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I’ve just posted on Substack (free) a questionnaire in the form of a spreadsheet regarding the 2024 POTUS candidates. See it (and download the attachments) here. A few points from the cover post:

• When you finish this post, you won’t know who I’m voting for. I’m sharing (in the form of a spreadsheet) the process by which I chose who to vote for in the 2024 election, but not my own results. I hope the spreadsheet helps you make an informed choice as well.
• Let’s try voting on issues, policies, and principles rather than slogans, gut instincts, memes, vibes, “She’s not Trump”, “He’s not a Democrat”, and so on. The attached spreadsheet is designed to give you an overview of the candidates’ positions on a wide range of issues, weighted according to your own values. The goal: find out which candidate is most in favor (or least opposed) to what matters to you.
• ANOTHER NOTE: You’ll download the spreadsheet and fill it out offline. No one will know your results unless you tell them.
• On what scale should we rate the candidates on those issues? Republican and Democratic positions change over time. Right vs. Left can be subjective. For each issue, I’ve used a spectrum – a scoring range – from zero (most government control) to 5 (most respect for individual rights). At the “0” end, the assumption is that you and everyone else need a society to survive. That means the government (representing society) knows best what needs to be done, and must have free rein to do it. The state’s scope and powers are therefore unlimited. Whether it’s democratic (majority rule) or authoritarian (rule by one person or a small group), the government can control any and every facet of your personal and professional life. At the “5” end of the scoring range, the assumption is that you survive by your reasoning mind, as does everyone else. Any society you choose to belong to must allow you to succeed or fail by your own thoughts and efforts. Its government must recognize your individual rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness). At this end of the spectrum, government is rigidly delimited. It exists only to protect each individual’s rights and property from force or fraud by other citizens or foreigners.
• A friend told me that reading political statements is pointless, because we all know they’re meant only to entice voters. And yes, it would be naïve to assume the goal of the candidates is to make clear and unequivocal statements about their current positions and future actions. For example, the Republican platform doesn’t have a single mention of the Deep State; the Democratic platform doesn’t have a single mention of gender-affirming care. Nevertheless, if you read published statements on a variety of issues, you can get a sense of what a given candidate and party consider worthy goals. Case in point: the opening pages of the Republican and Democratic party platforms.
• This sort of meticulous, numerically based analysis doesn’t appeal to everyone. I’m posting it because it helped me sort out my thinking on the candidates, on the broad spectrum of government vs. individual rights. I’m hoping it will help others as well. The spreadsheet could also be a useful springboard for discussion of politics. Perhaps someone you violently disagree with ranks the importance of the issues very differently. Perhaps he or she feels differently about the proper role of government. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find that out, rather than shouting at each other about specifics such as the border wall or at what week abortions should be illegal?

The complete post, including the 2 attachments, is on Substack.