DADvocate

When evaluating candidates for public office, laws, government programs and such I generally use a set of values I've developed and come to hold dear over my lifetime. Often, when reading and listening to what others think, I wonder just what are their overriding values. Often they don't seem to look at things anywhere close to the way I do.

Indeed, when I look at the political spectrum entry at Wikipedia, the major political thinkers categorize things differently than I. For me, conservative, liberal, Republican, Democratic have little real meaning.

I evaluate everything according to how it compares to my values. Unfortunately, it seems many don't. You can easily see this in all the about faces liberals and progressives are doing in response to Barack middle name Obama's flip flops.

Here is a list I came up with. It is a modified form of the Rokeach Value Survey in order to be more oriented towards politics.

• Freedom - independence and free choice
• Honest - sincere and truthful
• Participation - democracy; citizen participation in government
• Family Security - taking care of loved ones
• Health - physical and mental well-being
• Wisdom - a mature understanding of life
• Responsible - dependable and reliable
• Courageous - standing up for your beliefs
• Loyal - faithful to citizens concerns
• Compassion - caring and concerned government
• Independent - self-reliant; self-sufficient
• A World at Peace - a world free of war and conflict
• National Security - Terminal Values protection from attack
• Equality - brotherhood and equal opportunity for all
• Fairness - everybody plays by the same rules
• A Comfortable Life - a prosperous life
• A World of Beauty - beauty of nature and the arts
• Broad-minded - open-minded
• Capable - competent; effective
• Forgiving - willing to pardon others
• Helpful - working for the welfare of others
• Imaginative - Instrumental Values daring and creative
• Intellectual - intelligent and reflective
• Logical - consistent; rational
• Pleasure - an enjoyable, leisurely life

The values are ranked in the order that I hold them. Freedom comes first. Aesop got it right with "Better starve free than be a fat slave."

I put honesty up high because it is the foundation of the other values. Without honesty it is easy for the others to become a sham. Equality is further down the list because equality can be misleading. Prisons probably have more equality than anywhere else in society.

I put pleasure at the bottom because, while I obviously enjoy please, I don't see it as a goal to pursue but as something that comes along when you do enough of the other things right.

Diversity doesn't even make the list. I consider it something nice that happens but not a legitimate interest of the government.

I find constant threats to our freedom, including freedom from government intrusion into our personal lives, re: the recent surveillance bill which Obama and McCain voted for. Hillary Clinton did not. I never thought I'd wish she was running for president but I did in the primary and I still do. She's a much better alternative to Obama.

I hope you value our freedom as much as I, or more. What are your values? Have you considered them in relation to the upcoming elections?