Timeless Voter Guide

Michael WintherPosts

Voter guides abound, but how many actually focus on the principles of the issues?  And how many are reusable year-after-year despite policy changes?  To expand on the prior post, “To Vote or not to Vote?”, here is a timeless voter guide that will help you critically evaluate the upcoming local and statewide ballot initiatives.  While this timeless voter guide is geared toward evaluating propositions, measures, statutes, etc., it can be applied to candidates by determining if their voting history fails or passes these tests.


Timeless Voter Guide

This list contains 14 critical tests that can be used to evaluate any proposal relating to public policy.  A proposal or law that fails ANY of these tests is probably not worthy of adoption.

1)  God’s Laws Test.
  • Does it cause government to violate God’s laws?
  • Does it establish policies that tempt, entrap or otherwise encourage citizens to violate the laws of Scripture or the just laws of the land?
2)  Does it violate people’s God-given rights?
  • This includes property rights, free speech, freedom of worship, etc.
  • Does it compel people to pay for products or services that they do not receive and that are not absolutely necessary for minimal role of government?
  • Does it invite or encourage people to use products or services that are to be paid for by someone else?
3)  Does it violate the Constitution?
4)  Does it promote the honoring or worship of government, or a dependence on government?
5)  Does it lead toward a “rule-by-man” and away from a “rule-by-law”?
  • Does it lead toward democracy (mobocracy)?
  • Does it reduce the consistency, clarity, and respect for the Constitution?
6)  Does it centralize power more than absolutely necessary?
7)  Does it reduce or violate the separation of powers?
  • Both vertically and horizontally?
8)  Does it attempt to protect people from themselves?
9)  Does it create or increase debt?
10)  Consistency Test/Logical Extreme Test.
  • Can the law or policy be uniformly applied to similar situations and still be just?
11)  Is it unnecessarily complex?
  • Would a person of average intelligence be able to fully understand it?
12)  Can the task/function being proposed be performed by the private sector?
13)  Does it grant special privileges or apply unequally to all citizens?
14)  Does it use public resources to promote a particular ideology or theology?

HINT:  Most public policies today fail many of these tests.