Should I Run?

In recent weeks, I have begun to give serious consideration to running for Congress. Why? What can I do? How can a libertarian-Republican win in California's 5th Congressional District, where Doris Matsui won reelection with 75%, as a legacy candidate? I will focus on values. Or more specifically, I will focus on those ideas and policies that can appeal to the values of more than just the conservative right. So where does this idea come from? What policies does it hold? Read on.

In the final few weeks of the election, Dennis Prager made a comment on his radio show about how everyone is a so-called "values voter." He pointed out that the values the left hold are different than the values on the right. The most common values among those of the left are equality and fairness. The most common values on the right are life, tradition, and functionality (what works). As a libertarian, I can tell you that the most common value of libertarians is freedom, with federalism being a clear second.

Looking at this list, the following values stand out: Life, tradition, freedom, equality, fairness, federalism, and practicality. Any policy goal that can appeal to all of these values will be a winning issue and one that should have a good chance of actually being implemented into law. Any policy goal that can appeal to most of these values, and at least not offend those values it does not explicitly appeal to, would likewise be a strong policy to promote.

The reason why this is so important can be summed up by an idea implanted in my brain by my former debate team coach, K.C. Boylan. She mentioned that when making an argument, if you do not tailor the argument to the values of your audience, they might see your lips move and hear some sort of noise, but they will not understand what you are saying. Being able to tailor an argument to the values of the audience is so important that if someone could come up with policies that could be presented to appeal to liberal, conservative, and libertarian values alike, the proponent of these policies would likely be able to vault to a 100% electoral college landslide win of the United States Presidency.

With this in mind, while taking one of my nightly walks, I brainstormed for a couple of hours on what policies I could present differently (changing only arguments, not policies) to people on different parts of the political spectrum.

So what policies can be presented in such a way as to appeal to most or all of these above-listed values? The details will be for another day, but for now, I will say this:

* FLAT TAX (freedom, equality, fairness, practicality)
* REMOVE CANNABIS FROM SCHEDULE 1 (freedom, federalism, fairness, equality, practicality, life)
* IMMIGRATION REFORM (freedom, equality, fairness, practicality, life, tradition)

In order to flesh these ideas out, I will post detailed position papers over the next few days, in which I will show how each of these platform ideas appeals to the listed values, and therefore why each should be able to appeal to liberals, conservatives, and libertarians, while offending noone.

I know these ideas will be successful. Maybe the leadership of each of the conservative, liberal, and libertarian movements will find fault with these policies. But when I have stated these policy goals (including the details to be added later), and the tailored arguments to the values of the audiences, I have received standing ovations from teacher's union democrats, trial lawyer democrats, libertarian friends, economically conservative businessmen, and conservative commentators alike. These ideas and the arguments that will soon be posted will win. And they will win big.