Catholic voters are going to help determine which candidate prevails in 2020, especially since they comprise a crucial voting bloc in key swing states such as Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona.
Here’s why I will be voting for Joe Biden:
As a former Democratic member of Congress from Indiana, I believed more along the lines of a pro-life voter. My role as a public servant and as a faithful Catholic were to work with others to reduce the number of abortions, not inflict my personal view of a complicated moral issue on my colleagues who represented other religions.
Biden was America’s first Catholic vice president, and might become our second Catholic president, the first being John F. Kennedy. He is steeped in our religious teachings and highly sensitive to the full scope of issues impacting life issues, from birth to prenatal care, from reproductive care to access to contraception.
Electing a Catholic who was vice president when abortions were reduced in overall numbers (during the Obama-Biden administration 2009-2017) by almost 25% is a positive sign.
While serving as U.S. ambassador to India, I personally witnessed the power of partnerships and alliances with other countries.
When we form these leveraged and effective coalitions of like-minded countries, we not only share the burden of these overseas programs cost to our taxpayers, we increase the proclivity for success. Whether it’s a program working on water security, schools for girls or disaster relief, we benefit from the collaboration, best practices from other cultures and more effective outcomes. We improve our image and increase our power abroad.
Biden believes in rebuilding our partnerships with friends and allies in the world to help America become more powerful and respected. He also intends to implement a new foreign policy to benefit our middle-class families and workers. Biden will return jobs to the Midwest.
I remember when my dad told me when I was 12 that I needed to work to pay for college. My first jobs in Mishawaka, Indiana, included mowing lawns, watering yards for families away on vacation and shoveling snow from driveways.
I learned early in life that jobs were not only about making and saving money. They represented a sense of dignity and worth. Jobs represented values associated with personal responsibility, showing up on time, and working with other people from various backgrounds.
I continued in various jobs all the way through college and graduate from school while still taking out a loan.
Biden knows that his first job as president is to help rebuild the middle class, restore equal opportunity in our economy and make the American Dream more accessible to everyone.
Coming from Scranton, Pennsylvania, he has never forgotten what good jobs and hard work mean to a family. Furthermore, he fights for Medicaid expansion and protecting people with pre-existing conditions with coverage, issues that save people thousands of dollars.
Going to Catholic grade school, I tried to embrace the lessons of early morning Mass, occasional raps on my knuckles from a wooden ruler to improve discipline and memorizing scores of Scripture and hymns. We were taught the Ten Commandments and Stations of the Cross, yet the first two New Testament Commandments have always been codes I have tried to live by: “Honor God” and “Love thy neighbor.” I know Biden practices and acts on these words each day in his family life and in his public service. Character and truth are reflected in these actions.
He respectfully listens to others, even when he disagrees. Our American leaders, even when they make mistakes and are flawed, must be held up as positive mentors and role models to our children. I can do this with Biden to our four kids.
I will vote for Joe Biden for president, not only because he’s a Catholic, but because he’s a good man trying to do good things for our deeply divided country; good things that make America, our families and our friends in the world believe that the United States is an exceptional place and capable of serving as a beacon of hope to mankind.
Biden has the class, character and midwest common sense to be a successful president for the entire country, and especially for middle America.
Tim Roemer is a former Congressman from Indiana. He served as U.S. Ambassador to India from 2009-11. The full article can be found here: The Catholic Case for Joe Biden
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