How do Virginia’s national politicians respect economic and personal liberty?

Since 1989 the Liberty Index (http://tinyurl.com/loblyq4) has rated politicians based on fiscal issues such as cutting taxes and regulations and on personal social issues such as respecting privacy and due process, among other issues.

One might think Republicans would do better economically and that 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, while remaining aware of 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.

Check 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.

In Virginia our top scorer was Congressman Griffith, representing southwest Virginia, at 84. The rest of our Congress-critters have scores low enough to consider whether they deserve primary challenges.

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, a 1984 graduate of NSA, is a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. He manages fundraising and issues advocacy for the Our America Initiative, chaired by Gov. Gary Johnson. Visit ouramericainitiative.com/virginia for more information.