Campaign season is in full swing and as I read through the local, state and federal news, try to see how each candidate is faring, try to understand the budding controversies, and grapple with the issues, I find myself frustrated that it has become so complicated. As a candidate in 2010, I encountered, repeatedly, people who were interested in the process, who cared, but didn’t understand the complexity of the issues. .

In the kaleidoscope of coverage and available information, a voter can read critiques of candidates hair and apparel, their wife’s hair and apparel, where they ate for lunch and who they ate it with. We have been obsessed and side tracked with Tax Returns and Birth Certificates, with newsletters and associations, with relatives of the candidate, whether there are gay or alcoholic relatives, and how many times they’ve been married. We occasionally get some good coverage and interest in the voting record of incumbents, but even that substantive information, I keep wondering if the average voter gets it.

As we sort through and nit pick our favorite issues, the unfortunate result is that we on the right continue to appear to ourselves and others as divided and not cohesive or unified. I would love to see a candidate, any candidate, for any office, deal with the issues by sticking to a basic tenet of conservative politics, rather than taking a position on every popular public issue, even ones that may never come before them. Because, let’s face it, you don’t have to spend much time in Sacramento to realize why they call it the sausage factory. Even in the Local elections, I hear the same lament from electeds, it is just not as easy as it looks. Idealism dies an abrupt death right after the swearing in ceremony. Compromises will be made. Campaign promises will be broken. Many things, especially at the local level, are not feasible or legal even if they were the cornerstone promises and guarantees during the campaign. The hurdles are significant, and often unanticipated by the most well meaning candidates. Then of course, we skewer them in their race for reelections for not sticking to the overly specific promises they made during the campaign.

So, what if. What if, we as a party looked at our candidates, rather than a host of litmus tests on how they will vote on this or that….what if, we ask them…..WILL YOU GROW GOVERNMENT? Will you fight with everything in your being to curtail the runaway growth of government? …..OR will you allow government to grow in the limited exceptions, when it comes to your favorite issues or pet projects?

This should be our “one thing”, limiting, and/or reducing the size of government, at every level. That should be the battle cry of the right, of the Republican party. We are the only ones who will do it. If we get mired in debates over social issues, and continue beating up candidates on the hypothetical questions related to scenarios that may never happen, we lose a lot of steam in the lack of focus and simplicity. Gosh, it starts to sound like ….”tolerance”, ouch.

If we don’t establish a clearer and more devoted commitment to this principle, our government at all levels will continue to grow at unprecedented and unsustainable rates. Limiting the size of government, decreasing the size of government, curtailing the growth of government. Call it what you will, but this one principle applies to every issue. I will be voting for those candidates whose agenda is to stick with this one simple and vital principle.