You see that picture above. That’s what voting at the Republican Party of Virginia unassembled convention looked like (see 2021 Nomination – Republican Party of Virginia). There were are couple of wrinkles, however.
Since the convention was unassembled, and the party only expected people to come vote once, the party decided to use ranked choice voting (2021 State Convention Voting Instructions (virginia.gop)). So, the ballot looked a little unusual.
In Prince William County, voters could do both drive thru and in-person voting. However, before they could do either, they had to register as a delegate to vote, and before they got a ballot, they had to show a photo ID. Unlike the Republican Party of Virginia, the Virginia Commonwealth no longer requires a photo ID.
That said, the Republican Party of Virginia still made allowances for folks with difficult circumstances. The party still made arrangements for military personnel to vote and for people with religious objections to voting on Saturday to vote on the Friday before the convention.
The first shows live video of people counting the votes. The second shows a tabulation of the results.
Thus far the tabulation process shows the wisdom of adopting ranked choice voting (2021 State Convention Voting Instructions (virginia.gop)). Neither the Attorney General nominee nor the gubernatorial nominee would have won on the first round. Nevertheless, the winners will be acceptable candidates because the delegates indicated their choices if the primary choice, secondary choice, tertiary choice, and so forth were unable to garner a majority of support.
1a: to evaluate for possible approval or acceptance
//vet the candidates for a position
b: to subject to usually expert appraisal or correction
//vet a manuscript
When we “vet” something of someone, we want to learn the truth about that something or someone. Often, however, our fellow human beings mislead us. That is especially true with respect to politics. We tend to think of government as powerful, but it can be easier to steal from everyone than it is to steal from someone. We just have to have the talent and the resources to con our fellow citizens. Hence, for the sake of the huge rewards they can obtain, some of our fellow citizens happily work energetically to influence us and fool us.
It is an odd thing. We want to believe people are honest, but none of us are truly honest. We all suffer from that original sin, Genesis 3 NASB – The Fall of Mankind – Now the serpent – Bible Gateway. With respect to government and politics, how does our fallen nature work against us? How are we bent towards evil? Well, here are some of the ways.
Personal gain. Some people know something foul is being done, even that they are doing evil, but they seek personal gain. Is slavery wrong? Yes, but that did not stop people who knew it was wrong from supporting it. That included politicians, the news media of the day, slave owners, friends of slaveowners (including the clergy), and people who felt elevated by seeing the sufferings of someone more despised than themselves.
Ignorance and Confusion. None of us have the time to figure out what is true about everyone and everything. Instead, we try to mind our own business and let others mind their business. But what do we do if the government makes something we don’t know anything about “our business”? We may play it “safe.” We may follow the self-proclaimed “experts.” We may do what everyone else is doing, follow the mob. We may not do anything and proclaim our innocence. What do we rarely do if the government is involved? We fail to ask why our government is involved, why our tax dollars are being spent doing something we don’t think is important enough for us to become informed.
Bias. We have been taught to think of bias as evil, an obvious evil. However, what our biases generally reflect is our desire to feel good about ourselves, and high self-esteem is now proclaimed as a good thing. So, supposedly we should be proud to say: “I am the best.” Not true. Here are some examples. The soft bigotry of low expectations for nonwhites (Soft bigotry of low expectations | Cal Thomas | Opinion | news-herald.com) allows whites to see nonwhites as the white man’s “burden.” “Tolerance” — “where is the harm” — for LGBTQ “rights” gives heterosexuals an excuse for ignoring the lies that ungird the LGBTQ movement. When people are lying to themselves and harming themselves, how does supporting such high-minded “tolerance” actually entitle us to think more highly of ourselves? Well, we can lie to ourselves too. Our biases are based upon lies we tell ourselves.
Don’t think our fallen nature works against you? Think how often you buy something. Then consider that every time we spend money, donate money, and pay taxes we are supporting an industry, a way of life, or a cause. That is, either we voluntarily or involuntarily (taxes) provide resources for an industry, a way of life, or a cause we may or may not want to support. Hence, we need to be as thoughtful about our decisions as we can be. Are you?
Instead of boycotting companies we disagree with, do you support companies whose moral practices you respect?
Instead of looking to government for solutions, do you volunteer your our own money and time to fix the problems and help the people you care about? Instead of allowing conniving politicians to make people dependent on handouts, do you support the charities you believe help people to run their own lives?
Instead of looking for opportunities to tax your neighbors and spend their money for them, have you considered that people, each of us, make the best decisions when they spend their own money either on themselves or on the people and things they care about?
What is the solution? It takes time and the help of the Holy Spirit for us to make good decisions. So, government is not the solution. Government has a role (see Romans 13:1-7 NASB – Be Subject to Government – Every person – Bible Gateway), but government cannot perfect us. God doesn’t give government the Holy Spirit.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Like the lady who wrote this post, fruits of our labors…, I too have children and grandchildren, and I wonder what the future will be like for them. I also have hope, but I am sadden that so many of us have forgotten an important truth.
In all our works, especially in the operation of our government, we must seek His aid. Why is it that way? The universe is God’s Creation, and we are His creatures. He made his universe too big and wonderful for us. He also allows us a choice. We can turn to Him, or we can turn to Satan, who stalks us.
As Ephesians 6:10-20 reminds us, to choose Him we must engage in spiritual warfare. We must each turn to and call upon the Lord for our salvation.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Tomorrow many good citizens of Virginia will vote for the Republican Party’s nominees for Governor, Lt Governor, and Attorney General. Let us pray that each of these citizens seeks our Lord’s guidance.
