Beyond all the other noise, elections are a choice:

1) Increase government control of our lives.
2) Restrain government control of our lives.

You can measure any candidate, vote, tax, policy, agenda, attitude, speech or personality based on those two measures.

Candidates either want to control our lives, or protect us from those who want to control our lives.

To "restrain" does not mean to dismantle or impede good, proper, and necessary government. We still need smart government that functions effectively, that protects public health and safety, that provides basic services and infrastructure, and that safeguards community and prosperity. But, this must be done with constant oversight and judicious restraint in order to prevent abuse of power, regulatory overreach, wasteful spending, improper or excessive taxation, peddling of influence, arbitrary or unfair decision making, and any other form of infringement on our Constitutional liberties.

Good government seeks to serve, not control our lives.

When confronted with the constant temptation to let government have just a little more control over our lives, no matter how noble the desired outcome, remember this:

The chains with which we bind our neighbor will someday bind us.

The United States is not a democracy, it is a republic. In a democracy, the majority rules. In a republic, the individual is protected from the majority. (More on Mob Rule.) When the public gangs up on the individual by taking his liberty or property for the greater good, that is socialism. That is what our Constitutional Republic was designed to defend against.

Yes...we need good government with a vision to work together for the common good. But, in doing so, we must NOT cross the line where we crush individual liberties to get there. Remember, good government seeking true common good must be kept in check by these fundamental principles:

There is no common good
with no individual freedom.

Unchecked, the common good
eventually becomes common bondage.