Statement of Purpose
"These are the times that try men's souls." — Thomas Paine, The Crisis
Greetings, and thanks for visiting my Substack. As I start this project, I wanted to share a bit about who I am, why I’m here, and what I intend to write about. After all, if you’re going to consider what I have to say, you should first have some idea of where I’m coming from.
This blog, or whatever it becomes, has materialized out of a sense of necessity, duty, and urgency. The overarching topic of the posts to follow will be the current political situation in the United States. Perhaps it goes without saying, but these are far from normal times. In fact, I don’t know anyone who’s been paying attention who doesn’t think that our country is in the midst of a crisis the likes of which we’ve never seen. To be sure, we have weathered our share of genuine crises over my lifetime and the life of the nation. It’s also fair to say the use of the word “crisis” has sometimes been exaggerated to score political points on what is really a relatively manageable situation. But make no mistake: This one is different. It is clear, immediate, massive, and threatens to destroy our country like virtually none before it.
I’m speaking, of course, of the second term of President Donald J. Trump. Aided and abetted by a group of self-serving multi-billionaires, a host of sycophant executive branch “yes men”, a compliant and complicit Republican Congress, a very likely Trump-friendly Supreme Court, a right-wing media propaganda machine, and a cult-like base of fervent supporters, Trump’s return to power has taken on the air of a coup d’etat, or more precisely a self-coup. Its primary aim: seizing and maintaining absolute power in perpetuity for the benefit of an elite few by any means necessary, rather than reasonably exercising power to broadly serve the American people within the framework of our long-standing Constitutional order.
Let me be clear: I am not a Democrat. I have voted for Democrats, but I’ve also voted for Republicans, and sometimes for neither if a better third-party candidate exists. I consider myself a moderate Independent, and while I lean left on some issues I also lean right on others. In some cases I don’t lean strongly in either direction, but instead seek a middle ground or even an alternative that hasn’t been considered. I also know that some well-meaning people sincerely believe that the Democrats are out to destroy this country, and scoff at the notion that Trump or the Republicans are in any way the problem here.
That said, the primary reason I am so alarmed about the state of affairs under the current administration is because as I write this there is a clear and deliberate attempt underway to forgo the system of checks and balances enshrined in our Constitution and instead place nearly complete autocratic authority in the hands of President Trump. If this effort succeeds, then our 250-year experiment in representative democracy is essentially finished.
Now, I am not one to think that our Constitution is without flaws. In fact I believe our political system has long needed a major overhaul, and have felt that since well before Donald Trump took office (and even well before his first term). However, the direction in which we’re rapidly heading will not Make America Great Again, nor will it even make it better. On the contrary, the MAGA train has us on course for a major long-term disaster of our own making, and it is thus imperative that we slam on the brakes and change direction before it is too late. Furthermore, the MAGA movement is not Republican. Rather, it is something between a cancer and a cult that has hijacked the Republican Party as a vehicle to force its own warped, neo-fascist ideology upon us under the direction of its Dear Leader: convicted felon, failed businessman, serial rapist, tax cheat, and lifelong con artist Donald Trump.
I don’t say that with any satisfaction, but rather with an overwhelming sense of sadness and resignation that it has come to this. The voters should have known better than to elect this man — not just once but twice — but here we are. One of our many shortcomings as a nation is that we have a woefully ignorant, apathetic, and misinformed electorate, coupled with a badly broken electoral system, making it possible for a demagogue and fraud like Trump to seize power. Perhaps we’re getting what we deserve. But I also believe that the vast majority of Americans are good people who mean well and love their country, and are making the best decisions they can with the information that they have. Unfortunately, all too often the information is significantly lacking in quality and accuracy, often filled with deliberate lies and designed primarily to manipulate and divide. Misinformation is also far too easily spread via a light-speed media landscape that has lost all guardrails for ensuring journalistic integrity or promoting truthful, constructive, and respectful public discourse.
Thus my purpose for starting this blog. Seeing this crisis, and seeing that it is fueled largely by a constant deluge of misinformation coming primarily from the MAGA movement to feed its horrifically misguided aims, I feel compelled to add my voice, however small, to the arena in an effort to help counterbalance the bad content out there and offer what will hopefully be a voice of reason and rational thinking to the ongoing discourse. Alex Jones, creator of the widely discredited Infowars right-wing media channel, was wrong about a lot, peddling a sickening host of crazy conspiracy theories and inflammatory sentiments on the issues of our day. But he was right about one thing: We are in an information war. And in this war it is critical that the voices of reason prevail, because if they don’t we will soon enter a new and prolonged Dark Age that will not only bring about the end of our nation as we know it, but also untold misery to much of humanity worldwide.
I do not claim to be an authoritative voice of knowledge and reason or a flawless messenger on this subject. Like anyone, I have my shortcomings. However, I have a reputation among those who know me for being a rational and pragmatic thinker with a capacity to respectfully consider multiple viewpoints and offer agreeable, workable, and innovative solutions on difficult and complex issues. I am a longtime student of history and politics, with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Master of Public Administration from The George Washington University. I am a U.S. military veteran. I’ve held a number of positions in the private, non-profit, and public sectors over a successful 30-year-plus civilian career that have informed my thinking on ways to improve the U.S. political system to better serve its people. And I’m also a pretty good writer.
So, I intend to post regularly on the crisis we’re facing, providing observations and insights that will hopefully better illuminate what’s happening out there, add meaningful food for thought to the discussion, and inspire constructive actions along the way. Honestly I’m doing this as much for myself as for you, dear reader, as frankly I often find myself needing to vent these days and writing is one healthy way to do so. I also want to share my writings publicly because I think our country needs constructive dialogue and fresh ideas now more than ever. We also need to push back hard on the budding neo-fascist autocracy attempting to take root, because anything less would be, quite simply, un-American.
Ultimately I’m sure it won’t be nearly enough, and I fear things will get much worse before they get better, but I can’t just sit back and watch without trying to help stop this train from going completely off the rails. As I build this blog I invite you to follow and share and engage, and maybe together we can help make a difference. This intro piece is just setting the table. The first topical article I’ve posted (which you can find here) is on the subject of taxes, because it’s pretty clear that an intense and irrational hatred of taxes is one of the fundamental drivers underlying this crisis. So I wanted to dive into that as a starting point. I hope you’ll join me, and help spread the word as we begin the long but necessary fight back to true American greatness. Thanks for listening.
-TM