We, the public, interview our politicians for their jobs.   “How would you handle this problem? Or, what would you do to resolve that crisis?” We ask for solutions to issues we believe they will face during their terms of office. We ask question, after question, after question. I ask you, “Is this the most effective way to chose a politician?”

The world changes unpredictably. We have very little knowledge of which issues will be in play when the politician is in office. So how can we question him? We really don’t know what questions to ask. And who’s keeping track of the answers? Any politician worth his salt can spin an answer that sounds really good, but is so amorphous as to be meaningless. Keep in mind; the pre-election objective is to get a firm commitment of performance from our politicians. But what we get is a noncommittal answer to an issue that may never arise. And we leave the big, unforeseeable issues, like 911, completely unaddressed. Have you ever considered using principles instead of issues?

A Principle is a verifiable, invariantly true, dynamic relationship that describes what happens when one entity comes under the influence of another. It’s a statement of cause and effect. This word needs strict definition to make it insusceptible to political manipulation

Here is a new approach. Don’t ask politicians about issues; question them first about their principles. Ask for a written list of principles that are consistent with each other. Then insist that he always address issues  in the context of their governing principles. This approach will do two things.

First, each principle covers millions and millions of issues. When the principle-set is properly constructed, it is closed; that is, there is one principle for every possible issue. And so we don’t have to guess what issues will be arising in the future – through the use of principles, we’ve covered them all. Secondly, since principles are verifiable, they establish an enforceable contract between the politician and the citizenry. It becomes obvious and indisputable when the politician fails to live up to his promises.  

This is one of the best political ideas in a long time. There is a movement afoot to force politicians to maintain personal principle-sets.   The strategy is simple. The politician is asked this straight-forward question “If you consider yourself a principled person, will you provide to me a list of your principles.”    Once the principles are provided and published, the politician is no longer known by his fleeting issue-by-issue positions but by his considered, written principles. He is free to amend and modify his principle-set as he sees fit. But excessive changes identify him as unprincipled.

There is a website dedicated to pushing the concept of the principled politician. Visit GoldenCharacter.org and follow the progress of producing politicians of principle.