Editorial November 14, 1964 Issue

After an Election

Ralph E. Wagers

When elections are over and those who are elected prepare to assume their offices, voters are apt to feel that they have fulfilled their responsibility and have nothing further to do. But that is not so. One who votes is in politics as much as the one for whom he votes. The better he understands this, the more faithfully he follows through in support of his government.

Partisanship plays a useful part in election campaigns, but the one who wins is immediately called upon to submerge narrow partisanship in the art of exercising leadership wisely and in the general interest. At a time when there was strife among the disciples of Christ Jesus over which one of them should be greatest, the Master set forth a rule that has universal application (Luke 22:26): "He that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve."

The one who wins an election may not be a voter's personal choice. But because he is the choice of the majority of the electorate, he has the right and obligation to represent his entire constituency; and as a representative in government, he is entitled to the intelligent support of all those whom he represents to the extent that this is possible.

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