Jeremiah Diacogiannis

Strongly Agree

The US Constitution was created to protect the God-given right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Human life begins at the moment of conception. All other attempts to redefine the moment when life begins are ultimately incoherent. Human children are the image bearers of a holy God who commands "thou shalt not murder." Roe v Wade is the most wicked and destructive legal decision in US history. Conservatives have been far too passive in their efforts to end child killing in the US.

Strongly Disagree

Human life is infinitely precious and irreplaceable. No life is beyond the redemptive power or purpose-giving reach of our Creator. As such, we should never accept the premise that a living person should be murdered for convenience or for comfort of body or mind.

Child killing is never acceptable under any circumstances and I will fight relentlessly to eradicate it. It is NEVER morally acceptable. However, as a legislator, I will accept nearly any incremental step to reduce the number of children legally murdered in our nation. Conservative law makers must be relentless to incrementally end this "peculiar institution" of child murder.

Strongly Disagree

The American free market system has lifted more people out of poverty through wealth creation than any other economic system devised by man. Massive redistribution schemes have never achieved anything less than abject misery for a nation. Far worse, the moral evil of theft on the scale required for national "income redistribution" is a disgrace to any nation and destructive to the moral order upon which Western Civilization depends.

Strongly Agree

The government should cut spending because confiscating wealth via taxation in order to pursue totally anti-Constitutional social engineering and welfare programs is evil. Furthermore, it is destructive to the social order, destroys families, and displaces the role of social clubs, churches, and charitable organizations in restoring people to a place of dignity and purpose in a community. Also, the national debt is an existential threat to our national stability and ought to be eradicated.

Our tax system should be simple, transparent, and fair. The tax code is complex, unjust, and a threat to liberty, to economic growth, and to national prosperity. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act must be made permanent, as a first step to ensuring continued economic growth. The Congress should enact universal savings accounts to eliminate taxes on savings, thereby encouraging families to build their own financial security. The automatic deduction of taxes from paychecks must be eliminated and all income earners required to pay their taxes directly. This will create dramatic awareness of the immoral and abusive nature of the tax code and build the grassroots movement to end the personal income tax. Taxes on imports should be dramatically increased and used as a tool of foreign policy to punish our adversaries and reward our allies while ensuring job growth and a broad manufacturing base in the US.

Strongly Agree

The first amendment protection of religious thought, practice, and expression is a protection from those who seek to rule over the hearts and minds of others. Were not religious convictions explicitly protected, a religious sect might seize power and expel all other religious belief and expression. The religion of secularism is attempting to do exactly that today, under the banner of "separation of church and state." We must vigorously defend this God-given right to freedom of religion.

Strongly Disagree

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a necessary step to eradicate the lingering racism and discrimination in the Jim Crow south. Unfortunately, it created a parallel "constitution" that in many cases usurps the freedom of conscience protected in the US Constitution. The secular left has used the CRA to attack religious belief, expression, and conviction for many years, but it is now reaching a crisis point. We must protect the right of business owners to enforce religious standards in their work.

Our Constitution protects the rights of individuals to think, speak, and behave in accordance with their religious beliefs. It also prohibits the establishment of a particular church by the state. It in no way requires government employees or elected officials to abandon their religious beliefs in the execution of their duties. It also does not prohibit expressions of religious belief on government property. In fact, the buildings of our federal government of beautifully adorned with many religious artifacts and expressions. Conservatives in the legislature ought to vigorously push back on the creeping establishment of a secular religious standard on all public behaviors, often aided and abetted by courts uninterested in adherence to the US Constitution. The liberty of government employees and elected officials to express and act upon religious beliefs must not be abridged. This includes prayers, religious statements, and religious activities on public property. Of course, no one should be compelled to engage in religious practices or affirm religious belief; neither should their rejection of those beliefs silence or ban the practice of them by others.

A government would be considered wise, prudent, and lawful to require a vaccine if all of the following conditions were met: 1. The vaccine meets all the safety standards that were assumed prior to the corruption of the public health institutions by the COVID-19 hysteria. 2. The vaccine is proven through clinical trials to prevent infection and transmission of the target virus or bacterium in at least 97% of the cases. 3. The vaccine does not use the tissues of murdered babies in its development, testing, or manufacturing. 4. The illness caused by the virus or bacterium has a proven case fatality rate of at least 1% for all age groups. 5. The illness caused by the virus or bacterium has a proven R-naught of at least 2.5. 6. Exceptions to the mandate were made available for medical reasons and conscientious objectors, religious or otherwise. Those without a valid religious or conscientious objection must be given the opportunity to pay a nominal one-time fine and be permanently exempt from that mandate. The mandate policy must also include clear and enforceable guidelines to ensure good-faith evaluation of exemption requests. Schools and employers should only be allowed to mandate the vaccine if the same standard is applied and there is no government mandate in place.

The option which most closely resembles my view is D)Tax-payer funded health care should be abolished in all forms, and Medicaid and Medicare should be de-funded. Where I differ is in the limit of the term "tax-payer funded." I would say that federal tax funds must not be used, but I don't find any Constitutional reason to prohibit the states from providing such remedies. Of course, there would then be a decision to be made by the citizens of each particular state. As it now stands, taxpayer funded medical care is creating a financial crisis for our national government and a crisis of medical access for our citizens. The only moral and responsible solution is to take incremental and serious steps toward eliminating federal funding and management of healthcare. No one currently under the age of 45 should expect or receive any form of Medicaid or Medicare. We should plan accordingly. No-cap, tax-free health savings accounts should be universally available. Abuses and opacity in the credit markets were significantly remedied by the Truth in Lending Act, The Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Credit Card Reform Act. Similar measures ought to be take to force clear and accessible information disclosures so that consumers can know the price of all medical care, including drugs, equipment, and procedures before they make a decision on medical care. The mis-named "Affordable Care Act" must be repealed entirely and the federal government MUST get out of the business of health insurance and health care entirely. The individual states should make the decision of whether and how to provide emergency care for the indigent.

With regard to America's foreign policy, the view most aligned with my own is B) The United States should selectively help countries trying to grow democracy and fight tyranny. It is a matter of historical record that billions of people around the globe owe their political liberty - in whatever measure they retain it - to the efforts of the United States in the 20th century to defeat tyrants and preserve liberal, democratic governance. However, in the 21st century the American experiment in empire building as been a colossal waste of time, money, political will, allied faith, and especially lives. The waste stems primarily from these foolish ideas expressed by President George W. Bush in an address to the United Nations in September of 2003, six months after he directed the invasion of Iraq. "[This] much we know with certainty: The desire for freedom resides in every human heart. And that desire cannot be contained forever by prison walls, or martial laws, or secret police. Over time, and across the Earth, freedom will find a way. Freedom is finding a way in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and we must continue to show our commitment to democracies in those nations. The liberty that many have won at a cost must be secured. As members of the United Nations, we all have a stake in the success of the world's newest democracies." The problem here of course is simple: his premise is obviously untrue. The oldest records of human experience demonstrate that people prefer to be ruled and led than to be self-governing. In Exodus, only days removed from the miraculous liberation from hundreds of years of brutal slavery, the children of Israel begged Moses to return them to the "security" of bondage rather than face the consequences of self-rule guided by a God they could not see and did not yet understand. The republic of Rome lasted for centuries before its people let their appetites and blood-lust destroy their capacity for self government. They happily accepted the rule of a Caesar who would provide "bread and circuses" in exchange for the responsibilities of liberty and self-rule. As the Roman Empire receded, the people of the British isles began their 1500 year climb from pagan, tribal backwater to world-dominating empire. In the middle, the essential forms of self-rule were born through great difficulty and only finally flourished after the miraculous war for independence waged by the American colonies. Now, just shy of 250 years since our Declaration of Independence, we see the desire for self-rule and the accompanying responsibilities of liberty have been largely cast aside in favor of an oligarchy of corrupt politicians and powerful billionaires intent on ruling the world. As such, we have a lot of housekeeping to do to restore liberty at home, much less promote it abroad. Even so, America is without question the most powerful and important force for good in the world today. We have critical alliances with relatively liberal democracies including Japan, Taiwan, and Israel which face immediate and existential threats from totalitarian regimes. The death of those democracies (and millions of their citizens) is an unacceptable cost for the benefit of uninterrupted ideological navel gazing. The prudential course must be the abdication of our empire building schemes: pipe dreams of building democracies on top of cultures where such ideas have never been known or understood, much less flourished. We must make hard decisions to support critical allies, arrest the advance of totalitarianism, and provide aid short of "boots on the ground" to democratic nations looking down the barrel of communist or islamofascist tyrants.

Strongly Disagree

The Israel / Palestine conflict can be summed up very simply: if the Arab terrorist organizations put down their weapons and refused to fight, there would be peace that very day. If Israel did the same, there would be a genocide. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East with a serious commitment to human rights, democratic governance, the just rule of law, equality of all citizens under the law (including women), and free markets. Israel must be defended and supported.

Strongly Agree

As a Naval Flight Officer, I flew aboard the E-6b "Mercury" Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications platform. In that capacity I had direct insight to the relative state of our strategic nuclear deterrence. As a program manager at Defense Innovation Unit, I saw the alarming frequency and success of Chinese espionage to exploit every aspect of our markets, government, culture, educational, and religious institutions to weaken the American people and strengthen the Chinese Communist Party.

The only thing that can defeat Islam is Christianity. Had the US government spent billions of dollars spreading the gospel of Jesus to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan instead of wasting a few trillion dollars on aimless political and military meandering there, we might have made some headway. As it stands, 20 years of war only strengthened the cause of Islamic terrorism. Going forward, the US policy should be the unflinching support - short of "boots on the ground" - of Israel and any other nation that takes on the Islamofascists. We must undertake a very serious advocacy of Christianity in the Islamic world as the necessary foundation for peace, stability, and democratic governance.

Strongly Agree

A nation is defined and identified by its language, culture, and borders. It should come as no surprise that the Marxists, in their 100+ year quest to destroy America, have attacked all 3. By refusing to secure our borders, our leaders have allowed the subversion of our language by the importation of millions who do not speak it and of our culture by importing those who do not embrace it. And they subvert the very idea of a border by defaming as "racist" those of us who wish to secure it.

Strongly Agree

The US Federal government should use the powers of ICE to enforce immigration law everywhere within the United States and disregard the proclaimed "sanctuary" status of any local government.

The US should allow immigrants under the following conditions: * Refugees from religious or political persecution likely to result in death to the individual seeking to immigrate to the US. * Workers with verified skills in industries critical to national security. In order to qualify under this condition, the immigrant must work for the federal government in a position that existed prior to the immigrant's application to come to the US. The position must require the particular critical skill of the immigrant and the immigrant must work in that position for no less than 2 years. * Employment-seekers meeting the current qualifications for an EB-1 visa. No more than 20,000 such immigrant visas should be issued each year. Additionally, employers/sponsors of the EB-1 visa holders must pay a salary to the visa-holder equal to or higher than the 95th percentile of American household incomes. All others who desire to immigrate must enter an annual lottery. An amount no greater than 0.05% of the population of US Citizens, as determined by the most recently completed decennial census, will be selected for immigrant visas via that lottery. Once selected, immigrants must pass a background check, a physical and mental health screening, and demonstrate basic educational competency equivalent to a US high school graduate. Children born to an illegal immigrant should not be granted citizenship. Children born to legal immigrants should be granted the same status as the mother. Family reunification should not be a consideration in immigration approval decisions. All immigrants who wish to become US citizens must renounce their citizenship and any allegiance to another country. Dual citizenship should not be permitted.

Strongly Disagree

Male and female are the only classifications of humans recognized by God. Our laws should recognize no others.

Strongly Disagree

CRT is a tool marxists intent on the destruction of the American republic. It must be rejected first because it is an endless sea of lies and second because of its malevolent intent.

The Bible, as the inerrant Word of God, is the final authority on morality, spirituality, and the human experience. To summarize my understanding of the Bible, God created man uniquely in his image, placed him in a paradise called the Garden of Eden, endowed him with a free will, and gave him simple rules. Deceived by the enemy of God (Satan), man and his partner woman disobeyed God and thereby introduced sin to the world. Banished from the garden and condemned to face bodily death in this life and eternal death (separation from God) in the next, mankind required salvation which they could not earn on their own. The rest of the scripture is the story of how God introduced his plan of salvation to a wicked world through the people of Israel and ultimately by the sending of his own son, Jesus the Messiah, born of a virgin in Bethlehem. Despised and rejected by men, Jesus nonetheless fulfilled hundreds of prophecies, lived a perfect life free of sin, was murdered by crucifixion, defeated death by raising himself from the dead, was witnessed in the resurrected body by more than 500 people, and inspired his twelve disciples to turn the world upside down with the good news of salvation by faith in Jesus. He left his Holy Spirit to empower Christians to fulfill his Great Commission. We live now nearly 2000 years after Jesus ascended into heaven and his promised return is imminent. His coming brought salvation, his return will bring judgement. Though we know not the hour, like the virgins in the parable, we must keep our lamps trimmed and burning, awaiting the return of the bridegroom. Like the sons of Issachar, we must be people understanding the times and knowing what to do. The United States of America, as formed by the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the US Constitution in 1789, is in my opinion the single greatest miracle since the resurrection of Jesus. We live in these United States the heirs of a heritage of liberty unmatched by any people in any time. Our system of limited government and free markets gave the world unmatched wealth, raised untold billions out of poverty, and improved the lives of billions of people in a way that no other nation in history has even approached. Sadly, our culture has largely discarded the Judeo-Christian values that formed the foundation of our Western Civilization. With that has come a descent into incoherence and insanity that threatens to undo all the blessings of liberty which previous generations paid so dearly to preserve for us. The American values of "E Pluribus Unum," "In God We Trust," and "Liberty" are the most powerful cultural values ever brought together in a single civilization. As Jesus quoted Isaiah in Luke 4:18-19, "He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed." So too do I believe it is my duty to proclaim liberty. First, the liberty of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus the Messiah. Second, the liberty of body and mind that we may know and do that which is good, true, and beautiful. Ronald Reagan warned us that freedom is only one generation away from extinction. For my part, I refuse to quietly take "the last step into a thousand years of darkness." I will work, I will speak, I will fight for the liberty of my children - a liberty that is above all else a gift of God.

Strongly Disagree

Secure elections are necessary for the continued stability of the Union. Valid and verifiable photo ID should be required at every polling place in the country.

As representative of the citizens of TX-37, I will relentlessly protect the right of the states to establish their own election laws. I will reject any attempt by the federal government to seize control of the election process. I will support the investigation and prosecution of election fraud wherever it is found. I will advocate voter ID laws and the implementation of every reasonable standard to ensure that each eligible citizen is able to cast one - and only one - vote, and that each vote is counted and recorded accurately.

Strongly Disagree

Stealing from citizens today to punish the slave-holders from the 17-19th centuries is both incoherent and evil. Worse, it doesn't do anything to help non-white people today, as it does not free them of their mental and ideological prisons that cause them to demand reparations from people who didn't commit the offense to reward the people who didn't suffer the offense.

The blatant racism of the political left is degrading to non-white people; it assumes they are less than fully human and declares them incapable of full civic responsibility. It demeans them as necessarily dependent on their leftists masters to provide them the basic necessities of life. Leftist racism imprisons non-white people in chains of victimhood and helplessness, stripping the prisoners of the dignity of responsibility. It drowns them is a sea of lies and then poses as their saviors. This racism is deadly (~30 million non-white children murdered since Roe v Wade) and destroys families, the essential building block of Western Civilization. As this foundation crumbles, so too does the domestic security of these United States.

Strongly Agree

Energy independence is a national security issue. We should exploit every energy source we have at our disposal. Most importantly, the US should invest aggressively and heavily in nuclear power, especially in the emerging capabilities afforded by micro-nuclear reactors being developed in the private sector. Nuclear power is the only way to decarbonize without destroying modern society and the liberties we currently enjoy.

A We should take care to manage this planet as God's stewards. The environmental protections we have in place now are in many cases too strict and sacrifice the well-being of humans for dubious environmental gains, often with badly misaligned incentives. Embracing nuclear power on a massive scale with strict safety standards is the best way to power a thriving future while protecting the air, water, and land from pollution.

Very Conservative

Did not answer

No.

Legislative Priorities: Life - Throughout human history, mankind has sought to placate what they presumed to be the gods of the natural world with sacrifices of many kinds. Horrifyingly consistent has been the decision to murder their own children in hopes of achieving some benefit from capricious and unknowable forces. Sadly, for the last half century, as America has rejected the blessings and values of our Judeo-Christian heritage, so too have we returned to the pagan sacrifice of children. In an evil distortion of truth, abortionists pervert the words of Christ - "this is my body" - as they perform a bloody sacrament for the idol of self. A glimmer of hope is finally emerging, as those who value the life of every child as the imago dei are at long last winning victories in court. As a representative of TX-37 in the US Congress, I will fight to protect the life of every child from conception to birth and beyond. Without life, no other right or liberty is possible. Liberty - To paraphrase Patrick Henry's most famous utterance, "Is life so dear, or fear of COVID so great, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" The COVID-19 pandemic has been used as an excuse to toss aside the last vestiges of respect and deference that anyone on the left may have once had for the Constitutional order. Americans must say "enough!" I encourage all liberty loving people to tell the tyrants "I WILL NOT COMPLY!" The health decisions of an individual ought to be made without the coercive influence of the state or of corporations . In a broader sense, it is vital to restore the proper balance of power. The Executive and Judicial have robbed far too much power from the Legislative branch and from the people. Our representatives, for their part, have largely stopped even pretending to seek a Constitutional justification for their legislative acts. In order to reign in corruption, to ensure that the Congress can properly perform its role of executive and judicial oversight, to enliven the 10th Amendment, and to restore Liberty to preeminence, the number of representatives in the US Congress ought to be increased ten-fold (at least). George Washington believed that if one man was to represent more than 40,000 people, tyranny could be the only outcome. Today, there are nearly 800,000 people per representative in the US Congress. If we are to restore liberty, we must restore representation. Immigration and Border Security - A nation is defined and identified by its language, culture, and borders. It should come as no surprise that the Marxists, in their century-long quest to destroy America, have attacked all three. By refusing to secure our border with Mexico, the political leaders of Texas and the United States have willingly allowed the subversion of our language by the importation of tens of millions of people who do not speak it. They subvert our culture by importing those who do not embrace it. And they subvert the very idea of a border by maliciously defaming those of us who wish to secure it as xenophobic and racist. President Trump's efforts to secure our border were the first serious effort of their kind in my lifetime. Unfortunately, he was unable to complete the wall in his first term. President Biden has chosen to totally surrender the border to violent gangs, drug cartels, and human traffickers. Democrats say that the illegal immigrants are all wonderful, freedom-loving, future-Americans eager to contribute to our culture and economy (and no doubt vote Democrat). I say that to the extent that is true, those people surely detest the murder, rape, and exploitation they face in their journey to el Norte! As the representative of TX-37, I will fight to secure the border and force the executive branch to enforce immigration laws. To the extent that such activity is not possible with a Democrat president, I will fight to empower Governors to secure their state's portion of the border and fund the states' enforcement of immigration law within their own state. Economy - Our government has trotted out endless usurpations of economic liberty in every imaginable sphere, nearly always in violation of the Constitution. There can be no more of G.W. Bush's notion that we can "violate the free market in order to save the free market." We will have liberty or tyranny. We cannot have both. History has shown that free people engaged in free markets with the government rigorously enforcing contract laws, defending private property, and minimizing the tax burden is the surest way to ensure economic growth for all Americans, rich and less rich. As representative of the citizens of TX-37, I will fight tirelessly to reduce taxes, reduce regulatory burdens, protect private property (no more civil asset forfeiture!), and shrink the role of government in the conduct of business.

Agree

Department policy must be just. Investigations into police misconduct must be conducted by a third party.

Disagree

Police departments should not be buying MRAPS and other surplus military tactical assault vehicles. That is the only money I would support for redirecting to mental health and community programs.

Violent felons should be barred from owning guns. They will probably own them anyway. Other than that, "shall not be infringed" is pretty straight forward.

Strongly Disagree

The gun manufacturers make tools that perform flawlessly 99.999% of the time. Violence is a human problem. "Gun violence" is a political red herring used by the gun grabbers to destroy liberty.