Welcome to Politics for the Rest of Us
Why me, why now, and why you should care
Politics for the Rest of Us is a writing project that has been on my mind for more than two decades. It’s a project that I very much both do, and do not, want to take on, in about equal measure. While there is never a “perfect time” to start something like this, I’m finally launching this now because, like so many Americans of all political stripes, I’m deeply worried about the future of this country.
My goal for this project, through a series of essays, questions, analysis, memoir, and interviews over time, is to better understand the social, structural, and psychological reasons that America seems to be at its own throat, and in that understanding proposal new ways to tackling entrenched problems. My goal is also to keep these posts relatively short (following this longer introduction!)
I suspect that this project may evolve over time, but what I know for sure is that it will not become another political site aping the talking points of an ideological side, even if that will probably limit my audience. The last thing we need is another mouthpiece for someone else’s movement, or yet another, repetitive corner of a deafening, ideological echo chamber. The last thing I need to be is someone else’s puppet because life is far too short for me to spend my time cheerleading politicians or activists desperate to break into the news cycle.
Who is this blog for?
This blog is partly for me, to help me better understand how and why America has gotten into the knots we’re currently wrapped up in, as well as contribute ideas and ways to untangle those knots with reason, fairness, fair play, but also realism, pragmatism, and patriotism.
I’m also writing this with a group of guys that I’ve known since childhood in mind. These are friends that I care about deeply and have for decades, even if we often disagree on politics. Like me, they are angry and fed up with so much that feels fundamentally broken in America. Some of these guys would consider themselves conservative, others liberal, a few ‘none of the above’ and at times some are either/or. I think our friendship represents an ideal; that we can strongly disagree about issues and solutions while remaining connected because of a shared bond that is larger than the politics of the day. We’ve been through life’s major milestones together be they happiness, loss, major life changes, and day-to-day wins and losses. I’m writing because I think, though we don’t at all agree on what the solutions look like, or even many of the causes, we all want what we think is best for our country. I want to create a place where old assumptions and conclusions can crash against the shores of news ideas.
I think most Americans are like my friends and I: people who span the ideological spectrum and still care about each other outside of our opinions. I call this blog “politics for the rest of us” because I think the national discourse and media environment have been captured by small, loud, and very organized political minorities on the Right and Left. I believe that this 5% of the population drives narratives, priorities, and ultimately laws that 100% of the country must follow. I believe this structure leaves out a vast majority who share the same goals, if not always the same methods: peace, prosperity, and to live in a place free of persecution, fair play, under a government that “gets shit done” that helps those who can’t help themselves, while providing recourse for those who have been harmed. And that these systems should be applied equally to the poorest among as to most privileged and powerful. By most objective measures, we do not have that system now.
Finally, I’m writing in the hopes of connecting with people who, like me, are exhausted by the status quo, and turned off and tuned out by the idea of fighting for an ideological “team”, be it the Left or the Right, “Conservatives” or “Liberals”.
What I hope to achieve
This blog is for everyone else who may identify with some political label some of the time but are Americans all the time. This site is for people who don’t live and breathe politics, but know that it’s necessary, powerful, that it impacts their day to day lives, but are so fucking tired of the talking heads and professional pundits who only make money on continuing the problems.
This blog is a place to talk first about what’s wrong, and approach the solutions from a place of curiosity, exploration, and a healthy dose of suspect cynicism. I will do my best to approach the world through a lens of optimistic cynicism, so to speak, and be ready to call out ideas based on ideological assumptions that may not hold up to the cold reality of daylight.
This blog is for people tired of choosing sides while extremist politicians and their followers continue to game a political system that rewards the active few while leaving the working middle out in the cold. It’s for people who love America but hate what our politics have become. It’s for people who want to live in a better America tomorrow but know that our current state of democracy and discourse will only keep us mired in the past.
I hope this blog finds an audience that, though may not agree with every word, enjoys the journey and perspective, or at least a few great stories along the way. I hope that my unique experience in the world: as a first generation, patriotic American, business owner, independent, cynical optimist, can inform the conversation, engage more people that aren’t politically obsessed or off the deep end of the ideological spectrum, so that more of us can speak up, inform the debate and ultimately policy, not just for the good of the new, but the common good of the country, and not just for the next news and election cycle, but for generations to come.
So uh, why me? Who da fuck cares what I have to say?
That is a good question! Future posts will go into more detail about how my background and upbringing as a working class, first generation American growing up in a relatively wealthy, liberal town in New Jersey informs by unique perspective and approach to politics, but for now, part of what defines who I am is who I am not:
I am not some ivory tower academic who approaches politics far removed from its everyday impact.
I am not an ideologue who believes that any side, any candidate, or any existing governing style or philosophy is The Answer to all our many problems.
I am not a handwringer. Meaning: While I’m concerned about the direction of our great country, and want to work for a better world, I’m not someone who assumes the worst in people or outcomes based on the day-to-day news.
I am not a consumer of 24-hour or cable news: I haven’t watched more than 3 minutes of either CNN, FOX News, or MSNBC in over a decade.
I am also not a consumer of pundit content. I look at television pundits, cable news programs and especially hosts as entertainers, and just like I don’t look to George Clooney or Kid Rock for my news, I don’t spend any of my short time on this planet listening to whatever outrage or opinion professional cable news entertainers have to say at any moment on anything. This goes as much for Rachel Maddow as much as it does for Tucker Carlson.
I am not a believer in any single elected official as an agent to change much of anything, especially on their own, and I’m especially leery of politicians who either claim that they can solve all our problems, or, perhaps worse, spend most of their time in office in front of a news camera.
A wise old cowboy in a bar once told me the following: “Anyone that tells you they have all the answers is either lying or a fool. Ignore them, either way.” This is the exact attitude I bring to politicians, pundits, and cable news hosts.
I don’t believe that any candidate has all the answers, or can single-handedly solve all our problems, but I do know that elected officials can have the power to pull policy toward the light or into the darkness. Our job, as citizens, is to be able to cut through the bullshit, see through the political fog, and keep our eyes on what’s good for the whole, not just for the moment, and not just for the loudest few.
As for who I am personally, right here, right now, I’m a middle-aged, free thinker who left a working class home at 18 on what would become a journey that would last, at that time in my life, for 4 years “on the road” in one way or another; far from home, on my own, making my own way in a country I felt was rigged for the rich on the backs of the poor. At the time I didn’t think there was a damned thing I could do about anything. I left home with no plans, no destination, and no idea what would happen. All I knew was that I wasn’t going to play a game I could never win, so I simply checked out.
I hitchhiked around the world, traveled anywhere my thumb, limited cash, or passport would take me. I’ve met people from every walk of life, I’ve become close friends with people on every dot of the political spectrum, I’ve met four Presidents and have lived in states on both coasts a few in between, as well as overseas. I’ve been dirt poor and homeless, I’ve lived paycheck to paycheck and I’ve experiences what it’s like to be well-off by most standards. I’ve been a biker, a cowboy, an executive, a bartender, an activist, and an artist. I’ve been in business with right wing evangelicals and have lived with anarchists. I’ve been in love with women from all races and walks of life, and today am a happy husband to the world’s most enlightened, empathetic, and brilliant life-long Republican I’m sure the world has ever known. All these experiences have helped shape and inform my views and the way I’ve seen the world.
So, that’s’ me in a tiny nutshell, why I’m writing, who I’m writing for, and my hopes for what my writing might bring to the conversation. I hope you’ll stick around – if not for nothing else – I have some fun stories to tell with few fucks to give.
So here we go. I hope you’ll stick around and subscribe.
