The United States Presidency Through My Eyes
In Philippians 3:20, the Apostle Paul writes, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” What an amazing hope we have in Christ! According to this text, those who have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ have an eternal home waiting for them in God’s commonwealth, a place we call heaven. Our ultimate place of citizenship is not found in any geopolitical location in this world. I was born in the United States of America, and I am proud to be an American. But there is an even greater reality that comforts and encourages me: I am the blood-bought child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and my future citizenship is in his eternal kingdom. The older I get, the more special my future home in God’s kingdom becomes.
While I increasingly long for God’s heavenly kingdom, I am still a proud citizen of the United States and expected to be an active resident in our country. My citizenship may ultimately be in heaven, but that does not negate my responsibility to be a faithful citizen in our earthly nation. As Christians, our citizenship in heaven should make us better citizens here. We are to eagerly expect the coming of the Lord, but while we wait, we must be faithful in this world. An important responsibility for U.S. citizens is to take part in our political process.
Here in the United States, we are closing in on another presidential election, and the tension brewing in our nation is palpable. Very shortly, we will be electing our 47th President and the stakes couldn’t be higher. The individual who holds the office of President of the United States is the most powerful person in the world, making each and every election of great importance. Our President serves as both the head of state and the head of government. The person holding the Oval Office also serves as the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces. With America’s enemies poised to do harm to our country, it’s important that our military remains strong. Our current President, Joseph R. Biden, is the 46th President of the United States. He is, however, only the 45th person ever to serve as President. Grover Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms, and is recognized as both the 22nd and the 24th President.[1] Whomever is elected as our next President will be tasked with many challenges–some of which are issues of life and death.
When I was born, Richard Nixon was serving as the 37th President of the United States of America. President Nixon is primarily known for being the only U.S. President to resign from office. His tumultuous presidency reminds us that there has never been and there will never be a perfect man or woman in the Oval Office. Sin is a reality that reaches all levels of society. Its tentacles even breach the layers of security surrounding 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. When we cast our votes this November, we must remember that there is not a perfect candidate on the ballot.
In 1972, President Nixon easily won reelection with 520 Electoral Votes. He defeated Democratic nominee George McGovern with a 23.2% margin of victory in the popular vote, the fourth largest margin in U.S. presidential election history.[2] Despite his landslide victory, President Nixon would soon be toppled by his involvement in the Watergate scandal. Facing almost certain impeachment by Congress, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency on August 8, 1974 on live television and radio. Richard Nixon left office the following day.
While I was alive during the Watergate scandal, I have no memory of it. What I do remember is seeing our 38th president, Gerald Ford, on television. Gerald Ford is the first President I actually remember. In fact, the first presidential election I watched with my father was held on November 2, 1976. When the results were in, Jimmy Carter became the 39th President when he won the election with 297 Electoral College votes to President Ford’s 240. My father’s reaction that night was simple, but memorable. “Oh no,” he grimaced. I was too young to understand much about politics, but I knew it was important to my dad and that he was not happy with how the 1976 election turned out.
Ever since that fall evening in 1976, I have followed the presidential elections with a sense of curiosity and interest. Through the years, the presidential nominees who have been put forth by the two major political parties have fascinated me. I was watching the night Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter and became the 40th President in 1980, and when he won reelection by a landslide four years later. In 1984, President Reagan captured 525 Electoral College Votes to Walter Mondale’s 13. Walter Mondale only won one state—his home state of Minnesota.
I voted in my first election in 1988 when Ronald Reagan’s Vice President, George H. W. Bush, won the Republican nomination and ran against Michael Dukakis, the Democratic Governor of Massachusetts. The 1988 election was the first time in memory that a fellow Christian whom I loved and respected announced that she was voting for someone different than my family, which overwhelmingly voted Republican. It was my first dose of political realism. I assumed everyone loved Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush; turns out I was living in a dream world. There were people who disapproved of Reagan and what he stood for. Some were even Christians. That was news to me.
In 1988, I cast my vote for George H.W. Bush. My friend proudly voted for Michael Dukakis. George H. W. Bush won big that year, and I took a very long sigh of relief. The world was going to be okay. It was at this point in my life when, like most young people, I became a bit of a political ideologue. Not a political fanatic by any means, but I assumed with President Bush’s big win the political world would continue to trend conservative for the rest of my life. Liberalism was dead, and the future looked bright. I figured President Bush would win a second term, and then turn the reins over to his Vice President, Dan Quayle. As we all know, that is not how history played out.
By the time the 1992 election came around, President Bush’s popularity was waning and there was a craving for major political change. In fact, Independent candidate Ross Perot received 19,742,267 votes in the 1992 election. Thanks to my youthfulness, combined with my brother’s influence and my growing political idealism, my vote was one of them. Likely because of the more than 19 million votes cast for businessman Ross Perot, Bill Clinton was elected 42nd President of the United States in 1992. As a recent college graduate, I really didn’t think too much about Clinton’s win. Given the frustration with President Bush, I believe most people expected him to lose. Bill Clinton’s presidency was shaken by his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky. Once again, the Oval Office was riddled with disgrace. Proving yet again that all have sinned and come woefully short of God’s glory.
In 2000, George W. Bush was elected President in one of the most hotly contested elections in history. It was the election of hanging chads, controversy, and lawsuits. It was a national spectacle centering on disputed ballots and Florida recounts. The final results between George W. Bush and Al Gore lingered for weeks, creating a tense environment that left our country waiting with bated breath to see how the election would unfold. When the United States Supreme Court decided by a 5-4 vote to reverse an order given by the Florida Supreme Court for a selective manual recount of the state’s ballots on December 12, 2000, President Bush was effectively awarded Florida’s 25 Electoral Votes, guaranteeing his victory over Democratic nominee Al Gore.[3] President Bush won Florida’s Electoral Votes by a slim margin of only 537 votes, reinforcing the idea that every vote really does matter. The 2000 election was a long and winding road, proving that the election process in a large nation like ours can be extremely complicated and vehemently contentious.
Following George W. Bush’s second term, Barack Obama stormed on the political scene and became our country’s 44th President. After President Obama’s second term in office, Donald J. Trump shocked many people when he became the 45th President in 2016. I remember during the Republican primary season saying that Donald J. Trump had no chance of being President. Boy was I wrong. President Trump developed a strong following and shook the political establishment at its core when he defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton. Donald Trump went from being known for his businesses in New York City, television shows, and cameo in Home Alone 2 to sitting in the Oval Office as our nation’s Commander-in-Chief.
Growing up in Delaware—where I visited Rehoboth Beach often—Joe Biden is a name I have known my whole life; he was one of Delaware’s two senators from January 3, 1973 to January 15, 2009. My father had little regard for Senator Biden, and his opinion hasn’t changed. In the late 1980s, my dad wrote a letter to Mr. Biden and to Delaware’s other senator, William Roth, to express a concern about college financial aid. Senator Roth personally answered my father with a two-page letter. Then Senator Joe Biden’s response was two sentences, which my dad described as “garbage” and “gibberish.”
Joe Biden unsuccessfully ran for President in 1988 and 2008. He was forced out of both races in short order, but was sworn in as Barack Obama’s Vice President in 2009. In 2020, Joe Biden was finally elected President of the United States and took office on January 20, 2021. When President Biden abruptly announced that he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential election following a horrific debate performance against Republican nominee Donald J. Trump, this year’s election cycle was thrown into a tailspin.
In a few short weeks, President Biden’s long political career will come to an end. He will be replaced by either his Vice President, Kamala Harris, who would become our nation’s first female President, or Donald J. Trump who would become the first President to serve two nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland who, as previously mentioned, served as our 22nd and 24th President.
With the 2024 election looming over the horizon like an ominous raincloud, long gone are my naïve perspectives about politics. Governments are ordained by God and necessary for civilizations to function. But there are no perfect human governments. The world is a sinful place, and no one is immune from sin’s tantalizing effects. No election is perfect, and no presidential candidate is without sin. Nonetheless, as a proud citizen of the United States of America, I will soon cast my vote for the presidential candidate that I believe will promote biblical principles as much as possible. Neither candidate is flawless; like all of us, both have strengths and weaknesses. But I will choose the one whom I believe will most likely defend personal liberty, protect life, promote human flourishing, safeguard free speech, defend our nation, and preserve our right to freely worship.
As Christians, we should care deeply about our nation, and faithfully exercise our right and privilege to vote. What concerns me most about this election is not who will win, but how Christians view this year’s election. I have four specific concerns that I want you to consider. First, I am concerned about Christians who are frustrated with the election process or the candidates and will choose not to vote. Remember, you don’t have to personally like a candidate to vote for that person. There is certainly plenty to be frustrated about, but that is no excuse to refrain from voting. Second, I am concerned about believers who have made politics their religion. Participating in the political process is important, but politics must never become our god. In Matthew 22:21, Jesus taught his disciples to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. But Jesus also said that we are to give to God that which belongs to Him. Our ultimate allegiance belongs to our Creator, not to human government. Third, I am concerned about those Christians who lose hope when their candidate doesn’t win. How some Christians respond to elections sometimes makes me wonder if politicians matter more to some believers than Jesus does. We claim to believe that God is sovereign, but our reactions to elections often makes me wonder how many Christians actually believe that to be true. Daniel served in a pagan government, but he never lost hope in Almighty God. Fourth, I am concerned that too many Christians have made this world their home to the point that they forget our ultimate citizenship is in God’s glorious kingdom. As sojourners and wanderers, we must keep our focus on Jesus Christ, the only one who will one day be our perfect King.
At the time of this writing, there are 41 days until the election. Pundits have plenty of opinions as to who they believe will win and why. I don’t pretend to know who will be elected to serve as our 47th President. My only prediction is we will likely not know who won on election night. I pray we don’t have to endure another tumultuous election like the one we experienced in 2000. But it’s possible. I have even played with the electoral map on 270towin.com and my prediction produced a tie. Wouldn’t that be something? All I know is whoever wins the 2024 election will not thwart in any way, shape, or form God’s sovereign plan for the world.
On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, citizens of the United States will hit the polls. Later that night, after the polls close, the returns will start trickling in. I’ll watch. For a while. But predicting it will be a long, tense night before we know who won (assuming we know at all on election night), I’ll be in bed at my normal time. Sleeping comfortably. Leaving the results to my true King.
[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/our-government/the-executive-branch/
[2] https://www.270towin.com/1972_Election/
[3] https://www.britannica.com/event/Bush-v-Gore