Q&A of the Day – About Brian Mast, Marco Rubio and RINOs
It’s the Q&A of the day. Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s question was submitted by Cathy…
I was listening to the Monday morning broadcast when the subject of effectiveness came up. Mast apparently has done better than average. I did my research on him late in the game during the primary. Mast only had a 44% liberty score. That is nothing to sing about. I'm hoping his score dramatically improves but he did not have much of an answer when I asked him why.
Policy and preserving our liberty is the most important thing in my opinion. I don't vote for someone based on their race, sex, religion, etc. Please remind people to not vote for sympathy but for whoever is best armed to defend freedom.
Bottom Line: Recently I dug into information from the Center for Effective Lawmaking to determine overall effectiveness of Florida’s Congressional representatives from the previous Congress. As it turned out there were only two remaining members of Congress in Florida with above average effectiveness. Brian Mast in the House and Marco Rubio in the Senate.
Effectiveness is defined as having their proposals eventually passed as law. This means that over the prior two years Mast and Rubio were well above average into terms of having the bills they sponsored enacted as law. The question, of course, becomes one of whether you approve of the policies enacted into law. That’s a very personal decision. Speaking of which, my approach is to inform and educate – not to advocate for particular politicians. I’ve never endorsed politicians and I don’t intend on doing it in the future either. I’ve spent my entire career building credibility and I don’t trust it with anyone but my wife. But even then, there are occasional disagreements we have on issues and that’s ok, because we love and respect each other and there’s far more common ground than not. Which takes me to my next point.
How many people do you agree with 100% of the time? Any? Probably not. In fact, you ten years from today likely won’t agree with you today on 100% of issues and that’s ok. That’s all part of learning and life. If you completely agree with everything Liberty stands for and Brian Mast has a fairly low rating – there's your answer. For example, his position to potentially ban sales of the AR-15 left many on the right unhappy with him. That being said his opinion didn’t become policy.
If South Florida’s water management and environmental issues are a top priority for you – you might feel differently. There was no more effective member in the US House on Florida’s environmental policy than Brian Mast in the previous Congress. That’s all where pragmatism comes into play on a personal note. There are plenty of politicians that have higher scores with groups like Liberty but are far less effective at enacting policy. A few years ago, Lindsey Graham was labeled a RINO and now he’s one of the most popular Senators among conservatives nationally. A little food for thought. I’m most interested in evaluating policy and effectiveness – less so with labels.