I originally composed these notes for Facebook. -AA
What to do about the Colorado ballot? I had a request to reveal how I’m voting. I’m happy to oblige, with links to my articles where relevant. (I’d appreciate no comments here, as those quickly could get unruly. Yes, I realize there are people in the world, as strange as it may seem, who do not always agree with me.)
All tax and debt increases: No.
We should be talking about reducing government spending at all levels, not increasing it. (These mostly are regional issues, so ballots vary.)
Amendment T: Yes.
Slavery and involuntary servitude are wrong even for criminals. I actually changed my mind about this over the course of researching and writing a lengthy article about it:
http://ariarmstrong.com/2016/10/colorados-amendment-t-and-the-meaning-of-involuntary-servitude/
[Note: I voted early and didn’t change my mind about T until later, so here my notes reflect how I wish I’d voted.]
Amendment U: Yes.
The purpose seems to be to to eliminate what amounts to a nuisance tax.
Amendment 69: No.
We need to move toward a free market in health care, not toward socialized health care.
Amendment 70: No.
Minimum wage laws are immoral and economically harmful to many. My case:
http://ariarmstrong.com/2016/09/the-moral-case-against-minimum-wage-laws/
Amendment 71: No.
Generally I’m sympathetic to the idea that it should be harder for voters to pass a constitutional measure than a statutory one. There’s a great deal of nonsense in the Colorado constitution, thanks largely to voter-approved measures. However, by requiring signatures from all state senate districts, Amendment 71 would turn the process even more completely into a game for the wealthy, as it usually costs a fortune to gather signatures. I’m open to reforms here, but I don’t think this is the way to go. The Denver Post has a pretty good editorial about it:
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/09/17/colorados-raise-the-bar-initiative-gets-it-wrong/
Amendment 72: No.
Not only does government have no proper business imposing “sin” taxes, but this measure could lead to a black market in cigarettes in Colorado. Google “Eric Garner” if it’s not clear to you why that would be bad.
Proposition 106: No.
This is a tough one, with some good and bad elements. I think the bad outweighs the good, and we should hold out for a better measure. I have two articles about this:
http://ariarmstrong.com/2016/10/why-i-oppose-the-colorado-end-of-life-options-act-proposition-106/
and
http://ariarmstrong.com/2016/10/why-im-ambivalent-about-right-to-die-laws/
Propositions 107 and 108: No.
It is not the proper role of government to intervene in the affairs of private organizations, nor to finance the selection of candidates. I recommend two of my recent articles on this:
http://ariarmstrong.com/2016/06/an-open-letter-to-the-colorado-elections-study-group/
and
http://ariarmstrong.com/2016/04/get-government-out-of-political-parties-how-to-resolve-the-primary-caucus-debate/
That leaves the elected officials and judges (and I have no opinion about the judges).
State legislature: Please for God’s sake vote for every Republican at this level. We are in real danger of Democrats having complete control of state government again. Remember last time that happened? We ended up with a bunch of new taxes (including the idiotic “Amazon tax”) and pointless gun restrictions. If you’re worried about Republicans pushing their crazy anti-abortion agenda, take comfort in the fact that we’ll have a Democratic governor for at least two years. Gridlock is good in this context.
Congress: I didn’t vote either for U.S. House or for U.S. Senate, because both of the Republicans in those races (where I live) are Trump cheerleaders (who had no real chance of winning anyway), and I didn’t want to support the Libertarians. I don’t think we’ll see any turnover in the state here, unless Mike Coffman or Scott Tipton happen to lose (which I’d be surprised to see).
President: Look, I did everything I reasonably could to try to get a decent Republican nominee. That effort failed. I can’t vote for Donald Trump; I can’t vote for Hillary Clinton. I voted for Evan McMullin as the strongest possible protest meaning “Never do anything like that again, Republican Party.” It looks like the nihilists who pushed Trump into the nomination will end up turning the presidency over to Clinton, in a year when any of the other major Republican candidates probably could have easily won. I heartily agree it is time to “drain the swamp”—and purge the Republican Party of the racist “alt-right” and their ilk. It’s going to be a rough four years. I have a number of articles about presidential politics this year at my main page:
http://ariarmstrong.com