1. It’s almost impossible to discuss this without implicitly breaking rule 3; character in leadership, moral clarity, and thoughtfulness about the issues are far more important than specific positions on issues. If a national crisis strikes over the next four years, we don’t always have the foresight to come up with policy ahead of time, but we can look at the character, moral clarity, and thoughtfulness of our leaders to see if they are prepared. We didn’t vote on COVID policies in 2016, but we could have easily seen how a crisis would be handled.
2. Sane, boring government is good government.
3. Her parents — particularly her mom — were extremely impressive people. It’s a small thing, but apples and trees and all. I like a good immigrant story.
4. Faith and government has come up several times already in this thread, but I look at it from the other direction. My faith is very important to me and I think a healthy church is good for communities. The past decade has been really bad for the health of the church and caused incredible damage to any sense of its moral standing. It’s hard to preach the Gospel when “Christian” rightly becomes synonymous with wickedness. Church involvement in government corrupts both. Voting for people who value separation makes for a better, more effective church and also keeps the government from descending into whatever is happening these days.
5. Family values, the economy, sane foreign policy. It’s nice to be able to let my son hear the president speak without worrying about answering lots of grown up questions about disgusting, degenerate things (with no disrespect to present company).