Wouldn’t it be great if we could ask our founders for their advice at our midterm elections on November 3… and for early voting, which started as soon as September 18 in some states.

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The good news is that, through their writings, we can get a pretty good idea of how they would have voted on issues and candidates.

I developed three monologues on founders Thomas Jefferson, Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, and Rev. John Bacon. I performed the last two at IFA’s Rededicate America at the Museum of the Bible.

Here are some applications of facts I uncovered that apply to our midterms:

They already knew that socialism wouldn’t work. The Pilgrims tried it, and it failed miserably.

In 1824, Mr. Jefferson wrote to English political reformer John Cartwright, “Nothing… is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.” Marxism is known for stripping the rights — especially religious liberty — of its subjects.

They would have voted for Christians. In fact, a majority of the original state constitutions required some sort of statement of Christian faith for those running for office.

They would have stood against anti-Semitism. Dr. Jim Garlow told us at Rededicate America how Haym Salomon, a Jewish financier, funded the Continental Army and the Continental Congress. He also gave private no-interest loans to leaders like Mr. Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. When he ran out of his own funds, Mr. Salomon went to synagogues to raise support. The Jewish people were honored with a Star of David made of 13 stars in the Great Seal of the United States of America, which you can quickly find on the back of a $1 bill.

Mr. Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were both on the committee to create the Great Seal of the United States of America, and they both proposed images of the Children of Israel being led by the Lord with the Pillar of Cloud by day and Fire by night. Mr. Jefferson — who pictured them in the wilderness — ultimately supported Mr. Franklin’s image, pictured here:

They would have voted against Muslim candidates. In 1783, Mr. Jefferson and John Adams, both European diplomats at the time, looked into why the Barbary pirates were attacking American ships that had done them no harm. They discovered the pirates felt “it was their duty to make war upon them [non-Muslims] wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could as Prisoners, and that every Mussleman [Muslim] who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.” Once Mr. Jefferson was President, his administration declared war against them in May 1801.

They would have voted for biblical values. The continent was dedicated to the Lord three times: 1565 in St. Augustine (now Florida), 1607 in Cape Henry (now Virginia), and 1620 in Plymouth (now Massachusetts).

There were many calls by the Continental Congress for days of humiliation, fasting, and prayer. One of the most notable was May 17, 1776, because it was exactly 250 years before our nation was rededicated to the Lord.

The War for Independence followed fast on the heels of the First Great Awakening, so a huge percentage of the populace was Christian, and 75-80% of our population attended churches. Also, the best instructors were pastors, using the Bible as their main textbook.

Nearly half of the signers of the Declaration of Independence attended colleges established to train pastors. 

Mr. Jefferson wrote to Thomas Law, Esq., on June 13, 1814:

It shows how necessary the care of the Creator was in making the moral principle so much a part of our constitution as that no errors of reasoning or of speculation might lead us astray from its observation in practice. … I think [a moral instinct] the brightest gem with which the human character is studded, and the want of it as more degrading than the most hideous of the bodily deformities.

And on May 17, 1776, Rev. Dr. Witherspoon preached:

Nothing is more certain than that corruption of manners makes a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual.

They would have voted against abortion and those who support it. At the United Nations Summit, hosted by Rev. Dr. Jim and Rosemary Schindler Garlow on September 17 and 18, I appeared as Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, and I — as Rev. Dr. Witherspoon — asked Dr. Garlow what was going on. They addressed a number of issues being pushed by the UN, and when Dr. Garlow mentioned abortion, I said, “How wonderful! There are far too many stillbirths!” In the 18th century, the word abortion described miscarriages. Dr. Garlow explained what the word means today, and I felt how stunned Rev. Dr. Witherspoon might have felt to know such a thing was going on.

A participant on our prayer walk outside the UN told me that Rev. Dr. Witherspoon did address infanticide. During a lecture at what is now Princeton University, he said:

Some nations have given parents the power of life and death over their children. … But here in America, we have denied the power of life and death to parents.

In Notes on the State of Virginia, Mr. Jefferson commented on a practice by the Cherokees:

The women very frequently attending the men in their parties of war and of hunting, child-bearing becomes extremely inconvenient to them. It is said, therefore, that they have learnt the practice of procuring abortion by the use of some vegetable; and that it even extends to prevent conception for a considerable time after.

He mentioned this to illustrate their “barbarism.”

They would not have taken lightly to a coup. Since October 22, IFA has been covering the leaks revealing a planned “Red Line” coup on the heels of our midterm elections. Some may think our founders staged a coup, but they made a very public declaration of their intent to separate, and five of the grievances in the Declaration of Independence addressed the fact that Great Britain had already been waging war on its own colonists.

They worked and prayed hard while developing our Constitution, the first of its kind for a nation in history.

On May 17, 1776, Rev. Dr. Witherspoon preached:

The knowledge of God and His truths have from the beginning of the world been chiefly, if not entirely, confined to those parts of the earth where some degree of liberty and political justice were to be seen, and great were the difficulties with which they had to struggle, from the imperfection of human society, and the unjust decisions of usurped authority.

Let’s pray Christians get out and vote in record-breaking numbers during these midterms. Let’s pray they vote as our founders would have, and let’s pray the ill-begotten plan to stage a coup would be stopped in its tracks.

Post your thoughts about how our founders would have voted and your prayers for our midterms and the planned coup in the comments.

Rich Swingle has presented in 42 nations on six continents, mostly with his own one-man plays. Rich and his bride Joyce Swingle have 41 “screen children” from film, stage, and audio drama projects. He’ll be interviewed as Rev. Bacon on the 253rd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, December 16. The Swingles’ home mission is New York City. www.RichDrama.com. Photo Credit: Howard Chandler Christy – The Indian Reporter.