The conventions have past. I have talked to people and it seems that most of them came out of one of the conventions energized. Since that is what conventions are supposed to do, so I guess they were a success. But the problem is that the rhetoric hasn't really been significantly altered, so they certainly don't bring the country together in a unified way. As I stated before, it isn't always agreement on the issues that makes you vote for the same candidate, but agreement on the issue you feel is most important.
There is, of course, the less than five percent of the population that feels a reasonable chance at a favorable outcome is not a reason to vote for someone, and decides to cast their vote for someone whom they know has no chance. I've spoken in math classes about how casting a vote for one of these candidates is akin mathematically to buying a lottery ticket. A good explanation to this phenomena is here.
And some will tell you that is the best thing about the United States. If someone believes that the core value of American culture is that you have the ability to throw out a protest vote of saying, "I don't like what the establishment has to offer" then convincing that person to vote for one of the candidates is nigh unto impossible. Those of us who think that voting is definitionally recognizing peoples flaws (or disagreements with us) and then seeing which one we can accept the best will come to a different conclusion, even if we agree on all the other issues.
Others think that the most important issue is abortion. The reality is that most people don't debate the correct issue on abortion. If life occurs before birth, then it should be protected. If life doesn't exist, then it isn't worth protecting. Now, I believe human biology studies give an exact answer to if life exists, especially when babies can be delivered and continue to live at some of these ages. If you think this is the most important issue, you will vote on your belief of when life begins.
Still another group exists which believes that the preservation of economic freedom might be the most important issue. While some on the other side believe that providing for those who can't provide for themselves is of central importance. If you think this is the most important issue, the pendulum of where the candidates fall in this spectrum will mostly influence your vote.
We could think of a myriad of issues that people may think are the most important. Some believe that the most important issue is that we protect our right to vote. That right allows us to re-adjust every so often based on what we see as the weaknesses of the day, similar to baseball managers being hired who are the opposite of the preceding manager to fill in the gaps and hope to capitalize off the residue of the old manager. And those people will get frustrated at all of us for arguing some of these issues, as they think that is what the vote is for.
Now, there is no magical answer book that tells you which issue is the most important all the time, though I think many issues have Scriptural positions. The problem is that regardless of those issues or whether the candidate follows them, we are bound to support the winner. The Bible requires of us to obey those who have the rule over us. It requires us to honor the King. So, regardless of what your political persuasion is, you are required to come together.
Personally, I think that may be one of the greatest things about the United States. The fact that we can disagree vehemently with someone. We can debate. We can vote. Then, we have a capacity to come together, when it is important. On November 7, we will be one country with a set of leaders that God has ordained to bring about His purposes.
Sometimes that means that we are called to persecution, as much of the first century church was. Sometimes it means that we will be given lives of relative ease, as most of the existence of the United States has been. But we are always called to be good citizens and to be good followers of Christ. That should be our core Christian value, and if enough of us do it, we could make it our core US voting value.
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