Judicial Activism, Job Outsourcing Issues Loom in Presidential Election
by Allie Martin and Fred Jackson
March 9, 2004
(AgapePress) - Two high-profile Christian spokesmen are weighing in on the anticipated Bush-Kerry battle shaping up for November. One encourages Christian voters to vote according to their principles -- and the other cautions the Bush White House not to leave the door open for Kerry on the issue of American jobs going overseas.Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson says Christians need to vote their convictions, not their pocketbooks, when they head to the polls later this year.
Dr. Robertson, who himself was once a presidential candidate, says the upcoming election could be the last chance for the nation to reverse it moral slide.
"If the Supreme Court isn't changed and the radical left has its way, this country is basically doomed," the televangelist says, "because the Supreme Court, according to Justice Scalia, has taken sides in the culture war. It has come down on the side of the irreligious left."
Robertson, who also founded the Christian Coalition, adds that voters will have a clear choice in the presidential election. President Bush, he says, will help rein in judicial activism.
"We need a president who will appoint judges who will uphold the Constitution and are what you'd call 'strict constructionists," he says. "If we have somebody with a different mindset in there, we'll be in serious trouble. So I think this election, the majority in the Senate is very important. There are a number of open seats that could play a pivotal role."
Bauer on Jobs
Meanwhile, another leading conservative is warning that the Bush Administration's perceived indifference to American jobs being shipped overseas could well drive heartland voters to the John Kerry camp.
Pro-family leader Gary Bauer says on a visit to his home state of Kentucky over the weekend, there was the same "sour mood" about continued job losses that he observed in conservative western Michigan the week before. And he notes a similar unrest evolving in North Carolina where people in textiles, furniture, and fiber optics are losing their jobs to low-paid workers in places like China.
"If President Bush want to have a second term," the American Values president says, "his Administration has to do more than suggest that job outsourcing is merely the marketplace at work. The marketplace doesn't have to run for re-election [and] workers in Beijing and Calcutta don't get to vote in U.S. elections."
Bauer says the Bush White House needs to start talking about the fears and anxieties of American families or it runs the risk of John Kerry "hijacking the heartland."
