And then 2016 Happened

So if you read the previous posts on this blog, you will see that the intent was to start a conversation. A constructive one. And one that I had hoped would be moderate, yet passionate. Let's tackle important issues, and do it with gusto, but also do it with the goal of coming up with solutions, working together.

And yet, life pulled me away from this blog and it has obviously been quite some time since I wrote for it.

And in that time, the things that I had hoped to address not only weren't addressed, but they got massively worse. I mean, again, I wanted this to be a place for discussion. Donald Trump is the exact opposite of that. Diametrically opposed to any sort of grounded conversation about real ideas.

One of the other things I had hoped to do - and may still do it if we can pull it off - is find other writers and come up with a Federalist Papers type dialogue with voices from across the political spectrum.

Sadly, we are confronted with a candidate that literally is the enemy of that kind of conversation. And so I have thrown away that neutrality to be a vocal advocate against the candidacy of Donald Trump. It started with his disdain for John McCain over a year ago, and it has been nothing but bile, hate and idiocracy ever since.

What is most disturbing about all this, though, is in my heart, I am a moderate Republican. I agree very strongly with Barry Goldwater's statements in 1994 about social conservatism, but even I had no idea that it would go so far as those same "Christians" rallying at the feet of someone who personifies the Seven Deadly Sins. Sorry, but how hypocritical, and anything but Christ-like.

So this isn't someone who hates all things Republican attacking Donald Trump, but rather I stand here as a person without a party, for all intents and purposes. And it forces me to set aside my intended neutrality to take an active position against the party that I have supported for three decades.

"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." Alexander Hamilton

Nothing could be more appropriate for this election, and yet Republicans - who are supposedly the ones most likely to call themselves "Constitutional Conservatives" - are flocking to defend and argue for him.

So we will have to see how things play out, but for now, I cannot maintain the neutrality I had hoped to use to create a safe place for a marketplace of ideas. Disappointing, but our country is worth it.