Thankfully, the dreadful 2016 election cycle is finally behind us. We can now finally start focusing on our day-to-day lives again as we prepare for the Holidays and college students prepare for their final exams. However, for those of us who follow politics closely, we are preparing for a new beginning, in a way. As we gear up for the commencement of the 115th United States Congress in January, there are a number of new policies proposed by both President-elect Trump and members of Congress from both sides of the aisle. As always, though, some proposals that will be brought up will be made for the wrong reasons.

People from across the political spectrum often make the mistake of supporting certain policies based on emotions rather than using facts or logic to back them up. On the left, politicians and private citizens alike want to continue to expand the welfare state under the guise of "compassion," despite mounting evidence that such policies do little to help the poor. On the right, there is a growing nationalistic segment of the Republican Party (people like Tomi Lahren of TheBlaze) that wants everyone to stand for the National Anthem and for the state to drastically increase immigration restrictions, often for the reason of strengthening our "national identity" (whatever that is). These people also advocate for an aggressive foreign policy by which we completely obliterate our enemies overseas and topple enemy regimes, without considering the long-term effects. Far too often, people ask themselves whether a policy proposal feels good to them, as opposed to asking themselves if it will work. Perhaps the single best example of this I can think of is that of the minimum wage. Progressives are aggressively pushing for a relatively sudden increase of the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour. Not only do the vast majority of economists agree that this policy will kill countless jobs, but many of them agree that there should be no minimum wage at all. California governor Jerry Brown, who recently signed a bill to raise the minimum wage in his state, went so far as to even agree with conventional wisdom in a press conference, but said that the bill was morally righteous. The mere fact that we have people who think that way in our government is one of the problems that we are facing in this country, and he should be held accountable.

In public policy matters, it is important that we focus on doing all the good that we can for our communities, our states, and our country, but we cannot afford to advocate for certain policies just because they feel good to us emotionally. Perhaps we should start asking ourselves whether or not a certain policy will work, as opposed to whether or not it makes us feel good. We can have good intentions all we want, but as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Instead, let's start focusing on sensibility.