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TOP 10 WISEST CRITERIA FOR VOTING

ABSTRACT: Below is a list of the top 10 wisest criteria for choosing political leaders based on God’s principles in the Bible, the records of history and the rise and fall of nations as well as scientific research. Ignoring these has always led to damage, the collapse and ruin of nations throughout history. But whatever happens to nations, families, churches and communities can keep far stronger by working in and with godly churches that emphasize justice and following truth and good science that aligns with God’s wise principles. Don’t let politics divide you. Still follow the golden rule with everyone around you. As the Bible says, “Always do good to each person and all people.” 1 Thess. 5:15. Harvard Prof. E. O. Wilson wrote that throughout history, selfish individuals sometimes succeed in a couple areas. But over time, altruistic communities and societies always beat those that are selfish. Living selfishly day to day is thus the most important choice you can make, far better than politics.

NOTE. I’ve studied and research biblical politics and economics for decades as a university professor and have shared them in churches too. If these principles from godly wisdom, science and history help you or someone you care about make wiser choices in politics, consider supporting my research and helping it be shared faster with many people by donating in these ways: PayPal bryan@truth-is-life.org or Cash App $TruthIsLife7.


INTRO
It’s time to vote in midterm elections. Below there are 10 biblical principles about what makes nations great (justice is one of these things as Solomon said), but they are also supported by science research and examples in history.  They can help you or those you are trying to influence make better political choices and maybe avoid some harm and disasters that could be avoided if people choose wisely.

Thomas Jefferson put the rule of friendship above politics in an April 22, 1800 letter to William Hamilton [1]: “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”

That is the spirit of this guide. Do not let this week’s election divide your family, your church or your friendships. Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” (John 13:35, NLT).

If you are not a Christian, you are just as welcome here. The principles below also have evidence from science and history so you can check without taking the Bible’s word for it. If you read them, you will know more about wise political principles than many Christians do and you can challenge them with why they are abandoning God’s principles to vote for Trump who is in massive rebellion against God’s principles and causing so much suffering because of it.

WHAT IS AT STAKE

Nations rarely collapse in a day. They erode, one tolerated lie, one bought favor and one neglected neighbor at a time. The Bible says so plainly: “Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34, NLT), and “When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan” (Proverbs 29:2, NLT). The harvest is not a punishment invented for effect. It is how a world built on truth, love and justice answers those who ignore them: “You will always harvest what you plant” (Galatians 6:7, NLT).

The research agrees with the ancient warning. When leaders ignore these principles, ordinary people pay: a financial crisis that a bipartisan commission called avoidable [18], corruption that drains an estimated $2.6 trillion a year [22], wars that cost about $8 trillion and nearly a million lives [31], and an income gap that has moved nearly $80 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1% [26]. Behind every figure are families who lost homes, children who lost parents, and communities that lost trust. Voting by wisdom instead of by tribe does not guarantee a good outcome, but voting against these principles has a documented price.

And hear this clearly: the ballot is not where most of the harvest is decided. Elections come every few years. Your choices come every day. A nation is the sum of what its people do in ordinary weeks: whether we tell the truth when it costs us, pay fairly, forgive, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger and show up for the neighbor in trouble. “He has told you what is good, and this is what the Lord requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8, NLT). Vote by these principles, and then keep living them every week, because that is where change is made, whoever wins.

SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN VOTING





Why daily wisdom matters more than any one election. Researchers Martin Gilens (Princeton) and Benjamin Page (Northwestern) compared 1,779 policy questions from 1981 to 2002. They found that when ordinary citizens and wealthy elites or organized business groups disagreed, average citizens had “little or no independent influence” on what became law [2][3] (study summary; full paper, Princeton). Economist Robert Reich explains this finding in “Corruption is Legal in American Oligarchy” [4]. Other scholars dispute how large the effect is, and your vote still counts, so please use it. But if money and lobbying move policy more than ballots do, then no single election will fix our problems, and it makes no sense to turn against your neighbor, your family, or your church family over one. The money pressures both parties. What we control every day is how we live: telling the truth, being generous, treating people fairly, and helping those in need. That is where God’s wisdom changes real lives, and it is available to Christians and non-Christians alike.

Follow the money. The Sunlight Foundation studied the 200 most politically active U.S. corporations from 2007 to 2012. Together they spent $5.8 billion on lobbying and political contributions, and they received $4.4 trillion in federal business and support, about $760 for every $1 spent (Sunlight Foundation, “Fixed Fortunes,” 2014 [5]). Most of that total is federal contracts and Federal Reserve emergency programs, so it shows who gets paid, not proof that the lobbying bought it. Money also tracks election results: in the 2014 midterms the top spender won 94% of House races and 82% of Senate races (PBS NewsHour, citing the Center for Responsive Politics [6]). Winners often raise the most money because donors back likely winners, so this is a link, not proof of cause. Either way, the lesson is the same: a government can be steered by money, so we need honest, generous, fair people at every level, starting with ourselves.

I would like to suggest that the ballot box cannot be our main hope. 

Georgetown University professor Carroll Quigley wrote in Tragedy and Hope (1966, pp. 1247-48) that “the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.” [7] He presented this as how a stable system should work, but it should make every voter ask: Is there something better that we can do than voting for a variety of rascals? First of all, voting is important, but far more than putting a piece of paper in a box every couple years, the single most important action is to belong to a biblical church. What is a biblical church? It’s a church that follows God’s principles and doesn’t replace them with man’s traditions (Mark 7:5-13), since each one is the foundation of love, justice and truth (Matt. 22:37-40, Ps. 89:14, 119:160, James 1:25) and it has a major focus on helping those in need, something Jesus said was the essence of true godliness (Prov. 29:7, James 1:27). So a true church is going to emphasize God’s laws, justice, avoiding aligning with any party and assisting everyone who needs help, inside the church and outside it, from any party, when they are in need (the Good Samaritan story illustrates this well). And when you are helping, aim to help people become independent.

A vote happens in minutes. A church feeds families, visits the sick, mentors children and carries burdens every week of the year. One 2016 study estimated that religion contributes about $1.2 trillion a year to the U.S. economy, including $418 billion from congregations (source: World Economic Forum, 2017) [8].

Research by Dr. Raam Cnaan, an agnostic scientist, shows that for every $1 a church spends, the community receives an average of $3.39 to $5.02 in tangible benefits. [9] That’s a phenomenal return. And that’s just an average. The most biblical churches do even better. 
https://blog.truth-is-life.org/god/church

Why God’s principles must outrank party loyalty

The Bible does not side with any party and sometimes it opposes all major parties. God did not support the Pharisees or Sadducees and sometimes 3rd options are best. The American founders also warned against putting party above principle. George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796) said that “the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it,” and that in popular governments party spirit “is truly their worst enemy.” [10] Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1789 that he had “never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever… Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.” (letter to Francis Hopkinson [11]). John Quincy Adams is quoted as saying, “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost” (Constitution Center; this is an attribution, and no original source has been found [12]). History supports this: AP reports that the Populists’ graduated income tax and direct election of senators [13] and the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party’s women’s suffrage and eight-hour workday were first championed by third parties and later embraced by the major parties. The Bible gives tests for leaders, and it applies them to kings, priests and presidents alike. When the people of Israel asked for a king, God’s instructions were specific:

“The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold for himself… He must always keep that copy [of God’s law] with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That will teach him to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees.” (Deuteronomy 17:17-19, NLT)

That is three tests: no greed for wealth, no sexual unfaithfulness, and a leader who knows and obeys God’s law. Jesus adds the heart of the matter: “No one can serve two masters… You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money” (Matthew 6:24, NLT).

These tests do not belong to the left or the right. They are the same for every candidate in every party, and they are the tests to apply to every race on your ballot, from local offices to Congress.

There is also a practical reason to take them seriously: “Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34, NLT) and “When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan” (Proverbs 29:2, NLT). The rest of this guide shows, principle by principle, that the evidence from history and research agrees.

No one can follow God and Trump (or those who support him)

God gave tests to evaluate leaders by in Deuteronomy 17:16-20 and Matthew 6:24, stating that we must not support anyone who is greedy, promiscuous or ignorant of God’s laws. Why? Because a person with these traits will betray his nation just like he betrays people around him. Consider Trump:

If a candidate or pastor in any party showed that pattern, the Bible’s tests would apply to them in exactly the same way. And anyone who excuses, flatters or defends that pattern is helping to normalize what God warns against, because “This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough” (Galatians 5:9, NLT).

This does not mean you should hate anyone. Jesus told us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). It means you cannot give your highest loyalty to a leader or a party and still call God your King.

The 10 most crucial principles for choosing leaders

Each principle below has three parts: what the Bible says, a real case where ignoring it brought harm, and research you can check. More principles are on my pages on Bible principles for politics and godly political principles for success.

1. Reject leaders driven by greed

“You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money” (Matthew 6:24, NLT). “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10, NLT). The king must not “accumulate large amounts of silver and gold for himself” (Deuteronomy 17:17, NLT).

What happened: the U.S. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a bipartisan panel, concluded that the 2008 crisis was avoidable [18] and cited excessive risk-taking on Wall Street, failures of regulation and breakdowns in corporate governance. Millions of families paid for decisions made by people chasing bonuses.

The research: Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett [19] found that rich countries with bigger gaps between rich and poor have worse trust, mental health, life expectancy and child wellbeing. Their analysis found mental illness about three times as high and imprisonment almost ten times as likely in the most unequal societies. His TED talk is linked just below [20].

Watch: Richard Wilkinson, “How economic inequality harms societies” (TED).

Watch: Chris Hedges, “What Greed Has Done” (about 16 minutes) [21]. Hedges, a former New York Times war correspondent, argues that unrestrained capitalism has harmed poor and vulnerable people. The Bible’s verdict on this is plain: do not give your vote or your loyalty to leaders who are driven by greed.

2. Reject corruption and injustice

“Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34, NLT). “A just king gives stability to his nation, but one who demands bribes destroys it” (Proverbs 29:4, NLT).

What happened: the United Nations Secretary-General cited World Economic Forum estimates that corruption costs at least $2.6 trillion, about 5% of global GDP [22]. That money is taken from schools, clinics and wages. On my page about Korea’s rise, I compare South Korea and Taiwan, where land was shared fairly, with the Philippines, where elites blocked reform (Korea’s rise from the ashes of war [23]; this page is my own synthesis, so check its sources).

3. Reject pride and the worship of the strongman

“Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18, NLT).

What happened: King Rehoboam rejected his elders’ advice to serve the people and threatened them with harsher rule instead, and the kingdom split in two (1 Kings 12:1-20).

The research: neurologist Lord David Owen and psychiatrist Jonathan Davidson proposed in the journal Brain (2009) that long, unchecked power can produce “hubris syndrome” [24]: excessive self-confidence, contempt for others and loss of contact with reality. Their remedy was accountability, which is why a leader who will not be corrected is dangerous.

4. Demand truth

“The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in those who tell the truth” (Proverbs 12:22, NLT). “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32, NLT).

What happened: after the 1986 Chernobyl explosion the Soviet government delayed admitting the disaster for two days [25], until Sweden detected the radiation. The backlash pushed Mikhail Gorbachev to open the system to journalists (glasnost), which exposed decades of hidden failures, and a former Gorbachev spokesman argues that glasnost ultimately destroyed the Soviet state. A system that cannot tell its people the truth cannot protect them.

5. Do not favor the rich over the poor

“A ruler who oppresses the poor to enrich himself and one who gives gifts to the rich will end in poverty” (Proverbs 22:16, NLT). “Do not pervert justice by favoring the poor or being partial to the rich and powerful. Always judge people fairly” (Leviticus 19:15, NLT).

What happened: RAND economist Carter Price estimates that nearly $80 trillion in income shifted from the bottom 90% to the top 1% between 1975 and 2023 [26]. An earlier estimate that he made with Nick Hanauer, about $50 trillion, pointed the same way. Hanauer built companies himself and now says trickle-down economics failed ordinary workers.

More research on “trickle-down”: a 2020 study of 18 wealthy countries over about 50 years, by David Hope (London School of Economics) and Julian Limberg (King’s College London), found that major tax cuts for the rich raised the top 1%’s income share by about 0.8 percentage points per reform [27], with no significant effect on GDP per capita or unemployment.

The link to abortion: according to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2014 49% of U.S. abortion patients were below the federal poverty line and another 26% were low-income [28]. I explain the evidence and the policy choices behind it in the section on abortion below.

6. Treat foreigners with justice

“Do not oppress or mistreat foreigners in any way. Remember, you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:21, NLT). “Treat them like native-born Israelites, and love them as you love yourself” (Leviticus 19:34, NLT).

The research: the 2016 National Academies report found little to no negative effect on the wages or employment of native-born workers [29] overall, positive long-run effects on growth, and strong fiscal contributions from immigrants’ children. A study of Texas arrest data found that undocumented immigrants were arrested for violent crimes at about half the rate of U.S.-born citizens [30]. Border enforcement and legal order still matter, but blaming foreigners hides the real cause of family hardship (see the myths section below).

7. Choose peace over pride and war

“Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18, NLT). “God blesses those who work for peace” (Matthew 5:9, NLT).

What happened: Brown University’s Costs of War project estimates the post-9/11 wars cost the United States about $8 trillion and 897,000 to 929,000 direct deaths [31], and the project says the true toll is likely higher. Owen and Davidson’s hubris research (principle 3) judged that one of those wars’ presidents showed the syndrome.

8. Protect fair wages, land and economic freedom for everyone

“What sorrow awaits the man who builds his palace with unrighteousness… making his neighbors work for nothing and refusing to pay them” (Jeremiah 22:13, NLT). Israel’s law gave every family a stake in the land (Leviticus 25).

What happened: South Korea and Taiwan limited how much land one owner could hold and let farmers buy their own land, which helped pull rural families out of poverty (Boyce, Rosset and Stanton, as cited on my Korea page). Details of the Bible’s land system are on my page God and land rights.

9. Demand leaders with character, because they shape the nation

“The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away” (Deuteronomy 17:17, NLT). Of King Jeroboam the Bible says he “sinned and made Israel sin along with him” (1 Kings 14:16, NLT).

The research: a study of managers and their employees found that ethical leadership “trickles down” [32]: the conduct of top leaders shapes the conduct of those below them (Mayer and colleagues, 2009). People copy what their leaders reward.

10. Choose leaders who know God’s law and can say “I was wrong”

“People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy” (Proverbs 28:13, NLT). “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us” (1 John 1:9, NLT). The king must read God’s law “daily as long as he lives” (Deuteronomy 17:19, NLT).

What happened: South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission traded amnesty for honest confession, and many credit it with helping a largely peaceful transition after apartheid, though its legacy is debated [33]. A leader who cannot admit error will repeat it, and so will the nation.

Greed and pride: why a vote for corruption is a vote for harm

Greed and pride are the two sins that produce the most social damage, because they let a few people take what belongs to many and then convince themselves they deserve it. The Bible warns against both. The research now measures what they do.

What to check before you vote

These questions come straight from the principles above. Ask them of every candidate, in both parties:

  1. Who pays for this campaign? Look up donors on OpenSecrets. Whose interests will a donor-funded candidate serve when they conflict with yours?
  2. Does this person enrich themselves or their family through office?
  3. Does this person tell the truth when it costs them?
  4. Do they admit mistakes, or only blame others?
  5. Do their policies protect the poor, the worker and the foreigner, or only the powerful?
  6. Do their private lives and public words match the character the Bible asks of leaders?

My page on the problems with both major parties argues that donors from the wealthy few shape both. If a candidate fails these questions, a party label does not rescue them.

Two myths that distract voters from the real causes

Myth 1: “Foreigners are the biggest cause of America’s problems”

The evidence points elsewhere:

It is fair to ask how many people should enter legally, and how to secure a border. Those are questions about policy. The Bible simply says that whatever the policy, foreigners must be treated with justice (Exodus 22:21; Leviticus 19:34). Blaming them for what greed and automation have done is a distraction, and it is also how powerful people keep ordinary people from looking at who gained.

Myth 2: “Socialism is evil”

The word covers very different things, and honest voters separate them:

  • Collectivizing, state-controlled versions (the Soviet Union and Maoist China) concentrated power in a few hands and ended in repression and mass suffering. The Bible’s warnings about concentrated power and about forced labor apply fully here.
  • Christian and Jewish roots. Many early socialist ideas grew from Bible-based ideas about the poor. Israel’s Jubilee law returned land and released debts, and the early church shared possessions (Acts 4:32-35). Even a critic of socialism admits that the Mosaic Law’s debt release and land return were real, and that early Christianity had a communistic strand [37], though he argues the Law assumed private property. That caveat is correct: the Jubilee kept private family ownership, so it is better described as a limit on the concentration of land than as collectivism. Christian socialism was a 19th-century movement that took these ideas seriously.
  • Fair land and fair wages. My page on God and land rights argues for equitable land access and for each worker keeping the full value of their work. South Korea and Taiwan’s land reforms are real examples of broad ownership that helped growth.
  • The Nordic model. Countries like Denmark and Sweden score near the top of the rankings for trust, health and equality. Their leaders reject the socialist label, though. Denmark’s prime minister said in 2015 that “Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy” [38]. So the Nordic lesson is that a market economy with a strong safety net, fair taxes and high trust can do better than the U.S. version, not that all socialism works.

Where the original idea came from. In The Hebrew Republic (Harvard University Press, 2010), historian Eric Nelson shows that 17th-century thinkers such as Petrus Cunaeus and James Harrington drew on the Bible’s Jubilee and land laws to argue that property, especially land, should be broadly distributed. One scholarly review [39] calls it “an important and pioneering contribution,” while cautioning that these writers’ picture of the ancient Hebrew state may have been idealized.

There are more than a dozen schools of socialism, and they disagree with each other more than most people realize. Voting well means asking what a specific proposal actually does to power, land, wages and freedom, not reacting to a label. No economic system is righteous by name. Each is judged by whether it protects the poor, limits greed and keeps leaders accountable.

If you want fewer abortions, look at greed and poverty

Many Christians vote on abortion first. If the goal is fewer abortions and more mothers and babies who thrive, the research points to money and access more than to any other cause.

  • Women who have abortions are mostly poor or low-income. The Guttmacher Institute reports that in 2014, 49% of U.S. abortion patients were below the federal poverty line and 26% were low-income [28]. Together that is about three in four.
  • Money is the most common stated reason. In a survey of 1,209 women, 73% said “I can’t afford a baby now” [40], and 48% cited not wanting to be a single mother or relationship problems.
  • Cutting health-clinic funding can raise abortions. A Stanford study of nearly 750,000 women in 26 African countries found abortions were about 40% higher when the U.S. Mexico City Policy was in force [41], because contraceptive use fell about 14% and pregnancies rose about 12%. That study covers foreign aid, not U.S. clinics, so it shows how access works rather than proving what happens here.
  • Overturning a law does not change the pressure. A woman who cannot afford a child, cannot take unpaid leave, and cannot find childcare still faces the same choice. Greed that keeps wages low and housing and healthcare expensive is part of that pressure.

So a consistent pro-life voter can reasonably ask each candidate: what will you do about family-wage jobs, paid leave, childcare, healthcare, contraception access and adoption support? My page Why abortions skyrocket most under some administrations gathers the sources I used, including Phil Vischer’s video “What About Abortion?” (watch).

One caution for honesty: U.S. national abortion numbers have risen and fallen in different periods, and the causes are debated. I do not claim that one party’s rule alone causes abortion rates to rise. I claim that poverty and lack of support are the strongest documented drivers, and that leaders who protect the wealthy while cutting help for families are working against the goal they say they hold.

Fair questions readers will ask

“Both parties have problems. Why single anyone out?” They do, and the principles apply to both. The point of this guide is the test, not a team. My page on the serious problems with both major parties makes that case. When one leader’s documented conduct fails the test more visibly than others’, the test still has to be applied.

“Isn’t it wrong to say a Christian cannot support someone?” Be careful here. I am not saying that every person who voted a certain way is lost. Peter denied Jesus three times and was restored (John 21). I am saying that Jesus tells us we cannot serve God and money (Matthew 6:24), and that the Bible gives Christians tests for who they put in authority. Honest believers can weigh those tests differently, and that is why the first section calls us to stay in fellowship with one another.

“What about the Supreme Court and religious freedom?” These are real concerns. A principle-based voter weighs them next to the other principles, not instead of them. The Bible warns against a faith that holds one commandment and ignores the weightier matters of justice, mercy and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23).

“Why should I accept Bible principles if I am not a Christian?” You do not have to accept them on authority. Each principle above comes with a documented case and published research. If the evidence does not persuade you, discard the claim. If it does, you have found something true that the Bible also teaches.

“Is this guide trying to tell me who to vote for?” No. It gives you a standard and the evidence behind it. Applying that standard to the names on your ballot is your responsibility.

Before you vote: a one-page checklist

  1. Church first. Commit to a biblical church this week, whatever the election result. Serve someone in it who sees politics differently than you do.
  2. Test every name on the ballot, from city council to Congress, by the ten principles: greed, corruption, pride, truth, the poor, the foreigner, peace, fair land and wages, character, and repentance.
  3. Check the money. Look at who funds each candidate on OpenSecrets.
  4. Check the record, not the speech. Compare what each person has said with what they have done.
  5. Do not trust one issue alone. Luke 24:25-27 and 1 Thessalonians 5:21 tell us to weigh the whole counsel and test everything.
  6. Do not make a party your savior. “Psalm 146 warns us not to put our trust in princes or in mere mortals, who cannot save” (see Psalm 146:3).
  7. Afterward, keep working. Elections end in a day, but the harvest is gathered week by week: every honest word, every fair wage, every meal shared, every enemy forgiven. If these principles are right, a nation changes less by who wins in November than by what its people do on ordinary weeks.

Jefferson was right that politics must not cost us our friends. Jesus was clearer still: “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” (John 13:35, NLT).

If this guide helped you, please share it. If you want to support more free resources like it, you can give by PayPal at bryan@truth-is-life.org or Cash App $TruthIsLife7.

Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Endnotes

The numbers in square brackets in the text refer to these notes. Web pages were checked November 1-2, 2026. Where a quotation is only attributed to a person and no original source has been found, the note says so.

  1. Thomas Jefferson to William Hamilton, April 22, 1800 (“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics…”). Monticello: https://www.monticello.org/encyclopedia/i-never-considered-difference-opinion-politicsquotation
  2. Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” Perspectives on Politics (2014). Full paper: https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
  3. Journalist’s Resource, summary of Gilens and Page (November 14, 2014): https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/the-influence-of-elites-interest-groups-and-average-voters-on-american-politics/
  4. Robert Reich, “Corruption is Legal in American Oligarchy” (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig
  5. Sunlight Foundation, “Fixed Fortunes: Biggest corporate political interests spend billions, get trillions” (November 17, 2014): https://sunlightfoundation.com/2014/11/17/fixed-fortunes-biggest-corporate-political-interests-spend-billions-get-trillions
  6. PBS NewsHour, “Money is a pretty good predictor of who will win elections,” citing the Center for Responsive Politics (2014): https://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/money-pretty-good-predictor-will-win-elections/
  7. Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (New York: Macmillan, 1966), pp. 1247-48.
  8. Brian Grim, World Economic Forum (January 2017), on religion’s economic contribution ($1.2 trillion a year; $418 billion from congregations): https://www.weforum.org/stories/2017/01/religion-bigger-business-than-we-thought/
  9. Ram Cnaan, “Calculating the Economic Halo Effect of Sacred Places,” Partners for Sacred Places (2011), as cited on the author’s page https://blog.truth-is-life.org/god/church (original: http://www.endowedparishes.org/download_file/view/2154)
  10. George Washington, Farewell Address (1796), Bill of Rights Institute: https://billofrightsinstitute.org/activities/george-washington-farewell-address-1796/
  11. Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson (1789), Founders Online: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-14-02-0402
  12. National Constitution Center, “10 fascinating facts about John Quincy Adams”: https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/10-fascinating-facts-about-john-quincy-adams-for-his-248th-birthday (The quotation is attributed to Adams; no original source has been found.)
  13. Associated Press, “How the Know Nothings, Free Soilers and other third parties shaped US politics” (July 9, 2025), via WSLS: https://www.wsls.com/news/politics/2025/07/09/how-the-know-nothings-free-soilers-and-other-third-parties-shaped-us-politics/
  14. NPR, “A jury finds Trump liable for battery and defamation in E. Jean Carroll trial” (May 9, 2023): https://www.npr.org/2023/05/09/1174975870/trump-carroll-verdict. On the 2005 Access Hollywood recording: Boston Globe, “Trump caught having extremely lewd conversations about women” (October 7, 2016): https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2016/10/07/trump-caught-having-extremely-lewd-conversations-about-women/vvx8nT4SSsj0QhRbE1nfIP/story.html
  15. Mediaite, report on the Washington Post’s final count of 30,573 false or misleading claims in Trump’s first term: https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trump/trump-tells-10-false-claims-on-his-way-out-the-door-to-reach-a-final-washington-post-count-of-30573-for-his-presidency/
  16. Christian Post, “Donald Trump: I’m not sure if I ever asked God’s forgiveness” (2015): https://christianpost.com/news/donald-trump-im-not-sure-if-i-ever-asked-gods-forgiveness.html
  17. WUSF/NPR, “Trump is found guilty on 34 felony counts. Read the counts here” (May 30, 2024): https://www.wusf.org/2024-05-30/trump-is-found-guilty-on-34-felony-counts-read-the-counts-here
  18. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, conclusions: https://fcic.gov/report/conclusions
  19. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, The Spirit Level, excerpt on Evonomics: https://evonomics.com/wilkinson-pickett-income-inequality-fix-economy/
  20. Richard Wilkinson, “How economic inequality harms societies,” TED: https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson
  21. Chris Hedges, “What Greed Has Done” (video, about 16 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w-DVGWVhIw
  22. UN News (2018), Secretary-General citing World Economic Forum estimates of the cost of corruption: https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/09/1018892
  23. Author’s page on South Korea and Taiwan’s land reforms (the author’s own synthesis; check its sources): https://blog.truth-is-life.org/politics/politics3/koreas-rise/
  24. David Owen and Jonathan Davidson, “Hubris syndrome,” Brain (2009), summarized by the British Psychological Society: https://bps.org.uk/research-digest/are-british-politicians-suffering-hubris-syndrome
  25. NBC News on the Chernobyl delay and glasnost: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna12403612
  26. Carter Price, “Measuring the Income Gap from 1975 to 2023,” RAND Corporation (2025), on income shifted from the bottom 90% to the top 1% (nearly $80 trillion since 1975): https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA516-2.html An earlier estimate by Nick Hanauer and Carter Price (about $50 trillion), reported by Time: https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/
  27. David Hope and Julian Limberg, London School of Economics (2020), on tax cuts for the rich: https://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2020/L-December/Tax-cuts-for-the-rich
  28. Guttmacher Institute, abortion patient characteristics (2014): https://www.guttmacher.org/node/27198
  29. National Academies of Sciences (2016) report on the economic and fiscal effects of immigration, summarized by the American Immigration Council: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/news/nas-report-finds-immigration-win-us-economy
  30. Scientific American, on arrest rates of undocumented immigrants in Texas: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/undocumented-immigrants-are-half-as-likely-to-be-arrested-for-violent-crimes-as-u-s-born-citizens
  31. Brown University, Costs of War project (2021): https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-09-01/costsofwar
  32. Mayer, Kuenzi, Greenbaum, Bardes and Salvador, “How low does ethical leadership flow?” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (2009): https://www.ethicalsystems.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Mayer-Kuenzi-Greenbaum-Bardes-Salvador_OBHDP_2009.pdf
  33. JusticeInfo.net, “Mixed legacy for South Africa’s Truth Commission, twenty years on”: https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/26910-mixed-legacy-for-south-africa-truth-commission-twenty-years-on.html
  34. Nick Hanauer, TEDSummit 2019 talk summary, Ritholtz: https://ritholtz.com/2019/09/nick-hanauer-the-dirty-secret-of-capitalism/
  35. Nick Hanauer, “Ending the protection racket for the rich” (podcast episode; confirm exact wording against the original before quoting): https://metacast.app/podcast/all-ears-with-abigail-disney/gEVLoNu5/nick-hanauer-ending-the-protection-racket-for-the-rich/6NkckU0p
  36. Ball State Daily, on the Ball State study of manufacturing job losses (2017): https://www.ballstatedaily.com/article/2017/02/news-myth-and-reality-of-manufacturing-in-america
  37. Mises Institute, The Socialist Tradition, “Jewish and Christian traditions”: https://mises.org/online-book/socialist-tradition/ii-jewish-and-christian-traditions
  38. Copenhagen Post (November 2, 2015), Danish prime minister on Denmark’s market economy: https://cphpost.dk/2015-11-02/news/no-socialists-under-the-mattress-says-danish-pm
  39. Review of Eric Nelson, The Hebrew Republic (Harvard University Press, 2010), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews: https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/the-hebrew-republic-jewish-sources-and-the-transformation-of-european-political-thought/
  40. Guttmacher Institute, “Reasons U.S. women have abortions” (2005): https://www.guttmacher.org/journals/psrh/2005/reasons-us-women-have-abortions-quantitative-and-qualitative-perspectives
  41. Stanford Medicine news (2019), on the Mexico City Policy and abortion rates: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/07/us-foreign-policy-to-restrict-abortion-funding-results-in-more-abortions

Other pages by the author: https://blog.truth-is-life.org/politics and https://blog.truth-is-life.org/politics/politics3/