If the Congress of the United States is, in fact, out of touch with the electorate, it is largely due to the electorate being out of touch with the Constitution of the United States of America. We are far too often, as individuals, guilty of allowing others to define the societal guidelines for us to consider. Unfortunately, many of us are also lacking in spiritual understanding sufficient to apply gospel principles to temporal inclinations. In order to fully appreciate, and understand the wisdom contained in the Founding Principles one must seek the guidance of Him who sanctioned, and blessed those principles. While it is, for those of us who are adherents to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, critical to involve ourselves politically, we must also be vigilant in discerning the spiritual intentions of those who are attempting to persuade us that they have an infinite understanding concerning the thoughts of the Founders of the Costitution. As a body of Christlike aspirants we must always allign ouselves with the Word of Christ first. Only through the aid of the Holy Ghost will we be able to spiritually connect with wisdom, and understanding eminating from Him who is able to discern all things. As a follower of Christ, and a political, and social conservative, I must proclaim myself an independant thinker who prefers to act rather than be acted upon. When I present myself at the polling place, I will invite the spirit to enter with me, and I’ll be confident that only those who are spiritually similar will know that I did not enter the voting booth alone. It is my prayer during this crucial time in our history that we will all awaken our spiritual understanding sufficient to sustain, and support only those who truely demonstrate that they possess the character, and patriotic spirit vitally needed to reweave the cloth which binds the Constitution of the United States of America to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Michael,
In all seriousness I’d like to ask if when you go into the voting booth with the guidance of the Spirit, you might be presuming that you can pick out the righteous candidates from the unrighteous? What if, and I suggest this is likely the case, that BOTH candidates are unrighteous. Do you then choose from the lesser of two evils? Or, if you have no clue who the candidates are, you choose the one which you have heard the most about? Or, do you simply cast NO vote if you haven’t studied the choices sufficiently? Does the Spirit lead us in the voting booth if we have not first studied it out in our hearts and minds and are ignorant?

I registered to vote absentee, so that my vote would have a paper trail. So, last night I sat down with my absentee ballot, and started voting. I found that there were candidates on there that I had no clue who they were. The only ones I knew about were the guys with the big bucks to buy expensive advertizing. These rich candidates do not represent my views. The unknowns with less money I had never heard of (with the exceptions of the ones running against Hatch and Bishop). I also found that there was an amendment to the Utah Constitution I was not aware of. The only recourse I had was to sit down with the ballot and the Voter Information booklet and start studying. (Is that booklet telling us the truth?) There were also local school and county officials on the ballot who I’d never heard of. There were also a string of judges to vote Yes or No on. Will the Spirit guide in ignorance because we have simply said a prayer before walking into the black-box voting booth?

The round-table debate on meet the press last Sunday seemed to suggest the reason for the 14% approval rating for Congress was due to two seperate issues: The democratic-leaning Americans are dissatisfied because Congress is unable to get USA out of Iraq, and the republican-leaning Americans are dissatisfied with Congress because of immigration, etc.

In other words, the overall feeling of Americans is dissatisfaction with Congress, but not for any one specific reason.

Congress is the problem, not the solution.