voting for him today.