Friday, April 15, 2011

Justin Amash, Freshman Congressman from Michigan

Thank you to the NYTs for introducing me to Justin Amash, a 30 year old attorney who is the grandson of Palestinian Christian immigrants and is now a freshman Congressman from Michigan. I hadn't heard of him before and am pleasantly surprised to find another legislator who seems to truly be in favor of limited government and is acting on his beliefs.

Representative Justin Amash does not believe the government should subsidize public broadcasting, vehemently opposes abortion rights and thinks Democrats are wrong about spending. Yet he has voted against every Republican measure that conforms to those views. ...

He has even voted against the routine matter of approving the journal of the previous day’s proceedings, because, he says, there is not enough time to read it. (This is a bit like not clicking “I Agree” on a hotel Wi-Fi agreement because you don’t have time to read the fine print.) ...

“I follow a set of principles, I follow the Constitution,” said Mr. Amash, who keeps a picture of the seating chart for his constitutional law class from the University of Michigan on his office wall. “And that’s what I base my votes on. Limited government, economic freedom and individual liberty.”
In Class of Colorful Freshmen, Meet the Most Contrarian

He explains his votes on his Facebook Page www.facebook.com/repjustinamash and I was delighted to see that he quoted Hayek as to why he did not vote for a particular bill.

"By 'law' we mean the general rules that apply equally to everybody . . . As a true law should not name any particulars, so it should especially not single out any specific persons or group of persons." —F.A. Hayek

Maybe the United States has a chance after all. When gadflys become commonplace we may yet have a chance of not falling down the socialist rathole.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please vote yes next time around. You are probably too young to appreciate the saying "throwing the baby out with the bath water". You are holding our future hostage not just the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling has been raised 90 times in the past because sensible people were voting. I don't know how you were voted in... but you and those of your thinking are dangerous to the welfare of our country. Maybe that is what you want? What other affiliations do you have? Think before you vote.

Gilbert Midonnet said...

I must be dangerous too as I am applauding and encouraging him. Do you think we can keep adding debt forever? At what point do we start putting a break on our addiction to distributing money?

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