Hello world. My goal for this space is record my path in developing a coherent political philosophy (or, dare I say, ideology). With luck, others might even find the ramblings interesting enough to take part in the process, through comments or direct responses.
Before starting off, I’ll state a goal of mine: two parties having constructive arguments that approach a constantly shifting “center.” One one side would be progressives, who believe that government has a constructive role to play in moving society and on the other would be small-c conservatives, who wish to keep the government’s role as minimal as possible. Today, this argument is nearly impossible because the Republicans are beholden to religious fundamentalists. The coalition between small-c conservatives and the religious right is truly surreal. According to Andrew Sullivan, “the defining characteristic of the Conservative is that he knows what he doesn’t know.” The Christian Right, however, has absolute confidence in their religious doctrine. So, I think we would all be better off if the Republican party split into a Fundamentalist party and a small-c conservative party. This would clear the way for a productive conversation between conservatives and progressives.
On the key issues of our time, I'll search for the conservative and progressive points of view. And try to define the sensible middle ground.
