Values

I think it is important to talk about values when we debate policy solutions to community problems. Values are foundational to why decisionmakers may see problems in a certain way, and how they will approach solving them.

If we only ask candidates to talk about specific issues, we may miss important information on how they will approach problems that aren’t on our community radar yet, but may come up during their tenure in office. So I’ll try to set out some general principles that would guide me as Mayor.

My values revolve around creating good policy that benefits the largest number of people. I think of myself as progressive in the sense of wanting to see government and society evolve to fit current needs and our best understanding of how the world works.

I believe that there are some aspects of society and the economy where the government is the best option to solve problems. This includes law enforcement, fire protection, building code requirements, transportation infrastructure, public utilities like water and sewer, and the provision of parks and protected wild spaces.

I also think that government can and should play a leading role in healthcare, education, and childcare. These are areas so critical to community well-being that we should be providing access and quality services to all our community members for the benefit of the whole.

I’m also classically liberal in the sense of wanting to err on the side of the least government intervention when possible. I believe that people should have the right to do what they want with their property, their bodies, and their private life as long as they are not negatively impacting other members of the community. In the latter cases, I believe there is an appropriate role for the government in limiting harm and harmful behaviors. 

My liberalism generally aligns with John Rawls’ Theory of Justice and I will often try and think through more thorny issues of policy in light of the Veil of Ignorance to try reach some level of fairness. For me, that means when I am considering a policy, my starting point is trying to take the perspective of the most vulnerable people who the policy might apply to, and trying to find a policy solution that creates the least risk of harm to those parties.

My undergraduate degree is in religion and classical history, and I’ve continued an interest and connection with those areas of study throughout my life. My general beliefs in life are cosmopolitan. I grew up in a rural evangelical Christian community. The relationship I had with that belief system was always tenuous, especially because I saw hypocrisy and political propaganda regularly in that church. Since then, my education and travels have exposed me to four continents and cultures/religions/philosophies from a wide variety of historical and current traditions.

The result in me has been a grab-bag of philosophical and practical beliefs, and a spiritual agnosticism. I’ve been highly influenced by lessons I was given in Christianity (the beatitudes, the preeminence of love, a rejection of greed), but have also taken on lessons from Buddhism (mindfulness, the middle way), Confucianism, Taoism, and Stoicism to end up where I am now.

This also informs broadly how I approach questions in government. I am very hesitant to believe that any one idea is perfect, or that any person has all the solution to the complex problems we face as a community/world. I think it is important that we listen to each other and try to take on information without pre-judgement and see for ourselves if it can be helpful to move us forward.