Many people contend that their political beliefs are based on their opinions, their views on the world based on arbitrary constructs and limited perspectives that form the basis of their understanding of the world around them.

Not only is this not how politics is meant to operate, it is fundamentally flawed.

The nature of contemporary politics, the idea people participate in their systems of government either through direct action or electoral representation to enable policies seemingly meant to enhance the betterment and well-being of their community is not one that can operate on such a structure.

It goes without saying this is obviously not how politics and government actually work realistically. There are no democratic decisions, there is no fair and just representation from elected officials. The United States operates as an oligarchy, where the rich and powerful run the show and government institutions act as a crime syndicate rife with racketeering, embezzlement, graft, and the like.

But say for a moment that mainstream electoral politics operates the way that it is hypothesized to, as millions of Americans surely believe. It is a system of societal organization that should be based not on conjecture, hyperbole, and subjective concepts, but out of genuine informed consent wherein a knowledgeable populace utilize their best understanding of facts to make the decisions that shape the policies which will have the best possible outcome for everyone.

This is not a place for opinion. It is one where empirical reasoning must take precedence.

Opinions are a dime a dozen, subjective perspectives ranging from the benign to the downright deplorable with the current belief among many being that one must respect everyone's opinion even if they are particularly vile. Others hold their opinions as sacrosanct, believing that their opinions although not formed on a basis of evidence are an immutable truth.

These kind of ideas when exercised in the political arena pave the way for any number of abuses.

A prime example of this phenomenon can be found on the Evangelical right, wherein their religious mythology — devoid of historical evidence yet still rife with cognitive dissonance holding it as irrefutable fact — is the primary basis for the advocacy of numerous authoritarian policies, from the restriction of civil rights for the LGBTQ+ community, opposition to the First Amendment freedoms of other religious groups, to their support for Zionist war crimes.

No matter how hard one clings to their religion, those of sound logic and reason recognize that no mythology represents irrefutable fact. There is no empirical, replicatable evidence for the existence of any God or Gods, thus relegating one's spiritual beliefs to that of a personal subjective experience. Therefore, public policy has no business being based on such beliefs.