Doug Casey and COGwriter on reasons not to vote

Was sent an email where Doug Casey had the following:

Democracy is vastly overrated.

The national elections this November 5 (Guy Fawkes Day, FWIW) have every chance of turning into a chaotic catastrophe. …

Democracy can work when all concerned know one another, share the same values and goals, and abhor any form of coercion. It is the natural way of accomplishing things among small groups. But it doesn’t work well with a conglomeration of 350 million people, many of whom are voting in order to get something for nothing. Or at the expense of their neighbor. …

At least 95% of incumbents in Congress typically retain office. That is a higher proportion than in the Supreme Soviet of the defunct USSR and a lower turnover rate than in Britain’s hereditary House of Lords, where people lose their seats only by dying.

The political system in the United States has, like all systems which grow old and large, become moribund and corrupt.

The conventional wisdom holds that a decline in voter turnout is a sign of apathy. But it may also be a sign of a renaissance in personal responsibility. It could be people saying, “I won’t be fooled again, and I won’t lend power to them.” …

Protesters in the 1960s had plenty of flaws, but they were quite correct when they said, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” If politics is the problem, what is the solution? I have an answer that may appeal to you.

The first step in solving the problem is to stop actively encouraging it.

Many Americans have intuitively recognized that government is the problem and have stopped voting. That tends to delegitimize the State, which deprives it of power.

There are at least five reasons many people do not vote:

Voting in a political election is unethical. The political process is one of institutionalized coercion and force. If you disapprove of those things, then you shouldn’t participate in them, even indirectly.

Voting compromises your privacy. It gets your name in another government computer database.

Voting, as well as registering, entails hanging around government offices and dealing with petty bureaucrats. Most people can find something more enjoyable or productive to do with their time.

Voting encourages politicians. A vote against one candidate—a major, and quite understandable, reason why many people vote—is always interpreted as a vote for his opponent. And even though you may be voting for the lesser of two evils, the lesser of two evils is still evil. It amounts to giving the candidate a tacit mandate to impose his will on society.

Your vote doesn’t count. Politicians like to say it counts because it is to their advantage to get everyone into a busybody mode. But, statistically, one vote in scores of millions makes no more difference than a single grain of sand on a beach. That’s entirely apart from the fact that officials manifestly do what they want, not what you want, once they are in office.

Some of these thoughts may impress you as vaguely “unpatriotic”; that is certainly not my intention. But, unfortunately, America isn’t the place it once was, either. The United States has evolved from the land of the free and the home of the brave to something more closely resembling the land of entitlements and the home of whining lawsuit filers.

The founding ideas of America, which were highly libertarian, have been thoroughly distorted. What passes for tradition today is something against which the Founding Fathers would have led a second revolution. 10/30/24

Related to the voting being unethical, consider something that came out last year:

The ‘lesser of two evils’ voters who could decide 2024

June 28, 2023 …

A man from California who is a self-described “very liberal” voter likened the matchup to “choosing the lesser of two evils.” …

The NBC News poll of 1,000 registered voters — 831 of whom were reached by cellphone — was conducted June 16-20 and has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points. https://www.aol.com/news/lesser-two-evils-voters-could-090000198.html

Back in August of 2020, during that election cycle, I posted an article with the following headline:

Trump vs. Biden: Is the lesser of two evils still evil?

The Bible warns:

20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil (Isaiah 5:20).

I am NOT a voter nor a Democrat nor a Republican –I am a non-partisan Christian looking for the return of Jesus and the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

Consider that Jesus warned:

25 Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. (Matthew 12:25)

17 Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. (Luke 11:17)

The divide in the USA is growing as many of its sins (including hypocrisy) become more blatant.

As posted here many times before, I consider that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are evil.

Without going into unique specifics, let’s consider how they are similar:

They do not live like a member of their professed faiths is supposed to try to live.
They support LGBTQ matters.
They have not called for national repentance.
They have not sought first the Kingdom of God.
One is an adulterer and the other an adulteress.
They have all been involved in Administrations that greatly increased USA debt.
They have all been involved in Administrations that have upset the Europeans.
They have all been accused of hypocrisy.
They both have made a lot of public lies.
None have the real solutions for what the USA needs.

Now, I am not trying to say that there are no differences. Yes, I know they have differing economic and climate policies as well as different views on abortion and racial matters.

Notice that simply approving the LGBT agenda is condemned by the Bible:

26 … For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:26-32)

Yes, the USA election is a choice between evil ones. But do not place your hope in any human political leader.

Now, let’s look at some of what the scriptures teach are to be traits of godly leaders starting with something God had Moses write:

19 Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. 20 And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. 21 Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. (Exodus 18:19-21)

Neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump are leaders who could be called “men of truth,” nor do they truly endorse God’s laws and statutes nor do they hate covetousness.

Notice something else from the Bible:

2 “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me,
And His word was on my tongue.
3 The God of Israel said,
The Rock of Israel spoke to me:
‘He who rules over men must be just,
Ruling in the fear of God. (2 Samuel 23:2-3)

Neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump are just nor do they intend to rule in the fear of the true God.

Hence, they are not people that Christians should endorse.

Voting for Kamala Harris or voting for Donald Trump will not save the US.

The Psalmist wrote:

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. (Psalm 146:3)

Furthermore, the Bible warns:

20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil (Isaiah 5:20).

2 You shall not follow a crowd to do evil (Exodus 23:2)

The “lesser of two evils” is still evil.

The Bible warns:

16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err, And those who are led by them are destroyed (Isaiah 9:16).

That applies to both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Our current magazine goes into more issues with voting:

Here is a link to the Bible News Prophecy magazine, October-December 2024.

Some assert that is their Christian duty to vote, despite there being no scriptures which truly support that.

If Christians are not supposed to vote to select leaders, what should we do about leaders?

Pray for them!

Notice what the Apostle Paul wrote:

1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior (1 Timothy 2:1-3).

So, if you want to do something that “is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,” then pray for your political leaders!

Christians are instructed to pray for worldly leaders and those that have authority over us so that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life.

Nothing like this is said for voting that many falsely claim is their “Christian” duty–prayer for leaders is.

Related to the two major US presidential candidates, we also have the following video:

14:24

Trump vs Harris vs Scripture

Are Donald Trump and Kamala Harris qualified to be President of the United States according to its Constitution? Does the adulterer Donald Trump’s record as a businessman who declared bankruptcy multiple times and who was once President of the USA make him the best choice? Does Kamala Harris’ political positions, one or more were related to adultery, and then later being Vice-President make her the best choice? What about their positions on adultery and LGBTQ matters? Do either of them meet the biblical requirements to be leaders? Could they both be evil? Should Christians put their faith in leaders or in Jesus and His Kingdom? Dr. Thiel and Steve Dupuie go over these points.