I’m Pro-life and Pro-Gun, Yet Voting Biden
I love my guns, and I’m pro-life. But a second Trump term is untenable. Here are my reasons why …
“You have to be willing to risk mistakes, delays, and disappointments, or you will be at the mercy of only the tried and true, to your ultimate peril.” — Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac in The Future We Choose
For the first time ever, I (almost) voted straight-ticket Democrat. That might not be a pivotal shift for some, but considering my generally unwavering independent stance, voting nearly straight Democrat is a fundamental shift.
I’ve made peace with this: The 2020 election is one of the most critical exercises of American democracy in history; a fight for the country’s soul, the dignity of all people, and the future of our shared planet.
The Conservative elements of my politics
I’m unashamedly pro-gun and pro-life. But I also believe in science, that climate change is real, and our healthcare and welfare systems are woefully inadequate.
Oh yeah, and that people should be treated nice.
Since the beginning of my voting career, I have attempted to succor my independent values by voting third party, thus keeping my conscience clear despite knowing my ballot was just as good as a vote for the worst candidate.
The 2020 election has changed that. I am utterly convinced that President Donald Trump is an existential threat to the planet, and he is hell-bent on continuing a campaign that flirts dangerously with ultranationalism and fascism.
Protest votes are no longer an option. The only option is to vote Trump out, and so I cast my ballot for Biden and Harris.
I largely oppose much of Biden’s gun control plan and his mission to normalize and codify Roe v. Wade. I intend to make my dissent in these matters heard through respectful, legal, and non-denigrating discourse.
As important as they are to me, gun control and Roe v. Wade are not enough to sway my vote away from Biden.
Why?
Because I’m convinced the planet will be a whole lot worse if Trump sees another term, or God forbid, “12 more years.”
Here’s my rationale.
Trump’s pro-life paper tiger
Trump is ostensibly “pro-life” on paper. His first term promise to defund Planned Parenthood failed somewhat ironically (funding actually went up). He has vowed yet again to defund Planned Parenthood in his second term, and recently signed an international anti-abortion pact. True, his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court could cement a 6–3 favor for shooting down Roe v. Wade, but there’s more to being a decent, life-honoring person than abolishing a law in the books.
Trump has undeniably shown he is anti-life by separating children from their families at the border and belittling rightful outrage against minority citizens’ needless deaths. If Trump were pro-life in the truest sense of the word, he would defend the cause of the orphan and alien. He would uphold the dignity of those questioning authority. He would console those in prison instead of funding further imprisonment. He would have done his best to beat the nation’s “swords into plowshares.” He would have used his office to support single mothers who chose to keep their babies. He would have expanded protections and support for the weakest of his constituents.
He would have been a decent person.
But I’m convinced Trump’s pretentious actions of nominating Barrett and signing an anti-abortion pact serve one purpose: Cementing conservative votes.
But Trump’s overwhelming track record of lies, abuse, scapegoating, sabotage, smearing, denigrating, back-stabbing, and disdain by-all-means-possible is what Jesus meant when he said “By their fruits, you will recognize them,” and “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Trump may be pro-life on paper, but in every measure of Christian love that I know, he has missed the mark.
And to address another tenant of Trump’s anti-life worldview: His serial denial of climate change.
The President routinely dismantles agreements, policies, and laws designed to protect peoples’ health and the environment. Unilaterally, Trump has backed out of the Paris Climate Agreement, rolled back countless policies designed to protect public health and preserve resources, and loudly championed damaging and archaic economic systems. His actions are anti-science, anti-innovation, anti-growth, and simply backward-thinking. And cumulatively, anti-love.
Between 2030 and 2050, an additional 250,000 people may die every year due to climate change. By 2050, climate change may displace 143 million people. Another Trump administration could be “game over” for a chance to avoid a runaway climate by 2050, and the above worst-case estimates will become a lot more likely.
To top it all, Trump’s dismal response to the coronavirus pandemic encapsulates his delusional obsession with denying facts and gambling peoples’ lives in order to save face. Our Commander-in-Chief refuses to wear a mask despite the evidence it could prevent helpless lives lost, and it encourages in varying degrees others to do the same. And still he walked off from the last debate absent of a mask, when his wife, the contender, and the contender’s wife wore one. Even high-ranking officials in his own party have conceded to the imperative of wearing masks.
Bottom line on pro-life: Biden is FAR from perfect … but he’s not Trump
Due to Trump’s blatant disregard for lives yet unborn and those too unimportant for consideration, I hold him personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
Trump’s irreverence of dissenting points of view, minorities, immigrants, and the nation’s most vulnerable makes him anything but the pro-life champion he makes himself out to be. Yes, Biden supports increased funding for Planned Parenthood. But Roe v. Wade will only be abolished with a Supreme Court vote or a Constitutional amendment, and the election of a pro-choice president doesn’t magically compel women to seek abortions. In fact, according to the CDC, total abortions have dropped dramatically since the beginning of the Obama Administration.
Trump would have convinced me he’s pro-life had he expanded support for single mothers and low-income families, protected vulnerable immigrants and refugees, and shown even a shred of authentic compassion for victims of police brutality.
But he hasn’t. Biden gets my vote for being pro-life by omission for this simple reason: More people will die and suffer under Trump’s anti-life agenda than all the abortions conducted under a Biden administration.
And I hate it that I’m compelled to choose the lesser of two evils.
Trump’s pro-gun paper tiger
Trump is hijacking a proud history of American gun ownership to serve an ultranationalist narrative based on fear, bigotry, and racism. His routine habit of “condemning” ultranationalism tongue-in-cheek but stoking the flames everywhere else speaks louder than words.
At the first presidential debate, our leader made one of the most terrifying calls-to-arms in American history: “Proud Boys, stand back and standby.”
Trump summoned a white supremacy and ultranationalist group to ready their arms against our democratic system. A system he knows poses a legitimate threat to his power. Trump called on the Proud Boys to defend his illegitimate claim to a fascist regime should the electoral college vote against his favor.
Trump called upon the worst of America to abuse its Second Amendment right to scare and threaten all. I resolutely say that the Proud Boys have no moral or ethical right carrying the firearms I was raised to respect and use within limits.
I love my Second Amendment right. It has provided me sustenance and self-sufficiency (message me if you want to know more about this) and has given me a degree of efficacy in the part I play in checks and balances.
But as a citizen taking full advantage of my Second Amendment rights, I’m horrified by the irony of what Trump called upon in his first debate: Use your privilege to suppress dissent.
Our founding fathers were as far off as perfect as the rest of us, but I believe more in one thing they penned than anything else:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
I unequivocally believe all people — regardless of religion, race, sexual orientation, or political affiliation — are within their rights to take up any firearm allowed by consenting law in order to protest and actualize their God-given right to self-expression.
The rights of dignity, free speech, free elections, to bear arms, to address grievances. These are inherently free to all.
I refuse to allow any of my Constitutional rights to be bastardized by fascism, ultranationalism, hatred, and fear. I am more concerned about firearms utilized for fear and intimidation under Trump’s coaxing than the minuscule chance guns will be taken away under a Biden administration. As a gun owner, I can sleep at night voting for Biden for this reason: Many of his assertions regarding firearms are plain wrong.
For example, I believe the evidence for Biden’s “assault rifle” vitriol is nearly baseless: Contrary to Biden’s elevation of “assault rifles” to a threat-priority status in gun control, I present the following figures from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting:
In 2019,
- 364 people were killed with rifles (including “assault rifles” and hunting rifles).
- 600 people were killed with fists, hands, feet, etc.
- 1,476 people were killed with knives.
- 397 people were killed with clubs and hammers.
Rifles (including the dreaded “assault rifle”) are one of the most statistically least used firearms in murders. Handguns are the worst offenders (6,368 murdered in 2019). Ironically, handguns are subject to the nation’s strictest federal and state regulations.
Why is this important? Because if I apply the same scientific rigor to climate change as I do to firearm violence, I must speak out. And the verdict is clear to me: Our next candidate MUST address climate change, protect our nation’s vulnerable, and recognize that “assault rifles” are not the greatest threat to our nation since sliced bread.
If lawmakers, lobbyists, and reasonable citizens alike are willing to look at the facts, I’m not worried about the Second Amendment’s disintegration based on empirical evidence. But empirical evidence does point to something far more menacing than gun control: Climate change and ultranationalism.
I’m convinced that Biden and my Democratic representatives will be more readily convinced of the error of their gun control campaign than Trump would be of his anti-science and common decency diatribes. And even if My elected Democratic officials won’t relent on their anti-gun campaigns, I believe in the power of the overwhelming number of gun owners — both Democrat and Republican — who would hate to have their guns taken away.
I remain hopeful that truth will prevail regardless of political affiliation. Regarding of guns and more, I expect any administration to consider its constituents’ values and act accordingly irrespective of rank-and-file politics (i.e., a lot of Democrats love their guns, and many Republicans care about climate change).
Conclusion
There is work to be done. No, it’s not in disarming the citizenry. No, it’s not in appointing “pro-life” officials on paper while routinely repealing legislation designed to serve single mothers and the disenfranchised.
What can change, what MUST change, is the compulsion to abuse our privilege to unjust, unsustainable ends.
I don’t believe gun control will be among Biden’s top priorities in the face of coronavirus, climate change, and criminal justice reform. I don’t believe there will be a significantly higher number of abortions conducted under a Biden administration than a Trump administration.
I am worried about the second term of a fascist who would willingly see millions’ rights supplanted to protect his dynasty. And this at the direct and indirect cost of countless thousands of lives.
The real work lies in creating a culture aware that all people are worthy of respect and redress of grievances. Trump must not relegate Black Lives Matter to a mob. He must not disregard climate activists as agents of the “radical left.”
And just as important, Trump, whom I believe is made in the image of God, cannot be cast away as non-human.
And so, I implore my fellow Americans to embrace the following: Death to racism, uphold the dignity of all life, protect the Constitutional rights of all, and boldly speak truth to power.
I beg all of us to be humble of opinion, resolute in conviction, and loving in persistence. And forgive, forbear, and revisit when we are both defeated and victorious.
