NOTE: This is a post I began to draft way back on March 4, 2014 when the thought of starting this blog first crossed my mind (actually the thoughts & views behind it started much sooner, but the idea of expressing those views on a blog took a certain “aha” moment).
In any case, life and a slightly scattered mind prevented me from actually getting around to launching this blog until now, in 2017, shortly after the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as 45th president of the United States.
What’s interesting is the uncanny resemblance of this now-nearly-three-year-old draft post to the very platform that Trump ended up running on, and essentially got elected on.
What’s equally uncanny is the fact that I never considered myself much of a conservative, or a republican, or a right-winger, or anything like that. If anything, I’ve always been quite liberal & progressive in my thinking, though skeptical of “liberal” policies themselves. Perhaps you could call me a “post-liberal”. Some might say my views start to skew a bit libertarian. It doesn’t really matter what you label me or my views. What matters is, there’s a dialogue about the root causes of our divisions, our political chaos, our economic challenges, our cultural rifts, and the erosion of our social fabric that needs to continue – now more so than ever. Bringing the left and the right and everyone in between together to take a hard (sometimes really hard – sometimes brutally hard) look at some of the underlying economic & moral issues we all face collectively, to hopefully bring us together in support of real solutions and new perspectives, was and is the ultimate purpose of launching this blog.
Some topics and posts will reflect my own personal views & values (because like you, I’m only human, after all). Some posts may come from other individuals whom are invited to share their own specific perspectives, either in contrast or in support. Some posts will be more provocative than practical – you know, with a touch of hyperbole just to get you thinking. Other posts will simply be a call to look at the bigger picture, to help keep ourselves honest either way. As viewpoints go, the more the merrier.
Oh, and yes, a common theme will be the idea that economics trumps politics, and that many of the problems we call on the latter to help solve for us could perhaps be better understood & addressed by taking a more critical look at the former.
Drafted March 4, 2014:
Some of the articles on this blog, at first glance, may come off as a tad self-righteous. You may find statements that seem a bit out of touch, maybe a tad exaggerated, often popularly unpopular, or at least politically inconvenient.
It will quickly become evident that we’re actually speaking on behalf of a large majority of “old school” working and middle class Americans whose voices, values, and virtues have been marginalized or even silenced in this “Everyone’s entitled to a free lunch” (and that means everyone, top and bottom) era of no-money-down mortgages, Wall Street bailouts, QE-infinity, and the moral hazard it’s wreaking on our system.
You’ll find no hatred or scorn against the genuinely underprivileged here (many of us come from families whose ancestors are not far removed from similar circumstances). No twinges of racism, sexism, or any other “isms” that others would like you to believe are automatically associated with our beliefs (nope, we’ve got folks of all colors, shapes and sizes here).
In fact, our ultimate gripe is not with any particular individuals or persons who are (rightfully or wrongfully) taking advantage of a system that’s been put in place before them. Our gripe is with the system itself and those who enable it (and those who fail to see the need to disable it – or at least revamp it).
It’s not the 99% vs. the 1%. It’s the 100% against itself.