Are you still hoping that maybe, just maybe, it’s possible to “save America” by voting for good politicians? I hate to burst your bubble, but there are no signs of political hope at the national level. How did I come to this conclusion? By looking at what politicians do, as opposed to what they say.
There is a handy website that ranks the votes of every U.S. Senator and Representative according to the Constitution (thenewamerican.com/freedom-index/). If all of a politician’s votes are in line with the Constitution, then they get a score of 100 (%). If half of their votes are Constitutional, then their score will be 50, and so on. After looking at the scores of every Senator and Representative, I have come to the conclusion that we are doomed. I actually came to that conclusion before I did this little survey that I’m going to tell you about, but this confirms it.
I looked at every state’s legislators and calculated the average score for that state. As would be expected, some of the lowest scores came from places like New Hampshire and Connecticut. These two states actually had the lowest scores; they both scored a 10. This means that their average legislator violated the Constitution with 90% of their votes!
Surely, the rest of the country was much higher, right? Nope. When I looked at the scores from the legislators of all fifty states, the average state scored a 32.75! That’s right, the score of the average legislator at the national level is 32.75. That means over 2/3 of the votes cast in the U.S. Congress are unconstitutional, which means they are illegal. Congress can only vote according to the power given to them by the Constitution. If they go beyond that, they’re acting illegally.
Were there any good states? Nope, not one. Some were better than others, of course, but none of them were good. The more conservative states like Texas and Oklahoma only scored a 39.5 and 45.8 respectively. In fact, there was only one state which had legislators that averaged over 50%. That state was Louisiana, which scored a 53.3. Think about that! Only one state out of fifty obeyed the Constitution more than half the time! And they scored just barely over 50%. The best state’s legislators violated the Constitution with almost half of their votes.
But the Republicans will save us!
Do you really think that? Well, let’s take a look. As I looked at the voting records of Republicans, I noticed an interesting phenomenon: Republicans in liberal states often had higher scores than the ones in more conservative states. For example, Colorado had an overall score of 35. But the Republicans in CO (all two of them) had an average score of 75. Virginia had a total score of 27.5, but their Republicans (all three of them) averaged a 70.
While those numbers look good, the rest of the Republicans didn’t do nearly as well. Remember, Republicans are generally considered “conservative” and conservatives claim to follow the Constitution (though that is debatable). So, you’d think that the average for America’s Republican legislators would be fairly high, say above 66% (2/3). You’d be mistaken however; the average for Republicans in all states was 46.8. Less than half! Again, these are the guys (and gals) that claim to love the Constitution. Their score was higher than the Democrats, of course, but still nothing to write home about. Sorry, but the Republicans aren’t giving us much hope either as far “saving America” is concerned.
The conservatives will save us!
I’ve written in the past about some of the failings of the conservative movement, so I won’t rehash them here. But when you look at the politicians that conservatives end up supporting, I’m not sure they have the wisdom to be of much help, at least as far as helping Americans know which politicians will obey the Constitution.
Of course, some of the legislators that are favorably spoken of by conservatives are not too horrible. Guys like Louie Gohmert (70), Mike Lee (75), and Rand Paul (80) are much better than the average, and most conservatives speak favorably of them. As a side note, the only one with a perfect score (100) is Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
But many of the legislators that conservatives champion are downright liberal! In my state (Florida), our two Senators are Marco Rubio and Rick Scott. They scored a 20 and a 40 respectively, and yet I’ve heard some conservatives speak favorably of these guys! It’s the same with Lindsey Graham, who also scored a 20. To be fair, not every conservative likes Rubio, Scott, and Graham. But there are other legislators that most conservatives support, which are almost as bad. For example, many have labeled Marsha Blackburn (TN) as “the most conservative” Senator, yet her score is a 40. Apparently, violating the Constitution 60% of the time makes you a great conservative! I could cite many more examples, but you get the picture.
So, do we just give up?
Yes, and no. I’m not saying that we Christians should stop working for a more biblical government (which the Constitution represents to some extent). But I do believe most efforts at the national level will be fruitless for the most part. It would be much better to focus on the state and local level. We need to vote for local officials who understand good government and have the courage to stand up to the national government. Local leaders have the right, in fact the duty, to defy any unconstitutional acts of the national government.
Of course, God can do anything, but as it looks right now, there isn’t much hope for the nation as a whole. It would be better to work to preserve (and regain) our liberties at the local level, rather than waste time and energy with what looks to be a hopeless national cause.