Taxes are the backbone of government funding, supporting everything from infrastructure and education to healthcare and national defense. Yet, the world of taxation is complex,…
The political landscape surrounding Donald Trump has created what I call “Post-Traumatic Trump Derangement Syndrome” (PTTDS) – a condition affecting Americans across the political spectrum…
Catastrophizing—whether it’s melting ice caps, killer cops, or creeping fascism—acts as a power grab, cloaking ideology in urgency. It’s less about solving problems and more about controlling the story.
In the polarized landscape of modern politics, labels often obscure more than they reveal. Terms like progressivism or wokeness serve as shorthand for broad ideological…
The term progressive politics can encompass a broad range of ideas and policies, but its exact meaning often depends on the cultural, historical, and political…
Project 2025, crafted by the Heritage Foundation, seeks to overhaul the federal government based on conservative principles, sparking controversy. Initially criticized as a Donald Trump-led…
The term “Christian nation” is ambiguous and asking for a useless fight. The question is not a binary “should we apply Christianity in public life…
I am continually amazed at the duplicity of both parties, but especially among progressives who are unwilling to look into potential fraud because they are…
While so-called Democratic Socialism (DS) is popular among progressives in government and the media, there is a bit of confusion over what it means, and…
In a recent Facebook discussion, a (Iiberal) commenter asked me how I would address certain issues or public policy methods that liberals find unassailable. Here…
One of the most banal challenges from the left regarding President Trump is challenging his assumption that America was ever great. When was it great?…
As a moderate conservative, I have a love/hate relationship with center left news sources like NPR and Slate.com. They often put out thoughtful pieces, but…
I want to suggest a shift in mindset that can move us from alienation and grief to hope and action. I stress mindset, because, as it is said, “our attitude determines our altitude.” Until we can adopt a constructive attitude, we will stay inert, or worse, destructive. Here are three things we can consider:
The glass is half full
The glass is dirty
The glass is half empty
Should pluralism an important value for religious conservatives? And if so, why? In a really thought provoking interview with the author of Confident Pluralism: Surviving and…
A recent Open Letter To Straight People On The Pulse Massacre (Huffington Post) suggests that those of us who are merely tolerant of the LGBT+…
Jonathan Haidht has examined how we view capitalism, and how liberal and conservative views describe it. Liberal Mythos: Capitalism is Exploitation Conservative Mythos: Capitalism is…
As a moderate conservative, I am very disappointed in the success of Donald Trump in his election bid, and mourn the fact that a more…
The problem with this whole North Carolina bathroom issue is that we have two populations we are trying to protect – transgenders, who suffer discrimination,…
I recently rediscovered a lecture by Brian Mclaren on The Four Historic Models for Church/State Interaction, and realized that (a) they needed one word formal labels,…
This series is made up of the following posts: Three Types of Aggression 1: Rhetoric Three Types of Aggression 2: Incitement Three Types of Aggression…
This post is part of a series. If rhetoric is protected speech, and incitement is not, is violence or use of mortal force ever ethically…
This post is part of a series. In Part 1 of this series, I argued that warlike rhetoric is not unethical, but it must be…
This post is part of a series. One common error that frustrates public debate is the lack of clear definition of terms. Often, such distinctions…
American patriotism, I would argue, is not as simple as most. Unlike most countries, our patriotism is not based primarily on ethnicity or shared lands…
Lots of heat, not very much light in the gun violence discussions. However, in my research, here’s what works and does not. Two Types of…
Our political system is polarized on many issues, many of which, like education and healthcare, probably do not yield to a simplistic either or, statist…