My Voting Issues

What are you passionate about? What, if no longer allowed, would propel you to action? The United States spends ~$55 billion on alcohol each year. What would you do if the government outlawed the consumption of alcohol? Would you invest your own time, energy, and resources to overturn such a ruling?

Do you agree the federal government should protect its children’s safety, whether from foreign or domestic threats regardless of a parent’s or child’s consent?

The most popular sport in America is football. If you answered yes to the question of children’s safety, the government should prohibit many children’s sporting events, especially football. Furthermore, what if the government outlawed the game of football entirely? Again, would you invest your own time, energy, and resources to overturn such a ruling?

Your answers to these questions will likely reflect how you prioritize your voting issues. Here are my voting issues ranked in order of most to least important, all subject to change of course :)

1. Small government/freedom
• Often, the bigger a government, the less freedom its citizens have
2. Fiscal Responsibility/National Debt
• Includes balancing of budget, highly correlated with economic principles and small government
3. Tax Policy
• Who do we tax? How much do we tax? What do we tax?
4. Economic principles
• How, if at all, can the federal government create a positive economic environment?
5. Illegal immigration
6. Foreign policy

Why Voting Issues?
Might it make more sense to:

1. Determine what we believe about individual issues
2. Rank issues in order of individual importance
3. Vote for candidates/political parties based on order of issue importance, understanding that unless you yourself are running for office, there is a small chance any candidate will share your views on all political issues

Rather than:

1. Pick a candidate or political party to support
2. Adopt party (or candidate) lines on all political issues

In my limited experience, the majority of voters are single issue voters. For example, if a single issue voter ranks abortion as their highest priority, they will side with any candidate who share’s their preference on abortion regardless of the candidate's (or political party’s) stance on numerous other issues.

Thus, simply speaking about candidates and/or political parties is a poor representation of how a majority of voters feel about peripheral issues. This showcases the benefits of simply talking about issues rather than candidates/political parties.

Personal Example

Borrowing a line from one of my good friends, I consider myself a fiscal conservative and social moderate.  I prefer a small government, but have only minor interest in social issues (abortion, gay marriage, stem cells, etc.). If a discussion was limited simply to political parties, I would be considered a conservative on fiscal issues and tend to be liberal with social issues.

Additionally, I believe in many instances, narrowing one’s focus to a single issue as compared to whole political party stances, most of us, myself included, are less likely to take offense. Therefore an environment more favorable to discussion and open communication may be achieved by limiting the topic to a single issue.

It is my hope you will take the time to thoughtfully consider your beliefs on a variety of issues. As before, I encourage (and would greatly appreciate) you to email me your list of voting issues from most to least important. Please use the subject heading: My Voting Issues. 

Next week’s topic: Fantasy Football Part 2: Draft Analysis