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Elections have consequences

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By Jim Thompson 
HCP columnist

Have you checked into a hotel lately? If you have, no doubt you had to show a credit card and your identification.

Was the hotel a Marriott-branded property? Then you just donated to the Church of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons). The Marriott family is well known as very active Mormons.

So what is the difference from this scenario and going into a polling place, showing your ID and voting for Mitt Romney? Nothing, unless you don’t like Mr. Romney’s policies, which is certainly your right.

I happen to avoid Marriott properties, because, on a religious level, I am not that all excited about supporting the Mormon Church. I would buy gasoline in gas stations that do not sell lottery tickets, too, if I could find one.

I will push my empty car past a CITGO, the national brand of Venezuela. I try to watch where my money goes.

If you are of certain persuasions, you may have entirely the opposite reaction to me. You may not vote for Mr. Romney, because he is a Mormon, and yet not give a second thought about staying in Marriott properties. That is your choice, but one you should at least think about.

I don’t mind showing my ID anywhere, because I have nothing to hide. In fact, I usually have three on me — my driver’s license, my military ID, and my passport.

Those who don’t want to show their ID or don’t want to go to the effort to get an ID seem to perhaps have something to hide, and also seem reluctant to put forth even a minimal effort in order to participate in modern society.

There is plenty of evidence that nefarious groups are using the lack of ID requirements to attempt to stuff the ballot boxes this fall. People interested in an honest election should support voter ID.

As far as Mormons are concerned, I am not crazy about voting for one, but the alternative, a president who worships at St. Golf Course or the Immaculate Double Eagle, is even worse.

Mormons do have many good social qualities and as long as the First Amendment is protected (something candidate Romney seems more likely to do than the incumbent), I can live with a Mormon president.

A lame duck second term by President Obama is something to be concerned about. Without an election to worry about, his profligate expansion of the use of the Executive Order and the appointing of non-ratified czars should be a concern for everyone, even if the opposition wins both houses of Congress.

Our president is clearly bent on turning us into a European social experiment by any means, legal or illegal.

Speaking of European social experiments, a couple of months ago, I wrote in this column about the election of François Hollande as President of France.

He is a far-left socialist who promised the voters a path of prosperity with no worries. It took only 100 days for the voters to sour on him. The cities of Amiens and Toulouse have become cities under siege as the population, especially the unemployed younger generations, have become enraged with Hollande’s inability to quickly live up to his promises

Likewise, in Egypt, where only a few weeks ago, everyone was celebrating free and democratic elections, the population is finding they elected a despot in the form of Mohamed Morsi, a confirmed member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood is now crucifying opposition activists on trees in front of the presidential palace. Elections have consequences.

So, worrying a bit about someone’s rights being violated because they have to show an ID, just like they would to get on an airplane, stay in a hotel or buy a bottle of beer, seems quite shallow when compared to the problems elections have wrought recently in other countries.

And to think that someday (I am specifically not saying in the next presidential term), elections here could result in similar atrocities is certainly a sobering proposition. After all, it wasn’t that many years ago that the aforementioned Venezuela was the shining beacon of democracy in South America.

Elections do have consequences.

The last one surely did and the next one surely will. Think with both sides of your brain when you head into the voting booth in a couple of months. You will be deciding issues affecting your family for unborn generations to come.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga., following decades of wandering the world, and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.

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