Be informed

Laws are meant to be the tools of government, not its master.

I have been told, again and again and again, that many legislators vote for bills without reading them. We have seen time and time again laws and resolutions have come into being without being understood by those who have enacted them. I would like to promise to read every piece of legislation I vote on. The volume of chaff proposed to the legislature seems huge and unworkable, and this is likely to be impossible. I have worked out this compromise.

• I will only vote for a bill I have read, or had carefully explained by someone I trust who has no stake in its passage or defeat.
• I will not vote for last minute amendments and legislation without knowing what’s in them. Indeed, I may vote against them on the principal that last minute changes just before the final bell are deliberately manipulative to the democratic process of open and public  government.