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Amish wheeling out the vote for bush Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/28/wus328.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/28/ixworld.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/28/wus328.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/28/ixworld.html
Why the Amish are wheeling out the vote
(Filed: 28/10/2004)
A staunchly religious community believes it can make a difference and help Bush win the White House. David Rennie in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, reports
Gideon Stoltzfus, a Republican with a lifelong interest in politics, went to his first ever campaign rally yesterday. Mr Stoltzfus might have gone before but, as a member of the Amish community of Pennsylvania, travelling far is not a simple matter. The garage in Mr Stoltzfus's rural home holds a horse-drawn buggy, not a car. His house has no electricity or television.
The Bush rally in Lancaster
Fortunately for 52-year-old Mr Stoltzfus, Pennsylvania could not be more vital to this election, or more finely balanced, so yesterday Mr Bush came to him, flying aboard Air Force One to an airfield in Lancaster County, the heart of Amish country.
It was Mr Bush's 42nd campaign visit to Pennsylvania. Mr Stoltzfus - together with a small band of Amish Republicans and local activists - was doing all he could to repay all the attention.
For decades, the roughly 40,000 Amish of Pennsylvania have rarely voted.
When they did, they were overwhelmingly Republicans. Members of a reserved, deeply Christian subculture - still speaking the German dialect of their ancestors who settled in Pennsylvania in the early 1700s - they strive to stay apart from modern society.
They are pacifists and many disapprove of the war in Iraq but they are also social conservatives, appalled by what they hear from the outside world about homosexual marriage, abortion and Democrats looking to impose controls on gun ownership (Amish are devoted hunters).
Mr Stoltzfus is now working with an unprecedented, grassroots drive to register Amish voters and get them to the polls next Tuesday. The homespun effort was begun by a local vet who treats the community's horses and cattle, Dr Wendell Stoltzfus (no relation), who has single-handedly registered 800 Amish to vote.
It may not sound like much but word has now spread well beyond the vet's circle of clients and neighbours. A letter to Amish voters from Dr Stoltzfus has been copied many times, and turned up in Amish businesses across the county, making front-page news in the local newspaper, the Intelligencer.
In the 2000 election, Mr Bush lost the state of New Mexico by just 366 votes, and won Florida by 537 votes after weeks of recounts. Dr Stoltzfus and his friend Gideon never tire of stating these statistics to wavering neighbours and relations.
Dr Stoltzfus is half Pennsylvania German through his father, a Mennonite, and he navigated the back lanes of Lancaster County before dawn with ease, deftly swerving each time the road was blocked by a black painted Amish buggy, invisible but for safety lights flashing by each spoked wheel.
He has arranged a fleet of volunteers to drive Amish to the polls who cannot make it by horse. By ill-luck, the first Tuesday in November is a traditional day for Amish weddings. Happily, Amish weddings last all day, so many of his new voters have promised to slip away to the polling station halfway through.
Gideon Stoltzfus emerged from his cottage in a traditional straw hat and dark homespun suit, his face framed by a long beard without moustache - he jokes about children calling him "Abraham Lincoln".
Mr Stoltzfus hopes as many as 30 per cent of his fellow Amish will vote this year. "I feel a change this year. A lot of Amish want to vote, especially the young. They know it's a close race."
In his youth, voting was routine among Amish, but tailed off - he cannot remember why. Dr Stoltzfus, the vet, suspects the change came during the Vietnam war. "I suspect it was too politically hot for them."
A rock-ribbed Republican, Dr Stoltzfus had given the Amish vote little thought until July, when Mr Bush met a small group privately.
Dr Stoltzfus was rushing to an emergency calving along the highway, moments before it was closed for the presidential motorcade. Marvelling at the tens of thousands of locals lining the verge, he realised many were Amish. "It hit me right then. I knew they supported Bush's social values and beliefs, but very few of them were going to vote."
A devout Amish, Gideon Stoltzfus cannot be photographed. But he proved a genial - even mischievous - companion as the vet drove him, his sons and The Daily Telegraph to the rally.
Stuck in a three-mile traffic jam near the rally, he gazed at the stream of supporters making their way on foot to the airport. He pointed out a lone Kerry-Edwards lawn sign sat on the roadside. "Amazing that's still standing, with all these Republicans going past," he said, sounding distinctly disappointed for a pacifist. He gazed enviously at supporters' banners, and brandished his straw hat. "I should have a marking pen, and write `Amish for Bush', eh?" He anxiously discussed the latest polls with Dr Stoltzfus. If Sen Kerry won, "I think taxes would go up, and our country would decline morally," he said.
The Amish bishops, or elders, fight a constant battle with their young against slippage - Amish buying mobile telephones and the like. But they have refrained from weighing in on voting, saying it is up to the individual.
Mr Stoltzfus smiled. "They're smart enough to know that if Christians don't vote, this country won't get the leadership it needs."
Mr Stoltzfus relished his first rally for the political content and endured the thumping rock music that blasted out as the President arrived.
"It was a good speech. I enjoyed the speech more than the rally. I am not one for the music and all that gadoo."
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