Michael's Principles

"These are the core principles that will serve as my guideposts."

Liberty:

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." Thomas Jefferson

Our government must protect our sacred individual rights. Government representatives derive their power from the consent of the governed. They should serve their constituents at all times and preserve individual freedom and rights to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness. For the past few decades the power structure at all levels has slowly inched away from their real duties and instead serve to perpetuate and satisfy the survival needs of a bloated bureaucracy. They have increasingly forgotten that their primary duty is to protect the inalienable rights of its citizens that put them into power. Our representatives should be promoting a freedom agenda, not an agenda that centralizes more power in the hands of the government. Too often our politicians use problems that they created in the first place as an excuse for more government intervention and control. As Thomas Jefferson warns us in the above quote we must guard against the encroachment of our liberties.

Sanctity of the Constitution:

"The Constitution....approaches nearer to perfection than any government hitherto instituted among men." George Washington

The Constitution was our founding fathers gift not just to America but to the whole world. For the first time in history our fathers created a new paradigm of government whereby people govern themselves through laws and not by elite power holders. They are voluntarily bound by elected representatives who exist and govern only through the will of the people's consent; they are created by the people and for the people. The genius of the constitutional framework decentralized power between the various governing branches in order to protect citizen rights and each individuals responsibility for their own lives. We must wrestle away from the Federal government the usurpation of our States powers and give this power back to the people as intended by our founding fathers.

Character and Values:

"Private values must be at the heart of public policies." Ronald Reagan

What made America the great melting pot of cultures is that for our first 200 years there was a consensus of common sense values that made our Country the envy of the world: personal responsibility, hard work, charity, family, respect, self-reliance, humility before our Creator, belief in the goodness of our country. Sadly, these common sense values have been driven from our schools, government, and communities in the name of "progress." We must push back the constant waves of moral relativism that eroded these common sense American values. These values are the pillars that hold up our freedom and we must firmly reestablish them in our communities.