7 A final word

We apologize for our delay in publishing this month's issue of the newsletter. Chalk it up to our being on back-to-back vacations, first to Idaho and then to Georgia. But now we're home for a little while.

The same day we returned home Claudia and I went in the evening to cast an early vote for the candidates and issues of our liking. A benefit of early voting is that you can with good conscience totally ignore the obnoxious TV and radio ads, the campaign literature that shows up in the mailbox, and the annoying political phone calls.

Someone once said that democracy is a messy business. It is indeed. And though there are calls from both sides of the aisle for more civility in our public discourse, the discord is certainly not new. At least real or perceived affronts these days are handled with attack ads and not public duels, as in the early days of the Republic. Historically, we have been arguing, attacking, slandering, and disliking our opponents at least ever since John Adams became the second president of the United States. John Adams (the second president) and Thomas Jefferson (the third president), once close friends, became completely estranged and did not communicate with each other for years. Fortunately, they reconciled sometime before they both died on the same day, July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

History, it seems, is more cyclical than linear.

But however much we pay attention to or ignore the political wrangling that precedes an election, it is our duty to go vote this coming Tuesday if we have not already done so. Voting is the price of our citizenship.

In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith in August 1833, the Lord outlined an approach to the kind of candidate we should support and our approach to constitutional government in general:

And now, verily I say unto you concerning the laws of the land, it is my will that my people should observe to do all things whatsoever I command them.

And that law of the land which is constitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me.

Therefore, I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending that law which is the constitutional law of the land;

And as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil.

I, the Lord God, make you free, therefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free.

Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn.

Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil (D&C 98:4-10).

We are to seek for and uphold candidates who are honest, good, and wise.

Some 40-plus years later, as our nation was celebrating its 100th birthday, James A. Garfield (who went on to become the 20th president of the United States) said much the same thing: "Now, more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. If [one hundred years from now] our next centennial does not find us a great nation . . . it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces" ("A Century of Congress," in The Works of James Abram Garfield, ed. Burke Hinsdale, Boston, 1883, 2:486, 489).

And to all of that we add, may the best man (or woman) win.