The Lesser of Two Evils, Abortion, and Trump
Somebody asked on Instagram if it is acceptable to vote for the lesser of two evils in a political system like ours. I said that it was, so long as your intention for voting for Lesser Evil is to limit the more extreme evil the other candidate would promote. On this assessment people have a principled reason to vote for Trump in November because of Joe Biden’s position on abortion (now even more so with his VP pick of Kamala Harris, who, instead of targeting Planned Parenthood for harvesting and selling the body parts of murdered babies, attacked the journalist who exposed this nauseating atrocity, which should outrage every American far beyond any “mean” thing Trump has ever Tweeted) which is intrinsically evil. Morally speaking, life-rights issues such as abortion are of highest priority and concern, legitimate a single-issue vote and provide moral warrant for endorsing an otherwise undesirable candidate. What’s more, is Biden frequently flouts himself as Catholic, while knowingly going against Church teaching. This is not a flattering look, because it leaves one with limited explanatory options: Either Biden is impressively stupid, a hypocrite/liar, or, in fact, demented. Regarding option #1, I cannot imagine Biden is unaware of Catholic teaching on abortion, especially since he was denied communion at least once because of his position. I leave that assessment to the reader; my general point stands, regardless. Because the candidates are starkly opposed on the abortion issue, with Trump being pro-life and Biden being pro-abortion, one could, and indeed should – even if they otherwise detest Trump’s personality, and/or prefer many of Biden’s other policies – cast their vote for Trump over Biden in November. That is the principled thing to do, given the moral gravity of the situation.
Of course, people will respond there are other moral issues to consider: healthcare, immigration, education, and so on. And all this is true, but these issues are less fundamental and certainly less straightforward than issues surrounding the protection of the right to life. Healthcare is something every person should advocate for, but reasonable disagreements can be had about whether that is something government is responsible for, or even capable of providing in our current situation without promoting worse outcomes/evils. (Imagine, for example, instituting a system of universal healthcare, that itself considers abortion to be healthcare!) Same with immigration. Our country has an obligation to welcome immigrants and assist foreigners, as all prosperous nations do, but it also has an obligation to protect its citizens, and that is where responsible policy debate can be had, since there is no intrinsic evil in restricting immigration, given there is often good reason to do so. The point is none of these issues – however important, and whatever else their moral content – are sufficient to override the intrinsic evil of promoting abortion, which is truly our modern-day holocaust. The latter outweighs all the former, in much the same way as a person would be morally obligated to vote for the any candidate who was anti-holocaust even if they found seriously problematic their other policies regarding public education, healthcare, taxation, and so on; assuming, of course, the opposing candidate was pro-holocaust, as Biden/Harris are pro-abortion. Some moral issues are just too big to overlook, and so moral reasoning may cause us to occasionally cast a vote in favor of somebody we might otherwise never go in for. Such is the mark of political maturity, understanding the doctrine of double effect, and that politics in our current age is quite often an unpleasant but necessary game.
– Pat
PS – Remember that rights are hierarchical, if rights exist at all. The right to life is the most fundamental, from which other rights, such as property, privacy, etc, derive their legitimacy. It therefore makes no sense to put what is otherwise an instrumental right (such as property, privacy, education, etc) above what is an intrinsic right (life). By undermining the latter you undermine the former.
For a more detailed defense of why abortion is gravely immoral and should be legally prohibited in all forms, see my conversation with philosopher Stephen Napier. Also my podcast with Dr. Michael Rota on motivated reason.