Guest post by Charles Frohman
Since 1989 the Liberty Index (http://www.scribd.com/doc/199483758/Liberty-Index-2013) has rated politicians based on fiscal issues such as cutting taxes and regulations, and personal social issues such as respecting privacy and due process, among other issues. One might think Republicans may do better economically and believe Democrats would succeed on the social issues. Let’s look at Virginia’s members of Congress and see how well they keep government out of our wallets and personal lives, remaining aware over the weakness of this and all surveys: the limitation imposed by the available votes.
That is, votes were scheduled on only a limited number of issues under each category. Had more votes been available on a wider range of issues, scores could have changed at least marginally. Click the link above to look at the actual votes. Meanwhile, for the votes the politicians actually submitted, they could have made better choices, as reflected in the overall low scores of Virginia’s politicians. Remember these scores next time you vote at the ballot box. Overall, House Republicans scored a solid 86, with their counterparts in the Senate disappointing with a 42, while Democrats in both houses came in at zero, on average. In Virginia our top scorer was Congressman Griffith, representing southwest Virginia, at 84. The rest of our congress-critters deserve primary challenges.
Name Econ Liberty Personal Liberty Average=Score
Senators
Kaine, Tim 15 5 10
Warner, Mark 15 24 19
Representatives
Cantor, Eric 95 26 61
Connolly, Gerry 20 35 28
Forbes, Randy 80 40 60
Goodlatte, Bob 95 50 73
Griffith, Morgan 90 79 84
Hurt, Robert 100 53 76
Moran, Jim 0 55 28
Rigell, Scott 100 53 76
Scott, Robert 10 68 39
Wittman, Rob 95 40 68
Wolf, Frank 85 47 66
Again, click the link above to look at the limited number and range of votes on which our congress members are ranked. But also wonder why when given a vote, they chose government control over personal liberty. Virginia, the home of our nation’s founders, deserves better.
Charles Frohman, from Suffolk and now in Williamsburg, worked in DC politics for 2 decades including Governor Gary Johnson’s 2012 presidential campaign. He is a regional fundraiser for the Our America Initiative, the only national grassroots movement for fiscally responsible activists who also are socially open-minded. To reach Charles, email CFroh@yahoo.com.
Correction: the average Democrat score is higher than “zero”, as I wrote. It is, nevertheless, sufficiently low to wonder why they oppose economic and personal liberty.