Election 2024: We Don’t All Want the Same Thing

“But we don’t all want the same things, do we?”

Over a decade ago, I read these words from Professor J. Budziszewski, an atheist-turned-Catholic, in his incredible book What We Can’t Not Know. The sentence struck me profoundly, and I occasionally recall his words as we trudge through the long-standing and now accelerating culture war—a war that may well bring down our nation but which many citizens claim doesn’t even exist.

But the war does exist, and it exists as a clash between those who acknowledge the natural law (the universal moral law of God that is binding on all men) and those who reject it. Those who love the True God, and those who hate or ignore Him. 

The words of Dr. Budziszewski came back to me again today, as I considered the bizarre presidential campaign we are enduring. When a politician speaks of “unity,” or proclaims the need to “unify the country,” it’s simply spin, or a pipe dream. Because we don’t all want the same things, do we?

I began noticing a talking point among Democrats when Obama was president, and it has continued with Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, the presidential press secretaries, and pretty much all on the Left: when their “progressive” policies are rejected by regular Americans, they insist that the problem is only a matter of poor “messaging.” “Oh, we have not been good about making our case. We need to have better messaging so that the folks understand.”

Um, no. Conservatives do understand, all too well, and we reject what you are offering. The rift is not in the messaging; the rift is real and unbridgeable because, well, we don’t all want the same things, do we?  The rift is not in the messaging; the rift is real and unbridgeable because, well, we don’t all want the same things, do we?Tweet This

After watching the Kamala Harris campaign for weeks now, and observing the many Americans who are committed to voting for her, it is obvious that there are essentially four reasons for their vote—and none of them are good:

1. Abortion. Child-killing through all nine months, to the crushing of bones and ripping of flesh. This is the first and most furiously promoted true-love-passion of the Democrats. Nothing else even comes close.

2. LGBTQIA2S++++. All things “gay,” “queer,” and “trans,” down to and including grooming schoolchildren to accept, admire, and even partake in the crusade. 

3. Marxism/Communism/Socialism. They can call it by any euphemism they want, but “equity” of outcomes forced by government dictate is communism—which is godless, and eventually, inevitably, murderous.

4. “She’s a (black) woman!” This is the most stupendously vacuous reason on which to base a vote, but Americans have been taught to think in terms of race and sex, not merit and policy.

These four are the only reasons your friends, neighbors, and family members have for voting Democrat. (“But I’m voting for universal healthcare!” etc., falls under #3, socialism.) 

The first three reasons are sinful in themselves, and the first two (willful murder and sodomy) are what the Church calls “sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance”—sins so grave that they call down God’s divine justice. The implications are too terrifying to ponder, although Catholics voting for Democrats really need to do so. 

To be sure, the Republican Party is infuriating and hapless. It is on a real moral decline, and it now accepts way too many abortions and the perversion of marriage. But the rate of decline is slower, and the Republicans still, for now, accept and welcome traditional viewpoints.

Republicans generally do not despise faithful Catholics or want to see us crushed and silenced. They are not actively hateful of Christ and His Church. With the GOP, we are still at the “if they are not against us, they are with us” point. But Democrats? They are firmly against us. They actively villainize faithful Catholics, and they should not be handed power—especially by Catholic voters.

We are a nation divided and on the precipice. We are not all “working toward the same goals,” and we are not “building back better” together. We cannot reconcile the two sides or heal this divide, no matter what the politicians tell you, because we don’t all want the same things, do we? 

Lord Jesus, have mercy on the United States of America as we make our decision in November.