One of my daily stops on the internet is the great conservative web site, The Michigan View (they have a great blogroll as well). As I perused the page, I saw this headline:

Michele Bachmann, underachiever

The article was written by Dan Calabrese, a writer I normally agree with. However, his latest article bothers me. Not because of Dan lack of support Michele Bachmann. It’s the reason why he doesn’t support her that bothers me.

People in the political world forever confuse advocacy with achievement, and their supporters often buy into the conflation. Just because you bravely take a stand doesn’t mean you accomplished anything. I realize a member of Congress is just one of 535, and especially when you’re in the minority, there’s not much you can do. But real achievement means you actually made something happen, as opposed to just “fighting” for it.

Achievements in the real world are great. In sports, business and in your personal life, achievements are a positive thing and should be celebrated. However, in the political world, specifically in Washington, legislative achievements are usually a negative for “we the people.” Legislative achievements usually involve eroding personal freedom or adding another layer of regulation to our economy.

If you want to nominate the Republican candidate with the greatest legislative achievement, Mitt Romney (with his signature achievement, RomneyCare) is you candidate.

We have had way too many legislative ‘achievements’ come out of Washington for way too long and we are now paying dearly for them.

Much like conservatives jumping on the governance by intellects bandwagon, the idea of supporting candidates who govern well, rather than candidates who will govern least will not get us out of the hole we are in today. As conservatives, we need to focus on a candidates core beliefs, principles and their adherence to the ideals of limited government and not worry about how many significant pieces of legislation a particular candidate has signed their name on.

I’m sure Dan Calabrese and I agree that the 2012 election is way too important to get the nomination wrong, so lets focus on what is important in selecting our candidate.