Congress should repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
Strongly Agree
Election of judges by the people for a definite term of office is the best way to select judges.
Agree
More restrictive gun control laws are needed to protect public safety.
Strongly Disagree
Government should enforce laws designed to protect the border and to prevent illegal entry into the country.
Strongly Agree
People should be able to vote without photo identification.
Strongly Disagree
Religious liberty is at risk in the United States.
Strongly Agree
Human life begins at conception and deserves legal protection at every stage until natural death.
Strongly Agree
Free enterprise and the right to private property turn mankind's natural self-interest into the most productive economic system there is.
Strongly Agree
There should be a strict constitutional spending limit for state and local governments that would tie the rate of spending to the rate of population growth plus the rate of inflation.
Neutral
Marijuana should be legalized and regulated like tobacco and alcohol.
Neutral
Judeo-Christian values established a framework of morality which permitted our system of limited government.
Strongly Agree
The founders established pure democracy in the Constitution because they believed that it is the best form of government to ensure the safety and equitable treatment of all citizens.
Strongly Disagree
Free-market competition for education dollars, rather than a government monopoly, would create a better education for all students.
Agree
Where minor children are involved, divorce laws should be reformed to include mutual consent of both parents and an increased waiting period, unless there is fault or abuse.
Agree
The Ten Commandments should not be displayed in public school buildings.
Strongly Disagree
Business owners should be required by law to bake cakes, provide flower arrangements, etc., for same-sex weddings, even when these activities would infringe on their sincerely-held religious beliefs.
Strongly Disagree
Our state should participate in the nationwide Common Core standards for high-school graduation.
Strongly Disagree
Physician-assisted suicide should be legal.
Strongly Disagree
The more people live by Judeo-Christian values, the less government is needed.
Agree
Islamic law (Sharia) does not pose a threat to the United States and its Constitution.
Strongly Disagree
Governments should define marriage as between one man and one woman; no other definition of marriage should be legalized or supported with public funds.
Strongly Agree
It is the government’s responsibility to be sure everyone has health care and a livable income.
Strongly Disagree
Planned Parenthood should not receive funds from federal, state, or local governments.
Strongly Agree
What in the nature of mankind caused America’s Founders to carefully define, separate, and limit powers in the Constitution?
Avarice, greed, and the love of power. - Governments of the past have typically been constructed under control of a ruling class or Monarch. Our founders recognized that the best form of government that takes the interest of the individual into consideration, while maintaining a reasonable social order, is that of a Representative Republic (not a pure Democracy) that is restrained and limited by the Constitution which established the rule of law, not of man.
Based on the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, please arrange the following entities, starting with the highest source of authority, and continue the list in descending order of authority, skipping any that do not apply: Academia, Congress, Constitution, God, Industry, Media, Professional Sports, Supreme Court, Voters.
God, Constitution, Voters, Congress, Supreme Court. - The others institutions consist of the Voters and are already covered as such; membership in one of these makes nobody more important than another nor carries more Constitutional authority.
Under what circumstances should abortion be allowed?
Health of the mother.
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
I am a Christian who has voluntarily accepted that Jesus Christ is my savior. The choices that I make in my life for myself are based on this. My values guide my decision making, but I'm not here to impose them on others. Morality can not be legislated, nor should it be tried. Christian choices are voluntary; anything else is a Theocracy and completely undermines what should be a personal relationship. I believe that the Unites States was divinely inspired, but it's not theocratic. Government should have the least impact on our lives in such a way that we are able to pursue our own destiny. I do agree with our Founders that we are a Republic of self-governance and without a moral base, we can not maintain that self-governance as intended.
Considering all issues (social, economic, national security, etc.), which of these best describes you?
Very Conservative
Please defend your answer to the previous question by referencing your publicly available track record.
The Constitution does not grant the Federal Government all-encompassing power, but it limits it, as we the People are to retain that power. I believe and have publicly advocated for a minimalist government structure, leaving the decisions for our personal lives as well as the consequences for our own good and bad decisions to those of us who live them. The government has no business in promoting or penalizing one business, one person, or one class of people over another. It is not and never should be a slush fund for any special interest or other entity that should have to prove themselves in a free market. Additionally; we should not be spending money we don't have on things the government shouldn't be doing.
E-mail address and phone number for voters to reach you.
darren@darrenbyrd.net
Additional comment from candidate:
"It is a known fact in human nature, that its affections are commonly weak in proportion to the distance or diffusiveness of the object. Upon the same principle that a man is more attached to his family than to his neighborhood, to his neighborhood than to the community at large, the people of each State would be apt to feel a stronger bias towards their local governments than towards the government of the Union; unless the force of that principle should be destroyed by a much [more forceful] administration of the latter." - Federalist Papers #17 ...and unless we forfeit our diligence and give unwarranted authority to the latter. God help us all!