Legislator Posts Votes on Facebook. All of Them.

A strangely beautiful sight:

Justin Amash is running for Congress as a Republican in Michigan. He's currently a state legislator. And as part of his campaign for higher office [UPDATE: He's been posting votes for a year], he's posting every one of his votes on Facebook, with a short account of why he voted the way the did. A casual visitor to Amash's page can learn that he voted against a pilot program for ignition interlocks and against an increase in the school budget. Michiganders and others can comment on the votes or the reasoning directly below the posting. Meanwhile, a quick glance at his info page shows that he's a member of St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church and that his motto is the cheesy but nicely punctuated "Principled. Consistent. Conservative."

The fact that this idea is novel—his press release claims that he is the first legislator to post all of his votes on Facebook—shows how far we are from a real, voluntary culture of disclosure in our legislatures.

Comments

[John]

Good for him. If only Obama had done the same thing as a legislator and Senator. The explanations of the "present" votes would have been very entertaining.

[NAL]

Nicely done, John. Excellent point.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Barack Obama just voted Present on SB 240 which would do something about some situation or whatever, who even cares LOL
-Andrew Sullivan, Woody Allen, and 12 others like this

[prolefeed]

Mmmm, not if the explanations were:

"I voted "present" for ____ because I was present."

Instead of:

"I voted "present" for ____ because I want to be president."

[CraigT]

Wow. i would be tempted to vote for a politician doing this even if he voted against my beliefs. (Some of them)

[?]

Big Sawmill has wood.

[ClubMedSux]

A bad swig homo swill.

[Attorney]

his motto is the cheesy but nicely punctuated "Principled. Consistent. Conservative."

That most people can't read something like that without thinking it "cheesy" is depressing.

[Dem activist]

Some would call it cheesy. Others would call it sedition.

[NAL]

Yeah, I'm not seeing cheesy. What did KMW mean?

[mr simple]

"Principled. Consistent. Conservative."

Sentence fragments.

[mr simple]

"Principled. Consistent. Conservative."

Sentence fragments.

[mr simple]

"Principled. Consistent. Conservative."

Sentence fragments.

And for a site called Reason, your spam filter has gone full on retarded.

[dave b.]

And in unrelated news, the Hildabeast prepares the strap-on.

[Nancy]

Cheesy? I think it's simple and straight-forward. It's what we NEED!

[justice]

Any man who is a fan of Fredrich von Hayek has my vote.

[anarch]

"By their fruits ye shall know them"; Bernanke says he still hearts Ayn.

Not saying anything's amiss here; just sayin.'

[Ryan Howard]

Amash is the real deal. He's the closest thing we have to a libertarian winning a seat in Congress this Fall. I live near his district and have met him more than once. The guy has an awesome portrait of F.A. Hayek in his office. I encourage everyone to check him out at amashforcongress.com and follow him on Facebook

[Bee Tagger]

Yeah, big surprise, sign a new contract, get a bunch of money you don't sabermetrically deserve and now you're a conservative.

Or is this the fire-guy?

[wylie]

Sabermetrics is the analysis of baseball through objective evidence, especially baseball statistics that measure in-game activity rather than industry activity such as attendance.

Learn somethin new everyday.

[Amy]

A part of his campaign? You make it sound like some kind of gimmick. I've been following Justin's votes for months, and I've learned more about how government works from him than all other sources combined. I'm pretty sure he considers it a part of his job as state rep, not a part of his campaign...

[Amy]

Thanks for the clarification in the update! Justin is the real deal.

[Kris]

Government of the people, by the people and for the people... why is it considered a novelty to communicate directly with the people? How can we truley make a difference with a vote when the only info we have about who and what we are voting for is the mass entertainment efforts of a compaign manager... It should be a require for all politicians to be this open, this easily accessable, and susceptable to the public.

[Dan T.]

You guys sure do drop your skeptical views on politicians quickly when one tells you what you want to hear.

[Joe_D]

Yeah you hypocrites! You're supposed to hate *all* politicians, because they're politicians, even if they share your political views.

[Dan T.]

Or claim to share your political views...like Ron Paul for example; he claims to be for small government but you'll notice his district somehow gets its share of pork...

[SugarFree]

Starve the idiot, please.

[Joe_D]

And you stupid libertarians are supposed to require absolute ideological purity! Haven't you read your own manifesto? Do you want me to take your secret libertarian decoder rings back?

[Hugh Akston]

Maybe I haven't been around enough lately, but I don't recognize the names of the blowjobbers above.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were Amash staffers planting astroturf.

[capitol l]

A is for Awesome, and Amash!

[wylie]

oh noes, they got to capitol l too!

[capitol l]

Great!

Would you like to sign up for our newsletter?

Justin really appreciates the support he receives from principled conservatives such as you, insert name here wylie!

[Justin D.]

Dan,

Fair enough. A pure and principled ideology is a good thing; so is skepticism. I think you'll find that Amash is "more" of a libertarian than Ron Paul.

However, even libertarian philosophy has grey areas. Pure libertarianism is anarchist by nature which would call for the elimination of all politicians.

But, unfortunately, I do have to vote for somebody right now.

[x,y]

I went to law school with Amash. Very good guy: Votes "no," I would guess, more than any other pol, including Paul the Elder. He has a definite libertarian streak, and he can quote Hayek, etc. comfortably and off the cuff. As an anarchist, I don't vote; but if I did, he has earned it.

[Freedom Fan]

I've known Justin since just before he was elected and he IS the Real Deal! Especially when you sit in the House that is as bitterly partisan as the Michigan House is, it's great to have as our Rep a man as principled as Amash.

He consistently votes his beliefs and he constantly lets the Voters know what those beliefs are. That's called Integrity and it's refreshing to see that in an elected official!

The Michigan FairTax will go a LONG way toward wiping out a LOT of corruption, getting everyone to contribute to the system, generate the long-term public pressure over how expensive our Gov't really is which is needed to begin reducing its size - AND it will give us all what we want most - JOBS to Choose from! http://www.mifairtax.org

[Randy]

They failed to mention that he also posts upcoming votes and asks for feedback from his constituents before he votes. He is not only what he "says he is", he proves it to anyone who wants to see it for themselves. How can anybody dislike a man who believes government shouldn't play favorites? Justin votes for all bills using the same amount of scrutiny, if he has a question about a bill and the answer isn't given before the vote, he votes against it. It only follows that a bill should be understood clearly before it becomes a law. So many forget that every law passed hurts somebody and every dollar spent comes out of the pocket of a hard working person. Justin Amash certainly realizes these facts.

[John]

It's too bad Justin isn't as transparent with his business. Yeah, it's easy to mimic what "Michigan Votes" does far better, but far harder to answer how many Chinese tools were imported to pay for that $300K house "daddy" bought for you. Yeah, it's easy to donate half your salary as a legislator with all that Chinese tool money in your pocket. It's just too bad thousands of West Michigan and American jobs have been lost in the process. Transparency???? Are you all that stupid?

[Distinguished Gentleman]

The slogan here is "free minds and free markets" I'm not exactly sure how importing Chinese tools pays for a house, much less one that has already been bought by ones father. Its not exactly relevant here as the publication speaks out against buy American protectionism on a regular basis.

[x,y]

By his "business," you mean his personal life? Even if what you say is true, and I have no idea if it is, what business is it of yours? It's not even hypocritical.

[Surly Chef]

De tuk are jooobbbss!!!!

Or you're a moron.

[Kolohe]

What's shocking to me is that he's a Republican and a self-desribed conservative that seems to have voted *against* a tax cut.

[x,y]

AFAIK, he votes against targeted tax cuts, because he views them as subsidies -- so the granting of them is basically a special interest handout. He's definitely in favor of broad based tax relief, and I would not be surprised if he did not favor eliminating income taxes, period.

[Kolohe]

Don't get me wrong, I'm applauding the guy - because the usual demagoguery elides the distinction you just made.

[Alex]

Yes, there is a big difference. Amash is against targeted tax credits, which essentially are a form of central economic planning where government picks winners and losers. It's also a sort of corporate welfare in the form of a regressive tax, as the poor and middle class subsidize the corporations. Amash has never voted for a tax increase

[Freedom Fan]

Amash has been the most effective Legislator ever at shining a much-needed light on the practice of Government-picked Winners of tax favors through his NO votes on Targeted Tax Cuts for individual businesses!

Last Fall, he voted NO on $200 Million in Tax Credits for Michigan Business ... uh, make that just THREE Michigan businesses, to be exact! ALL the rest of us pay for those cuts!

Justin has been great!

[Distinguished Gentleman]

Yeah he actually elaborated on it in the comments for the post.

[Alan Arrowsmith]

Ron Paul and Rand Paul supporter here. Although I live in Michigan, and am a part of the Revolution swelling up in the nation. I just learned about Amash and will definitely be supporting him through donations, we need more like him as representatives in congress.

Thank you for running and let's do this.

[Trey]

This guy seems like the real deal. I'm a libertarian i'd be interested to know where he stands on social issues like the war on drugs. might have to pull out the wallet and place a couple bucks in his war chest