For a Future of Freedom: Elect E.W. Jackson Lieutenant Governor of Virginia

I am honored to wholeheartedly endorse E.W. Jackson for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia

Like most Americans, I am tired of cardboard politicians who smile and glad-hand, pretending that they have convictions, until they get into office and turn their access into a stepping stone to pursue a different agenda.  We need a change. E.W. Jackson is that change. We can build a future of authentic freedom for our children and grandchildren. However, to do so, we need men and women in public office like E.W. Jackson. I invite all Virginians to join me on November 5, 2013 and elect him to the office of Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

P>CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - I am a Virginian by choice. My wife and I moved to the Commonwealth decades ago. We raised our five children here and have six grandchildren.  Hailing from the inner city of Boston as a child, I grew up in a blue-collar, Irish and French Catholic family. 

Though my family was identified with the Democratic Party, that Party left me years ago when, with all of their talk about concern for the poor, they refused to hear the cry of the ones whom Mother Teresa called the poorest of the poor, our first neighbors in the home of whole human race, their mother's womb.

I never formally registered as a Republican when my family moved to Virginia. The Commonwealth did not require such an action. I do not identify much with the Republican Party these days, especially the establishment wing of that party. Rather, I try to consider the candidate, his or her character and their positions on the issues which matter most.
 
As a Catholic citizen, I inform my exercise of faithful citizenship with the principles offered in the Social teaching of my Church. I know that those principles are not simply "religious", in the sense of offered only for religious people. Rather, they are rooted in the Natural Moral law and serve the common good of society.

Those principles include; respect for all human life at every age and stage, recognition and protection of marriage between a man and a women - and the family and the society founded upon it; authentic human freedom - with religious freedom as the first freedom; solidarity with the poor (in all of their manifestations) and an approach to good governance which starts at the smallest level, the first government, the family.

I am a constitutional lawyer, a writer, an entrepreneur and a member of the Catholic clergy, a deacon. However, I write this endorsement as a private citizen. It is my first explicit and public endorsement as a private citizen in a statewide race in Virginia. I am honored to wholeheartedly endorse E.W. Jackson for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia.

I have decided to take this action of making a personal endorsement because I believe that the difference in the visions of a future offered by the opposing candidates is crystal clear. I want a future of freedom for my children and grandchildren in the Commonwealth and the Nation I love.

I know E.W. Jackson very well. I have known him for decades. I know what he believes. I know how he lives his life. I know his gifts. I have witnessed his courage in the face of efforts to impugn him, caricature him, and marginalize him. I know the mettle of this man and I am honored to call him my friend.

The American founders spoke of self evident truths and inalienable rights. E.W. Jackson stands on their shoulders and shouts that message to the housetops. His campaign slogan, Let Liberty Light the Way for Virginia, speaks of the depth of his vision for governance. It is not the typical political speak. It is a rallying cry for a future of authentic freedom. 
That is what is at stake in this election.

Virginia is the birthplace of Religious Liberty.  Jackson was educated at Harvard Law School and is a brilliant man. He fully understands the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He will defend the First Freedom, Religious Freedom, at a time when it is under a wholesale assault.

Jackson knows that the HHS mandate, through which Obamacare will be enforced, violates the fundamental Right to Religious Freedom and the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution. It is a threat to authentic freedom. E.W. Jackson will courageously stand up to the Obama Administration and defend the Church, all religious institutions, and all people of conscience and good will against this threat to liberty. 

There are repeated efforts to paint E.W. Jackson as some kind of religious 'extremist' by his opponent. Nothing could be further from my own experience of E.W. Jackson over many years. He is a genuinely humble and authentically tolerant man. The efforts of his opponent to frighten people into thinking otherwise is not only offensive, it smacks of everything that is wrong with contemporary politics.

Yes, E.W. Jackson is a man of deep principle. Yes, he is morally coherent. However, that is an asset and not a liability in an age of cardboard candidates and political puffery. The truly intolerant are those, such as his opponent, who disparage this good man and seek to impose their own form of religious test upon public office by insinuating that an evangelical Christian cannot hold public office in our Commonwealth.  

I am a Catholic Christian and E.W. is an evangelical Protestant Christian. We disagree on some issues of important theological concern to both of us. However, he is not running for State theologian. He is running for the office of Lieutenant Governor. He is right on the issues which matter most and he has my unqualified endorsement. 

He has courage in an age of cowardice. He was the David in a modern day David and Goliath political struggle which played itself out over months in a hotly contested primary election battle. He electrified the nominating convention with his speech. He has electrified crowds around the Commonwealth ever since the nomination.

That is because he is one of the finest orators I have ever heard; a skill greatly needed in an hour when those with the wrong positions espouse them, sometimes even with oratorical finesse. This man is the real deal. The passion he communicates is rooted in principles which guide his life and will inform his public service. We need such a man in public office.

Jackson has the full array of gifts needed for public service and the tenacity it takes to govern at this critical time. In his heroic defense of the fundamental Human Right to Life, he is accused of being against progress and anti-science. However, science confirms what our conscience knows, those little girls and boys in the womb are our neighbors.

It is always wrong to intentionally kill our innocent neighbors. To say and do otherwise is wrong.  EW Jackson is Pro-Life because it is right. He knows we must restore the Right to life of our youngest neighbors in the womb. 

Just as in the days of Lincoln we could not be half slave and half free, America will be truly free only when she welcomes every child into her national embrace and recognizes that the inalienable right to life is the foundation of freedom itself.

He believes that the freedom to educate children must be returned to those who are the first and best teachers, parents. Parental choice in education is a civil rights issue. No parent should be forced to send their child to an unsafe or unqualified school.

He will work to set parents free to make the choice as to where formal education can best occur for their children, no matter their economic situation. That choice should include the full array of all options for all parents--- public, private, parochial, charter, or home schools. He will promote constitutionally sound parental choice initiatives.

He understands that government is best when it is exercised by those closest to the need - and reflects the moral values of a free and good people. This approach to governance informs his positions across the board.

It is shown in his support of the free economy and expanding participation to more and more people in a bottom up approach to economic freedom. It is evident in his respect for the role of parents and his commitment to providing them with the opportunity of choosing where to continue their teaching of their children by expanding their educational options, no matter what their economic status.

As a small businessman, he knows that the engine of our economy is economic freedom. His positions on the economic concerns facing Virginia reflect his commitment to economic freedom. He will help to open up participation in the free economy to as many of our citizens as possible.

Finally, what is of the highest importance in my decision to publicly endorse publicly E.W. Jackson is his proven, tested character. This is an indispensable requirement for anyone who enters into the rough and tumble of politics these days.

Like most Americans, I am tired of cardboard politicians who smile and glad-hand, pretending that they have convictions, until they get into office and turn their access into a stepping stone to pursue a different agenda.  We need a change. E.W. Jackson is that change.

We can build a future of authentic freedom for our children and grandchildren. However, to do so, we need men and women in public office like E.W. Jackson. I invite all Virginians to join me on November 5, 2013 and elect him to the office of Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

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Keith A Fournier and his wife Laurine live in Chesapeake, Virginia. He is a constitutional lawyer, a writer, a businessman and serves as the Editor in Chief of Catholic Online. Fournier is a Catholic deacon and is currently completing the dissertation for a PhD in Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America.  This information is provided for identification purposes only and does not imply any institutional endorsement.

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