The Too Popular Vote

Liberian President Charles D.B. King was a popular candidate, perhaps a bit too popular. When he ran for reelection in May of 1927, He won with a record-setting 234,000 votes. That was impressive since the nation only had 15,00 registered voters. The election would since lay claim to the most fraudulent in history.

In elections popularity is the goal. People want to be seen as the choice of everyone, yet even in that venue, it is rarely the case (At least when you are not cheating). Yet we often try to use popularity as the criteria for our choices.

We think ‘everyone is doing it’ makes it OK. We claim ‘lots of people think something’ to justify its correctness. We look at the direction of a crowd and think it is the way to go.

We even use the appearance of numbers to push our agendas. I can tell of serval times I heard the critic of ‘people’ complaining to find out just one or two folks. The reality of the few would not move the needle but when we make it a crowd it pushes us to action.

So, should we be so obsessed with being on the popular side?

Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. The many may be easy and clear but lead to destruction. Few are the pathway to life. There is no ‘safety in numbers’ rather they may be leading you to doom.

Rather than appeal to the masses we need to be more concerned with right and proper. Just because you have a lot of people on your side doesn’t mean that the vote is accurate.

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