David A. Fennell
My 2010 Voting Guide
September 11, 2009

The 2010 election cycle is rapidly approaching and I have already met candidates announcing for congressional seats here in Florida. I’m going to lead the gun a little bit but we need to start our homework now. I want to follow all candidates who have the potential to represent me right from the beginning. I want to get to know them. I want to know what makes them tick. I’m going to ask some tough questions in the months ahead and I will ignore the candidates that can’t give me direct answers, beat around the bush or display a general lack of awareness by acting like a pig looking at a watch. My questions are not going to be the standard run-of-the-mill questions that have failed us in selecting our government servants in the past. But I get ahead of myself.

A wise sage once said that we get the government that we deserve. Because "We the People” are responsible for our public politicians I believe this to be true. Granted, it is somewhat incumbent of our electoral system that the candidate will run on a platform of what they will do in terms of jobs, federal projects or anything that spends money from someplace else in our community. But that is because that is what we have always expected them to do. Once in office we act surprised and outraged when they vote for pork laden spending bills with generous outlays to hundreds of communities (including our own). That is the nature of Washington politics. Given today’s economic environment this is unsustainable. If we want a better government then we need to put some effort into it and make some sacrifices to deserve that better government. We need a different approach than the obvious one that expects our representatives to "bring home the bacon.”

My approach is going to rest on core values and principles. To me core values are immutable. They do not change over time and they are not open to compromise. I’ve told my children that if they can find a spouse that shares their core values, then they have an excellent recipe for success. All else can be negotiated though with shared core values they are more likely to reach similar conclusions to similar problems. They will probably agree more on all family decisions from child rearing to the steps necessary to pay the bills on time. Core values are not deeply complex nor are there usually many of them. The Air Force has three: Integrity First; Service Before Self; and Excellence in All We Do. This simple formula should always lead you to the right answers to seemingly complex problems. They may not always be the easy thing to do, but they will always be the right thing to do.

Principles are similar to values. Principles are things that you believe in, but not so strongly that you would risk everything for them. Principles are values, but they are not core values. They are more malleable and there is some wiggle room for negotiating. Principles deal more with the convenient thing to do rather than the right thing to do. But you should never sacrifice the difficult answer a core value presents in favor of a convenient principle. There are times where "tough love” has to take precedence over "choosing the right fight” in what might appear as a benign issue.

Like a marriage between two people, core values and principles play a role in the marriage between a political representative and a constituent. If I ask the right questions and the candidate offers honest responses, I can determine what their core values and principles are. In doing, so I can measure them against my own. I will never find a candidate whose values and principles are exactly like mine, but there are often candidates out there whose core values are extremely close to my own. Once I know what they are, then I know that just as my wife and I will independently arrive at similar solutions to similar problems, I can expect that on things important to me, my candidate and I will independently arrive at similar conclusions to similar issues. It’s in our shared core values.

Most people know what their core values are deep inside but they often have difficulty articulating them (I don’t know what pornography is but I’ll recognize it when I see it). It isn’t really hard to figure out once you get started.

Ask yourself these questions: What are the absolutes in my life that I cannot part from? What are the things I see in my representatives today that send me over the edge? Remember, if enough core value issues are being violated then even the little issues will seem large. It is important to see the difference between the two. Determine what is unacceptable behavior in a political candidate from either party. Be honest, if you are a Republican and you are willing to give a republican a bye for something you wouldn’t let a Democrat do (or vice versa) then it is probably not a core value, although it may be a principle.

In my own soul search I have come up with questions I am going to ask each of my congressional and senatorial candidates. These questions speak to my own political core values and principles and they should help me figure out where the candidate will sit with respect to them. They have to be broad enough to apply in many situations, but not so broad as to be meaningless. I will encourage them to also place their answers on their website because their willingness to make them public means they are not afraid to state them and we can hold them publically accountable if elected.

1. What is your understanding of the nature of the relationship between the federal government and the people?

2. What is your understanding of the nature of the relationship between the federal government and the state?

3. What is your understanding of the nature of the relationship between an elected official and his or her constituents?

3. What is your understanding of the role of the Supreme Court?

4. How should our courts interpret the US Constitution (As a living document? From constructionist, originalist, or semantic originalist points of view?)

5. Do you believe that the Constitution was intentionally designed to restrict government?

6. Do you believe that the Bill of Rights is immutable?

7. What is your understanding of the role of international governmental organizations (such as the United Nations or the World Court) in influencing the internal or external policy of the United States or in exercising jurisdiction of its citizens?